Sage Business Cloud Financials
Part of the Sage Business Cloud, Financials is a cloud accounting solution built on the Salesforce platform for small and mid-sized businesses who need accounting, analytics, and reporting to lead, manage, and grow their business.
Financials provides accounting built for compliance and offers capabilities such as multi-dimensional accounting that simplifies accounts and lets users view business in-depth across geographies, products, and business units. Analytics and financial reporting gives users real-time visibility into financial and business performance. It also has collaborative tools for teams, with performance metrics and reports that can be shared with advisors or investors.
Financials is a scalable solution. Users can automate routine financial tasks such as reconciling bank accounts, chasing invoices or posting ledger transactions. The system also facilitates the expansion into new markets globally with multi-location, multi-currency, multi-language capabilities.
Sage Business Cloud Financials is recommended to professional services firms (especially highly mobile ones) and non-profit organizations.
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Financial analytics -
Project management -
AppLauncher control panel -
Collaboration desktop -
Financial position desktop -
Business performance dashboard
Supported Operating System(s):
Mac OS, Web browser (OS agnostic), Windows 8, Windows 10
12 Reviews of Sage Business Cloud Financials
Ross from Clerkenwell Group
Specialty: Other
Employees number: 51-200 employees
June 2018
June 2018
Sage Financials Review
Do not take the sales video/demo as something you can achieve on this product. They are nearly three years in with the product and it is not fit for purpose.
Pros
When they finish the product it will be great. Do not consider purchasing this until they have or you have a fulltime salesforce developer within your finance team.
Cons
The worst customer support I have ever experienced in 20 years of software support. Not fit for purpose.
They release "upgrades" each month that they have clearly haven't tested as large parts of functionality stop working once they release it. It takes several weeks each month to firefight and fix these problems before they release another update and inevitably another part of the system goes wrong.
Tonette from PETERSON TAX & BOOKKEEPING SERVICES
Specialty: Accounting / CPA
Employees number: 2-10 employees
October 2017
October 2017
Perfect!!!
Pros
Perfect for a small company and can grow as you do. Love not having to keep all of this data on a server. Perfect!!!
Cons
None I can think of but I am new!!! Maybe if it was free..lol. But honestly I am new to this product but so far it is a home run.
TERRA from VILLAGE OF BALDWIN
Specialty: Non-Profit
Employees number: 2-10 employees
April 2017
April 2017
Sage Live
Great product. I have used much worse and better. I am a new user so still learning.
Aaron from DeRosa Mangold Consulting, Inc.
Specialty: Consulting
Employees number: 2-10 employees
November 2016
November 2016
Comparable Systems Cost Much, Much More
Built on the Salesforce platform so it can handle any number of users. Sage has initially targeted the small business segment with Live, however it is just as good for mid-market or enterprise. Consider the following features:
Capable of handling 1-1000+ users.
SAAS (hosted and browser-based) so no software to install. No server needed.
Multi-Company consolidation
Inter-Company transactions
Dimensional accounting
Multi-Currency
Multi-Language
Purchase Requisition/Approvals and Workflow
Easy setup but can be configured as complex as you want, it's a very open database if you choose to use it that way
Open API, integrates with many other web-based apps
Well integrated with SalesForce
Tablet and iPhone/Android apps
These types of features are typically only available in enterprise level software like Intacct, Acumatica, Financial Force, X3, NetSuite, Oracle or SAP. You won't find this in Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero, Sage 50 or any other entry-level system. There's always been Microsoft Dynamics, Sage 100/300/500, Epicor, Infor and others, but those aren't true cloud based/browser based systems, nor are they inexpensive. What's unique about Sage Live is that they've priced it to be affordable for most companies - starts at monthly for 2 users and 1 company. 2 users and 100 companies is only $$$d/month. That is ridiculously less expensive than the other enterprise level systems out there.
You can certainly use Sage Live as a small business, but the nice thing is that as you grow you can stay on the same system and not feel the need to change. If you are a mid-sized or large company, you owe it to yourself to take a look at Live before you make a decision on spending lots more money for perhaps the same thing.
Cons
It has only been around for 3 years, so it's not as fully developed as some more mature offerings out there. They are adding new stuff all the time but you might find some features missing that you are used to.
