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New Sage 50 release comes with higher price

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4th Aug 2014
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Sage is to push up the price of Sage 50 Accounts by 70-90% for small business users this month.

The software company confirmed that the increase was driven by significant changes to the flagship accounting program, which represents a "major milestone" for the business. 

The managing director of Sage's Accountants' Division, Paul Tooth, said that information on new features wouldn't be available until later in August. 

Sage is moving its licenced-based pricing toward a subscription-based model. Customers will pay varying amounts for the code depending on factors such as whether they are members of the Sage Accounts Club.

“We’ve listened to customers and introduced a range of features that will transform the day-to-day operations of users and an array of payment options. Business owners can pay a perpetual one-off license fee or on subscription from as little as £25 per month, meaning they always have the latest version of the software," Tooth said. 

He added that the release will a big step for Sage, and lead the developer's drive to support small to medium sized businesses and practices that want to work in the cloud. 

AccountingWEB member AHB first brought up the price rise on the Sage 50 discussion group last week.

They said they received an email from their Sage business partner manager with details of the price rises.

According to AHB, the email reported rises of: 

  • Sage 50 Accounts Upgrade - currently £315+VAT - will rise to £526+VAT from 1 August 
  • Sage 50 Accounts Plus Upgrade - currently £455+VAT - will rise to £819
  • Sage 50 Accounts Professional Upgrade - currently £600+VAT - will rise to £1,140 

The email went on to explain that this "massive hike" falls in line with Sage's aforementioned subscription offering from next month. 

"Anyone who’s anyone that is even remotely considering upgrading needs to do it this month to get the cheaper prices and they will get 2015 Accounts on release as part of that deal," the email read.

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Replies (11)

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By JCresswellTax
05th Aug 2014 12:12

I'm a bit

Long in the 'tooth' for this nonsense....

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By mikefleming3028
05th Aug 2014 12:28

Another "Paulic" heracy

Or you could vote with your digital feet.

Where do they get off thinking that they can get away with such a hike in cost and then explain it by saying they are doing it to help their customers. If we in the profession helped our clients in this way we would be out  of business over night.  Their   arrogance is breath taking.

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Locutus of Borg
By Locutus
05th Aug 2014 13:47

Not much changes with every annual update, apart from the price

To be honest, so little used to change with every new annual version of Sage, there was little point even paying to upgrade at the old price.

I have some clients that are quite happy using 7 year old versions of Sage, without Sage Cover.

When those versions stop working then they will probably just switch over to Xero, Clearbooks or another of the cloud options.

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
05th Aug 2014 17:32

Great marketing for the competition

and me.

News of this price hike is going in my next newsletter to clients together with an offer to move them over to Xero for as little as £120 + vat.

Thank you Sage ;)

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By crackofdawn
07th Aug 2014 13:30

What customers were Sage listening to???

 

Sage certainly didn't take my comments on board, or those of my colleagues.

I ve already binned Sage payroll. Binned Sage Accounts support and am not upgrading beyond v14. So wish i hadn't put v14 on too....... 

Their software upgrades certainly do not justify the uplift in cost....and it s a shame they sacrificed their once great helpline in order to cut costs .....

 

I think Paul Tooth will soon be changing his name to Roger Eu'Daley........

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By Countinformation
07th Aug 2014 13:39

already moved

we have already moved all our clients away from sage and don't recommend it to anyone. there are other packages that provide more and are cheaper.

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By jholmes
08th Aug 2014 09:08

Sage fan

I am actually quite the sage fan. I have always recommended it over its rivals (QB etc), but with these price increases it seems that they have gone a bit mad.

I certainly wont be recommending it anymore to the majority of my clients. Not when the likes of Xero (not my favorite package by a long shot) & co are so much cheaper.

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By has
08th Aug 2014 09:25

Plus

They now want to charge £249 for introducing us to this new version of the software, and providing a few tips and hints.

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By jontyhughes
09th Sep 2014 17:13

Move your Sage clients to Xero... FREE!

 

... and we can now convert our client data from Sage to Xero for free ;)

https://www.xero.com/uk/partners/convert-from-sage/

http://www.ledgerscope.com/orderxerofree

Saving of £180 +VAT

Offer ends 30th Sept 2014

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By lordlancaster
11th Sep 2014 09:45

Look before you leap...!

Hi everyone, before you leave Sage / tell your clients to move across to a competitor, I just wanted to ask you to 'look before you leap!'

This article was written before our new Sage 50 Accounts product was released and before exact prices had been announced so I'd encourage you to visit the new Sage 50 Accounts page at http://www.sage.co.uk/sage-50-accounts to see for yourself just how good it is.

As a 'hybrid' solution which offers all the benefits of desktop, mobile and cloud, Sage 50 is more powerful than purely cloud-based software (including our own Sage One service) and is available from just £25 per month.

But if price REALLY is an issue for you...

Having said all that, if price really is an issue for you or your clients then I'd encourage you to take a look at our cloud-based Sage One Accounts and Payroll software.

The vast majority of our small business users (over 33,000 in April with latest figures due to be announced in October) are very happy with our mid-range Sage One Accounts software which is just £10 per month and lets you login and access their data remotely to make any amendments, submit VAT returns, etc.

But if you / your clients want a more fully-featured service, Sage One Accounts Extra is the one to go for, offering everything Sage One Accounts (standard) does plus:

Multi-user & role-based accessMulti-currency & VAT-compliance for trading abroadProduce & track quotesInteractive cash flow reportingAnalysis reporting with custom fields

All Sage One services also include free 24hr telephone and email support from our dedicated team of experts in Newcastle at no added cost.

And if that hasn't persuaded you to take a closer look, all Sage One services offer a free 30 day trial and are half price / 50% off for the first 6 months if you / your clients sign up before the end of September at http://uk.sageone.com/products/

Thanks
Paul Lancaster
Sage One UK & Ireland
@lordlancaster

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AshTag86
By Ash_D86
11th Sep 2014 16:29

Hi Paul To explain points about Xero pricing, accountants and bookkeepers also get a minimum of 15% discount off the public pricing for: 

Xero Business Edition

- Small; £9

- Standard; £20

- Premium; £25

The discount on these scales up according to the number of clients using Xero. In addition, accountants and bookkeepers also get access to three additional price plans with:

Xero Partner Edition

- Ledger; £2

- Non VAT Cashbook; £5

- VAT Cashbook; £9

More information on Xero Partner Edition can be found here https://www.xero.com/uk/partners/

 

Ashley Driver
Education Specialist, Xero
@ashtag_86 @xero

 

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