Definitive pros & cons list for Sage Practice Solutions?
As luck would have it, one of the traditional staples of Any Answers made an appearance this afternoon. An accountant getting ready to set up as a sole practitioner asked for the communities advice about which software was best, IRIS or Sage?
We regularly go around and around this debate, with promptings from fans on both sides. What I wondered might be useful for this group would be to come up with a structured response, stating the pros and cons in different areas, eg:
- Integration
- Personal tax
- Time, billing & practice management
- Corporation tax
- Online filing
- Support
- Costs and return on investment
...and of course, any headings you'd like to put forward.
If members of this group can put forward specific comments for and against under relevant headings, we could compile a quick reference guide to point people at when they raise similar queries in the future. I've done some work on this before and can put forward my commentaries on SPS, but I don't live with the applications day in and day out like you do. I'll be happy to compile the info that comes forward into a draft document for your collective agreementn.
Just to keep things fair and balanced, I'll get the IRIS practice software discussion group to do the same. Maybe we'll all learn something if we pool our knowledge on this.
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John Stokdyk, Technology editor
Sage Practice Suite (SPS)
John,
Interesting post that is worthy of a more detailed reply but I'll keep this short. I should also point out a vested interest as I head up the Sage Accountants Division in Ireland (we call it the PPD here).
The key factors that should determine which solution is right for a practice are usually familiarity, cost and strength of supplier. Familiarity is a function of what existing products in the range that you have used before or are trained on. With Sage, the consistent look and feel is a big benefit as it minimises the transition time. Cost is a significant pressure factor in the current market and Sage have developed a SaaS-type model as you pay at a level that reflects how many clients you manage and not how many users you have. The old model of pay per user placed solutions in a cost category as you had to buy a licence for all users, even part-timers or occasional users. The "per-client" model means that there is a correlation between cost of solution and fee income. Also, the Sage model means that you don't have a large initial capital outlay, just an annual fee that includes support. Finally, the strength of supplier factor dictates that in today's market conditions you have to partner with the players who will be there for you long into the future. Sage's direct sales model through the accountants division delivers on that requirement.
In summary, whether you are a start-up, sole practitioner or larger practice, the "pay-as-you-earn" model will always deliver a quick ROI.
Hope this helps discussion.
Peter O'Rourke
Annoying
I use Sage Practice Suite .... and hate it! It is slow, cumbersome, and the only parts I really use are the links to the tax software. I have given up trying to get WIP, time recording, invoicing, etc. to provide decent & useful information without everything taking 3 times as long. It was easier & cheaper to create my own system with massive savings in staff time.
The tax software (personal tax) is also annoying. Why do we have to clutter up our client lists with spouses details when we want to record a client as married???? Why do we have to confirm every year that the client is a UK resident, etc. Can we not have a 'switch' to indicate that this practice does/or doesn't serve non-resident clients. ALL our clients are UK resident & domiciled, and if we did have the occasional one who wasn't, I am sure we would remember to check the situation each year!
Sorry ..... I am being Mr Grumpy. Maybe it is something to do with the January Blues.
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Sage Personal Tax - product analysis, Feb 2008
Here's some stuff I gathered about 18 months ago. It's a bit out of date, but should set the scene for any further pro & con discussions. It focuses on tax, so let me know where you think the analysis should be brought up to date and suggestions for pros and cons in the non-tax modules.
The Sage Accountants Division strives to deliver products that have a common look and feel with the rest of the Sage family, and that interoperate to match the processes in client firms. The close links with the Sage 50 family remain a strength and the consistent MS Outlook-style user interface across the different ranges offers a comforting familiarity for users of other Sage applications.
Sage Personal Tax is not the most sophisticated application on the market, but is designed to meet the needs of ordinary tax agents and accountancy practices in the same no-fuss way that Sage 50 caters for bookkeepers. Using the Sage Practice Suite, an accountant can take data from Sage 50 and feed it directly into Sage Accounts Production (or the Advanced version), which can then feed into Business Tax. With a minimal amount of user intervention, the tax calculations can be automatically presented within the self-employment or partnership tax form.
The Sage Practice Solution Hub module acts as the glue that links all of the Sage software a practice might use. The Hub synchronises client data between applications and allows accountants to dip in and out of the tax application and other modules such as Time and Fees. The personal tax module echoes the layout of other Sage products, with the tax return structure set out in a Windows Explorer-style hierarchy in the left widow, and the active data entry areas mid-screen. At any time, the user can click a tax return (or computation) icon on the top menu bar to post the entered data to the form.
The Sage Taxation reporting tool contains in excess of 100 template reports that can provide data from most areas of the software for marketing and a number of other data mining purposes. Users can also create and store their own customised reports.
The Sage applications use a neat visual trick to help the user track where they are - green ticks against the client name in the Practice Solution Hub or against the tax form in Personal Tax indicate that data has been entered and posted, while red crosses warn that a form lacks data or includes estimated figures.
AccountingWEB's 2003 practice software survey marked a low point for Sage due to the retirement of what some users felt were superior tax applications to be replaced by Sage Personal Tax. Both the tax product quality and support scores were weak at this point, but showed an improvement over the next year. Where personal tax was rated as the weakest element in the Accountant's Suite in 2003, it was the most highly rated module in 2004.
Strengths
Weaknesses
I'm aware some of the comments go back several years - I'll update these with more recent comments from Any Answers on my return from holiday. But more importantly, what are the strengths and weaknesses you would highlight about SPS based on the headings in my previous post?
Looking forward to an illuminating discussion!
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John Stokdyk, Technology editor