Sage 500 ERP vs. Unit4 Enterprise Resource Planning

Sage 500 ERP is great for companies with core accounting needs, distributors, and discrete manufacturers. Some areas, such as process manufacturing, would require a companion product from an ISV for the software to be truly functional. Some areas, such as construction or retail apparel, may simply not be well-served.

Incentivized

Unit4 is good for small and mid-level companies where they need a single platform to manage their functionality.

• Sage is the one-stop-shop for all of our needs. We're able to control contracts, subcontracts, and field reports from the program.
• Another strength is the ability to database all the information and export it to excel. This makes data-based investigations a breeze.
• The ability for Timberscan to be imported to Sage is a huge help with invoice management. Prior to this it all had to be done manually and slowed the process to an essential halt as there are thousands of invoices per month.

Incentivized

• Since the software is built with your needs in mind, it can be tailored to your specific needs.
• System security is also created with your specific needs in mind and can be extremely detailed for various roles within the organization.
• The various modules integrate well, if thought through system processes when building.

Incentivized

• The biggest concern/complaint of Sage 500 users is speed. Some of the screen take a while to load.
• The user interface needs some refreshing. Screens need to be updated to take advantage of shortcuts and to be more intuitive.

Incentivized

• Their layout and limited web capabilities are a turn-off
• They lack basic functionality in their web [version]
• The implementation phase is bumpy since their guides and process documents are not step by step and are usually confusing

Incentivized

It's too pricey for our size of company.

Incentivized

Unit4 is very easy to use. One can use it without much technical knowledge.

Their consultant and support service is also very responsive.

The online training courses are not up to date. We experienced technical issues with two of the classes.

Incentivized

Keep your database and application in different servers.
Install Microsoft Office on your application server so you can use some of the data analysis tools in Sage.

Incentivized

500 seems much smoother at handling some of the basic accounting tasks, for example both issuing and later reconciling checks in Dynamics AX seems a little tedious.

Incentivized

I have used Fund EZ and QuickBooks. Unit4 is for larger organizations and was needed for our scaling.

Incentivized

• Positive: The program allows for a lot of data entry and splitting of information. It has the capability of replacing multiple programs and therefore saving cost.
• Negative: The modules are cumbersome and not user friendly at all. As a result not many user are comfortable using it. This means that the program is not being used to its capacity.
• Negative: Although the program has the capacity to be great, the user interface destroys that potential. Sage needs to seriously work on their program to simplify it. It's as if it still uses Command-line entries from 1995. Needs to be updated ASAP.

Incentivized

• Our business processes were in flux when the initial build of our system was taking place - this made lives very difficult. Make sure processes are set!
• Time - beyond what could have been imagined - this is a huge project, that needs proper resources assigned to it within a company when planning to install.

Incentivized