These 2 are worth a careful look

• ledger and its derivatives
• quickfile

I am from the UK and been doing this for over 10 years, with a CSV general ledger.

I find the double entry accounting equation simple, but need meticulous book keeping and to fully understand the scheme of accounts to minimise the time spent preparing for tax, vat and PAYE along with annual financial statements to companies house.

To work on my own I follow the 'plain text accounting' principle, ledger seems good, but simpler for me to use SQL on a CSV file and a Rust program to handle MTD for VAT.

I've studied many accounting packages, all seem over complex and obscure the simplicity of the task.

To work with an accountant I would choose quickfile. It is remarkable, and one very smart person I expect to choose the best application uses it so I feel that it has credibility.