AccountEdge vs. Sage 500 ERP

If you are handling a large client list, and are selling services, it is dead easy. If you are managing/selling a physical inventory, it seems like it has great options to do that quite well (disclaimer, I do not use those functions, but I have paid attention as that functionality was built into the software). If you want to link your bank account to a bookkeeping platform, this is not the software for you (at least so far).

Incentivized

Sage is wonderful for payroll and employee management. Although it has the capabilities to be a one-stop-shop program, it seriously lacks the interface necessary for wide use. I've had to consult Sage professionals on numerous occasions to explain and walk me through the program as there are so many redundancies. This program has wonderful potential, but they need to update the software and user interface before I can recommend it to any colleague.

Incentivized

• Complete Macintosh accounting software solution
• Robust inventory with price levels, quantity price breaks, and item assemblies
• Robust Job costing including progress billing, budgets, and profitability
• Mobile and web apps to add transactions from anywhere to sync back to your company file
• Integrated payroll
• Retainers and escrow accounts
• Three levels of transactions categorization-jobs, categories, and departments
• Multi-currency
• Network capable for multiple simultaneous users
• Ability to see profitability on an individual invoice
• Company file can be transferred back and forth between Mac and Windows with NO conversion needed.
• Can import text files of practically any kind of transaction

• Payables and receivables handled beautifully
• Projects has the reporting capabilities we need
• Cash management is easy to do

Incentivized

• Probably our biggest beef is the sales pitch a while back to incorporate their POS system Checkout that was supposed to integrate hand in glove with AccountEdge (it never really did.) Now the company has abandoned the POS program (even the website is now a 404 error page). Checkout is glitchy, and rather than improving it, they just dropped it and left users like us who bought into it unsupported. That doesn't reflect well on the company's customer service in our view. We've been AccountEdge users from back when it was MYOB, but our confidence in their future dependability has been strongly impacted by this move, and if something else came along, our hard-earned loyalty might not be as firm as it has been in the past.
• Some tasks in AccountEdge take a long time to complete (go get a coffee while the spinning beachball turns).
• Don't know the feasibility, but it would be nice to have access to older transactions, maybe even in some kind of read-only format.

Incentivized

• The application is very functional, but the interface is a little "stale" compared to more modern applications.
• The underlying client software is written in an old version of Microsoft Visual Basic. I suppose SOME DAY, Microsoft will be discontinuing, although Microsoft has its own ERP software written in that same code.

Incentivized

Without a doubt, when you need to do accounting use the program that will get the job done in the least amount of time with the least amount of errors. Once you are using a program that works you stay with it year after year and you will find yourself even excited about the updates

Incentivized

We will renew our investment in Sage 500, mostly because the competition is very expensive and are bloated with options that are not needed.

Incentivized

The intuitive interface does all the tasks we need our accounting software to do. Some tasks are slower to process than I would like but overall very usable. Customizable forms let us choose to either go with the easy ready-made out-of-the-box options or retool them to better fit our specific needs.

Incentivized

I have been using Intacct for almost 10 years in 2 different companies and I just simply love it. I tried SAP (GUI) and Netsuite and they dont come close to what Ive seen.

Incentivized

One of the finer advantages of desktop software, it's always available. AccountEdge doesn't suffer from outages or sluggish internet like web based applications do. It's always there when you power on your device!

Incentivized

On the few occasions we have needed tech support over the years, they were responsive and worked to get to the root of the issues. However, even though Checkout POS is a separate application, it was pitched to us as a natural extension of the functionality of our AE software that would integrate seamlessly. The company's support for Checkout has been minimal at best, and now totally abandoned. That colors our view of Priority's support unfortunately. And to be honest, that's why it's a 9 instead of a 10. So to be fair, AccountEdge's support itself has been very good over the years.

Incentivized

The online training courses are not up to date. We experienced technical issues with two of the classes.

Incentivized

unfortunately no.

Incentivized

Keep your database and application in different servers.
Install Microsoft Office on your application server so you can use some of the data analysis tools in Sage.

Incentivized

My hands down preference is to keep my accounting off of the cloud but that is not always the case with my clients. So, to make this comparison somewhat fair I will consider only the items containing parity in cloud vs desktop. AccountEdge vs Xero. AccountEdge has superior interface and key response because an internet connection is generally not as responsive as localized software. Period. I also feel that AccountEdge is far more robust in features as well as how my data is presented (visually). I require uniform naming/wording conventions so I can better assimilate data. While this is possible in Xero, it's not as easy to accomplish because of screen response and keyboard workflow. Mouse oriented vs. keyboard oriented. AccountEdge vs QuickBooks for Mac. Succinctly put: cross-platform. AccountEdge data files do not require "saving as" Windows copies or any other such nonsense conversion. They just work equally well on either platform. So for users whose platforms do not match their accountant's, there is simply no issue. Additionally, Acclivity will give a user's accountant a copy of the software for free.

Incentivized

500 seems much smoother at handling some of the basic accounting tasks, for example both issuing and later reconciling checks in Dynamics AX seems a little tedious.

Incentivized

• If I didn't have AccountEdge, I would have to make do with Excel spreadsheets, or go back to paper, as I did before 1995, and I wouldn't be able to access client information as easily as I can here.
• It allows me to manage cash easily, so if clients are slow-paying, I can borrow funds to meet expenses, without incurring overdraft fees, until they come through.

Incentivized

• Efficiency - enhanced automation
• Cost reduction - simple workspace is enough

Incentivized