Know the Sage Accounting Software Review, Cost, Pros, Cons

Sage Accounting software is affordable, but competitors offer a more modern user experience and greater product transparency.

Sage Accounting software may be a cloud-based small-business accounting software. With two affordable plans to settle on from, Sage Accounting software offers essential bookkeeping and accounting features, comprehensive reporting and inventory tracking. Despite its affordability, however, competitors like QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks may provide a more modern user experience and greater product transparency.

Nerdy tip: Try to not get confused by the Sage naming conventions. “Sage Accounting” is employed to ask the cloud-based software we’ll be reviewing here, also together of the 2 pricing plans offered for this product — Sage Accounting Start and Sage Accounting. you'll also see the Sage Accounting software called “Sage Business Cloud Accounting.” Additionally, the phrase “Sage accounting” is usually used online to ask any or all of the Sage software products that perform accounting functions.

Sage Accounting software Pros

• Double-entry accounting.
• Affordable monthly costs.
• Free trial.
• Unlimited users with Sage Accounting (second-tier plan).
• Comprehensive reporting and inventory tracking.

Sage Accounting software Cons

• Time tracking not included with either plan.
• Subscription required for receipt capture service; receipt capture available only with Sage Accounting plan.
• Outdated interface .
• Lack of clarity and transparency with product details on Sage website.

How does Sage Accounting software work?
After you check in for Sage Accounting, you’ll be ready to log in to your account and access your dashboard. Your main dashboard view are going to be the summary tab, which provides an summary of key financial information, like sales, expenses and income . You’ll be ready to navigate to different sections of your account using the navigation bar across the highest of your dashboard.

When you check in for the primary time, you’ll see the Getting Started wizard, which may walk you thru the steps needed to urge your account found out . You’ll be ready to enter basic information about your business, like your name and address, also as create and link your bank accounts.

Once your bank accounts are linked, your transactions will download to Sage automatically, helping to streamline the reconciliation process when balancing your books.

Next, you’ll be ready to enter customer and vendor information. If you've got existing contact data during a spreadsheet, you’ll be ready to import it directly into Sage Accounting. You’ll even be ready to found out your chart of accounts, enter opening account balances and review your balance report.

At any time, you'll visit the web help center for extra information on fixing your account, or chat with Sage customer service by clicking the chat button within the upper right corner of your screen.

With the Sage Accounting software plan, you'll invite multiple users to your account and assign them one among five user roles. If you're working with knowledgeable bookkeeper or accountant, they will check in for Sage Accounting Accountants Edition and send you an email invite from their account. Once you accept the invitation, your accountant will have full access rights to the info within your Sage account.

Sage Accounting Start users must undergo this process so as to figure with an accountant. However, although Sage Accounting offers unlimited users, Sage recommends linking accounts through this process for a far better user experience.

Benefits of Sage Accounting
Comprehensive reporting
Between Sage Accounting Start and Sage Accounting, this software offers solid reporting features, extending beyond the essential financial statements (profit and loss statement, income statement, general ledger). With the entry-level plan, you'll create a chart of accounts, nuisance tax reports, 1099 vendor reports and assets aging reports.

The Accounting plan takes reporting to subsequent level with income forecasts, profit analysis, accounts payable aging reports and stock movements. For comparison, accounts payable and receivable reporting requires the Essentials version of QuickBooks Online ($contact for price per month). FreshBooks doesn’t even offer basic accounting reports, just like the chart of accounts or ledger , until its second-tier plan ($(contact for price) per month), and accounts payable features require the Premium plan ($contact for price per month).

Inventory tracking
Inventory tracking are often a very useful feature of accounting software for product-based businesses. Not all accounting software solutions offer inventory management, however, and a few that do offer it only with their top-tier plans.

