Leaving Sage ~ to something web compatible ~ but what ?

[talkinpeace]

A request to the expertise of the UKBF hive mind ....

Client I work for once a week has been on sage for 15 years.
There is a 5 year database of sales transactions (membership based so business critical)
but the main client contact database is through the Website to which sage is immune
so
plan is to migrate website
and accounts
to make them interlink

makes utter sense to me (as the accounts bod)
so long as I do not lose access to my history file as its essential for budgeting and strategy

current sage is C drive based which can be a PITA as we hot desk
not that fussed about online - rural areas are not great for broadband
so
network or cloud
good import option (very, very willing to pay a one off fee for such)
good reporting

what are my options?
ideal total cost under £200 per year (I may be deluded)

 

[adamcooke]

Can't recommend Xero highly enough.

 

[talkinpeace]

I've looked at Xero, and its what the web bods mentioned
BUT
the history data .... I saw a link saying they only take two years across (which is daft if the database includes 4 years)
AND
rural broadband (or the utter lack thereof) is an issue ...

how does xero reporting compare with sage ?

 

[adamcooke]

Do you really need to import 4 year's worth of historical data? Do you often make any decisions based on comparing today's data with that of 3 years ago? You can always keep copies of the Sage data in case you need to access it again in the future.

I haven't used Sage for many years. I'd suggest that you signup for the Xero trial and have a play with it yourself. They've got a fake company which you can use which already has data in it.

 

[adamcooke]

As I said, I haven't used Sage for a while but aren't there versions of Sage which can work over a local network? If you want something local, that's possibly your best bet.

 

[talkinpeace]

Adam,
we are a membership organisation ... being able to track interaction rates and payment dates of dues over time has become an incredibly powerful tool I'm loathe to lose.

And I cannot see why Xero would have more of a problem importing 12000 lines over 4 years than it would 12000 lines over 2 years : its all algorithms to CSV / Access filers after all

 

[adamcooke]

Xero is a little more complicated than algorithms to CSV/Access files but I understand where you're coming from. I don't know why they don't let you import older data.

I don't have any other suggestions other than switching to a network-based version of Sage.

 

[talkinpeace]

I admit I use sage at that workplace because they always have
all the rest are on Tas (yes, I know Sage owned but INFINITELY better reporting)
or VT (my new fave rave)
BUT I've an obsession about data loss ....
its worth at least £1000 to me

 

[Karimbo]

dont have experience with exporting accounting data but did work with databases in the past life. migration is always a PITA and a good chance that exports don't transition correctly.

To save headache I would just move accounts packages and leave historical accouting data on the exisiting software. That's if you can do your forecasting using macro data and don't need to look up each individual transaction.

 

[David Griffiths]

The issue with transferring only two years of date is unlikely to be a Xero issue. The organisation most likely to do this is movemybooks.co.uk. It might be worth contacting them to see if they can move four years of data for the £1,000 that you say that it's worth to you

 

[talkinpeace]

Aha, thankyou, knowing that movemybooks are indeed who I'll end up using I can relax and look at the best spec for the new software and then get stuff moved across.

If only the rural broadband project was running on time !

 

[Office Cleaning]

We did something similar years back and moved from sage to clearbooks - its a huge improvement from our perspective

 

[Raw Rob]

Aha, thankyou, knowing that movemybooks are indeed who I'll end up using I can relax and look at the best spec for the new software and then get stuff moved across.

Did you see this on the FAQ page on movemybooks "Can I move more than two years of transactions?
Technically, yes, but this is not something that Xero will allow at the moment."

 

[pcproblems]

My wife is a freelance accountant and swears by Quickbooks

 

[ldjames]

I also can't recommend Xero enough. It's cheap, reliable, easy to use and does everything we need it to. Our accountant is also able to get everything he needs out of it to keep our accountancy fees down.

 

[Pish_Pash]

I'm wondering why you'd want to use your accounts software for historical data reporting....just dump it all into access...you can query away on your data until your hearts content (& you can then add to this historical data via a daily export from whatever accounts package you go with).

I've found most accounts packages lacking in some way or another (from a reporting perspective)...the beauty about having all your own data in your own database is that you can get it to do exactly what you want.

 

[talkinpeace]

I have dealings with quickbooks and loathe it ;-)

Pish : that is an option but I rely on my kids to write databases for me being of the pre Windows generation

 

[Paul_Walters]

We use Sage 1 which may not be fashionable but works well for us. The dev team are constantly open to improvements and it gets better and better. Importing bank statements makes things a breeze and it's got feeds now although I haven't tried it. Mine is a simple business but it does everything I need very well.

 

[Adrian Pearson]

Hi folks, sorry that I am VERY late to this thread

Just to clarify, Movemybooks can now convert as many additional years of data as you wish, to both Xero and QBO.

 

[JMack986]

Another vote for Quickbooks Online here.