Sage Accounts Production "ADVANCE" !

Sage Accounts Production "ADVANCE" !

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Hi 

We have been using Sage Accounts Production ( APEX) very happily. We were almost steered to move on to Sage Accounts Production Advance ( SAPA).

Sage initially told us that they were going to stop supporting APEX.

Our team find SAPA very unhelpful and not end user friendly. SAPA has a button called  "debug"  just to give you an idea.

SAPA is very complicated to use especially in the area of reports. SAPA is almost designed for computer programmers and not accountants. 

Do you have similar experience with SAPA ? 

Any suggestion of an alternative user friendly software please?

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By DMGbus
14th Dec 2015 13:40

SAPA - avoid

Having had the misfortune to use Sage Accounts Productuion Advanced [SAPA] for a year or two my advice is to "avoid it like the plague" unless you want the following idiocy to deal with:

Sole traders are "partnerships" with one partner & get stupid profit allocation error messages when running off a copy of draft accountsNo integration into Sage Practice SolutionCannot easily produce final accounts where there is a neither a need nor practical reason to include one (eg. Medical consultant accounts) (eg. CIS subcontractor accounts)Ridiculous need to do "memo journals" (via Disclosure Data) for things like dividends and moreSoftware far too complicated for any user other than regular users - too many hidden and illogical routines (eg. ROPs, Report Pads, typical of Sage Programmers)No easy quick guidesNo full .pdf guideUnable to export any data to Excel or .csv filesNot found a way to run a report listing out journals (there might be a way but half a dozen colleagues using SAPA don't know how says it all)A recent case was OK for 2014 accounts then we find that this single director company has TWO signatures now required on the Balance Sheet in 2015 and so we need to manually delete one and type in the name of the other - this is just typical of how horrible SAPA is

On a positive note the accounts can be saved in .rtf format then manually edited in MS word to overcome the presentational issues.

Problem with SAPA is that is designed to "do everything possible" and being a Sage product is seemingly written in a way that only very regular users have a chance of using it efficiently - far too many short-cuts by Sage programmers means almost unintelligible to casual users.    It could work well therefore in a large robotic accounting practice where everything is departmentalised with users spending most of their time using SAPA alone.

 

Thanks (2)
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By bernard michael
14th Dec 2015 16:16

Can anyone explain to an old accountant  (me) why they would use Sage, which is not user friendly and is out of date. Are there some hidden benefits I am not aware of ?? Even clients moan about it but similarly they also seem to queue up to install it

Thanks (1)
Replying to Husbandofstinky:
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By DMGbus
14th Dec 2015 16:47

Afraid of change + misplaced loyalty

bernard michael wrote:

Can anyone explain to an old accountant  (me) why they would use Sage, which is not user friendly and is out of date. Are there some hidden benefits I am not aware of ?? Even clients moan about it but similarly they also seem to queue up to install it

Yes this is a mystery, but in my experience factors that might apply include:

Fear of the unknownAfraid to changeMisplaced loyaltyBelief that compatability with other (Sage) software packages might be compromised if alternative software boughtConcern about training costs (misbelief of saving on costs by sticking with Sage, then find different Sage products all have different origins of software writing / interface so in fact no training costs saving at all)I do wonder if Sage is slightly cheaper than some high end alternatives (save £50 a year and then lose £'000's due to shortcomings?)Sage is a known name to clients as compared to better alternatives (Might be found on shelves at retailers whereas better software is absent there)Many bookkeepers have "tunnell vision" and can't learn other packages / only know Sage / have lack of knowledge

Thanks (1)
Replying to DJKL:
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By bernard michael
14th Dec 2015 17:03

Weird isn't it

DMGbus wrote:

bernard michael wrote:

Can anyone explain to an old accountant  (me) why they would use Sage, which is not user friendly and is out of date. Are there some hidden benefits I am not aware of ?? Even clients moan about it but similarly they also seem to queue up to install it

Yes this is a mystery, but in my experience factors that might apply include:

Fear of the unknownAfraid to changeMisplaced loyaltyBelief that compatability with other (Sage) software packages might be compromised if alternative software boughtConcern about training costs (misbelief of saving on costs by sticking with Sage, then find different Sage products all have different origins of software writing / interface so in fact no training costs saving at all)I do wonder if Sage is slightly cheaper than some high end alternatives (save £50 a year and then lose £'000's due to shortcomings?)Sage is a known name to clients as compared to better alternatives (Might be found on shelves at retailers whereas better software is absent there)Many bookkeepers have "tunnell vision" and can't learn other packages / only know Sage / have lack of knowledge

Yet HMRC expect the same clients to get involved in submitting 4 returns a year

Thanks (1)
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By WESTA
15th Dec 2015 10:39

SAGE

One client was of the view that HMRC is expecting them to use only Sage! it took nearly one year for me to move the client away from Sage L50.

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