Choosing accounting software can throw up quite a few dilemmas.
When you’ve made the decision to go with Sage (good choice!), you’ll be presented with a forked path. Sage has multiple different products – each with features and specialisms.
You could conduct research into these yourself. But that takes time – something we imagine you’re already running short on. In this article, we’ll be at your service, helping you compare Sage 200, Sage Intacct and Sage X3 so that you can decide which software is best for your business.
Sage 200
Key features
Financial Management: Including sales and purchase ledger, interactive dashboards, and flexible accounting periods that you can tailor to your needs.
Commercials: Purchase Order Processing, Stock Control, Purchase Ledger and Sales
Order Processing are all linked, giving you a full view of an order from start to finish.
Excel Reporting: In-depth reporting included as standard, covering areas like nominal, customer,
supplier and stock. All reporting is in an Excel workbook format, so you don’t have to get to grips with any new layouts.
Platform types to suit you: Sage 200 is available as both an on-premise and cloud-based solution, meaning you choose whichever deployment type is best for your business.
What industries does Sage 200 work best with?
Though Sage 200 can be used in businesses from any industry, much of its success has been with companies in areas like manufacturing and distribution, where being able to track customer data and the progress of stock is most important.
What size business does Sage 200 work best with?
Sage 200 works best in businesses that have between £2M-£100M annual turnover, or 50-250 employees. This rules out very small or very large businesses.
Sage Intacct
Key features
Strong core financials: Automate invoicing in accounts receivable, use cash management to track multiple accounts in real time. Consolidate multiple entities, even across different countries.
Financial reporting: Customise reports for a variety of outcomes, drawing together all your data at any time, and showing it to you via powerful visualisations.
Billing: Automated workflows and smart revenue recognition make the billing process simpler across organisations.
What industries does Sage Intacct work best with?
Sage Intacct will work for any industry, but its features mean it’s particularly popular with service-based businesses, like hospitality, financial services and non-profit organisations.
What size business does Sage Intacct work best with?
Due to its advanced accounting, customisation and capacity for expansion, Sage Intacct is a good choice for medium to large businesses.
Sage X3
Key features
Financial Management: Reporting, budgets, fixed assets.
Production Management: Quality control and project management.
What industries does Sage X3 work best with?
Sage X3 works well in chemical, distribution, equipment, and food and beverage industries.
What size business does Sage X3 work best with?
Sage X3 suits to medium or large businesses.
Tips for Choosing Sage Software
The information above is well and good. But your decision can’t just be made on those factors – because any software implementation worth its salt is based on much more.
Ask yourself what your end goal is with the software. Are you looking to still have it with you in 5+ years? What kind of support do you want? Are you happy for a bigger corporate company to do this, or would you prefer a more personal touch?
The answers to this shouldn’t come only from the main decision-maker, but also by those that will use the software regularly. Ideal implementations are more like a two-way conversation than a monologue. You and your Business Partner should work together to tailor the process to the needs of your company and its employees.
As you can see, not all Sage software is created the same. The decision about which version of Sage you choose is a highly personal one that should take into account not only the features of the software, but the specific challenges of your industry, your business and the people that work with your financial data every day.
PKF Smith Cooper Systems has been working with businesses across the UK to implement Sage 200 and Sage Intacct for the last decade.
To learn more about why we’re “The Good Sage Guys to Deal With”, contact us on 01332 959 008, or use the enquiry form.
Interested to know more about our Sage solutions?
Call 01332 959008 or enquire online today
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