Need some ‘Sage’ advice

[survivalist]

Sorry for the terrible pun.

A friend is currently using Sage 50. Oddly it’s a single user but they still have a client / server set up.

The plan is to move to a cloud based solution and it seems Sage are pushing the Sage 50 cloud option. As I understand it this still users a client / server architecture so a Windows PC is required.

The other option is Sage Business Cloud , which seems like a much better option but Sage seem very cagey about the migration requirements to the point where I’m wondering if it’s actually even possible.

Any guidance on which option is best, easiest to migrate etc would be appreciated.

[seveb]

Having looked at this for a friend on Sage 50 recently it was apparent that Sage do not have a cloud solution, they just want the benefits of a cloud SaaS revenue stream without the full service obligation. You still need software installed locally.

I agree it was very difficult to get Sage to describe in any detail what their cloud offering was, the staff follow a very strict sales line and don't deviate and will never speak of technical issues.

[tight fart]

I use Sage and don’t have any software installed, it’s all cloud based.
I can pick it up anywhere by logging in, phone iPad, pc etc.
Also if you’re a Costco member it’s discounted, £13 ish a month.

[survivalist]

seveb said:

Having looked at this for a friend on Sage 50 recently it was apparent that Sage do not have a cloud solution, they just want the benefits of a cloud SaaS revenue stream without the full service obligation. You still need software installed locally.

I agree it was very difficult to get Sage to describe in any detail what their cloud offering was, the staff follow a very strict sales line and don't deviate and will never speak of technical issues.

The other ‘cloud’ offering they talk about is this, although it looks more like software as a service to me. Had a peek at the free trial and it looks ok, seems to work in safari and chrome.

https://www.sage.com/en-gb/sage-business-cloud/acc...

The bit I can’t figure out is how easy it is to migrate 10 years of historical data into it. There’s an online tutorial, but apparently I can’t watch it because ‘it’s for accountants’

The cynical side of me thinks it might be because moving to this offering might reduce the monthly sage bill by 70%

[survivalist]

tight fart said:

I use Sage and don’t have any software installed, it’s all cloud based.
I can pick it up anywhere by logging in, phone iPad, pc etc.
Also if you’re a Costco member it’s discounted, £13 ish a month.

Thanks. That sounds like the offering they would like to move to. The issue is importing/migrating all the existing data into it and sage are being far from helpful.

[Ham_and_Jam]

survivalist said:

tight fart said:

I use Sage and don’t have any software installed, it’s all cloud based.
I can pick it up anywhere by logging in, phone iPad, pc etc.
Also if you’re a Costco member it’s discounted, £13 ish a month.

Thanks. That sounds like the offering they would like to move to. The issue is importing/migrating all the existing data into it and sage are being far from helpful.

Does he REALLY need cloud based accounting software? I appreciate there are some people who need to invoice ‘on the go’, but most people don’t.

I use Quickbooks desktop and therefore purchased as a one off cost. I can’t honestly remember a time when I needed to use it other than when I am at my laptop. I specifically bought an ultra-book style laptop for this reason.

I really don’t like subscription based plans, especially ones that have been artificially created by these software companies.

[nickv]

I use this software ( sage 50 cloud ) the standard version, and I import data via csv files every month it isn’t a problem.
For outgoing invoices my data is in three separate imports

Customer csv file
Invoice csv file
Payments csv file

This only takes around 5 mins to perform.

[survivalist]

Ham_and_Jam said:

survivalist said:

tight fart said:

I use Sage and don’t have any software installed, it’s all cloud based.
I can pick it up anywhere by logging in, phone iPad, pc etc.
Also if you’re a Costco member it’s discounted, £13 ish a month.

Thanks. That sounds like the offering they would like to move to. The issue is importing/migrating all the existing data into it and sage are being far from helpful.

Does he REALLY need cloud based accounting software? I appreciate there are some people who need to invoice ‘on the go’, but most people don’t.

I use Quickbooks desktop and therefore purchased as a one off cost. I can’t honestly remember a time when I needed to use it other than when I am at my laptop. I specifically bought an ultra-book style laptop for this reason.

I really don’t like subscription based plans, especially ones that have been artificially created by these software companies.

The issue is that she already has years of experience with Sage and doesn't really want to change. The desire for cloud hosting is because of an office move where there is no space for the Sage server. The other factor is that ideally they'll all be using Mac and the Sage client only runs on windows. There's been talk of bootcamp, parallels etc but given that they aren't very IT savvy it sounds like an unnecessary complication to me.

[zombeh]

survivalist said:

The plan is to move to a cloud based solution and it seems Sage are pushing the Sage 50 cloud option. As I understand it this still users a client / server architecture so a Windows PC is required.

Sage 50 Cloud is Sage 50 not cloud but with the server side of it on Someone Else's Computer instead of yours.

I've not used or looked at their actual cloud stuff (whatever it's called this week) so no particular thoughts on it or knowledge on how easy it'd be to migrate data to it. I'd suspect it's one of those things that would require sage to spend a day fixing your data then doing it for you.

