Great product, but you have to know how to use it

I consult with small businesses and some of my clients use/used Sage 50. My Sage 50 clients work in services, merchandise (drop shipping), transportation, and manufacturing. Sage 50 is a great software, but from what I've seen it takes a while to learn.

Pros

I'm a CPA and small business consultant. I have worked with some clients that use/used Sage 50. Sage 50 has a lot of good accounting functionality and makes it possible to record transactions and review reports, which is what an accounting software should do.

Cons

My main complaint about Sage 50 is the lack of documentation/support. I've used and recommend QuickBooks frequently because QuickBooks has easy to access phone/chat/online support and there are tutorials all over the web. I wish Sage 50 had more support like QuickBooks.

Easy to use, nice reports; troubleshooting and updates can be a pain

I used this software for really basic accounting functions and used a separate CRM and ERP software that I just journaled information from into Sage. It was great for that and for the everyday AP, payroll and GL. Overall I really liked it and it gave me few problems. The issue was that when there was a problem, it was really time-consuming to fix and I often had to bring in outside tech support when Sage couldn't solve the problem, so it cost a lot of extra time and money a few times a year.

Pros

I loved this program in that it seemed to be made for accountants, unlike some software that seems to be made for non-accountants. There are a lot of great reports to choose from, and each can be easily formatted to whatever file type you need. The payroll is awesome and easy to use.

Cons

Updates can sometimes cost you functionality, which can be a real problem if you are in the middle of payroll. Payroll information is only available for the current and previous calendar years, which is tough when you are undergoing an audit or due diligence. Some reports have limited time range parameters, so if you have a fiscal year that doesn't fit into those parameters, it can be annoying to run more than one report and combine the information. Also, there was one formula in the tax functions that didn't provide the correct number for some states, you had to enter it manually, which made us provide incorrect information and pay penalties because of it. I tried to do a data transfer from one company in sage to another, and several files were corrupted and didn't make it over. At one point, I needed to have two companies open at once, and the windows did not title which company was which. I literally had to go into the the menu drop down to figure out which company was which. They looked identical, so it was a real pain.

Sage 50 Review

Sage has always been helpful through online or phone calls whenever you need them. Find the right consultant for you, and you experience improves.

Pros

There is alot of things that are already set up for you to just hit the ground running and a lot of items integrated into the system to help small businesses that need a solution but no time to customize a whole system.

Cons

Sage 50 allows for minimal customization from their out of the box set up software. This plays as an advantage, but does not allow you to get the information you want in the view you want.

Good...But A Little Expensive

I use the Canadian version of the software. I suspect it's basically the same as the American version, except for sales tax and payroll, but I would check a review of that version for any American users.

Pros

Sage 50 is an easy-to-use piece of accounting software aimed at SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), and it is one of QuickBooks' major competitors. It's fairly easy to find people who are familiar with Sage 50. That's a plus for small businesses looking to find an employee or outside service provider to take care of their books. If you are looking to do the books yourself, Sage 50 is relatively easy to learn. They have thorough tutorials available to walk you through the basics. Major transactions are grouped together under tabs on the left-hand navigation panel. The various workflows--receivables, payables, inventory and services, employees and payroll, and a 'company' category--are all shown graphically. Each task within a major area is represented as a labeled icon, making it is to start a new transaction from this screen. The 'company' link is a catch-all category, including general journal entries, the chart of accounts and tools for managing your data and accounting tasks. Virtually every report that a small business could need is available in Sage 50.

Cons

I found Sage 50 to be glitchy in the past. I have spent too many hours on hold or on a call with their tech support. I use the payroll-included version of Sage 50. I also have a support package. In all, that's not competitively priced. If it weren't for the fact that some clients have been using this software for years and are reimbursing me for the cost of the software, I would not be using it. QuickBooks is a better value.

Sage 50 'Quantum' Canadian is very stable but limited. No significant new features for last 4 years.

Pros: - Sage 50 Canadian is very stable, any 'crash' is almost always a hardware or operating system issue. - Vendor technical support is prompt and helpful. - Uses a solid 'Enterprise-grade' back end database. - ODBC is free, and included. - Free SDK is available. Cons: - Response to bugs is to provide work-arounds - No significant new features since 2011. - Screen designs are stuck on 1988. Data entry fonts are unusably tiny on modern monitors, and can't be adjusted. - Features and prior bundled software has been removed, no longer supported, or flat out disabled: . web store integration, . Crystal Reports, . ACT! CRM integration . Simply HR Manager - Numerous limitations in the 'Quantum' version to prevent use by all but the smallest companies: . no transaction reports show purchase order numbers, . ship-to addresses are limited to 99, . multiple vendor shipping addresses are not supported at all . if using multiple 'locations', inventory reports are wrong due to wrong beginning onhand. . Multiple shipments to / from a single invoice are not supported. . No way to report on Purchase Order vs invoice purchase amounts or pricing. . No reports - Designed for Accountants, not for business operations. . 'Job Tracking' will record what you put in, but not tell you what to bill out. . Year end process is unnecessarily convoluted and cumbersome for the business. . Inventory 'available' isn't displayed during invoicing, only 'On Hand'. . Only 2 years of sales statistics are tracked - current and prior year. Since current is always opened before the prior year is completed, there is never any point in time where a comparative report is of any use. . Canned reports are inadequate and can't be customized. - Time Tracking to Invoicing only works if you never have separate jobs for a single client - and who wouldn't? - Inventory statistics are broken - Quantities are correct, but adjustments rack up the statistics on number of transactions (one sale, adjusted two times will show as 5 transactions) - Virtually all inventory, sales, and purchase detail reports show all adjusted and reversed transactions, but don't output any indicator that they are just dead, junk data. - Few third party software integrations - Other Sage software does not work with it AT ALL. (Asset tracking, Time & Billing, CRM)