Allow the First Year free

I run a very small business with a handful of ledger entries a year, perhaps a hundred.
I have changed from an accounting package that is no longer supported on my Mac so I exported all my accounts going back 8 years and entered them in to quickfile so that I can forget about the old system and still have my records.
Because I have done this I am now being charged as a bigger company than I actually am.
This raises two questions
Why am I not given an extra allowance in my first year so that I dont end up paying.
Also if I pay this year and then only do 100 - 150 entries during the year will I still be charged next year because i have been classified higher than I really am.

Hi @Reid

The usage on the account is based on the last 12 months of ledger entries.

All accounts are free of charge for the first 60 days so you can get a feel for QuickFile to ensure it meets your needs without any fees. When the account reaches that 1,000 nominal ledger count you can defer the notification for 14 days so you can have unrestricted access to the account and review the entries there.

The first year can vary from business to business, and in some cases it can work out unfair for some while benefiting others more.

The good news is, as I said, it’s based on the last 12 months of entries. So if by the time your subscription is due for renewal, the account has fallen below 1,000 nominal ledger entries, then the subscription becomes optional.

If you haven’t already used the 14 day deferral, it would be worth doing this and entering just your opening balances as that could potentially drastically reduce your nominal ledger count.

Appreciate this isn’t quite the answer you wanted, but hopefully that explains the structure a bit better.

Would it have the same effect if I delete the nominal for past years or do I really have to start again.
If I delete enough to get me below the 1000 is that ok.

Absolutely. The account size is recalculated every 2-3 days, but if you have less than 1,000 nominal ledger entries at this point, then you will be in the free tier then.

By my calculations I only have 400 reciepts and less than 100 invoices.

How can i find out where all the extra nominals are?

How many do I have?

I can remove a couple of historic years but I dont know where to start

We have some guides on these reports which may help. It’s worth bearing in mind that if it affects your profit and loss or balance sheet, it’s using at least 1 nominal entry. If you’re VAT registered, you’ll be using more per invoice too.

As a rule of thumb, each fully-paid-up sale or purchase invoice will equate to at least four (if you’re not VAT registered) or five (if you are) nominal ledger entries, e.g. for a sale you get two (three) on the invoice date:

  • credit general sales for the net (multi-line invoices it aggregates the total per nominal, so five lines all on “general sales” makes one nominal entry but one line as general sales and one as distribution & carriage makes two)
  • (credit sales tax control account for the VAT if applicable)
  • debit debtors control account for the gross total

then on the date of payment

  • credit debtors control
  • debit bank

In addition each transfer between bank accounts counts as two nominal entries (one for each end of the transfer) and other things like tax payments also count as two (credit the bank that paid out, debit the nominal it’s tagged to).

I personally find Quickfile great value compared to the other software.

When you think about it quickfile is just ÂŁ45 per year, whereas Xero is ÂŁ120 for their starter plan, Quickbooks is ÂŁ144 (simple start), and Freeagent is ÂŁ228 (sole trader).

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