Independent software guidance for the people who run UK finance.
SterlingPeak is a UK editorial publication covering the accounting, payroll and tax software that British companies actually depend on. Every review is researched, written and signed by one editor.
Why it exists
Built to be the guide the UK never had.
Most of the accounting software advice a UK finance person can find has one of two problems. Either it was written for an American audience, with a different tax year and a different set of rules, or it was quietly paid for by the very software under review. Neither one helps you make a decision you can defend to HMRC.
SterlingPeak exists to close that gap. It is one editorial desk writing a small number of careful reviews, guides and comparisons, focused on the software British firms genuinely run on, with Sage UK and the tools around it at the centre of the coverage.
This is a single desk, not a content farm and not a marketing channel for any vendor. Everything is grounded in current UK legislation, checked again each VAT cycle, and corrected in the open on the rare occasion we get something wrong.
The editor
Muhammad Ilyas
Founder and Editor in Chief
Muhammad Ilyas researches every product SterlingPeak covers and writes every review it publishes. Nothing goes out under a house byline or an anonymous name. If his name is on it, he stands behind it.
What we cover
Four areas, one UK finance stack.
Accounting and bookkeeping
Sage Accounting, Sage 50 and Sage Sole Trader, alongside Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent, reviewed the way British bookkeeping actually works rather than by a feature checklist.
Payroll and people
Sage Payroll, BrightPay and Moneysoft, plus the HR tools growing teams adopt, judged against how UK payroll, RTI and workplace pensions run in practice.
Tax and compliance
Making Tax Digital, UK VAT schemes, Corporation Tax and Self Assessment, written from current HMRC guidance rather than American tax logic.
Comparisons
The buying decisions British firms genuinely face, from migration to pricing to fit, with figures rechecked at the start of every VAT quarter.
How we work
The standards behind every article.
The full operating standard sits in our editorial policy. Four principles run through everything we publish.
UK only editorial
Every guide is written for HMRC, UK VAT schemes, PAYE, automatic enrolment and Making Tax Digital. Never US tax law converted into pounds.
One named editor
Editorial decisions sit with Muhammad Ilyas. Nothing is machine written, ghost written or published without a name attached to it.
Pricing verified each quarter
Vendor pricing is checked again at the start of every VAT quarter, and each article carries the date it was last confirmed.
Disclosure on every commercial page
Affiliate relationships are disclosed at the top of every commercial article, not tucked away in a footer link.
The publication that takes UK finance software seriously.
Independent reviews and honest comparisons, written for the UK finance professionals who choose and run the software.