Sage Business Cloud Accounting

This software does everything a small, medium or relatively large sized business would need. The backend database is SQL server, so it's fast and well structured, and we found lots of modules and external products integrate well with it.

Implementation and training needed external consultants to do it at scale and at speed. The licence model is per user, so as soon as you start adding quite a few employees the cost of running the software gets rather pricey, though it's comparable to SAP B1 for example. We used our own servers to host the application and database, and although it's called "cloud" it's really not, but perhaps in the future.

We have used the software version of sage products such as Sage Business Works and Sage 50 so the product and company are familiar to us. The ability to login to the software from anywhere and to no longer have to have client/server environment is great. The software was easy to signup for and was relatively easy to implement.

There are 2 large cons to this software in comparison to it's direct competitors.
Con #1: The package has no ability to custom group GL accounts. So for example, if you have a section on your income statement for sales and you want to group sales by category and have a sub-total for that sales section you cannot do that. There is really no ability to edit the income statement layout or the balance sheet layout to add in sections and sub totals so you are stuck with the canned version of the software.

Con #2: In an environment where you have multiple small companies, you look after you cannot have one userid and password to access all the companies. You have to setup each company with it's own userid an password then invite another user via an email link to join.

Installation and implementation are easy. I like that the features are easy to use even for non-accounting persons. It enables real time sharing of files with clients and colleagues which saves on time and eliminates the need to direct email invoices. This makes debtor management easy and less costly. Accessibility from a mobile device is a huge plus when one is on the move. The software is also affordable and has a free trial. Sage has good customer support.

Since the software can only be accessed online, it is difficult to work with when internet speeds are slow or when there is no connection at all. Sometimes bank sync feed is slow and the handling of foreign currency bank transactions could do with some improvements.