This time of year can be quite paperwork heavy for freelancers especially if you are doing your own tax return. the deadline for paper returns has long passed but online returns can be made until the end of January, you can be fined £100 even if you are a day late.

If you are just looking for the £1 off Kashflow sign up link – here it is! or use the code AFF2105804, or read on to find out more about Kashflow.

If you are thinking you might want to be a little more organised about it you could try out this online accounting software – Kashflow. You can sign up for a 14 day free trial – if you do it via this link there’s a £1 monthly discount if you decide to continue after the trial. Or you can enter the code AFF2105804 when you sign up.

I’ve been using the software for some time now – originally because of the lack of good, reasonably priced accounts software for the Apple Mac at the time that would also handle invoicing. Kashflow as it is web based works on Mac or PC under any operating system. You can also access it from wherever you are. Kashflow is pretty easy to understand for the accounting novice and if you do run into problems there is an extensive online help directory. When that is not enough Kashflow’s team will help you via email – and they are actually helpful – and pretty quick too – few a few hours.

The system will generate your invoices and you can also import your credit card and bank account transactions. I find I can do this fairly easily by downloading them from my online banking service and pulling them into kashflow. That means the other transactions I enter manually are purchases made with cash. The invoicing part of the package generates a pdf invoice which I email straight to my client, and when the invoice is paid I just assign that bank transaction to the correct invoice.

I’m on the flat rate VAT system, so once I have assigned all those months received payments to the correct invoices it’s just a couple of mouse clicks to make Kashflow produce a VAT return. You can enter your online filing details into Kashflow and it will not only calculate the return for you but file it as well! If you are set up with HMRC to automatically take the payment from your bank account, it really is – click – click – DONE!

Kashflow will help you fill in your own tax return, or if you do what I do and get an accountant to do it for you – you can set up access to your Kashflow account for them to get all the information they need.

You have nothing to lose by trying the software out during the 14 day free trial – it doesn’t even install on your computer as it is all web based – so there’s nothing nasty to get rid of if you decide not to continue – http://kf.cm/19tWUMM  is the URL you need to take advantage of a discount should you decide to sign up.

EDIT 19th April 2014 – Kashflow have changed their charging structure and there are now a range of packages which start at only £5 a month – really good value. There are still discounts available on the bigger packages if you use my links or discount code at sign up.