Bye bye Sage - Hello Quickbooks?

[MDUK]

I have been struggling with Sage for well over a year and have decided to cut my losses. My accountant is suggesting Quickbooks.

Sage has been too unwieldy, I need management reports that I can base my decisions on - Sage has never given me anything I want. In case anyone tries to defend sage or persuade me to keep with it - I won't be.

My accountant will prepare my management reports on a monthly basis. i have an admin person who will input and invoice.

Any suggestions/reccomendations/advice please.

 

[midgetman]

I have been struggling with Sage for well over a year and have decided to cut my losses. My accountant is suggesting Quickbooks.

Sage has been too unwieldy, I need management reports that I can base my decisions on - Sage has never given me anything I want. In case anyone tries to defend sage or persuade me to keep with it - I won't be.

My accountant will prepare my management reports on a monthly basis. i have an admin person who will input and invoice.

Any suggestions/reccomendations/advice please.

Kashflow? before you know who suggests it

 

[BusinessIdeas]

I couldnt be doing with sage either, it wouldnt do anything I wanted for my loans business, so I wrote a whole solution in ms access.

 

[DFL]

What are you hoping to get out of QuickBooks that you can't from Sage?

 

[Tin]

We could never get our head around Sage but haven't looked back after going with Kashflow.

Ray

 

[accountancyextra]

In a lot of ways Quickbooks is just as hard to get your head around as sage is. These types of systems are really written for bookkeepers and accountants, not business owners.

Work out what info it is you need to get out of the system and then take a look at one of the simplified versions.

My favourites are Kashflow and Liquid accounts, but there are also some Solar followers on here and that seems to get great reviews too. All will be easier to use than either sage or QB

 

[dp0848]

I think the two easiest to use are Solar and KashFlow. As with all things there are pros and cons to both packages. If you search the forum you will find plenty of opinions post on both packages.

David.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I have been struggling with Sage for well over a year and have decided to cut my losses. My accountant is suggesting Quickbooks.

Sage has been too unwieldy, I need management reports that I can base my decisions on - Sage has never given me anything I want. In case anyone tries to defend sage or persuade me to keep with it - I won't be.

My accountant will prepare my management reports on a monthly basis. i have an admin person who will input and invoice.

Any suggestions/reccomendations/advice please.

I find that clients with little accounting background find Quickbooks much easier than Sage. Quickbooks doesnt use alot of accounting terminology which Sage does.

One of the advantages of Quickbooks over the cheaper alternatives is that you can run so many management reports.

It can also be wise to use a package your accountant recommends and uses as you will be able to get support directly from them.

The only thing I dont understand is why you want/need your accountant to prepare your management accounts? If you are using Quickbooks you can easily just run the reports yourself. It's one of the major advantages of the software.

When I set up clients on Quickbooks I provide training and they run their own management accounts easily. I'd go back to your accountant and query this.

 

[trendy kid]

I prefer Myob personally. Ive used Quickbooks a bit but i dont know it as well as Myob. I have managed small businesses where all the main systems have been set up but i have found sage the most cumbersome. I used to dread doing payroll and monthly invoicing on sage..I honestly used to get nightmares as i approached the end of the month. I have also found the people on the myob helpline really useful.

 

[exdido]

You might also consider TAS books, FREE accounts software for start-up and small businesses, although its a part of SAGE group....
http://www.tassoftware.co.uk/Products/Home.aspx?tid=258243&stid=317576&pid=317601

 

[Blackberry]

Its important to use a software package that your happy with and can use not necessarily what your accountant wants you to use - you'll be using it every day / week whereas your accountant may only look at it once a year.

I would recommenr Solar Accounts for someone like you with a limited accounting knowledge, it is really easy to use and its cheaper than quickbooks too.

If you buy through my website you can get a 10% discount too! Click here!

 

[garyk]

Yes I think QB is very quirky and dont see how it is anymore friendlier than Sage to be honest. I'm not saying Sage is any good, far from it. Its a shame as the easiest entry level accounting software I have seen/used is Pegasus Capital Gold and they used to do Capital Lite as a free giveaway which they subsequently discontinued.

First choice is do you go online or go for a traditional windows app for your needs?

The online market is growing rapidly with plenty of choices.

 

[MDUK]

I find that clients with little accounting background find Quickbooks much easier than Sage. Quickbooks doesnt use alot of accounting terminology which Sage does.

One of the advantages of Quickbooks over the cheaper alternatives is that you can run so many management reports.

It can also be wise to use a package your accountant recommends and uses as you will be able to get support directly from them.

The only thing I dont understand is why you want/need your accountant to prepare your management accounts? If you are using Quickbooks you can easily just run the reports yourself. It's one of the major advantages of the software.

When I set up clients on Quickbooks I provide training and they run their own management accounts easily. I'd go back to your accountant and query this.

Thank you, this and the earlier post about QB and sage being for accountants is spot on. We have come to hate Sage, our accountant can use it but says he finds QB easier. He is going to come in and set it up, move over the last 3 months from Sage (we'll have to forget last years) and show us how to run and more importantly, understand the managment reports.

Based on what others have said i am going to ask him about Kashflow as well, thanks everyone.

 

[billie1]

Yes I think QB is very quirky and dont see how it is anymore friendlier than Sage to be honest. I'm not saying Sage is any good, far from it. Its a shame as the easiest entry level accounting software I have seen/used is Pegasus Capital Gold and they used to do Capital Lite as a free giveaway which they subsequently discontinued.

First choice is do you go online or go for a traditional windows app for your needs?

The online market is growing rapidly with plenty of choices.

I tried Quickbooks demo for a few months. I found quickbooks easy to use, it doesn't use any accounting terminology and the help functions are excellent. Is this why accountants prefer sage to quickbooks as the later doesn't use accounting termonology. Quickbooks is very suitable for non-accountants.

 

[Accounting Sage]

take a 60 day trial of kashflow.

There are loads of reports you can get from Kashflow

Aged creditor ,Aged debtor, customer purchase history, monthly profit and loss ,Monthly Sales report, Overdue invoice report, Unpaid Invoice Report, Expenditure Reports, Bank reconciliation, Data is backed up everyday on a secure server, Print invoices with your own logo.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Is this why accountants prefer sage to quickbooks as the later doesn't use accounting termonology.

The reason accountants often recommend Sage is because they are members of the Sage Accountants Club and sell the products as a result.

 

[justintime]

I prefer Sage to Quickbooks, but do admit that Quickbooks is easier for people without book keeping knowledge. Only thing I dont like about Sage is customer invoices as you cant change the price of an item without going into the settings for that item, whears you can in Quickbooks. Kashflow sounds interesting, will look at that.