Sage

I've noticed we have a number of posters that work in business; hopefully enough to make this thread worthwhile. For those that don't, like Natasha, Sage is the market leader in accounting software.

If you've not clicked off the thread by this point, here's the deal.
I've been working on Sage for over a month and it's slowly destroying me as a person. It's like every aspect is designed to hinder and frustrate, and so many basic useful features you might take for granted are absent.

Businesses pay a fortune for Sage and it's quite clearly a pain in the arse.

I'd like to hear from you if you work or have worked on Sage and have an opinion on it.

My wife uses Sage at work.

Have you got a girl's job, Doffy?

Quickbooks is better.

A new low in boring topics for Doffcocker.

What next? How many times do you visit the toilet during the working day? Do you prefer writing in blue or black ink? Is your dinner hour at 12pm or 1pm?

Come on Doffcocker, don't keep us waiting for more excitement.

Sage and onion stuffing is top dog.

For the record, I feel the same way about SAP.

Christ,even I'm bored now.

Natasha Whittam wrote:A new low in boring topics for Doffcocker.

What next? How many times do you visit the toilet during the working day? Do you prefer writing in blue or black ink? Is your dinner hour at 12pm or 1pm?

Come on Doffcocker, don't keep us waiting for more excitement.

Whittam, we've had debates about your career.
Your volley at Deepdale, your adult cable channel opportunities.
For some of us, Sage is as interesting as it gets.

Don't let a little word like Sage beat you, Doffcocker.

How do you plan to tackle it?

doffcocker wrote:

Whittam, we've had debates about your career.
Your volley at Deepdale, your adult cable channel opportunities.
For some of us, Sage is as interesting as it gets.

You need to re-evaluate your life Doffcocker.

I think I preferred you when you stalked BWFC players in Asda.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

doffcocker wrote:

Whittam, we've had debates about your career.
Your volley at Deepdale, your adult cable channel opportunities.
For some of us, Sage is as interesting as it gets.

You need to re-evaluate your life Doffcocker.

I think I preferred you when you stalked BWFC players in Asda.

Don't be silly, that was when I was unemployed.

doffcocker wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:

doffcocker wrote:

Whittam, we've had debates about your career.
Your volley at Deepdale, your adult cable channel opportunities.
For some of us, Sage is as interesting as it gets.

You need to re-evaluate your life Doffcocker.

I think I preferred you when you stalked BWFC players in Asda.

Don't be silly, that was when I was unemployed.

Nat is stalking Mark Davies now in her dreams.  

Sage software is more suited to a corporate environment with separate HR, payroll and accounts departments rather than a small company. The company I work for use it a lot, its designed to be 'un-user friendly' for one reason and one reason only - Sage provides training courses for using it that companies have to send employees on at huge costs.

Do you mind me asking, what business are you in, do you have employees and are you a sole trader or limited company?

I'm starting my own company at present and ive been looking at accounting packages, if you have less than a few employees or its just you, check these out - im going with these.

http://www.crunch.co.uk/online-accounting-small-businesses/

Reebok_Rebel wrote:

I'm starting my own company at present and ive been looking at accounting packages, if you have less than a few employees or its just you, check these out - im going with these.

Why do you need a whole package to become a pimp? All you need is Excel and a long coat and you're sorted.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Reebok_Rebel wrote:

I'm starting my own company at present and ive been looking at accounting packages, if you have less than a few employees or its just you, check these out - im going with these.

Why do you need a whole package to become a pimp? All you need is Excel and a long coat and you're sorted.

Nat, your not stupid, I need a legitimate company to launder my ill-gotten money for me...

Reebok_Rebel wrote:Sage software is more suited to a corporate environment with separate HR, payroll and accounts departments rather than a small company. The company I work for use it a lot, its designed to be 'un-user friendly' for one reason and one reason only - Sage provides training courses for using it that companies have to send employees on at huge costs.

Do you mind me asking, what business are you in, do you have employees and are you a sole trader or limited company?

I'm starting my own company at present and ive been looking at accounting packages, if you have less than a few employees or its just you, check these out - im going with these.

http://www.crunch.co.uk/online-accounting-small-businesses/

I find Sage 50 easy enough TBF and I use HMRC's Basic tools (BPT-RTI) for payroll which is very user friendly and there's no problem going with real time information.
In another business I use 12Pay for payroll - it's OK and works for a larger number of employees but not as straightforward as BPT-RTI.
I use Kashflow for the accounts in that one - again it's OK
There are loads of packages out there and you can get them as simple or complex as you wish depending on what management information you want/need.

Reebok_Rebel wrote:Sage software is more suited to a corporate environment with separate HR, payroll and accounts departments rather than a small company. The company I work for use it a lot, its designed to be 'un-user friendly' for one reason and one reason only - Sage provides training courses for using it that companies have to send employees on at huge costs.

Do you mind me asking, what business are you in, do you have employees and are you a sole trader or limited company?

I'm starting my own company at present and ive been looking at accounting packages, if you have less than a few employees or its just you, check these out - im going with these.

http://www.crunch.co.uk/online-accounting-small-businesses/

Hi RR.

I work for a small accounting firm not far from the Reebok. We do accounts, payrolls, tax returns etc mainly for sole traders and small limited companies.

We use a range of packages, depending on the client. My boss reckons another reason Sage is so unfriendly is it makes it difficult for clients to piss around with at their end. Being that it runs off traditional accounting principles means there's only so much you can do with it without accounting know-how. Businesses owners tend not to fiddle too much with it, knowing they could find themselves in a mess if they get it wrong.

We have used VT Transaction for really basic jobs, but not so much any more.
We also use Kashflow and Xero which are both easier to get round than Sage.

Doffcocker - am I right in thinking that you work in an accountancy practice and Sage is doing your head in? I find some irony in that as Accountants are largely responsible for Sage's widespread adoption in the first place.
When they first hit the market 25 to 30 years ago, Sage did a reseller deal with ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW which basically got Accountants to advise their Clients to use Sage - primarily because once a transaction is entered it's a barsteward to remove or edit and moreover, Sage basically does the Accountant's job  for them. 
I still let my Accountant come in and do the y/e and a few bits and bobs but she knows as well as I do that it's money for old rope - Sage does all the work and I could easily throw the company financial statements together myself if required.
I hate doing the Accounts but as a business person I think of it as a necessary evil - I need the info to make informed decisions about the direction of the business and to that end Sage is not very flexible - but that can be viewed as a benefit.

wanderlust wrote:Doffcocker - am I right in thinking that you work in an accountancy practice and Sage is doing your head in? I find some irony in that as Accountants are largely responsible for Sage's widespread adoption in the first place.
When they first hit the market 25 to 30 years ago, Sage did a reseller deal with ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW which basically got Accountants to advise their Clients to use Sage - primarily because once a transaction is entered it's a barsteward to remove or edit and moreover, Sage basically does the Accountant's job  for them. 
I still let my Accountant come in and do the y/e and a few bits and bobs but she knows as well as I do that it's money for old rope - Sage does all the work and I could easily throw the company financial statements together myself if required.
I hate doing the Accounts but as a business person I think of it as a necessary evil - I need the info to make informed decisions about the direction of the business and to that end Sage is not very flexible - but that can be viewed as a benefit.

Most of our clients are people that don't know the first thing about accounting and just hand us a mountain of receipts, invoices, written records etc so that we can work out what they owe HMRC.

Others however are people that record all their transactions through Sage, then pass it all over to us to sort out near the end of every period. I have subtly tried asking my boss why it is that they bother paying us to do anything.

I read this thread and then fell asleep for two hours.