Liberty Accounts vs Paxton Church & Charity Accounting Software
Liberty Accounts
libertyaccounts.comPaxton Church & Charity Accounting Software
paxtonsoftware.co.ukSide by side
| Figure | Liberty Accounts | Paxton Church & Charity Accounting Software |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | £14.95/mo | £50/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · Church Accounting Software | 8.5 (#9) | 8.6 (#8) |
| Documentation | The help centre offers topic guides, page-specific screen help, searchable contents and support-ticket submission. | Public documentation includes online instructions, trial guidance, Standard and Advanced procedure guides, transaction and donor import guides, and a Members manual. |
| Founded | 2003 | 1979 |
| Gift Aid | Gift Aid claims can be prepared and filed to HMRC from the application. | Donation and Gift Aid tools produce schedules in HMRC format for claims. |
| Headquarters | Farnborough, Hampshire, United Kingdom | The registered office is 61a High Street South, Rushden, England, NN10 0RA. |
| Licence | The terms identify the software as online applications supplied by Athene Systems Limited; no open-source licence is published. | The public pages do not identify an open-source licence or provide source-code licensing terms. |
| Purpose | Liberty Accounts is browser-based accounting and payroll software aimed at UK small businesses, charities and churches. | Paxton Church & Charity Accounting is built for charities and churches, combining fund accounting, donation handling and charity reporting. |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 3.7 out of 5 from 1 review. | 4.5 out of 5 from 27 reviews |
| Reporting | Reports can be saved, exported to PDF, XLS or CSV, and key reports support drill-down views. | The software supports Charity Commission SORP-compliant reporting, and its FAQ says it produces a SOFA in Charity Commission format. |
| Security | Security controls described by the maker include SSL traffic encryption, multilayer firewalls, role-based access, an immutable audit trail and optional two-factor authentication. | Paxton states that its online service is hosted in a UK data centre with current security certificates and three password-protected security layers. |
| Support | Telephone and email support are offered Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm UK time. | Subscriptions include telephone and email helpdesk support, maintenance, updates and new features. |
| VAT and MTD | The service supports VAT record keeping and Making Tax Digital VAT filing. | Paxton supports VAT processing and electronic VAT-return submission through Making Tax Digital. |
Plans
Liberty Accounts
- Welcome pricing£14.95 a month
- Welcome Pricing£14.95 a month
Paxton Church & Charity Accounting Software
- Standard£50 a month
- Standard£50 a month
- Advanced£75 a month
- Advanced£75 a month
In their own words
Liberty Accounts
Liberty Accounts has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Paxton Church & Charity Accounting Software
Paxton Church & Charity Accounting Software is paid accounting software designed for churches and charities. It runs through a cloud-hosted online version and a Windows desktop version, with access also listed for iOS, macOS and the web. Standard provides multi-fund accounting, purchase ledger, budgets, donations and Gift Aid, document attachments, Charity Commission reports, transaction imports, VAT processing through Making Tax Digital, user access levels, and telephone and email support. Advanced adds sales ledger, invoicing, sales analysis, foreign-currency processing, project analysis and project budgets. Reporting follows Charity Commission SORP requirements and can produce a SOFA in Charity Commission format. The software manages Gift Aid and creates an HMRC-format schedule. Bank transactions can be imported from statements, but there is no automatic bank feed. Standard costs £50 a month and Advanced £75 a month, excluding VAT, with a 30-day trial and no free plan.