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Sage 50 Accounts v QuickBooks Enterprise: Clash of Titans

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15th Aug 2012
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For all the buzz about Cloud accounting, the Software Satisfaction Awards 2012 confirm that Sage 50 Accounts and QuickBooks both continue to support sizeable numbers of users.

While desktop accounting software market leaders have launched online accounting applications of their own in the past year, more than 300 Sage 50 users took part in the online survey and nearly the same number of QuickBooks users.

Both Sage and Intuit have invested in major developments in recent months to defend their market shares against the Cloud newcomers. In the case of QuickBooks, this has meant a renewed focus on its Pro Advisor Programme and the UK launch of QuickBooks Enterprise - a serious challenger to the mid-market business that Sage 50 Accounts has successfully colonised.

Sage, meanwhile, has just rolled out the 2013 edition of its flagship program, Sage 50 Accounts.

Of the two, QuickBooks Enterprise is perhaps more interesting, purely because it is so obviously targeting Sage’s core market.

Sage’s continuing success is partly fuelled by the stepping-stone path it provides for users from entry level programs such as Sage Instant, TAS Books and Sage One up to more fully featured client/server programs such as Sage 50, Sage 200 and Sage X3. Even industry giants such as Microsoft, SAP and Oracle lack this built-in customer pipeline for their mid-range accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.

In north America, Intuit has built up a similar model, but it was only in late spring that the developer extended it to the UK with a localised version of QuickBooks Enterprise.

QuickBooks Enterprise overview

Some of the historical weakspots in QuickBooks Pro - an optional audit trail (*see comment below), VAT reporting and multicurrency features that were dropped in the 2008 edition - are not relevant to the Enterprise release. As with all versions of the application, Enterprise has an always on audit trail that logs deletions and amendments to prevent fraudulent entries.

QuickBooks Enterprise can handle from five to 30 users at a time, and as has beefed-up access controls to cater for different types of user. The program can also be configured to run on Linux as well as Windows servers.

While the Enterprise version can take in company data from its smaller relatives, the way the software holds the information has been changed to allow it to handle up to 1m records. This means however, that you will not be able to reopen any of the converted files in QuickBooks SimpleStart, Pro or Premier. But you can still open the original version of the file in your previous version of QuickBooks.

The expanded database is flexible, and you can split your records between different categories for suppliers, employees and items such as products.

On the functional side, the company highlighted inventory management and reporting as key enhancements. The flexibile database structure means that it can cope with separate measurement units to those entered on sales and purchase orders and the software includes an available to promise query routine and sales order tracking worksheet.

The QuickBooks Enterprise licence supports an unlimited number of company files and data from different entities and sub departments can be combined for more sophisticated consolidation and departmental reporting. As well as the usual QuickBooks spreadsheet reporting links, which include an option to save report formatting in Excel, ODBC output can feed your data to other database applications or reporting tools such as Crystal Reports.

Sage 50 Accounts 2013

Sage’s annual upgrade cycle for its bookkeeping mainstay is built on wishlist requests from users. Sometimes this means there aren’t many enhancements to catch the eye, but the developer insists that the user-driven approach makes for a more rounded and efficient product.

Those new to the software are presented with a 'My first year' launchpad that helps them set up their first company and leads them through the configuration options at their own pace.

More experienced users in AccountingWEB’s Sage 50 Accounts discussion group were more interested in new plain paper layouts that have been introduced for invoices, customer statements, sales orders, purchase orders, delivery notes and the like.

It was possible with previous versions to lay these out yourself, but specialist stationery providers will be gnashing their teeth as they become standard options. Member johndon68 commented: “If an existing customer is using anything prior to v2012, the upgrade could be worth it for the increase in speed alone.”

The cheque layout has also been redesigned to meet industry standards.

Reporting remains a crucial area for any accounting program, so Sage too has put work into its departmental options, with a Comparative profit and loss report that shows actual figures against budget or prior year values.

In the past, Sage 50 has lagged behind QuickBooks when it comes to Excel integration, but the company is keen to close the gap with improvements to its export capabilities and the Excel Integrated Reporting module.