[survivalist]

zombeh said:

survivalist said:

The plan is to move to a cloud based solution and it seems Sage are pushing the Sage 50 cloud option. As I understand it this still users a client / server architecture so a Windows PC is required.

Sage 50 Cloud is Sage 50 not cloud but with the server side of it on Someone Else's Computer instead of yours.

I've not used or looked at their actual cloud stuff (whatever it's called this week) so no particular thoughts on it or knowledge on how easy it'd be to migrate data to it. I'd suspect it's one of those things that would require sage to spend a day fixing your data then doing it for you.

Thanks. It’s kind of what I assumed but Sage insist on calling it cloud rather than hosted sage 50.

Sound like that is the easiest option in terms of both migration and keeping the user interface exactly the same.

What I don’t yet understand is who backs up the data when using Sage 50 Cloud? Does the user/company have to carry out backups themselves as they do now? Or is it part of the cloud offering.

[bigles]

Long time lurker, but saw this one and thought right up my street.

I'm another accountant and I actually deal with the cloud software at my firm so have seen this before.

You can migrate data from SAGE 50 to Business Cloud - see a firm called movemybooks (no connection, I've just used this to migrate SAGE and
Quickbooks desktop to QB Online, Xero and SAGE Business Cloud) for conversion see https://www.movemybooks.co.uk/moving-to-sage.

SAGE pay for current year and prior year, any more are £60 a year though - effectively you give them access to your data, they upload and download in after converting it.

HOWEVER - you could do with knowing how to tidy the data up post-conversion (as it's gone from one format to another)

ALSO - before even going to this point, is SAGE Business Cloud able to do all the things they do on SAGE 50 at present (depending on how much of the actual functionality they use).

I'd seriously suggest that you and your client have a conversation with their accountants prior to making any decisions on this - there will probably being training needed either way and the accountants will have to deal with the data provided.

Re: backups, no separate backups, is purely hosted.

I will reiterate though, speak to the accountants, and you might want to move this onto the Finance section as this is really a question they should be involved in (sorry for banging on, just sorted too many conversion issues after the fact..)

[survivalist]

bigles said:

Long time lurker, but saw this one and thought right up my street.

I'm another accountant and I actually deal with the cloud software at my firm so have seen this before.

You can migrate data from SAGE 50 to Business Cloud - see a firm called movemybooks (no connection, I've just used this to migrate SAGE and
Quickbooks desktop to QB Online, Xero and SAGE Business Cloud) for conversion see https://www.movemybooks.co.uk/moving-to-sage.

SAGE pay for current year and prior year, any more are £60 a year though - effectively you give them access to your data, they upload and download in after converting it.

HOWEVER - you could do with knowing how to tidy the data up post-conversion (as it's gone from one format to another)

ALSO - before even going to this point, is SAGE Business Cloud able to do all the things they do on SAGE 50 at present (depending on how much of the actual functionality they use).

I'd seriously suggest that you and your client have a conversation with their accountants prior to making any decisions on this - there will probably being training needed either way and the accountants will have to deal with the data provided.

Re: backups, no separate backups, is purely hosted.

I will reiterate though, speak to the accountants, and you might want to move this onto the Finance section as this is really a question they should be involved in (sorry for banging on, just sorted too many conversion issues after the fact..)

Thanks for the detailed response.

Completely understand the need to speak to the accountant. Sadly they are more old school than the bookkeeper and have said to just carry on with on-premise Sage 50 as they don’t want to support anything else.

Will message the company you’ve referenced and see what they say.

[moonigan]

We have a lot of Sage customers on our platform. Quite a few have tried the Sage offering and have come back because they thought it was expensive, unreliable and lacked support.

https://www.yourofficeanywhere.co.uk/info-hub/alte...

[survivalist]

moonigan said:

We have a lot of Sage customers on our platform. Quite a few have tried the Sage offering and have come back because they thought it was expensive, unreliable and lacked support.

https://www.yourofficeanywhere.co.uk/info-hub/alte...

Thanks. So would you move both the sage server and desktop app onto your hosting platform? If so I assume Office and any other business apps would have to be run on the same hosted desktop?

[chml]

You can migrate from 50 to SBC, Sage have a migration tool that they have developed for this. I think the main thing to consider though is what do you use the software for; are there any foreign currency transactions/bank accounts, are you on cash accounting or accrual based? Do you use the stock functionality etc?
As a general guide, if you’re running 50 Essentials or Standard then SBC is an option, if you are running Professional then absolutely not because you’ll miss out on a lot of functionality - also if your in-house bookkeeper is a dab hand at batch entries and using the function keys for this then this feature is completely different in SBC.

I worked for Sage up until a month or so back.

[moonigan]

survivalist said:

Thanks. So would you move both the sage server and desktop app onto your hosting platform? If so I assume Office and any other business apps would have to be run on the same hosted desktop?

The client and server parts of Sage are hosted on the same platform and then customers usually host the applications that are needed for Sage to work effectively. Usually Outlook and sometimes Excel. The other businesses apps can be accomodated but not mandatory so these could be run locally.

I've dropped you a message to avoid turning the thread into an advertorial.