QuickBooks Desktop Pro vs. Sage 50

I am only going to recommend it because it is currently ubiquitous, and most accountants prefer it at the moment. I do not stand by the company, and will not use the product any longer than I have to. [I believe] the support is lousy, the product is overpriced, but it does the basics of what we need. I'm very happy for all those outside Intuit who make their living supporting QuickBooks Desktop Pro; third-party support is desperately needed. They also doubled their prices for software upgrades this year, and require those who don't pay double what the last upgrade cost, to subscribe every year for $200. If one does not subscribe beyond the first year, one will not be able to use the software beyond the first year. They are moving to a rental model even for those who refuse to use the LOUSY QuickBooks online. They were good company once. Now they just turn out bloatware that everyone uses, so the rest of us have to. I look forward to the day that an honest, better-priced competitor wipes the floor with Intuit.

Incentivized

Sage is great for portability and exchange with external accountants as it is widely used and people will be able to read your data in. It's a very good and complete solution for a little business where one person can handle all of the accounting. I doubt that it scales well to large companies with several in-house accountants working at the same time.

Incentivized

• It is easy to manage and adjust inventory on hand.
• It is easy to make reports and customize them to your needs.
• We also use it to pay our employees directly.
• It is easy to make year-to-year comparisons to see where we can make improvements and the current financial situation.

Incentivized

• I like the automated guides to set up complex features of payroll formulas.
• The business intelligence reporting seems very comprehensive, so that one could really "crunch the data" and analyze different aspects of their business.
• Sage annually improves the performance and features of their program.

Incentivized

• QuickBooks Desktop Pro has been around for a few years and after an update[,] they force you to look at the changes/updates before you can use [them] after updating.
• QuickBooks Desktop Pro does not have 2FA.
• QuickBooks Desktop Pro should offer a way to store backups to a personal cloud without having to map a local network drive.

Incentivized

• The out of the box reports are not appealing and take a bit to clean up during the end of the month. The set up of the reports can be quite tedious and not very intuitive. They need to do a better job of adding the drop and drag tool in a more visible way so that it is easy for the end user.
• Sage needs to add the ability for the users (in a controlled environment) to manipulate the look and feel of the input screens. It gives you minimal options to add fields to certain areas.
• The help feature does not have the "google" type of intelligence that allows you to search on phrases. If it is not exact, it does not do a very good job of filtering through items that you really don not need. I have used more of the internet searches to figure out my problem because it wasn't easy to pull up the help option in Sage.

We use it with all our clients and have several QuickBooks Pro Advisors and will renew and continue to use it with our client base. It is easy to use, helps with collecting annual data and makes compiling of information for filing annual tax returns much easier. It makes our job a lot easier, than using manual records.

Incentivized

I use this rating simply because I have a thriving Sage 50 consulting practice and will continue to keep my expertise in the product. I have consulted on both Sage 50 and QuickBooks for over 25 years so I have to maintain expertise in the solution as well as accounting and verticals.

Incentivized

QuickBooks Desktop Pro can be daunting at first. It has the ability to do nearly everything you will ever need in accounting but that means there are a lot of features to learn. It's always best to have an experienced user to guide you with the initial setup as it can be a bit overwhelming.

Incentivized

I think Sage 50 is a trusted product and is reliable from a product delivery and support perspective. They have deep domain expertise in the non-profit space and should be a consideration for new non-profit startups or existing non-profits looking to migrate from other platforms. Overall, I believe that Sage 50 does many things well with few limitations.

Incentivized

I haven't experienced a time when QuickBooks Pro was unavailable when I needed it in the entire 20 years of using the software

Incentivized

I was a BIG fan of QuickBooks support for a very long time up until recently. The representatives were well trained and wanted to solve your problem for you, as a human, not as just a customer. In my recent experiences I feel as though that is no longer so. My last conversation was appalling. The representative only read the narrative provided over and over and would not send me on to a supervisor. Finally I hung up and called back. On this try, I was passed from department to department. I was not presented with a solution until I posted a rant on their Facebook page. It amazes me that I had to publicly complain to get results.

The support from Sage is quick, easy to understand and always relevant. They are very responsive to queries and this enables us to have very little down time if the product does fail for whatever reason. Having someone on the end of the phone who can solve your issues is invaluable.

Incentivized

Best thing I ever did was to attend a two day training seminar on QuickBooks, I learned an immense amount in a short time with hands on training by experts. I strongly recommend such training for anyone using any part of the software. It will pay for itself in the first month.

We implemented the software ourselves. The training we received on the software was done by taking a community course teaching us how to use QuickBooks. It allowed me to get started with some basics of how to use the program and have not needed much assistance since completing the course work.

Incentivized

Sage 50 is a strong accounting software package. It will work efficiently if it is installed correctly. If one puts garbage in, one will get garbage out. Also it is important to train the staff to use Sage 50 properly. It is also important to set up security for each user.

Incentivized

Quickbooks Desktop Pro is much simple and easier to use, so it fits better to the ticket of our small non-profit organization needs. The other options are either, or both, more pricy and complicated. For example, the implementation for QuickBooks Desktop Pro was simple enough for me to do so in-house with training courses available and phone calls to a customer service representative or implementation expert accessible.

Incentivized

Sage Accounting is better suited for smaller organisations with fewer transactions. The invoicing system of this piece of software is a superior tool, however. Sage HR is more commonly used for employees to access payslips and record things such as annual leave or overtime. Sage Intacct is likely a more practical solution for a larger organisation with a higher volume of transactions.

Incentivized

I define scalable from two perspectives; 1) the scalability to handle more bookkeepers/accountants using the product, and 2) the scalability to handle increasing customer/vendor/employee and transactional data. Sage 50 does a good job on both fronts. From the single users operating a micro-business accounting for customer invoices and bill payments only, to the multi-staff, multi-location, multi-departmental complex transactional operation. Although Sage 50 is quite expensive for that smallest user, it is quite inexpensive for the larger business entity. So, for the new enterprise expecting rapid growth, Sage 50 is the application of choice.

• Clean and accurate bookkeeping records [have] made reporting and sharing information with tax accountants a breeze.
• Invoicing out of QB is a bit slow and time-consuming[,] unfortunately, so we were forced to choose another software to integrate.
• A great way to have all accounting needs in one place - AP, AR, Reporting, etc.

Incentivized

• It has allowed for more emphasis on sales than data entry which has allowed the Wholesale division to grow
• The "On Screen" credit status on the Sales Order feature has given the capability to free up inventory for paying Customers which increased Turnover, while keeping Past Due to a minimum
• The Reporting has allowed for yearly, prior year and Budget Variance Reporting for the Sales Reps so they can stay or target
• The Inventory Reporting and Receiving keeps a grasp on damaged based on Lots received which helps to notify the Parent company of production issues and monitor shrinkage
• The Credit with Job and RGA capability give a clear view of which Customer are having warehouse issues or if we are having Freight Carrier issues