A Sage alternative in Ireland for owners who want the books done

HelloBooks was designed to remove each of these.

• A partner, manager or bookkeeper needs a login, which means a plan upgrade.
• Receipts pile up because capture is not on your plan.
• Customers or suppliers trade in sterling or dollars.
• Coding every bank line by hand still takes hours each month.

Each transaction carries an Irish VAT rate from the moment it is coded: 23%, 13.5%, 9%, 4.8% or 0%, or an exempt or reverse-charge treatment where that applies. At period end the VAT3 boxes are totalled from those codes and you enter them in ROS. Food service and hairdressing moved to 9% on 1 July 2026, so check that sales from before and after that date carry the right rate.

If you use Sage’s payroll add-on, you can keep running payroll there or move to another Irish payroll product, and post the totals to HelloBooks after each pay run. A direct payroll journal import is coming soon. Check your pay frequency and headcount: for a few staff this is a short monthly step.

Pick the start of a VAT period, take the trial balance and open items out of Sage, and load them through HelloBooks’ CSV templates. Upload bank statements from the switch date, and keep your Sage account readable for history. Run the first VAT3 from HelloBooks past your accountant before you submit it.

Week one is set-up: business details, VAT number, chart of accounts and opening balances. After that the routine is short. Upload the bank statement, review the proposed coding, photograph receipts as they arrive and raise invoices from the app. At the end of the month, check the draft close and the reports, and at the end of the VAT period review the VAT3 before keying it into ROS.

Stay if euro invoicing from your software vendor matters to your budget process, or if accounts and payroll from one supplier is worth more to you than automation. HelloBooks’ euro billing is coming soon.