Sage 50 Alternatives

[CCTVOutlet]

I know it's been asked quite a few times already but I'm looking for an alternative to sage 50. On some other posts people have mentioned GnuCash and Xero but we also use Sage 50 for stock control (as well as the other accountancy bits).

Sage 50 has been a bit of an issue for us as it's the central system but we aren't able to integrate everything else we have with it without spending a fortune. Longer term we were thinking about upgrading to sage 200 so that we could slowly roll out the integrations but having been messed about by one of the teams at sage we feel that maybe it's time to look at other systems so we can jump ship next year.

What we are looking for is something that has the functionality of sage 50, including stock control, multiple currencies and different user privileges, and also has an API available so we can integrate with crm software and maybe other stock management systems. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[The Byre]

GnuCash sort of can do inventory using a work-around - https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Inventory_Handling

Dedicated inventory control is said to be coming soon.

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

have you looked at a third party developer for Sage 50 that will integrate your CRM with the software?

 

[CCTVOutlet]

If GnuCash has a dedicated inventory control in the pipeline then it could be a viable solution.

We have looked at third party integration for Sage 50 but the costs seem to be high, especially when Sage themselves seem to be ramping up their yearly support costs. The main reason from holding back on the integration from Sage 50 was because we always envisaged moving onto Sage 200, which again is expensive but seemed to have ticked the majority of the boxes. It will be difficult for us to stay with Sage now as we don't feel the support we have been given warrants us to be 'loyal' to them.

 

[MikePage]

I’m a great fan of Sage50 as an accounts solution; my problem with it has always been its poor stock system. Also, more currently the marketing of Sage pushing Sage50 users towards Sage200 – a much more expensive system. Sage50 can’t deal with multi depot or batch/serial number traceability – hence the push to 200 – yet traceability is a huge issue these days.

Having done some research on this – for a client who is a Sage Developer – the answer is to keep Sage50 for its accounts engine and it will deal with multi-currency. My client, Sapmanv12 is a sage developer and there are many out there – check them all out by googling “Sage additions”. You can have a solution that deals with all the operational side of the business & leaves just the financials to Sage50.

So you can ditch the SoP/PoP/Stock of Sage50. That gets rid if all the weakness of Sage50 and allows continuity in one system from an enquiry stage all the way through to the sale& despatch.

With regards to Sage support costs; I generally advise clients not to bother with the expense of Sage support – once you restrict reliance to the core financials, my experience is, you don’t need it. So potentially a cost saving to factor in!

Re costs of the 3rd party integration – as above – check out the Sage Addition developers. For a price guide on my client Sapmanv12, I know on a rental model they are £50 per month per user fully supported ( there is also a buy outright option) for the entire suite & they do a free single user version (without the telephone support)

If I can help offer any advice – feel free to email me

 

[CCTVOutlet]

Thanks Mike, that is very helpful. I've always thought that Sage 50 had to be central to everything but from reading your post maybe we can just push the financials back to sage but use another program/software for everything else.

I think I'll need to have a think about what we really need. Obviously it would be easier to keep on using sage 50 but if it works out a lot cheaper to use another system entirely we can just wait until the end of our financial year.