Sage 50cloud Review: Powerful Small Business Accounting Tool
Sage 50cloud Review:
Powerful Small Business Accounting Tool
Every business needs to manage its books and Sage 50cloud makes this task easy. Formerly known as Peachtree Accounting, Sage is currently the small business accounting tool that will help you manage the books from your office desktop.
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You can work remotely from your laptop or unlock mobile functionality thanks to its latest integration with Microsoft Office 365; it is a powerful, innovative integration that allows you to access some of the data on a remote computer.
Top-notch performance on desktop, cloud connected for on-the-go productivity. Regardless of the way you work, Sage 50cloud works with you.
How does Sage 50cloud work?
First of all, Sage 50cloud is a small business accounting application specifically designed for desktop use. It has every function that a small business needs to operate properly and keep all activities in order.
Because Sage is a complex application, it does come with
quite a complex setup. However, the app starts you off with the “Create a New
Company” wizard, a multi-page tool that walk you through the process of
selecting a method to create a Chart of Accounts, choosing between cash and
accrual, and deciding between real time and batch posting of transactions. This
is the place where you can even select an accounting period structure and
choose when your fiscal year begins.
After all these steps have been completed and your company
has been created, Sage 50cloud will present you the Setup Guide. The steps
presented in this tool are mostly related to creating records, inventory and
service items, jobs and other. If you will introduce multiple employees to
Sage, you will need to create accesses for all of them. There are 3 levels
available:
- Administrator: it has full
access and the ability to create new users - Full Access
- Selected Access: you can
setup very detailed user permissions
Once you’re done with this part of the setup process you can
start customizing your invoices and forms and begin entering transactions.
No matter the type of business you’re running, Sage will
adapt to your needs. It features two default invoice forms: one for products
and one for services. You can easily modify them by checking and unchecking
boxes to let the app know which fields should appear on the screen and on the
printed form.
Moreover, you can choose which columns should appear on each
invoice. Simply drag and drop elements on the screen to change the layout,
change the colors and play around with the colors!
What users love about Sage 50cloud is the fact that if you have basic accounting knowledge, you can easily learn and use the app in a very intuitive and efficient way.
Sage 50cloud Review: Main Features
As mentioned before, Sage is a powerful accounting tool for
small business that comes with a large variety of features; they wish to make
it easy for everyone to keep track of the company’s invoices and financials.
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Main features of Sage 50cloud:
Remote Access: allows
you to literally take the office with you. It offers you the possibility to
access your financials anytime, anywhere from your laptop. Even more, due to
the latest integration with Office 365 you can now benefit from mobile access to
contacts, dashboard and reports
ePayments: this
feature aims to improve cash flows; credit card processing makes it easy for
clients to submit online payments. Easily send reminder emails with a Pay Now
button for instant collection; this means you get paid faster and keep cash
flowing in
Bank Reconciliation –
makes time for the rest of your business: you can automatically import bank
feeds and have Sage 50cloud reconcile matching transactions. This way, you can
eliminate manual work and cycle through bank reconciliation in a matter of
minutes instead of hours
Advanced Intelligence
for better decisions: you can access real-time dashboards, pre-built
reports and easily keep an eye on your business’ health; easily create custom
Excel reports that pull Sage 50cloud data in real-time with Sage Intelligence
Layered Security to
keep all of the sensitive data safe: in short, bank-level online security
and user-level access; you can easily set privileges for each user so that
employees can only access the information that they truly need. Receive
automatic security updates and set regular data backups. Stay safe from
breaches and disasters with Sage!
What Sage 50cloud Has To Offer?
No matter the pricing plan you choose, you will benefit from
a number of features that will help you boost your performance and keep the
business on the right track:
- Customer management
- Sales tracking
- Pay & get paid
- Integrates with Office 365
- Comprehensive reporting
- Automated bank feeds
- Bank reconciliation
- Purchase orders
- Remote access
- Data backups
- Share data with CPA
- Phone/chat support
For a small business, these are all important features that
tremendously help in the administration and management of the financials.
Sage 50cloud Review: Access
Free Small Business Guides
Sage wishes you to succeed, which is why it offers small
business guides that aim to address important issues that one must address in
order to strengthen the business. By simply filling out a form, you get access
to the following guides for free:
Controlling Cash Flow
and Strengthening Your Business: it presents 10 tips for how to stay on top
of your cash flow and make sure that your business has a steady revenue stream
How to Assess the
Financial Health of Your Small Business: it details the 8 performance
indicators that you need to monitor in order to make sure you’re on the right
track
How to Overcome Your
Small Business Growing Pains: every small business faces a number of
challenges at each stage of its development; this guide tells you which growth
stage you fall into and it uncovers strategies for how to avoid obstacles and
unleash your business
Sage 50cloud Pros and Cons
Now that we’ve argued the features and main aspects of this
accounting tool, it is time to emphasize the pros and cons:
Pros:
- It has an amazingly
sophisticated feature set - Great customizability and
personalization - In-depth contact and item
records - Strong inventory management
tools - Office 365 integration
- Multiple pricing plans
available - Easy to use and set up
Cons:
- The interface is a bit
crowded - Many links open new windows
- No mobile app available
Sage 50cloud Review: Plans and Pricing
Sage easily adapts to every business’s needs through custom
plans that aim to match your company regardless of its size. There are 3 plans
available:
Sage 50cloud Pro
Accounting:
It offers the following:
- Includes all core accounting features
- Automatic updates
- Bank-level online security
- Data backups
- North America-based phone support
- Online chat support
- 1 User
Save 40% and get the Pro Accounting plan for $299.95/year.
If you want to add Microsoft Office 365 integration to benefit from the extra
accessibility, you are asked to pay an extra $150 per year.
Sage 50cloud Premium
Accounting:
It offers the following:
- Includes all Pro features
- Advanced budgeting
- Audit trail
- Financial statements by department
- Job costing by phase and cost code
- Serialized inventory tracking
- 1-5 Users
Save 40% and get the Premium Accounting plan for $ 465.95/year.
If you want to add Microsoft Office 365 integration to benefit from the extra
accessibility, you are asked to pay an extra $150 per year.
Sage 50cloud Quantum
Accounting:
It offers the following:
- Includes all Premium features
- Automated workflows
- Business insight dashboards
- Industry-specific functionality
- Interactive project management
- Role-based user access controls
- 1-40 Users
Save 25% and get the Quantum Accounting plan today by
contacting them through the Sage official phone number available on their
website. This allows you to benefit from a personalized plan that fits the size
of you company and your needs. If you want to add Microsoft Office 365
integration to benefit from the extra accessibility, you are asked to pay an
extra $150 per year.
Sage 50cloud Review:
Final Thoughts
If you’re a small business, this robust desktop accounting application is what you need. It incorporates a comprehensive set of financial tools and offers generous customization options. The new integration with Microsoft Office 365 makes it a hybrid solution: a local hard-drive based software that can share data through the cloud.
Sage 50cloud offers traditional accounting, advanced features and a high degree of customizability. Moreover, the strong inventory, reporting and its unique tools make it stand out from its competitors.