There is a new version of accounts and stock management application Prophet available from Elesar Ltd. Version 4.14 is free to existing users of 3.93 or later – the initial and subsequent releases from Elesar, who took on maintenance and sales of the package from its original developer, Quinten Pain of Apricote Studios (subsequently Accountz). The new version includes a mixture of fixes and new features (that have come from user suggestions).
For VAT registered businesses, one of the key changes in version 4.14 is that it can now cope gracefully with partial periods – which might come about if you change your reporting period.
Some dialogues have been expanded – such as the User set-up dialogue, which allows payment details to be included which are then automatically inserted on statements and invoices, and the Preferences dialogue, which now includes options for importing CSV data and applying input VAT, which were previously handled via system variables.
If you use the facilities for handling purchase orders, double-clicking with Adjust in the Purchase ledger will now open the corresponding order, and another user interface change is that historical invoices are now grouped by year, to avoid oversized, user-unfriendly menus.
To upgrade to the latest version, existing users of an Elesar release need only run their installer program again. This will download the update free of charge. New users can purchase Prophet for £94.80 including VAT – with an option to reduce that by 25% if you’re upgrading from any 3.xx version prior to Elesar’s 3.93.
If you’re VAT registered and need to submit returns to HM Revenue and Customs, under the ‘Making Tax Digital’ system they must now be submitted electronically. This means either directly from the accounts software itself, or via a third party ‘bridging’ solution – software that can take the data from your accounts software and perform the submission; the idea being to eliminate the possibility of human error. Prophet is now able to make submissions directly, by way of an MTD extension, available for an additional £54.00 including VAT.
