SAGE perpetual licence TLS2 - Looking for alternatives

Business News

Free Member
Feb 2, 2009
577
92
Shrewsbury
We have used SAGE accounts desktop software for over 2 decades and got hit with their TLS upgrade (scam to knock out their perpetual licence holders) that they didn't patch to enable their perpetual licence product holders to continue to use, or indeed even access their own data. So, forced to 'upgrade' to the their latest version just to regain access to the data we are now transitioned from a paid perpetual paid for licence with 10 years remaining onto a £100/mo subscription (with an introductory 50% discount for a few months - thank you SAGE).

I'm not going to pay their subscription more than a month beyond the year end which is at the end of March so I am looking at alternatives. We have simple needs:

Bank entry and reconciliation
Transaction entry
Invoice raising (500 a year) with constant charge item and charge amount (so don't want to have to enter individual line items every invoice). The only variable is the number of units charged.
VAT - I have bridging software so the accounts package doesn't need to have this incorporated

No CIS compliance or purchase order or quotation needed.

I'm looking for an alternative to SAGE 50 and QB is looking like a good choice. Has anyone any better suggestions or info on their own transition from SAGE to QB. I intend starting a fresh accounts record rather than importing prior years from SAGE. I'll just retain a backup copy of the SAGE 50 data for any HMRC inspection or enquiry that they would need to access as we would no longer have access to that data.
 
To be fair with the criteria you have listed you have your pick.

Xero
Quickbooks
Quickfile
Accounts portal (that has already been suggested)
Freeagent

To name just a few.

If you like QB then go with that, there are cheaper ones if that is a deciding factor.
 
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Business News

Free Member
Feb 2, 2009
577
92
Shrewsbury
A few questions on Accounts Portal as its not a package that I'm familiar with:

Does it allow cash accounting?
Can you run 2 companies off one subscription?
Does it save entries so you don't need to retype invoice charge item lines or purchased items each time?
Can data be exported to csv or Excel files?

Thanks
 
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MyAccountantOnline

Business Member
Sep 24, 2008
15,215
10
3,300
UK
myaccountantonline.co.uk
We have used SAGE accounts desktop software for over 2 decades and got hit with their TLS upgrade (scam to knock out their perpetual licence holders) that they didn't patch to enable their perpetual licence product holders to continue to use, or indeed even access their own data. So, forced to 'upgrade' to the their latest version just to regain access to the data we are now transitioned from a paid perpetual paid for licence with 10 years remaining onto a £100/mo subscription (with an introductory 50% discount for a few months - thank you SAGE).

I'm not going to pay their subscription more than a month beyond the year end which is at the end of March so I am looking at alternatives. We have simple needs:

Bank entry and reconciliation
Transaction entry
Invoice raising (500 a year) with constant charge item and charge amount (so don't want to have to enter individual line items every invoice). The only variable is the number of units charged.
VAT - I have bridging software so the accounts package doesn't need to have this incorporated

No CIS compliance or purchase order or quotation needed.

I'm looking for an alternative to SAGE 50 and QB is looking like a good choice. Has anyone any better suggestions or info on their own transition from SAGE to QB. I intend starting a fresh accounts record rather than importing prior years from SAGE. I'll just retain a backup copy of the SAGE 50 data for any HMRC inspection or enquiry that they would need to access as we would no longer have access to that data.

Accounts Portal is very good it will certainly cope with your requirements. I use it myself.

Another good system (it has a few more features than Accounts Portal) is FreeAgent and depending on who you bank with you may be able to get that free https://www.freeagent.com/pricing/free-accounting-software/
 
Upvote 0

MyAccountantOnline

Business Member
Sep 24, 2008
15,215
10
3,300
UK
myaccountantonline.co.uk
A few questions on Accounts Portal as its not a package that I'm familiar with:

Does it allow cash accounting?
Yes (I'm assuming you mean VAT cash accounting as you refer to 2 companies)

Can you run 2 companies off one subscription?

No
Does it save entries so you don't need to retype invoice charge item lines or purchased items each time?

You can create standard text
Can data be exported to csv or Excel files?

Thanks
Yes
 
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Sep 18, 2013
6,687
3
1,545
Colchester
We have used SAGE accounts desktop software for over 2 decades and got hit with their TLS upgrade (scam to knock out their perpetual licence holders) that they didn't patch to enable their perpetual licence product holders to continue to use, or indeed even access their own data. So, forced to 'upgrade' to the their latest version just to regain access to the data we are now transitioned from a paid perpetual paid for licence with 10 years remaining onto a £100/mo subscription (with an introductory 50% discount for a few months - thank you SAGE).
You only needed to upgrade to V28 to keep it going - that's what I did with our office copy of Sage desktop.

You can get the upgrade for £65 at the moment if you know where to look!
 
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