ICAEW “Report” is just overpriced adverts

The ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) have recently released a guide to online accounting for accountants.

Emily Coltman expressed surprise on her blog that KashFlow wasn’t listed.

I realise there’s a limited amount of space in these reports, but I was surprised not to see KashFlow, a recent winner at the Software Satisfaction Awards.

I wasn’t surprised. I had a rant about it back in September on UKBF. Essentially, we didn’t want to pay the £3,5k to have a “review” in there.

We’re not the only noteworthy online accounting software firm to have been excluded for not paying up.

Whilst KashFlow seems to have the UK SME market wrapped up, Twinfield are the leaders in enterprise-level online accounting – not just in the UK, but in Europe. Gartner even named Twinfield as an important vendor in a recent report on SaaS.

I really do think the ICAEW are doing a disservice to their members by giving them such a half-baked guide. As for those non-members that are actually paying for the report under the belief that it’s impartial and covers the whole market – I hope they can get a refund.

If you want impartial reviews of accounting software, check out the various reviews by Nigel Harris at AccountingWeb.