Sage 50cloud

Category: General Accounting – Class: Entry Level to SMB
Product: Sage 50 Pro, Sage 50 Complete, Sage 50 Premium (with Verticals)

Sage 50cloud Website

Best Fit

  • Small business 1-30 employees
  • Easily fits a wide range of businesses and is suitable for Entry Level through SMB
  • Small Not-for-Profit
  • Retail sales and light inventory and distribution

Strengths

  • Easy to interpret graphic interface utilizing Navigation Centers
  • True period close for accounting purposes
  • Comprehensive security controls providing detailed screen-level and group access
  • The ability to attach files (Word, Excel, or PDF files) to records or transactions
  • Broadcast-invoice feature – create and send a single invoice to multiple customers
  • Ability to set up to five decimal points to inventory quantities and unit price fields

 

Brief Product Description and Pricing

The rebranding of the Peachtree and Simply Accounting lines for Sage 50cloud does not mean simply a change of name on the box. 

As with other products such as Sage 100 ERP and Sage 300 ERP, there are new enhancements and additional features included as well as impressive new service levels. Some of the features users will appreciate the most include the Sage Business Care benefit, Expanded Amount, and Currency Field Lengths and Sage 50 Business Intelligence Enhancements.

With the release of Sage 50 Accounting 2013, all new customers get Sage Business Care as part of their purchase. The first year of the service is included with the purchase of their product. New customers include anyone who purchases Sage 50 through these channels.

What’s Included with Sage Business Care for New Customers
Sage wraps powerful accounting and business management features with Sage Business Care, an auto-renewing service plan that provides unlimited access to support and automatically delivers upgrades, and more. Customers get ongoing service and support they can trust while reducing the time, effort, and cost of operating their business.

Sage Business Care for new customers includes the benefits listed below.

  • Unlimited access to customer support
  • Product upgrades and updates
  • Sage 50 Business Intelligence (including Sage 50 Pro)
  • Dedicated Account Manager
  • Quarterly webcast series (new addition)
  • Retail
  • E-tail (e.g., Amazon)
  • E-store (Sage’s web store)
  • New Product Sales (direct from Sage)
  • Solution Providers (partners, CCs)

Sage Business Care does not come with Sage 50cloud First Accounting 2013 and is not included for new customers who purchase older versions of the software.

How Sage Business Care for New Customers Works
Similar to Sage 50 Quantum, when new customers purchase Sage 50cloud Accounting with a credit card, they are automatically enrolled in Sage Business Care. They are notified that Sage Business Care is auto-renewing and that they will be notified prior to the service being renewed. They also have the option to cancel. This process applies to all channels except retail and e-tail.

Retail/e-tail customers will follow instructions for activating their software and then will be required to call Sage in order to activate their Sage Business Care service plan. Although no charge will appear on the credit card, if a retail customer does not provide a credit card number to Sage, then the Sage Business Care plan is not active.

Sage 50cloud is intended to be a customer product release. This means the solutions are readily available from traditional retail outlets and that the software is designed for the user to be able to install and work with the product with minimal, if any, outside technical assistance. We do caution, however, that setting an accounting solution up from scratch is rarely a simple task. With quality of service implications, possible tax repercussions, and the need for a small business owner to have solid, easy to read and understand financials, it is worthwhile to have a professional accountant assist you in the creation of a Chart of Accountants, to set up banking and reporting requirements, and particularly to help you with payroll, payables, and receivables. When set up properly the first time, Sage 50cloud can help you more effectively manage and run your business.

Expanded Amount and Currency Field Lengths
This feature provides you with the ability to record amounts up to $99,999,999,999,999.00000 on transaction screens, list views, dashboards, reports, forms, account register and the maintain inventory item history tab screen. This is perfect for companies that use currencies other than the U.S. dollar or for those businesses that track large quantities of small inventory items that require more than two digits to the right of the decimal place for reporting accuracy.

Sage 50cloud Business Intelligence Enhancements Sage Connected Service)
Enhancements to Sage 50cloud Business Intelligence let customers spend more time gaining insight from their information and less time exporting data and formatting it into something they can use. The enhancements include the following items.

  • The new Inventory Analysis Report offers real-time inventory information that helps better forecast consumption of goods and manage the supply chain.
  • The Dashboard provides a graphical summary of Key Performance Indicators such as profit/loss, top 5 expenses, top 5 customers, etc.
  • The Report Designer lets users create their own unique layouts for Financial Reports using simple drag-and-drop functionality.

Pricing is standard and can be found online or at your local retail store. The following provides you with the current naming conventions as well as the new name branding for easy reference.

Technical Specifications

Recommended System Configuration
2.4 GHz processor for single user and multiple users 1 GB of RAM for single user and 2 GB for multiple users

Minimum System Requirements

  • 2 GHz processor for single user and multiple users
  • 1 GB of RAM for single user and multiple users
  • Windows® XP SP3, Windows Vista® SP1 or Windows® 7 Home Professional or higher
  • 1 GB of disk space for installation
  • Internet Explorer 7.0 required; Internet Explorer 8.0 and 9.0 supported
  • Microsoft®.NET Framework CLR 3.5 requiring an additional 280 MB to 610 MB
  • At least high color (16-bit) SVGA video; supports 1024×768 resolution with small fonts required
  • DVD-ROM
  • All online features/services require Internet access with at least a 56 Kbps modem

Integration/Compatibility Requirements

  • Excel®, Outlook®, and Word integration requires Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and Word 2003, 2007, or 2010
  • Outlook Sync supported in Exchange 2000 SP2, 2003, 2007 and 2010
  • In-product demos require Macromedia® Flash™ Player
  • Adobe® Reader® 9.0 or higher required
  • Crystal Report® 2008 SP1requiring an additional 300 MB of available disk space

Multi-User

  • Multi-user environments supported in Sage 50 Complete Accounting and higher
  • Multi-user mode optimized for Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 client-server networks
  • A maximum of five licensed named users allowed
  • 1 GB of disk space for installation of components on server

Terminal Services

  • Windows 2003 or 2008 Server along with Remote Desktop Connection or Remote Desktop Web Connection client is required to run in a Windows Terminal Services environment. No more than 5 named users are allowed.
  • Terminal Server requires additional memory when more than one user is running under Windows Terminal.

Internet connectivity necessary for program updates and some other features

Integration with Accounting and Ease of Setup

For most tasks, Sage 50cloud does not require users to understand standard accounting procedures. Most transactions are recorded using on-line screens that closely resemble paper-based forms such as invoices or checks. The product is very easy to install and can be installed by the end user without technical support or a professional accountant in most cases.

System requirements

Company History and Contact Information

Sage 50cloud represents several entry and small to medium business solutions owned by Sage and consolidated under the company’s rebranding and consolidation efforts in early 2012. Sage 50 includes both the Peachtree product line and its Canadian counterpart, Simply Accounting. More detailed product information can be found online at www.sagenorthamerica.com, or the product may be purchased from local retailers and office supply businesses.