One of the main worries for us when we started the company was how we were going to figure out all this balance sheet and tax malarkey. Both of us came from a tech background. We were more comfortable looking at complex pieces of programming code than a simple Profit & Loss statement. We had questions like – how are we going to know how much tax we should be paying on wages!? It was a real concern and I’m sure it’s one shared by many people starting their first business.
‘Bullet’ from the blue
Thankfully we had the supreme fortune of starting our company around the same time that another Irish company released a new Beta version of their online accounting software. They were kind enough to give us an extra 2 months free on top of the month’s free trial we were already given. During this trial period it became quickly apparent that Bullet was going to take care of all the accounting headaches we were starting to have. We knew from then on, recording income and expenses and paying wages was going to be a breeze.
It’s Free(mium)
Recently the guys behind Bullet made the decision to make the accounting application free, read more on that decision here. If you are just interested in the accounting side of things, i.e. recording income and expenses then why not give it a go for free right now. There is no limits on invoicing like Xero has, (Xero used to be our pick of the best before Bullet, and are still a good choice especially for non-Irish businesses).
Payroll
The one caveat to this is that if you wish to use the payroll system you will be charged a small monthly fee. We will be paying €7 a month for our one employee. You can calculate how much it would cost you here. So if you employ a small number of people you will still be paying less than many of the other leading online accounting competitors. And what you are paying for really is worth it. None of the other leading competitors that we have also tried offers the same level of detail in terms of helping you figure out how much tax each employee owes on their salary, when you should pay your P30 forms and much, much more.
We personally feel that Payroll is one of the main features that sets Bullet apart from other online accounting services from an Irish context. While their emphasis on connecting you to the Irish Tax system may make it less useful for non-Irish companies, it is this feature that sets it apart from all other competitors. In essence – if you are a small Irish company with a payroll, you should be using Bullet.
Expenses
We also found their expenses system a joy. In a small company like ours it is very common for the employees to pay for something out of their own pockets to do with the business. In our previous post on accounting software we found that Xero were really the only other service that got that concept. But Bullet also gets that, and it does it better.
Conclusion
Our company is very much what you would call a ‘bootstrap’ company. We had no money to start, knew it would be a while before we made any and had very little day to day running costs. We are lucky that we can work from home and use mostly free and open-source software to run our business. Wages are really our only expense. We found Bullet ideally suited to a company like ours. That’s not to say it wouldn’t suit larger, more transactional companies too, we can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t.
What we really want to do in closing is say that if you run an small Irish company, and you find all the accounting stuff not just a bore but a real worry and stress, then TRY BULLET TODAY!! Bulllet takes care of the stuff that we really don’t want to spend time doing so we can focus on the things that make us happy. On a personal level I just want to say a big thanks to Bullet and their team for giving us all that free trial time and quick responses to any and all of our queries. Best of luck to you guys in 2014.
-DK