There are literally thousands of online tools available online or via your smart phone and tablet. There are some really great ones out there that will help with your productivity and organisation in your business. Below, I've outlined a few that I have used and find them to be very useful.

Xero

Being an accountant, of course, this is top of my list. 

Xero is a cloud-based accounting package that takes a lot of pain out of business accounting. It is a very user-friendly software that can be accessed anywhere that you have an internet connection. You can use the package to create invoices for your customers, easily complete your bank reconciliation and generate numerous performance reports. In addition, you can add your accountant as an adviser and they can have full access to the software to complete VAT returns and prepare year end accounts.

Xero offer a free 30 day trial period and I would suggest giving it a go if you are on the lookout for accounting software for your business. After that, they have a few different pricing levels ranging from $20 (approx €15) to $40 (approx €30) per month.

I am a certified advisor with Xero so if you have any questions about the software and its uses, drop me a mail and I'll help yu decide if it's the right package for you.

Google Apps

A lot of us will already be fairly familiar with Gmail. Google Apps is pretty much just an extension of Gmail for businesses. For a small monthly fee, you can set up your own personalised email address like mine (i.e. info@lennonaccounting.ie).

But it is more than just email, it offers loads of great tools for your business such as Google Drive, Calendar and other great 3rd party apps that can be added on. You might say that this is all available in the standard free Google account but with Google Apps, you can customise a lot more and bring a level of professionalism to your email address. 

Skype

Most will also know Skype from calling their loved ones overseas who have emigrated over the last few years. However, it is fast becoming a very useful business communication tool too.

Many business meetings are now held over Skype calls and they also offer the option of purchasing a local land line number if you want to give your business a professional and local feel.

Weebly

There are plenty of good online platforms allowing you to create your own website at a fairly low cost. I've tried a few of them and I've found that Weebly was the best, for me anyway. After spending a few hours playing around, you will be able to build you own basic website. It more than likely won't look as good as a site designed by a professional but, it's a good start to get yourself a presence on the web.

I designed this site on Weebly. Although the design of it might not be great, it's given me a presence on the web at a low cost at this early start of the business. I do have future plans to have a professionally designed site that, hopefully, will look much better.

Others

There are a few others which deserve a quick mention but I couldn't provide enough detail on them as I have only used them very briefly.

Shopify allows you to create an online shop for selling your goods / services. 
Receipt Bank is a good tool for capturing all those small business receipts and expenses. 
Evernote is a useful app for taking notes on any ideas and projects that you may have ongoing.

If you have any other suggestions of useful business programmes or apps, let me know in the comments section below.

I'm sure that anyone who has ever looked for an accountant has typed the above question into Google. I know I have done similar searches when looking for solicitors or even doctors! You will often incur the same answer too......it really all depends on what you want done.

I hope that this can help some of you who are trying to figure out how much they need to budget for their new business.

With accountancy firms, there are essentially three tiers:

1. Big 4 - PWC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY
2. Medium sized firms - Mazars, BDO, Grant Thornton etc
3. Small firms - like me

If you want the combined experience of one of the Big 4 firms, you will expect to pay a nice little price for it. Mid sized firms can also provide a substantial knowledge base at a slightly lower cost. Whereas with small firms, we generally specialise in a number of areas and can provide a personal touch at a substantially lower cost than your bigger firms.

From my experience, the basic cost of a simple tax return is approximately €1,000, €800 and €500 with these firms respectively. Obviously, these costs can vary depending on the level of work involved. 

So, what kind of costs are involved for a small business?

Without trying to make this into a sales pitch, I have outlined below the basic costs involved in the various tasks usually required from a small business in a year. These would be an idea of the costs involved if you were to engage me as your accountant to your business.

Tax registration and accounting set-up
The basic cost of this is approximately €150 - €200 (ex VAT). There would be additional charges for setting up a company, determining VAT rates etc.

Monthly bookkeeping
This really depends on the level of transactions (i.e. sales and purchases) that your business has. On a basic level, it would be approximately €75 per month (ex VAT).

Bi-monthly VAT returns
The preparation and submission of bi-monthly VAT returns, assuming all of the bookkeeping has been done correctly, would cost approximately €80 per return (ex VAT). 

Payroll & PAYE returns
To calculate your employee's net wages, produce payslips and submit your monthly PAYE returns would cost approximately €60 per month (ex VAT). This is based on a maximum of five employees, any additional employees would be a further cost.

End of year accounts
The cost of preparing end of year accounts will largely depend on the quality of bookkeeping throughout the year and whether statutory accounts are required. Again, on a basic level, it will cost approximately €450 (ex VAT).

Income / corporation tax return
Lastly, the end of year tax return. Once again, it will depend on the quality of bookkeeping undertaken during the year but on a basic level, the cost will be in the region of €500 (ex VAT).

Obviously some of these tasks can be carried out by yourself or someone else in your business, such as the bookkeeping and the payroll. This may certainly save you some money on accounting fees but, if not done correctly, it can end up costing you as much if the accountant needs to fix a lot of mistakes. 

The above is also very much a guideline. The only way I could tell you how much the fees are would be to sit down and discuss your needs with you. My initial consultation with a person or a business is always free. I like to get to know potential clients to ensure that we can work well together and let them know what I can bring to the table before I start charging for anything.