Looking at Digita. By Nichola Ross Martin
Part three of a non-geeky guide to chosing tax and practice software. AccountingWeb, 13 April 2007.
This review was delayed on my part but as it turns out the extra time produced the opportunity to talk to some more accountants and ponder the problems of practice and tax software 'in the round'. Most practitioners do not have a problem using software from a variety of different sources (despite the cost/hassle/lack of integration) as it seems that the main integrated packages do not do everything that they want and so you have no choice but to buy extra software to fit your requirements. Also most integrated software seems to come with a large number of redundant components, but they get bundled in whatever.
AccountingWEB member and prolific accounting blogger Dennis Howlett says of the software companies, "It is a disgrace that for years now, they've been selling professionals package after package with overlap left and right while failing to deal with the fundamentals of 'what does a practitioner need?"
I have to agree and so it was quite refreshing to look and see what is going on at Digita, it seems that they at least are moving in the right direction, and seem to have managed to create software that does seem to be flexible enough to evolve and change for the better.
What is unusual about Digita’s approach is that they have created a set of stand alone packages and then united them (this year) by creating software they call Contact Manager, which is an Outlook style client database so that now their users find themselves with fully integrated software. The novelty of creating the integrated suite backwards, so to speak is that each of the individual packages is tried and tested and a product in its own right. To this end, it means that there are no redundant products, each was created for a purpose, and tested in the market place.
Most people will have heard of Digita’s tax products – they cover personal, business, corporation and trust tax. New out this year is a really impressive CGT application that fills the remaining gap. It deserves a review in its own right, but I do not have space, trust me, it looks fab. There is also deferred tax, which is a great time saver with its proofing tool. I genuinely like these products, they are all well designed, easy to use and have clear features. They pave the way forward with their extra functionality. I have not found anything that I actually dislike about any of this suite of software.
For the record, my main software dislikes are complexity for the sake of it, un-editable reports, colour and graphics overall, colour and graphics on reports, and being made to do things I do not want to i.e. being forced to do an action in a round about way when I feel that there is an easier answer.
I can think of a lot more functionality for your average tax product, in fact the more software I review the more features I think up, but Digita’s extra features are really good, and this not surprising as the company seems to be totally client centred. This is a software house that clearly listens to its customers as well as fully supporting them. The software in general also bears a close resemblance to Microsoft (MS) Outlook and so unless you have been on a different planet (or using a very old Mac) you will find that it is strangely familiar. Over the years the company has worked with MS and their software is also accredited by MS too.
Looking at personal tax, you have a clear client summary at a glance – all software does this now, but this is set out really nicely (it’s a personal thing, I know, but this is especially pretty and clear). There is a review facility to complete variance analysis on figures year on year. This I believe, is the only tax software to perform this function in this way, and creates something of a benchmark. This is what HMRC do, and I think most clients would therefore expect it of their accountants as well. There is also a feature called Tax Aware which is claimed to be a form of 'artificial intelligence' (AI). I am not too sure what the definition of AI truly is, but Tax Aware is the closest I have come to what I imagine it is in a tax product. Basically it flags up alerts when it spots anyone of a given number of risks or opportunities, for instance notifying tax rates or unused pension relief as some of its basic features.
Other components are as good, space does not permit me to examine each in too much detail. Accounts production has some really outstanding flexible reporting features you can edit and add from just about anywhere, and customise your reports (you can do this throughout with all reports). At this stage I should add that in tax you can edit directly onto returns as well as from the main entry screens, this is about as flexible as you can get in this respect. The all new Contact Manager allows you to enter details only once and with integration if you change one thing it will of course update everywhere else. Contact Manager looks like MS outlook but with more features, so no one will have any difficulty working it out. Another nice feature to flag up is Letter Writing, this looks and behaves like MS Word, and using this, which is in Practice Management you can do mail outs and lists and labels, and of course adopt all your current Word templates.
I reckon anyone can use the whole Digita range without difficulty (or extended training) it is totally intuitive. I was discussing software with a friend who regularly subcontracts to accountants and he said that he went to a practice using Digita this winter and had to "bluff it". He found it was remarkably easy to use and he was able to get stuck in and produce tax returns with no previous experience or training.
Digita’s downside? Since the arrival of Contact Manager, there is only the one according to all the firms I have talked to, and that is that there is no "time and fees". Fair to add that it is only a matter of time, and it is on the company’s 'to do list'.
