Microsoft Dynamics GP vs. Sage Accounting

Microsoft Dynamics GP is well-suited for our environment, as we pay a diverse group of employees, including on-the-road drivers, shop employees (some in other locations), and office employees. It easily tracks time off, taxes, pay, etc. The reporting allows us to verify with our drivers how they are paid each week, whether it be through mileage or stop-offs.

Incentivized

The most obvious scenarios (to me) was in in solving ur previous, in-house desktop versions. We’d been using them since 2012—and struggling with network and “host” PC stability. Switching to SSDs for storage in the PCs helped a bit; moving to a wireless LAN did not. By the time it came to add more people, we knew that would push the limits of Sage Desktop’s file-sharing stability and speed, and running any large reports across the LAN. Sage Cloud resolved all those issues for us. Sage Cloud is really only “less appropriate” for fairly small, local companies that are just starting out. Companies with only a couple (or a few) people entering data and pulling reports. Companies where everyone is in one office, and they haven’t built up thousands of entries in their stat files (like JOURNAL.DAT) and others.

Incentivized

• User friendly interface
• Able to be extended into multiple areas of your business
• One feature we have been using for a few years is EFT for payables - it has significantly reduced the time spent paying vendors and reduced our check printing and mailing costs. It is very easy to setup and use.

Incentivized

• Sage Accounting makes it easy to pay my invoices with an automated QR code that opens a payment portal.
• Sage Accounting automatically shows my bank account balance and that's pretty neat.
• Sage Accounting has excellent security with 2 factor authentication and I trust my money is kept safe.

Incentivized

• Supply chain management is adequate but not exceptional, and there are challenges tying the product to a website front end. These features are present and work fine in many environments but are often lacking for customers who need more robust systems.
• Reporting tools often require consulting expertise or an internal business analyst to develop. Many smaller companies don't have this skill set, so it can be costly to upgrade to GP from a smaller packages like QuickBooks.
• Some features that are available in competing products are still not present in GP, such as full copy-paste functionality and more intelligent workflow/batch processing functions.

Incentivized

• Only being able to use the premium accounting on ONE computer, very frustrating if you have a long drive or something, and I could have utilized that time catching up on our accounting, but I don’t want to bring my computer along. It would be nice not to use the cloud software just to use on multiple devices.
• Speaking of Cloud software, the inability to talk to an actual human is insane. We were promised that the cloud software was much easier and straightforward. We didn’t know whether we had issues that could only be addressed by an AI chatbot. When we did talk to a human, they always referred back to the AI chatbot.
• Again, for the cloud software, the inability to transfer over the entirety of my books because there was foreign currency (USD) is insane. We ended up canceling and going back to regular accounting software because I spent 12 hours I didn't have trying to move our books over, which ultimately didn’t work, and I would have had to reformat everything, which I shouldn’t have to do.
• You should be able to link your bank account and have all deposits and withdrawals appear automatically. QuickBooks does this, and I really enjoyed QuickBooks for that reason. It would be a nice feature to have.

Incentivized

Due the economic challenges that Puerto Rico is having, the company has had to merge some companies in order to be more efficient. It has been easy in GP to process those merges, even thought we had to spend days to accomplish that the process was smooth and accurate. In addition we were able to streamline the purchasing and sales process and the organization is confident to keep renewing GP for the future versions.

Incentivized

I could not live without Sage Accounting, it has become an integral part of my everyday. The more I have used Sage Accounting the more I have fallen in love with it. I am excited to be part of this ever-evolving accounting system that has grown from strength to strength, making life easier is something Sage does so well.

Menus are generally quite difficult to navigate, user-friendliness is lacking, platform can at times be unstable (crashes, etc), reports tha would seem to report one thing do not actually return that data. Usability is probably the biggest weakness of Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Incentivized

One of Sage’s strengths is its scalability—businesses can start with basic features and expand as their needs grow. It also provides industry-specific solutions, which can be especially useful in sectors such as construction and manufacturing. However, some users find the interface less intuitive compared to newer cloud-based competitors, and setup can take a bit of time.

Incentivized

Sage rarely has any issues with crashing, errors, etc. I have seen instances where it is a very old Sage file and you're getting it up to current it can provide errors. Although with the recent updates this might've been addressed. Previously you would've had to bring it up to Sage versions that are every couple years or so until you get to current. Also, sometimes when creating a backup its important to let the software do its job as I have seen crashes that way as well. The majority of the time when you're working in it you won't see these problems. There's never a time when it randomly goes down or crashes.

Incentivized

Sage Accounting work quickly and performs well, I have never had an issue with it running slow. It integrates with other software swiftly, so no waiting for the screen to load. Error messages are only something I have had when I have done something wrong.

The rating is directed to the thrid party serive provider that we use. I do not now how good the Microsoft direct support is.

Incentivized

Sage Accounting are easy to contact and have knowledgeable and helpful staff. Whenever I've encountered a problem I've always been able to get assistance and guidance and it feels like the person at the end of the phone/screen knows the product well.

Staff are always friendly, and patient, always work at a speed that suits you. You are never rushed, and In only a short time they seem to be able to help you make great strides. It has been a pleasure not a chore, learning how SAGE Accounting works and benefits me and the company.

I find the online training was very informative and they answered all my questions. I am also certified in Sage One and provided online training in the program which I have set up several people on and they love how it keeps them organized.

Basically the challenge with this implementation was the Business Portal, too many errors and even the aplication is up and running the users are still having issues. We will start planning the migraton to GP 2015 soon.

Incentivized

I've done this a few times now, both manually and also by uploading by way of the implementation process. Sometimes it went smoothly (with a very basic set of books), but often the upload creates a mess with the accounts and it takes a lot of time to sort it out

Incentivized

Because GP doesn't do CRM we have looked at D365 Customer Engagement for our field service, and F&O as a replacement. Vaporware, no direct upgrade path, and if you want to continue with GP for your back office and just use Field Service it's an insanely complex integration import/export. D365 F&O is a huge implementation cost, and without a direct migration path every bit of data has to be custom imported. There really is no straightforward way to stack up GP against these programs currently. Again, the future of GP is in some doubt.

Incentivized

It's about the same, just a different way to get to a similar end goal. Ultimately, Sage offers superior, rigid compliance tracking and robust multi-entity management tools. QuickBooks certainly wins for its more modern UI, thousands of native app integrations, and superior built-in reporting, making it far more flexible when scaling and connecting to other apps/services.

Incentivized

The functionality that GP and related ISV solutions offer and the ease of integration of GP to other systems makes it an extremely scalable solution

Incentivized

You can use Sage in your company for various aspects/positions such as bookkeepers, invoicing clerks, accountant, purchasing etc. Everyone can have their own user login and permissions can be set that specific people can do specific jobs without being able to access other peoples progress or accounts of the company.

Incentivized

• We have never missed a payroll using Great Plains. We have the ability to fix any issues that come up quickly.
• It streamlines our departments that handle money into one unified system. This gives accounting and finance the overall picture in one system.
• With Integration Manager we have to worry less about taking time to hand key transactions. This cuts down on entry time and increase efficiency for our clerks.

Incentivized

• Sage has allowed us to be self-supporting and to perform full-cycle accounting up to the point of handing off to the accountant at year-end.
• We are self-sustaining and do not need outside accounting assistance, such as an independent bookkeeper.
• Sage has allowed us to save money at year's end, as we can do all the prep internally up until the handoff to the accountant, minimizing the hours he has to spend on our file.

Incentivized