If you are looking for software that will equip
your practice for the next step then here it is. We have used Digita
products since self-assessment and the products and range just
get better.
In 1997 CSM lost its ability to stay ahead and so Jeremy Stone
went out to look for best of breed solutions to replace the Accounts,
tax and time and fees products. We took on Digita Taxability
Pro as a trial for one manager who ran the ‘Sundries’ section.
That manager was not particularly computer literate but she was
able to run with the software from day one. A graph of tax return
submissions follows and needless to say the switch to Digita
for the tax products was a “no-brainer” for the following
year.
Personal Taxation has been followed with corporate tax, company
secretarial and software for electronic form creation. Digita
are currently working on a trust return product which is one
that is clearly missing from the stable. Included within the
personal tax product for the past couple of years has been a
tool that enables the practice to check and report on entries
that are out of the expected ranges that have been created at
practice level. When coupled to the costing aspect which effectively
provides for risk rating then the product is well on the way
to providing the necessary evidence for Practice Assurance compliance.
The personal tax comes with a built in dividend feed for FTSE
100 companies, with an optional feed at a very low cost to extend
the dividend feed to about 8,000 companies. A really stunning
development will come about with the release of version 9.3,
due for release in August 2005, where artificial intelligence
is being built into the product. This highlights such areas as
the off-setting of loss relief, utilization of tax bands, lack
of dividends from close companies etc. Tax returns may be filed
by internet, again with a recent development to enable submissions
to be batched and filed when the Revenue gateways are less stretched.
The corporate tax product is developing with an additional module
now available to reconcile deferred tax.
When Jeremy was researching best of breed solutions the Accounts
product chosen was another brand which, in our opinion, has remained
a top product since then. Again, in our opinion that product
has now been overtaken by Accounts Pro in only its third year
from the initial release, and we have converted to version 3
of Accounts Pro. An earlier version had already been awarded
ICAEW accreditation but with version 3 being released in July
2005 the product has really come of age for the demanding practitioner.
Here we have a product that is easily customized to the practice
style, has the ability for audit locks to be created at the time
of a review, thereby eliminating the ability to amend the entries
made prior to that audit.
Working papers (lead schedules) are produced by the software
and are customizable, as are to reports within the accounts;
how about designing graphs that may be incorporated within the
numbered notes on the accounts for each client!
Finally there are procedures for importing data from legacy
systems, and from Sage and other accountancy packages as well
as for booking jobs in and out to facilitate working on a client
either at the client’s premises, at home or even on the
beach!
Briefly the Company secretarial software enables details to
be downloaded from the Companies House website—very useful
when setting up a new client.
The benefits of using these products include:
- Checks
available from within the software
- The electronic
transfer of data between Digita and third party products
saving time and keying errors
- Electronic
submission of data to Government gateways on a direct basis
without further fees to pay
- Exports
to Microsoft Office and PDF formats
- Most of
the product range is already using SQL for stability and
speed
