- Original Poster
- #1
Hi all.
I've been using Sage 50 Accounts Professional for 10yrs now and I'm sick of the way they do business.
I first got signed up by a previous employee in 2013 when she began working for me and decided my methods of using Excel & Access were "old fashioned" and I thought she may be right. However, when she left... I was left with her solution which I knew, and still do not know a great deal about.
Since then I've had several people through the door who have dealt with it, so I haven't needed to. But that aside, I think Sage's business practices and pricing lead alot to be desired.
I was using it as stand alone until 2018 when they offered me a "special deal" with the pending HMRC MTD (for VAT) looming. Up until that point they had been trying to extract £1500-1800 a year off me annually for "software updates and telephone support". I got called up and they offered me the lot for £600 for the year, but (and here's the sharp practice) offered to spread the cost at £50 a month. I took it, not aware I had just been switched to an ongoing subscription service and my standalone desktop software was about to become null and void.
I've since been on the subscription, for which the price has forever ascended and they've removed telephone support, so I'm just paying rent for the same software year on year and if I get a problem I can't solve it quickly... I've just got a notice of price rise in May which is going to take it to around £120pcm +VAT.
I've called them a few times about the cost and they always say there's a cheaper subscription available, but the sticking point seems to be delivery notes. We dropship for a couple of customers and need delivery notes - they always tell me the cheaper versions don't have this feature. They openly tell me Professional is for multi-million pound enterpriseses (we are sub £1m turnover)... but then tell me the other packages don't have the delivery note facility, so tough.
Anyhow, business isn't great at the moment and I've no longer got admin help to use 50 Professional, I have to fully learn the software myself - and if I have to learn the other 60% of the software I know little about... I may aswell swith to a cheaper competitor.
Would appreciate recommendation on alternative software for a small business, something that can generate delivery notes. I also find Sage incredibally un-user friendly, a pain as our version is PC (I'm a Mac user otherwise)... there must be a better alternative available for my circumstances.
I've been using Sage 50 Accounts Professional for 10yrs now and I'm sick of the way they do business.
I first got signed up by a previous employee in 2013 when she began working for me and decided my methods of using Excel & Access were "old fashioned" and I thought she may be right. However, when she left... I was left with her solution which I knew, and still do not know a great deal about.
Since then I've had several people through the door who have dealt with it, so I haven't needed to. But that aside, I think Sage's business practices and pricing lead alot to be desired.
I was using it as stand alone until 2018 when they offered me a "special deal" with the pending HMRC MTD (for VAT) looming. Up until that point they had been trying to extract £1500-1800 a year off me annually for "software updates and telephone support". I got called up and they offered me the lot for £600 for the year, but (and here's the sharp practice) offered to spread the cost at £50 a month. I took it, not aware I had just been switched to an ongoing subscription service and my standalone desktop software was about to become null and void.
I've since been on the subscription, for which the price has forever ascended and they've removed telephone support, so I'm just paying rent for the same software year on year and if I get a problem I can't solve it quickly... I've just got a notice of price rise in May which is going to take it to around £120pcm +VAT.
I've called them a few times about the cost and they always say there's a cheaper subscription available, but the sticking point seems to be delivery notes. We dropship for a couple of customers and need delivery notes - they always tell me the cheaper versions don't have this feature. They openly tell me Professional is for multi-million pound enterpriseses (we are sub £1m turnover)... but then tell me the other packages don't have the delivery note facility, so tough.
Anyhow, business isn't great at the moment and I've no longer got admin help to use 50 Professional, I have to fully learn the software myself - and if I have to learn the other 60% of the software I know little about... I may aswell swith to a cheaper competitor.
Would appreciate recommendation on alternative software for a small business, something that can generate delivery notes. I also find Sage incredibally un-user friendly, a pain as our version is PC (I'm a Mac user otherwise)... there must be a better alternative available for my circumstances.