Advice to Others
You can be as mild or as wild as you want with Live. Because of the templates they have, they can fit you into a pre-defined box that will keep you out of trouble if your are a small business, simple, or inexperienced. However, this is an open database so you can theoretically do whatever you want. If you have someone on staff who likes to tinker (and you give them the access), you will want to make sure they document everything they change, as you can really screw up the workflow if you don't know what you're doing. Users can be posting transactions to accounts you don't want them to and by the time you catch it your books are way off. An open database is typically what you get with document management or CRM, and that's fine because you aren't dealing with accounting records. With accounting, you want to be careful because there are rules you're supposed to follow and laws you have to abide by. You can have everything locked down nice and tight with Live, but if you choose to customize it just make sure everything is well documented.
LUELLA from TRU NORTH RV
Specialty: Retail
Employees number: 11-50 employees
October 2016
October 2016
VERY GOOD PRODUCT
ENJOY USING IT, VERY USER FREINDLY, KEEPS TRACK OF ALL MY ACCOUNTING NEEDS
Cons
PAYROLL
August 2018
August 2018
Robust software for all our accounting, financial and CRM data
Ease-of-use
Usability
Functionality
Functionality
Product Quality
Quality
Value for Money
Value
Support
Pros
It works great for small firms and can scale up as the company does. It takes away the need to set-up a separate server to host all of the accounting, CRM and financial that we need, so that’s a huge plus. Customer service can be easily reached and are data always more than helpful, even for simple questions that new users tend to have.
Cons
Payroll and some of the reporting can be a headache, but I suppose it could be that I’m just not using some of the features correctly. There’s still a lot I need to learn about the product, but the positive aspects definitely outnumber the negative ones ,
Brian from 4tell Solutions
Employees number: 11-50 employees
April 2018
April 2018
This is a quality financial reporting system
Ease-of-use
Usability
Functionality
Functionality
Product Quality
Quality
Value for Money
Value
Support
Pros
The customer service is always good and they help you build reports if you're having trouble so that's really helpful.
Cons
The actual reports available aren't the best for financials. It would be better to have a 3rd party financial reporting software.
January 2018
January 2018
Useful tool, keeps our books in order
Ease-of-use
Usability
Functionality
Functionality
Product Quality
Quality
Value for Money
Value
Support
Pros
Speaking from a non-finance position, this tool has been very helpful to allow my staff to easily track all of our financial operations. I enjoy the clear, and simple printouts to give me a snapshot of specific accounts or our overall financial picture.
Cons
The software itself works great in a silo. I have had some trouble trying to link it with some non-profit donor tracking software which has meant double entry rather than a smooth sharing of information between systems.
Kristen from Tennessee Valley Fence
Employees number: 11-50 employees
December 2017
December 2017
Great accounting software
Ease-of-use
Usability
Functionality
Functionality
Product Quality
Quality
Value for Money
Value
Support
Pros
Sage has so many features! We use it for inventory, invoicing, accounting and much more!
Our team can look up our parts, customers and jobs quickly and easily
Cons
It requires training to learn. You have to know what you are looking for and learn where Sage stores that information.
We have had issues with multiple users adding inventory numbers. It doesn't automatically catch them.
Zach from Propulsion Software
Employees number: 11-50 employees
November 2017
November 2017
If I could give Sage a zero I would.
Ease-of-use
Usability
Functionality
Functionality
Product Quality
Quality
Value for Money
Value
Support
Our company didn't benefit from this product whatsoever.
Cons
Customer support. Very, very poor customer support. I do not recommend this product for anyone who is interested in Cloud Accounting software. Our account was set-up and handed over to us without offering training. They referred us to their "Sage University" for training which was cumbersome to find what we were looking for.
July 2017
July 2017
Great on paper, poor support and execution
Ease-of-use
Usability
Functionality
Functionality
Product Quality
Quality
Value for Money
Value
Support
Pros
What it says it can do is really good. We found that we were told certain things and once we signed up, those things then weren't possible.
Cons
Customer support is slow, they recommended an implementation partner (Edgeware) that doesn't fully know the system. Cost us a lot of money. Beware. There are existing companies that know Salesforce better than Sage Live and Edgeware.
Craig from Meyer Dunlap
July 2017
July 2017
New software, robust system, find a good implementation partner
Ease-of-use
Usability
Functionality
Functionality
Product Quality
Quality
Value for Money
Value
Support
Pros
Built on Salesforce, keeps the CRM and accounting together. The concept is great. Sage Live has good problem resolution.
Cons
It’s a new product for Sage so there is a big learning curve. The only major problem we had was that they referred us to an implementation partner (Edgeware) that didn’t know the product well and made promises they couldn’t keep. In the end, Sage Live was helpful in resolving the issues that Edgeware couldn’t or wouldn’t resolve.
