Sage accountancy/bookkeeping clubs

[wood1e2]

Hi,

Just been looking at the two clubs that sage run and I wanted to see if anyone out there has been/ is a member of this service and what they think?

Obviously I will be phoning Sage, as the information on the website is a little vague. Especially as the software seems to be offered for a little over 10% of the standard price!!!

Anyway, any thoughts opinions would be great.

[E Storey]

I have been in touch with sage about the Sage bookkeepers club, information is patchy but here is the situation as I see it.


Sage bookkeepers club offers you the sage 2010 professional edition with 5 companies, that's why it's a bit more expensive than the list price for 1 company.
If you have more than 5 Sage clients you can pay £50 approx for a further 5 companies.
You can get entered onto their directory of bookkeepers, which apparently people do look at when they want an accountant/bookkeeper in their area ?!?
You can pay monthly, and add on payroll at a later date.
Although they invoice annually - You do not have to pay the £500 in year 2. These subsequent payments are for upgrades and support. (they don't advertise this fact so be sure to ask them specifically about it). You can continue to use the version you have, but cannot phone sage if something goes wrong, and clearly you would have to upgrade after a few years or it would become obsolete.
All-in-all the feedback I've seen from bookkeepers is good. But there are many others, who simply feel that other types of accounting packages are better for them and their clients needs.

I do however, really like the accountant link function in sage, allowing you to basically e-mail the entire set of accounts to/from company/bookkeeper/accountant. But any online package would allow multiple access anyway so this would not be needed.

[johndon68]

Sage bookkeepers club offers you the sage 2010 professional edition with 5 companies

This may be a little out of date as v2011 of Sage 50 was released a couple of weeks ago so I'd assume you get that now.

Although they invoice annually - You do not have to pay the £500 in year 2. These subsequent payments are for upgrades and support. (they don't advertise this fact so be sure to ask them specifically about it). You can continue to use the version you have, but cannot phone sage if something goes wrong, and clearly you would have to upgrade after a few years or it would become obsolete.

You'd also have to bear in mind that, if you do have clients who use their own copy of Sage and send you a backup that you need to be on the same version of Sage that they are...

John

[E Storey]

Thanks John - good points.

I wonder if it has ability to save files in an earlier version - like word and excel, something worth asking the Sage people about before you buy!

That does make Sage £500 + per year which, for a small bookkeeper, is quite expensive.

[johndon68]

I wonder if it has ability to save files in an earlier version - like word and excel, something worth asking the Sage people about before you buy!

No, if does not.

So, for example, whilst you can restore data from v2010 into v2011 the data gets upgraded to v2011 format and cannot then be restored back into v2010. For this reason I've got every version from v9 - v17(2011) installed on my PC to handle client data.

John

[E Storey]

John, you need to develop an app that can do this! You'd make a killing!

[johndon68]

Technically not actually that difficult (certainly as far as the financials are concerned at least) although you could have issues where a new transaction type (such as those for refunds) exist in a new version but not in the previous version.

John

[wood1e2]

@E Storey - Are you sure there is only a payment in the first year and none after that?

So why would anyone want to buy the software? Which for five companies and tech help is a couple of thousand.

But if I join the accountancy club or bookkeeping club it is £500 one off fee? Ok so I don't get upgrades!! But with the saving I would be foolish to not join the club.

[johndon68]

So why would anyone want to buy the software? Which for five companies and tech help is a couple of thousand.

I haven't seen the T&Cs but I think that the licence you get does not allow you run use the software for your own accounts which is why it's not an option for customers wanting to do their own, multi company, accounts.

I'm basing this on what happens to members of the Developers Programme where you do get a copy of Sage 50 for development purposes but you can't do your own accounts in that copy unless you pay more money.

John

[wood1e2]

Hi John,

Found what you wrote a little confusing.

Pretend I have just set up an accountanting and/or bookkeeping pratice we want to use Sage to manage our clients accounts.

Can I do this by joining Sage's Bookkeeping Club/Accountants Club?

And if I can, is it only £500 forthe first five companys and for the first year only?

Obviously I realise that I would loose tech help and upgrades in year two as I have not paid sage.

Plus if I get a sixth client I would have to purchase another licence for £50!! Wel I think I would have to!! :)

[E Storey]

Hi John,

Found what you wrote a little confusing.

Pretend I have just set up an accountanting and/or bookkeeping pratice we want to use Sage to manage our clients accounts.

Can I do this by joining Sage's Bookkeeping Club/Accountants Club?

And if I can, is it only £500 forthe first five companys and for the first year only?

Obviously I realise that I would loose tech help and upgrades in year two as I have not paid sage.

Plus if I get a sixth client I would have to purchase another licence for £50!! Wel I think I would have to!! :)

This is the situation as I see it.

The software is 1 set of software on one machine, with the ability to have 5 companies set up on it. You could not buy it then sell off 4 companies. that is why it is especially designed for bookkeepers.

However John's comments about a client (or their accountant) having a newer version is quite serious. Are you going to tell someone you can't take them on because your software is older than theirs?

This is probably why sage makes this offer to bookkeepers, we act as sales reps for each of our clients, encouraginging them to use sage, and are then in a position where it is difficult for them and us not to upgrade each year.

I suppose it depends how many clients you have, how much toing-and-froing of accounts there is likely to be and.... how significant the sage upgrades are each year.

If you are a small entity, you could probably get away with the out-of date-version for a while but would have to upgrade say in 2 years instead of 1.

Best thing to do is ask sage this directly, and try to get them to put their responses in writing.

[wood1e2]

The different versions of sage is an issue. Although remote working is a way around this. And I have found that alot of SMEs use very very old versions of sage/accounting software as they don't see the need to upgrade. Being that the current version does the job they want.


Either way I understand what you are saying.

They offer it to accountants not just bookkeepers.

I was mainly staggered by the cheapness of the deal. If you went to sage and asked to buy Sage Line 50 or whatever it is called these days for a couple of users and 5 businesss, along with tech support, you would be lucky to get change out of £3000

So £500 one off cost or annual cost of £500 is cheap as chips!!

[johndon68]

My comments were based on your comment "So why would anyone want to buy the software? Which for five companies and tech help is a couple of thousand."

I interpreted this to mean why would anyone fork out the full price for the multi company version of the software - I was trying to point out that joining the accountants/bookkeepers club is not a 'workaround' for an end user looking for a cheap way to get a multi company licence.

Yes, you would be able to do the accounts for up to 5 clients using the software.

John

[wood1e2]

Why would it not be a work around, £500 against £3000, huge discount on the purchase price??!?!!!??

[johndon68]

As I mentioned earlier, although you'd need to check with Sage to be absolutely certain, I believe that the licence agreement for the Accountants/Bookkeepers club does not allow you to use the software for your own company's books, only those of your clients. You may also have to prove to Sage that you are running a bookkeepping/accountantcy business prior to them letting you join the club.

John

[wood1e2]

oh I see what you are saying now...many thanks for that. :)