{"id":992,"date":"2020-02-24T15:18:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T15:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sagefinancialsknowhow.com\/?p=992"},"modified":"2020-03-05T15:07:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T15:07:44","slug":"shortlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sagefinancialsknowhow.com\/shortlist\/","title":{"rendered":"Sage Financials REPLACEMENT shortlist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Sage Financials<\/del> replacement shortlist<\/h1>\n

There are thousands of accounting packages out there, but I\u2019ve put together a shortlist for Sage Financials users in the unenviable position of having to find a new solution in the next 10 months.<\/p>\n

Follow this link to receive a copy of the full shortlist with our assessment of the different solutions.
\nSage Financials knowhow shortlist evaluation<\/a><\/p>\n

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The short-list criteria<\/h2>\n

Cloud based<\/h3>\n

There is nothing wrong with your old on-premise accounting solutions, but if you are going to change, you MUST go for a cloud solution. And I mean a true cloud solution, not a desktop package hosted online with virtual servers… As well as the well rehearsed benefits of resilience & security, continual improvement, scalability, subscription billing which make it \u201caccessible online anytime, anywhere, from any device\u201d, for me the key benefit of a true cloud solution is the integration with other packages through an API. (An API is a standard interface that allows separate systems to communicate with each other). In theory this means you can choose the best of breed solutions for your various functions and connect them together. For example, Salesforce for CRM, Eventbrite for events, Expensify for expenses management, WordPress for your website, MailChimp for email marketing.<\/p>\n

Choosing a Cloud solution provides the most secure long-term investment with the lowest risk of obsolescence.<\/p>\n

Market Dominators<\/h3>\n

In the UK there are two cloud accounting solutions that dominate the market: Xero and Quickbooks. Any review needs to consider these. They have the revenue to invest in continual improvement, are exceptional value for money, and have an abundance of features and because of their dominance are the most likely to have integrations ready to go for you favourite cloud applications. Expensify for example provides a free integration with both these systems.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve left Sage Line 50 out, not just out of spite, but because it is not a true cloud solution.<\/p>\n

Salesforce native solutions<\/h3>\n

For many people, Sage Financials being on the Salesforce platform was the key reason they chose that solution. There are four alternative accounting solutions that are native Salesforce applications and these have been reviewed.<\/p>\n

Sage Solutionss<\/h3>\n

For Sage Financials\u2019 users, Sage will be offering attractive deals for their new flagship product Intacct.<\/p>\n

Native or integrated<\/h3>\n

Sage Intacct make much of their integration with Salesforce (though I do have reservations\u2026) but bear in mind that both Xero and Quickbooks can also be integrated with Salesforce.<\/p>\n

For Salesforce users the question of integration or native Salesforce is an important decision. I think of it like the difference between a caravan and a campervan \u2013 there are pro\u2019s and con\u2019s for both. My feeling is that reporting and customisation are going to be most flexible with a native solution, but you may have to make some compromises on the ease-of-use on the accounting side.<\/p>\n

Salesforce provides a fantastic \u2018hub\u2019 for integrating cloud applications because of the APEX programming language. For custom integrations you will require the Enterprise Edition of Salesforce, but there are many standard integrations available through the Appexchange for the lower cost Professional Edition.<\/p>\n

Assessment Criteria<\/h2>\n

Every company is different and will need different accounting features. Below is a list of the key features, an assessment of how important they really are, and some points to watch out for. Use this to build your own check-list when assessing any accounting solution.<\/p>\n

Accounts Receivable (Sales) & Accounts Payable (Purchases)<\/h3>\n
Show More<\/a>
Every accounts system has to be able to create invoices, credit notes, payments, receipts, refunds & payments on account (though there is a story about Sage Financials\u2026). Additionally you want some way to manage credit chasing, payments by BACS, aged debtor & credit reports for credit management and retrospective aged debtors & creditors for audit purposes.<\/p>\n

Explore how easy this is, and if you have large numbers of transactions, make sure the system is productive enough to work for you.<\/div><\/div>\n

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Bank Reconciliation & Bank feeds<\/h3>\n
Show More<\/a>
Bank reconciliation is a requirement for auditing, but the modern bank reconciliation is much more than that, providing a way to rapidly & reliably enter data into your accounting system.<\/p>\n

Automated bank feeds on the other hand are a nice-to-have feature, but not essential provided there is a bank CSV import available. Event with the market dominators, not all banks are supported, so check first!<\/p>\n

Sage Financials never cracked this correctly as they did not enforce, nor could they control, reconciliation of all bank transactions.<\/div><\/div>\n

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Reporting<\/h3>\n
Show More<\/a>
Salesforce reports are great for dashboards and management reporting, but don’t work for traditional financial reports such as Balance sheet, PnL and Account statements because the drill-down is not right and they cannot handle running totals.<\/p>\n

Some systems will allow you to configure these standard reports, but with Sage Financials that was a double-edged sword as it was really easy to break them and end up with a balance sheet that did not balance. Other systems have limited or no capability to customise these reports, so make sure the system can produce the reports you require in the layout you can live with:<\/p>\n