FNB Instant Accounting

[Basment Dweller]

Hi all,

I'm busy shopping around for a new accounting package as TPN Rentbook isn't giving me the accuracy I need and noticed that FNB offers a free accounting package with its business banking account and everything is already there and imported.

Anyone have any experience with this application and can provide a bit of support in this thread?

[BusFact]

I used it for one business a few years back. Obviously you need to be banking with FNB. I quite liked the auto allocation of repeat entries from the bank cash book. It wasnt that intuitive to use, but there are learning curves for any software. For a basic small business I remember it doing the job just fine.

[Basment Dweller]

Are you an Accountant Busfact or just do your own book keeping? I like that is accounting software as it is in the cloud and free.

I'm having some difficulty bringing the accounts up to date though.

I have started setting up supplier lists and categories but having some difficulty allocating payments that were transfers between accounts, payments to investment accounts, tenant deposits, loans and other ad hoc transactions etc...a lot of payments date back to Oct 2014.

How do I bring this up to date, should I hire someone or just keep plugging away until it comes right?

[EAB]

I have some clients on FNB Instant accounting and I do not find it to be user friendly. My understanding from the clients is that there is also limited support coming from FNB and turnaround time for queries are also long.

There is a couple of other cloud based accounting programs that is a lot more user friendly to use, unfortunately there is a subscription to them.

You will have to decide if you are going to go for the free program and then you sit with possible issues or go for another better known product which has a clearer way to work with

[Basment Dweller]

Hi Werner,

thanks for the response, I've been testing instant accounting with FNB and the UX is sluggish and unintuitive.

Do you have any Quickbooks online experience?

I've tested the free trial and it has a much more intuitive interface, the only problem is that it does not synchronise automatically with FNB so requires manual uploads of my accounts (bleh)

If I may ask you, or anyone on the forum, are there any other cloud based accounting packages out there that synchronise with FNB accounts?

thanks.

[EAB]

I don't have experience on Quickbooks online, but on Sage (Pastel) Online.

I would suggest you give Sage Online a try, very user-friendly and has everything you will need for a small (basic) set of accounts

[BusFact]

Are you an Accountant Busfact or just do your own book keeping? I like that is accounting software as it is in the cloud and free.

I'm having some difficulty bringing the accounts up to date though.

I have started setting up supplier lists and categories but having some difficulty allocating payments that were transfers between accounts, payments to investment accounts, tenant deposits, loans and other ad hoc transactions etc...a lot of payments date back to Oct 2014.

How do I bring this up to date, should I hire someone or just keep plugging away until it comes right?

No, not an accountant, but I do have to use a few packages to run my businesses. Instant accounting was one of them. Unfortunately I have not used it for about 2 years or so, so cannot answer specifics about the package. Sorry.

[BusFact]

Instant Accounting's single biggest plus factor is that your FNB account transactions are automatically captured into your accounting package (sync as you called it). The offline Pastel I use comes close to this as long as you pay them significant amounts each year for the add on module. Its not so much a sync though as automatically allocating a download file you provide it.

Online seems to be your driving force, so may I suggest something like the Smartedge software. It allows you to capture your downloaded statement, but its not automatic. It is online though and I find it a bit more intuitive than instant accounting was. You can also use any bank of course.

If free is your driving force, then perhaps Gnucash, but thats not online.

If memory serves me correctly, pastel had some sort of free online software (as Werner has mentioned). Never tried it as it seemed very limited in features when I last checked, but perhaps its worth a look now.

[EAB]

Hi Basment Dweller, did you find what you are looking for? You can contact me if you need more info on Sage Online

[dellatjie]

Hi there,

If any of you are interested in Sage One, I can give you a voucher with 60 days free usage, but it needs to be activated by 10 July.

I can also provide support if you are struggling with the software.

[Basment Dweller]

Hi all thanks for the feedback, I have contacted a few FNB approved instant accounting book keepers who are quoting, also my current accountant is also looking into it.

The auto-sync, and online SaaS are features that I really need so going with this software for now.

[dellatjie]

@ Basment Dweller, not sure what the online SaaS feature is, but the automatic import of bank statements are done by Sage One Accounting too.

[EAB]

Hi dellatjie, those vouchers are for an extra 60 days. You get a free trail of 30 days and of you activate the voucher it gives you an additional 60 days

[EAB]

Correct dellatjie, Sage give you options to manually capture, manually import or to set up an automatic bank feed. The automatic bank feed works the same as the auto-sync on FNB instant accounting