Upgrade Sage 50

[anhoang88]

Hi all,

I hope for some suggestions please.

We're looking to upgrade our Sage 50 accounting software to Sage 200 however the implementation costs is so dear that we're now considering any other package at a lower costs but provide better financial reporting than Sage 50.
Is there any alternative to Sage 200?
We have to rule out all cloud solutions due to the industry we are in.
I personally used Quickbooks & Navision previously and not a big fan therefore I don't think those will be our alternative.

Many thanks,

 

[john1989]

You want to upgrade, but Sage 200 is out of your price range. What is your budget?

 

[anhoang88]

We're looking around £10k but payment also need to be split to a few months to ease our cash flow.

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

What doesn't Sage 50 do to make you feel that you need to upgrade?

 

[Onion4Sage]

You can make significant improvements on Sage's financial reporting for £50 never mind £10,000. Have you checked out reporting solutions from BVXL, Pendragon Systems, Optegra Financials or our own Onion Reporting Software to see if they can address your issues adequately?

 

[Philip Hoyle]

Be VERY careful about changing upwards to the more expensive systems and don't always believe the sales-talk and promises made by the systems vendors.

Be clear as to what you want and check every avenue that you can't achieve it with a few tweaks or add-ons to what you've got already. I've experience of a few cases going back years where firms have spent £silly on supposedly top-notch systems only to come up against similar flaws and limitations so really achieved very little compared to cheap off the shelf systems costing a fraction of what they ended up spending and still needed manual intervention outside the system to get the results they needed!

In one case, a firm was happily using SageLine 50 but wanted a little more from it, so the Sage vendor jumped in and sold them SageLine 100 (I did say a while ago!), but there were things it didn't do that SageLine50 did, so the vendors were quick to suggest a few hours of programmers time to tweak it and create a new front end - it spiralled out of all control, and they ended up paying tens of thousands for a new front end, new reports etc. on top of the few thousand they spent on the purchase, installation and training of SL100 - I think the total cost was close on £30k, and to my way of thinking, still didn't do that much more than SL50 and barely anything more than Quickbooks could have been made to achieve!

 

[SBlundell]

provide better financial reporting than Sage 50.
Is there any alternative to Sage 200?

Whilst I must admit I am not as familiar with 200 as 50 I am struggling to think of ways in which 200's reporting is an improvement on 50. If I was you I would try to steer clear of 200 - 50 can be a bit quirky in some respects but 200 more so. With the latest version of 50 the data capabilities have been extended massively so 200 is becoming a less useful option for many larger businesses.

I would save your money, stick with what you know and if you need some specific reporting that 50 doesn't currently provide look instead at expanding / developing the data you need from 50.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

200 was designed as a multiuser system from the start and uses a proper database so issues with data corruption etc. aren't as common as with Line 50.

It's also a lot more configurable and can integrate with other technologies a lot easier than with 50.

It's hard to advise on alternatives without knowing the reasoning behind the move, is there something Line 50 doesn't do that you need? If it's just reporting then this can be resolved without having to switch systems.

The only other non-cloud based systems that I've used are SAP or Microsoft Dynamics (aka Navision), but both are pricey to setup.

 

[johndon68]

Whilst I must admit I am not as familiar with 200 as 50 I am struggling to think of ways in which 200's reporting is an improvement on 50QUOTE]

Purely in terms of financial reporting, Sage 200 offers cost centres and departments at a nominal level which adds a whole level of additional flexibility that does not exist in Sage 50.

John

 

[Onion4Sage]

The weakness in departmental reporting capabilities within Sage Line 50 is one of the areas that the products mentioned in my earlier post address with improved transaction level financial reporting and associated budgeting facilities. If cost centre reporting is needed as well, then you may need to look further afield. However, if better departmental reporting alone is one of your "issues" with Sage Line 50, you may be able to achieve your requirements with a reporting solution for a fraction of the cost of a re-implementation in Sage 200 or some other package.

 

[anhoang88]

Thank you guy for all of the above responses.
There're many reason for the upgrade. The most important aspect we are looking for is not only to have a proper departmental report but also to manage stock control through over 50 location in England. We're running an in-house system which manages stocks at the moment but Sage 50 fails to interact with it.
Also we're currently having 6 users but as the company growths, we'll employ more people hence more users need access. Sage 50 can only manage up to 6-8 or may be even 10 users but when there're more than 1 users log into one entity simultaneously it's usually crashed.
I'm still trying to shop around & compare quotes for sage 200 but so many developers/sage partners out there however I couldn't find any reviews on any of them. Just wondering if there's any recommendation?
Many thanks,

 

[anhoang88]

You can make significant improvements on Sage's financial reporting for £50 never mind £10,000. Have you checked out reporting solutions from BVXL, Pendragon Systems, Optegra Financials or our own Onion Reporting Software to see if they can address your issues adequately?

please leave an email or phone number, I'll contact to discuss.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

I couldn't find any reviews on any of them. Just wondering if there's any recommendation?
Many thanks,

johndon68 would be worth talking to as he knows his stuff when it comes to Sage products.