"TaxCalc is great value, very thorough, and I love it. We 100% trust the software's figures."

Buhir Rafiq is Principal and Director of RX Virtual Finance and Total Books Accountants. He specialises in pharmacy sector accounting – and that is the focus of RX Virtual Finance - offering expert advice for pharmacists

Total Books Accountants Ltd is an all-round accountancy practice for small and medium sized businesses.

Buhir’s practices combine niche expertise, personalised service, and a streamlined, tech-driven approach for around 110 clients in total.

When Buhir decided to move his practices to TaxCalc, he was looking for a solution that would save time, improve compliance, and deliver outstanding support.

Since that time, he has remained highly satisfied with the product and now serves as an ambassador, recommending TaxCalc to many accountancy colleagues both directly and through sector-specific social media groups.

TaxCalc’s excellent customer support – available by phone - is a major reason Buhir always recommends us. The team are all UK-based and trained in accountancy, and they can be contacted by telephone every working day, with very short wait times. 

Buhir says:

“To have that availability of human interaction is worth its weight in gold. If I’m stuck, I can ring up, and someone will walk me through it.

"So many other SAAS tax and accounting software companies provide AI chat bot support or have very long wait times to speak to an advisor. This just doesn't work. Another reason why we love the TaxCalc team.”

Buhir adds: “I trust TaxCalc for being ethical, which comes from the top tier of management and works its way down.”

Several times senior management has supported Buhir and his colleagues with extra help at the onboarding and implementation stage at no extra cost, he adds. This enabled “massive time savings” during setup, initial training and then in using the software, he says. 

Buhir also enjoys the benefits of working from the cloud, using TaxCalc’s Cloud Connect. 

He says:

"It’s a breath of fresh air. The main thing with the cloud option is I can connect into it anywhere, wherever I am. That is straightforward. Previously, when using TaxFiler our last tax software, this had a local server link, that always had to be on."

"Cloud works very well because I can dip in and out wherever I am, whenever I want."

He provides an example of a recent situation where the cloud model has proven its worth.

"We had a bereavement recently and I had weeks and weeks of work that were all up in the air in that period. Things were all over the place, but when I was able to steal some time to catch up - to be able to just switch my laptop on away from the office and have my data instantly ready to work on – that was a lifesaver for me."

TaxCalc’s thoroughness gives Buhir peace of mind on compliance and accuracy.

“TaxCalc’s compliance checks are thorough in ensuring you follow a process that is very HMRC-compliant. It's very careful to follow correct HMRC guidance ensure you've completed everything. So, it gives us confidence in our job as well.

 “I feel confident that what I’m submitting is right, and that’s critical. When we’re pulling out calculations from the TaxCalc software, we 100% trust the software’s figures,” he says.

The fact the software points out incorrect figures, thanks to features like Check and Finish, is a big help, he says.

“As an example, let’s take foreign tax shares. Say there’s a 15% foreign tax credit allowance for an American share. If I've accidentally put in 25% by mistake, it’s clever enough to know that actually there's only a 15% foreign tax credit allowed.”