Sage Accounts Production Advanced
Firm size
- Small
- Medium
- Large
Integration
Templates
Functionality
Pricing
Prices are tiered according to number of clients and users. From £368/user/year (10 clients) - £1,470/user/year (100 clients) to £16,223/year (15 users, 9,000 clients)
Key Features
- Suitable for accountants working in practice and industry who prepare management and statutory accounts
- Integrates with the Sage Practice Suite or can be used as a standalone product
- Client data can be entered directly or imported from Sage 50cloud Accounts and other third-party bookkeeping products
- Validation checks are applied according to the entity type to ensure all data is present and accounts balance
- Consolidation routine merges subsidiaries into holding company accounts, where inter-company balances can be journalled
- Check in/out controls lock the client record while a user is working on their accounts
- Full audit trail report and lead schedules can be produced, but SAPA does not generate working papers
- Flexible report generator can output management accounts, ratio/variance reports and performance summaries
Product screenshots
What Sage Accountants says
Sage Accounts Production Advanced is a sophisticated and flexible program designed to meet the needs of practices and business entities with complex requirements. The system is used by many of the top 50 UK accounting practices to generate a wide range of business accounts including groups, charities, pension schemes, doctors and farms.
Built-in validation checks reduce the risk of rejection as users are updated as submissions are made to Companies House and HMRC.
Alongside year-end accounts, Sage Accounts Production Advanced can create full management accounts and analytical reviews, with graphical ratio, variance analysis and summary reports.
Sage has drawn on extensive user research to ensure the program has the functionality and flexibility to meet the demands of leading practices for bespoke final accounts and bespoke client reports.
2018 roadmap
Sage Accounts Production Advanced is an established application and already does the things most customers expect. Over the next year, Sage will focus its efforts on keeping up to date with the latest compliance changes and addressing customer feedback raised through the Sage Community.
What users say about Sage Accounts Production Advanced
Read user reviews- Simple and easy to use
- Charity layouts and group accounts
- Easy to post entries and can clearly see trial balance and drill down into figures
Pros
- Accounts are not updated immediately when a journal has been made
- Poor method of iXBRL production
- It is sometimes hard to get period ends and interim accounts to follow on from the last set of accounts
Things you might change
Functionality
- Charity layouts and group accounts
Pros
- Presentation of accounts and detailed trial balance and ledgers
- Poor method of iXBRL production
- It is sometimes hard to get period ends and interim accounts to follow on from the last set of accounts
- Accounts are not updated immediately when a journal has been made
- ROPS dates do not roll forward and have to be manually changed
Things you might change
Ease of use
- Easy to alter accounts and produce accounts tailored to your clients needs
- Easy to amend report formats
- Easy to post entries and can clearly see trial balance and drill down into figures
Pros
- It has become more difficult to use since the introduction of FRS 102
- It would be useful to be able to click on errors on the front page of the draft accounts to go to the ROP or report pad
- It's very long winded to allocate specific income/expenditure to each partner on the software
Things you might change
What AccountingWEB says
Originating many years ago from Deloitte, Sage Accounts Production Advanced (SAPA) appears to have strayed off course in recent years as Sage wrestled with the competing priorities and requirements of its three accounts production applications.
This lack of direction and product focus appears to have affected all Sage’s applications, from Sage 50 Accounts to its tax and practice tools, all of which have dropped in their share of ratings in the different categories.
Against this background decline, SAPA actually gained a few points on its product rating scores this year, but it still comes out with one of the lowest scores for value for money. SAPA was not affected so much by technical issues with the transition to new UK GAAP and FRS 102, but a couple of comments indicate that the program has become harder to use.
With the final accounts module of Sage Accountant Cloud emerging from the latest product branding overhaul, the rationale for maintaining all three is wearing thin. Many customers will be watching to see which of Sage’s other AP products will emerge as the focus for further desktop developments.