I have just heard that Sage will be withdrawing its desktop based bookkeeping software in the next couple of years, and relying on cloud-based only. I do not want to use cloud based software, so what alternatives are there to Sage for purely desktop based bookkeeping software. I do not want to move to a new provider, only to find that they, too, will not be remaining in the desktop market for any length of time, so I am looking for companies with a long term commitment.
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VT Transaction Plus is desktop only. It is cheap, simple, reliable, intuitive, flexible, and AFAIK bug-free. I moved over to it from TAS Books a few years ago, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
vt vt and vt or if you dont like vt then vt software.
Being serious vt may not be for everyone but deffo worth giving it a test drive for those using sage instant or cloud 50 it should be a breeze.
Whilst I agree wholeheartedly that VT is excellent software, you have to accept that the whole marketplace is moving to cloud. Therefore VT will have to do the same in due course if they want to attract more clients.
So why not change to Xero, which is cloud based. It won't take you very long to get the hang of it and many of your clients will be using it anyway.
Moonbeam
" Therefore VT will have to do the same in due course if they want to attract more clients."
Why not ask them - hopefully they are lurkindg and will comment if we are lucky.
I see almost the star attraction of vt now being that they are not cloud based - so i suspect they are in absolutely no hurry to go cloud based - they know their niche and serve it well. Hey ho my presumption here could easily be wrong but i suspect i aint.
My view is that Xero is close to Sage in being the the spawn of Satan. Like most cloud offerings, it has no proper sales or purchase ledger, and there is no backup facility, so you can't restore the last correct position if somebody makes a big mess-up. There are many other things on top of this which make me hate Xero.
While it is true that vast marketing resources are being poured into so-called cloud based bookkeeping, with marketing's usual scant regard for objectivity, it does not follow that desktop-based software is obsolescent.
Bookkeeping can be posted in VT in a fraction of the time required by cloud-based software, and the same is true for extraction of reports, and correction of errors.
Where clients can be trusted to keep their own bookkeeping, there is no reason why they should not run their own VT file and make it available to the accountant for checking/journal entry etc, via email or some Dropbox-like solution.
On the other hand, where clients cannot be trusted to do their own bookkeeping, using Xero and similar is inviting disaster.
As for pricing, we pay less for VT software, including accounts production, for the entire client base, than we would for a single Xero client.
I have just heard that Sage will be withdrawing its desktop based bookkeeping software in the next couple of years, .
Out of interest, where did you hear that? Can you quote a source please?
+ Several - VT.
Thanks, although generally Ive found my account manager talked anabsolute pile of doggy doo dahs on a daily basis.
Have they put it in black and white in an email? I always suggested that with them, never got anything.
Wonder if the sage guy will be on at som epoint to put us right, Chris whatshisname.
I seem to recall something akin to this comment was mentioned before on here, recently, but not about the whole 50 suite.
Was he trying to sell you shiny new cloud things at the time of making this comment?
If he was probability that it is rubbish will be somewhere in the region of 100%
Yes, VT is good value and relatively easy to use.
Its strength is that it does not suffer from endless updates of features you do not need and works reliably year after year.
Another vote for VT.
Only two issues with it in my view - Foreign currency handling is weak and not multi user. This will not affect most clients. Apart from that, excellent software.
Agree with above. I don’t want VT to change though and become cloud based and I don’t think they will. No price increases and you can file MTD returns.
I also use it for bridging software and final accounts (both excel based).
Only negatives are version control and lack of audit trail.
Have to agree the direction of travel is to cloud solutions.
Updating/patching desktop software will become prohibitively costly over time (if it remains available).
Your first post, of any sort, since joining over 17 years ago ... so you obviously restrict yourself to posting comments that matter to you.
But I'm not sure with whom you say you're agreeing ... all bar one responder are trying to avoid cloud solutions like the plague that they are.
And FWIW updating/patching desktop software isn't much of an overhead in these days of automated updates ... so you're left with a lot of pros & cons to debate when considering a move to cloud (and some of those cons are substantial).