With the latter, the software will install Sage Functions, data ranges and workbooks within Excel to give you a more comprehensive set of reporting options. Drill-down is available within many of the program’s reports and records, and is signalled by blue hyperlinks.

With the advent of mandatory efiling, Sage has spruced up the program’s submission routine and VAT reconciliation process. After reconciliation, a new VAT Tasks window guides users through VAT liability transfer, VAT payment/reclaim and efiling. Users in the UK and Republic of Ireland also have new Intrastat reporting formats to handle online submissions.

In its online preview, Sage promises numerous additional improvements that include a redesigned month end process. 

So, there is plenty for those who are interested in these applications to chew on, but do they offer enough to lure in new customers? If you have had a closer look at either product, share your views with other AccountingWEB.co.uk members by commenting below, or visiting our Sage 50 Accounts and QuickBooks discussion groups.

Replies (7)

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By barrysnashall
16th Aug 2012 11:03

Sage 50 - 2013

Sage does also benefit from the Developers who's add-in application further extend the Sage 50 functionality. 

I often get asked how big or small does a company have to be to use Sage. "Well.." I say, the biggest small client I have using it has a turnover of £80m. Its more about what you want it to do and how you achieve that, rather than a one size fits all. 

Getting the right help in configuration and training also makes a huge benefit to the end user. Furthermore if software cant do what you want it to do, find an add-in, ask a developer. We look to push the possibilities - Our Analyser and Organiser packages offer the Sage user the ability to...

Scan an invoice and assign it to a transaction, customers, supplier, nominal, bank etc. then from Sage or from Excel management reports you can drill down to the detailed numbers and also see the invoices, without opening a folder. Nothing unique I know however aimed at the Sage 50 market this is a powerful addin for the busy company.

We work with many hundreds of clients, many of whom are Accountants and our aim is to make their lives easier.

Sage is an amazing package which can do so very much if only you know how.

 

www.traxuk.com 

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Replying to DJKL:
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By Ketchup
16th Aug 2012 12:12

Core Sage + Add-Ins

Excellent advice.  It is rare that a "one-size-fits-all-and-does-all" comprehensive financial software package works properly without a lot late nights, furrowed brows and the odd flare up plus a lot of money.  The Sage Authorised Add-In Programme provides an excellent starting point to look for specific add-in features to bolt on to the core, pretty bomb-proof Sage Line 50 software.  In addition, if the closest-fit, add-in feature needs a tweak it is better to ask the developer for thoughts than to trawl through all in one, best fit, mini-enterpise solutions.  The deal-closer should also involve the level and quality of customer support thatis on offer and Sage provides some of the best anywhere.  

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By wilsonhenry
16th Aug 2012 11:37

Sage 2013

They have also updated the year end process on sage so you are no longer left looking at a blank screen thinking what is going on.  the speed on this and the previous version is a vast improvement,  looks like customer feedback does work with Sage.

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By User deleted
16th Aug 2012 15:08

Maybe not so amazing ..

@barrysnashall

Apart from vested interest advertising

'.. Sage is an amazing package ..' - cleary anything but amazing in some peoples eyes

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/group-thread/why-has-sage-2012-taken-my-computer-over

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By Dave Oakley
16th Aug 2012 15:19

We restore data on to our system from lots of our clients and since we upgraded to 2013 it's noticable how much longer it takes to upgrade the data. No matter what I've tried anything but the smallest amount of data seems to take hours to move up from 2012 to 2013..

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By Cloudcounter
16th Aug 2012 23:38

Sage is an amazing package which can do so very much

It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it.

Sage is archaic, cumbersome and based on a database model that's 30 years old.  No matter how much they jump on the modern bandwagon with uploading of documents or plugging add ins, the core product is way out of date.

It's truly amazing that anybody puts up with it

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
20th Aug 2012 11:41

QuickBooks audit trail 'always on' since 2006

Since publishing this article I've had a conversation with people at Intuit about the audit trail issue. While it remains in the minds of those with long memories, they said they listened to and acted on feedback from accountants, and worked with them to eliminate the audit trail off option in QuickBooks back in 2006.

I'm happy to acknowledge that point. After six years, perhaps it is time to lay that bugbear to rest.

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