Made for South African buyers. Every price in rand, read from the vendor.
The Software Register guides · 20 guides
What business software costs in rand, how to choose and test it, and what SARS, POPIA and the BCEA ask of it. Written for South African buyers, from the vendors' own pages, and none of it paid for.
Six products, one checklist
Most advice on accounting software is written for America or Britain. These are the six questions that decide whether a product works for a South African business, with the register's own tables to check each one against.
Read the guideFrom payslip to EMP501
Payroll is the one kind of business software where a mistake reaches your staff and SARS in the same month. These are the checks that matter in South Africa, from the payslip to the EMP501.
Read the guideRun these before the trial ends
5 tests
A trial that you click around in tells you almost nothing. These are five tests, set for South African businesses, that tell you whether a product will survive a month of real work.
Read the guideThe day the EMP201 is due, every month
7th
VAT, payroll, provisional tax and the annual returns each have their own rhythm. One page showing what falls when, and what your software should do about it.
Read the guideWhere a full tax invoice starts to need more detail
R5 000
A customer who is registered for VAT can only claim back the VAT on an invoice that meets the law. Your software should produce one every time, and you should know what to look for.
Read the guideSoftware Register
Where your customers' data lives, and who can touch it
Your customers' and employees' details sit in the software you choose. The law makes you responsible for them, and the vendor is acting for you. Here are the questions to put to a vendor before you hand over the data.
Read the guideFrom Pastel on a desktop to the cloud
Many South African businesses have run on Pastel for years. Moving to a cloud product is a project with a start date, a checklist and a way back. This is how to do it without losing a VAT period.
Read the guideSoftware Register
When the power is out, what still works
A product is only as available as the power and the connection under it. What stops working when the lights go out, what keeps working, and how to choose and set up your software so a power cut does not cost you a deadline.
Read the guideLeave under the BCEA comes first
Many HR products are built in Britain, America or Europe. What a South African employer should check: leave under the BCEA, how HR meets payroll, the personal information it holds and what it costs for each employee.
Read the guidePriced per user, mostly in dollars
A CRM is priced per user, usually in dollars, and it holds your customers' details. What it costs in rand when the team grows, what POPIA asks of how you use it and what to test before you move your pipeline.
Read the guideThe partner matters as much as the product
An ERP joins your accounts, stock, buying, selling and sometimes manufacturing in one system. It is priced by quote and delivered by a partner. How to know if you need one, and how to buy one without being surprised.
Read the guideBoards, lists, timelines or sheets
Boards, lists, timelines or sheets: how your team works decides the product. What a seat costs in rand, what the free plans stop at, and what changes when your vendor is in another time zone.
Read the guideStarting price a month, in rand
14 products publish a price we could read, 11 start free, and 12 give their price on request. Here is the whole table, and how to read it.
Read the guideSouth African VAT, and why a price needs its basis
15%
Sage quotes cloud products including VAT and Pastel products excluding it. Put both on the same footing and the order changes.
Read the guidePriced on request: what to ask for in writing
12 products on the register give their price on request. These are the questions that turn a quote into something you can compare.
Read the guideStart at R0, and know where it stops
11 products start at zero. A free tier is a way in. Here is what to check before you build on one.
Read the guidePrepared by your software, filed on SARS eFiling
VAT201
The VAT201 is the return a registered vendor submits to SARS. Accounting software can prepare it, and some can transfer it into eFiling. Those are different things.
Read the guideDue by the 7th of every month
EMP201
South African payroll produces a chain of statutory documents. A mistake in one link costs penalties in the next.
Read the guideMinimum annual leave under the BCEA
21 days
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act sets minimum leave. HR software that accrues it wrongly will quietly misstate what you owe.
Read the guideThe South African banks the register asks about
8 banks
A product that feeds from Chase and Barclays is useless to a business banking with Capitec. The register asks about eight South African banks.
Read the guideThe guides explain rules in plain words. They have not been reviewed by a registered tax practitioner or a labour lawyer, and they are not tax, legal or financial advice. Check SARS, the Department of Employment and Labour and the Information Regulator for the rule that applies to you.
One short email when a price changes or a product is withdrawn. Nothing else, and no sign up to read the register.
