Item: Sage Accounting
Rating: 10
Author: Rob Heath

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Practical Bookkeeping Services is a small business comprising of myself and my partner. I am a business development manager and she is a bookkeeper. We serve a broad range of sole traders and small enterprises providing a diverse array of services. Sage is essential to the financial side of our business, it is easy to use and cloud based meaning we can control our clients financials from any location, upload their invoices, reconcile them to live bank feeds and derive any reports or figures they may need. Without Sage we simply could not support the number of clients we do. Sage is all about working smarter not harder and as an accounting and bookkeeping package it is second to none. My partner has been in bookkeeping for over 30 years so we can say with all confidence that Sage is the best product out there. Aligned with that their after sales support, wider community of users and proactive engagement with end users is world class. They really do care about their customers and their support is both easy to access and human. All in all it is a complete solution to use as a bookkeeping service provider, its innovative, intuitive, continually developing and it listens to its users.

Pros and Cons

Live Bank Feeds
Uploading of PDF and JPEG Invoices with auto recognition
A complete and detailed suite of financial reports
A vast array of support, educational materials and networking opportunities
Client Management facilities

Client Management side could be developed into a CRM lite

Return on Investment

It has allowed us to take on numerous additional clients
Its price point is on a per client basis and is exceptional value for money
It has allowed our business to grow much larger than it otherwise would have done.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zoho CRM, FreeAgent CRM and Zoho Books

Its far more flexible, much better value for money, UK based with accessible and intelligent support. Unlike the other software providers Sage is low on gimmicks and high on usable content. It does what it needs to do exceptionally well and it is constantly evolving.

Key Insights

Do you think Sage Accounting delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Sage Accounting's feature set?

Yes

Did Sage Accounting live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Sage Accounting go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Sage Accounting again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Canva

Usability

It is intuitive, seamless, well laid out and backed up by instant customer support.

Support Rating

The support is world class - never ever during 30 plus years in business I have received such helpful, knowledgeable and genuine support as I have from Sage. At Sage people matter and i can chat to someone safe in the knowledge that they will actually listen and assist. This also backed up by huge online portfolio of help and resources.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is very well suited to any and all bookkeeping and accountancy scenarios. Be it VAT returns, Tax returns, Payroll or year end accounts, Sage has the tools to deliver it all. The live bank feeds allowing for ongoing reconciliation, aligned with the uploading facility means clients accounts can be processed on a daily basis leaving no glut of work as deadlines approach. It is in our humble opinion the best of the best.

How Sage Helped Build Our Business

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Sage Accounting