Bookkeeping

[Will]

Well it's another year end and that means tax return time again. :(

I think doing the books is one of my least favourite tasks, but thank goodness for TaxCalc (http://www.taxcalc.com/)!

I'm hoping to be able to transfer all of my records from spreadsheets into Simply Books (http://snipurl.com/Simply_Books) this time around.

Do you use any accounting/bookkeeping software? If so, what and why?

[Pedge]

Hmmm, I suppose I should be using software but I prefer to work with good old pen and paper. Since I spend 80% of my day in front of a screen, sitting down with paper records is a bit of a change for me! :rolleyes:

[Will]

I'd like to see you back up your books! :D

[Pedge]

And I'd like to see you use yours in a powercut (and they may not be that far off)... :D

[Pilfo]

We used to use an online book-keeping/accountancy system that our accountants supplied us with, as part of the package with them.

We made all of our entries online and it automatically calculated our VAT Returns for us, listing exactly what figure should go in each box on the return. The system also sorted our Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss Account etc. etc. Our accountants could also gain access to it at any time, especially when it was getting near to the time for filing our accounts with Companies House.

Unfortunately, after about 18 months our accountants decided that it was no longer viable. However, they have now given us a similar offline system which is in the form of an excel spreadsheet. It does exactly the same as the above, but it means that we have to make regular back-ups.

You may recall discussing back-up hardware with me a while ago. Since then I have been trying to source a suitable external hard drive, but am still unsure which to go for. I also understand that even the best CD's may only retain data for up to 20 months!

Does anybody have any recommendations as to a suitable external hard drive? We would also like to have the option of being able to schedule regular back-ups, rather than have to manually do it ourselves.

We are Windows XP (80GB)

Ralph

[Will]

You may recall discussing back-up hardware with me a while ago. Since then I have been trying to source a suitable external hard drive, but am still unsure which to go for. I also understand that even the best CD's may only retain data for up to 20 months!

Does anybody have any recommendations as to a suitable external hard drive? We would also like to have the option of being able to schedule regular back-ups, rather than have to manually do it ourselves.

Personally, as well as archiving to CD/DVD, I think the likes of this (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=6812829991&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=57068) are excellent. They come with backup software that you can schedule to run at regular intervals. You can even partition the hard disk into several drives and backup to alternate drives automatically. not the easiest backup software to set-up, but once it's done then it's marvellous!

If you're only backing up a small amount of data then you could also consider storing copies on a remote Internet server (encrypted if need be) or leave copies with friends and relatives.

[Pedge]

Here's a place in Brunswick dock where I've got good advice & reasonably priced equipment: www.computerplus.uk.com

Give them a call and see what they suggest...

[Pilfo]

The Maxtor looks just the job.

I was looking at something similar in Office World yesterday for just under a hundred pounds!

Should I be going for a bigger drive, say the 120GB, or will 80GB suffice?

Ralph

[Will]

Should I be going for a bigger drive, say the 120GB, or will 80GB suffice?
I would say it depends on how much data you want to back-up and how many instances you want to keep. Say for example, you want to back-up 10GB of data (we'll leave compression out of the picture to keep it simple), you wanted to back-up everyday, but flip-flopping between two partitions on the back-up drive then you're going to need at least 20GB and then some more to cater for future expansion.

I would suggest you buy the biggest you can afford to spend.

I found myself with enough extra space to also keep an image (http://www.google.com/search?q=define:disk+image) of my main hard disk which means that should my main disk fail, I can replace it and restore from the image rather than having to reinstall the operating system and then all of my applications.