Sage doesn't include inventory tracking with the Accounting Start plan, but it's included with the Accounting plan — at $(contact for price) per month. QuickBooks Online is well-known for its inventory features, but you want to choose the Plus plan (at a minimum) for $(contact for price) per month to access them. Similarly, Zoho Books doesn’t offer inventory tracking until its Professional plan ($contact for price), and therefore the free Wave accounting software doesn’t provide these capabilities in the least .

With Sage Accounting, you'll add products, organize them into categories and customize their prices. you'll track quantities, set stock reorder levels, receive out-of-stock notifications and generate reports on your best-selling products. Moreover, you'll also add services or actions that you simply buy and sell to customers, like software upgrades or computer repairs.

Unlimited users with Sage Accounting plan
If you would like to be ready to create several user accounts — without paying additional fees — the Sage Accounting plan might be a very good option for your business. This plan offers unlimited users, with five user role options. In fact, one among the five options allows you to customize your user’s access levels, designating the permissions you would like them to possess supported the various sections of your account (sales, expenses, contacts, etc.)

Although Xero and Wave accounting offer unlimited users with their software, other competitors require that you simply upgrade your plan or pay separate fees for user access. Even with QuickBooks Online Advanced, the highest-level plan (Contact AccountsComparision), you'll only add up to 25 users; Zoho Books Premium Contact AccountsComparision) only accommodates up to 10 users. FreshBooks, on the opposite hand, requires that you simply pay (Contact AccountsComparision) per user per month for the team member add-on — and doesn’t offer accountant access until the second-tier Plus plan (something that's offered with Sage Accounting Start).

Drawbacks of Sage Accounting
No time tracking
Neither the Accounting Start nor the Accounting plans include any time tracking features. this is often particularly unusual considering the Sage website states that the Accounting Start plan is best fitted to the self-employed and microbusinesses, a number of which enjoy time tracking capabilities, especially if they’re during a service-related industry.

Although some competitors also are lacking during this area — Wave doesn’t offer time tracking, Xero includes it only with the highest-level plan and Zoho requires the third-tier plan ($contact for price per month) — this is often a big differentiator with alternatives like FreshBooks and QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Online includes mileage tracking with all plans, and although you've got to choose the Essentials decide to time interval tracking, you furthermore may have the choice to get QuickBooks Time for extra features, or integrate with one among the various third-party time tracking apps within the marketplace.

FreshBooks is a good better option, offering unlimited time tracking and mileage tracking with all plans.

Outdated interface
Compared to competitors, the Sage Accounting dashboard is like an older desktop-based software. the colour scheme is monotone, the font is little and although it isn’t particularly difficult to use, it doesn’t have an equivalent approachability as some alternatives.

You’ll find that competitors like Wave, FreshBooks and Zoho, among others, have a more modern design. The dashboards are often colorful, with navigation menus on the side of the screen as against laid out across the highest . The fonts are larger and easier to read.

The look and feel of your dashboard may be a matter of private preference, however, so you'll find that you simply prefer the Sage dashboard to other options.

Lack of transparency
The Sage website isn't easy to navigate and will be more clear when it involves product details and knowledge . Sage has many software products, including Sage Accounting, but the web site isn't always according to terminology — for instance , using Sage Accounting and Sage Business Cloud Accounting to ask an equivalent product, and calling one among two Sage Accounting plans “Sage Accounting.”

These inconsistencies can make it difficult to work out which product is being discussed on a specific page, additionally to causing general confusion. Moreover, Sage is comparatively brief on the differences between the Accounting Start and Accounting plans on the most a part of the web site , but if you dig deep into the support site, you'll find a radical list comparing their features.

Overall, you'll find more upfront information about Sage Accounting than a number of the opposite Sage software products (like Sage Intacct), and yet, it’s still much simpler to browse the sites of competitors and find exactly what they need to supply with their plan options.

Additional Sage software products
Although Sage Accounting software is probably the foremost suitable Sage software package for little businesses, it’s just one of the many solutions the corporate offers.
If you’re curious about any of the opposite software options, we’d recommend contacting Sage directly for a demo and extra product information.