Decent Accounts Software for European Bloggers

There are some excellent accounts programs for our US friends, but sadly they tend to focus on US accounting laws and taxes, and whole sections are either irrelevant, or plain wrong for those of us who live in Europe and pay value added tax.

Let’s start by examining why you need some accounting software. The simple answer is you don’t! But it sure makes things easier once you start to create multiple streams of income, and when you want to instantly see how well you’ve done in a given month. It also gives you a professional edge to your invoicing and paperwork, which can be important if you’re billing clients for advertising sales.

I trialed two systems and have ended up as a client of a company called Kashflow. I’ve found the web based service to be excellent, and here are some of the benefits:

• Integration with multiple Paypal accounts means Kashflow checks your balances, let’s you know when new payments are in, and you can create invoices with one click
• Really professional looking invoice templates, which you can email direct to customers
• Great overview page showing what you are owed, what you owe and how much is in your accounts
• Dead easy bank reconciliation feature
• Excellent reporting system giving sales by period, cashflow, etc.
• Repeat invoice system perfect for sending out monthly invoices and reminding you to do so
• Ability to set up local taxes at your own rate
• Able to handle multi currencies (eg Dollars, Euros and Sterling)
• Really simple to use interface – you don’t need to be an accountant!

Kashflow offer a free 60 day trial, with no credit card needed, so give it a go! After that they charge €17 or 15.99 Pounds a month and I think it’s really good value. Once you’re using them you’ll be able to simply print off your monthly summaries and hand everything over to your accountant. And if you ever want to borrow money from the bank you can provide some really good documentation to demonstrate how your business is doing.

Special Offer for Mike’s Life readers

Kashflow have a special offer running at the moment, which offers you one pound per month off the normal monthly charge. You don’t need it to get your free trial, but if and when you do sign up for the service, make sure to input the code AFF2101098 into the voucher box and you’ll get your discount.

Check out Kashflow now if you’re a European blogger.

Disclosure: Those are affiliate links and I will earn the price of a cup of coffee if you join Kashflow through them. If you prefer me not to, just put kashflow.co.uk straight into your browser.

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