Sage 50c Accounting – US Reviews | 2023 Pricing & Overview

About Sage 50c Accounting – US

Our Rating: 7

Our Verdict

We like Sage 50c for its powerful job costing and sophisticated financial reporting. This software allows you to customize reports specific to your industry, including construction, distribution, and manufacturing. In addition, its accountant-first approach makes it an intuitive application for financial professionals.

We don’t like Sage 50c for its pricing compared to similar accounting products. For example, users will initially pay a discounted monthly or annual subscription fee, which increases in subsequent years. We also found accessing your financial data restrictive, as Sage 50c is locally installed.

Core features of Sage 50c Accounting include accounts payable and receivable, general ledger reporting, and inventory management. In addition, the software provides sales tax reporting, automated W2s, and accurate tax calculations for employee withholding. We’ll focus on basic bookkeeping features like invoicing customers, adding and approving bills, and bank reconciliation.

Note: This is on-premises software. The cloud does not host your data and software. Instead, “Cloud” refers to cloud-connected add-ons you can integrate with your existing Sage 50c application.

Who Is Sage 50c For?

We recommend Sage 50c Accounting for contractors with financial expertise. Originally known as Peachtree Accounting, Sage 50c helps small to mid-sized companies in the service industries track cash availability and budget more accurately. Businesses with under 20 employees are most likely to review the purchase as a potential option.

Pros
Cons

• Powerful job costing.
• Robust financial reporting.
• Great invoice customization.

• Poor inventory management.
• Dated user interface.
• No remote access to data without add-on.

Our Ratings

Usability – 5.5

Gives users a full accounting system with basic inventory control; switching between tabs is difficult; user interface could be more streamlined.

Support – 9

Offers live chat, case submission, and phone support 9 am – 8 pm ET, Mon-Fri; includes access to documentation and videos via Sage Knowledgebase and University; some user complaints cite long hold times.

Scalability – 7.3

Job costing functionality is great for small contractors; sophisticated financial reporting helps growing companies budget accurately; UI and jargon language pose a learning curve for new users; cannot install on a mobile device or tablet.

Security – 9

Allows users to backup data as a PTB file or export financial records in a CSV format; easily adjust user access permissions to specific areas of the software; Sage Group UK experienced a data breach in 2016 but has not since.

Value – 5.8

Other accounting software provides similar value to Sage at lower price; monthly/annual subscription fees tend to increase each year.

Performance – 5.5

Speed and responsiveness could be better optimized; complicated UI can slow processes as users move from screen to screen.

Key Features – 7

Provides high-level customization of invoices; offers bulk bill payment capabilities; allows users to format bills for various blank check paper stock; provides bulk reconciliation functionality at the Pro Accounting level; supports multiple currencies (uses base currency in reporting).

Invoicing Needs Some Work

We think invoicing in Sage 50c could be more streamlined with fewer tabs and less navigation. For example, creating an invoice involves first clicking the “Customers & Sales” link in the vertical navigation pane. Then, after clicking the “Customers and Sales” tasks icon, you’ll find a further list of subtasks to choose from in a dropdown menu.

Many accounting solutions for small businesses have a more pared-down approach to invoice entry, allowing you to choose “new invoice” right from the homescreen. Here is what that complete process looks like in Sage 50c:

1. Click the Sales Invoices task in the Customer and Sales dashboard.
2. Click the New Invoice option.
3. Type the customer’s name or use the magnifying glass to search in the Customer ID field.
4. Enter the invoice date, due date, and reference number.
5. Click the magnifying glass in the Items field for a dropdown list of inventory.
6. Select your product to populate details like Item, Unit Price, Tax, etc. Specify the quantity.
7. Click the Save option on the top nav or Print to view a preview and print.
8. Click the Receive Money option on the Customers & Sales dashboard.
9. Input the relevant customer ID.
10. Indicate the amounts paid by clicking the Pay checkboxes on each invoice line below.

Adding and Approving Bills

We would like to see better optimization of billing in Sage 50c. The steps closely mirror the invoicing process, but thankfully, you can add a “Enter Bills” link to your Shortcuts to save yourself from a few additional clicks.

You can create a new bill in Sage 50c like so:

1. Click the Enter Bills task on the Vendors & Purchases dashboard.
2. Click the Enter Bills option.
3. Type the vendor’s name or use the magnifying glass to search In the Vendor ID field.
4. Enter the relevant invoice date, due date, and invoice number.
5. Click the magnifying glass in the Items field for a dropdown list of inventory.
6. Select your product to populate details like Item, Unit Price, Tax, etc. Specify the quantity.
7. Click the Save option on the top nav to post the bill.
8. Close out of the window to return to the Vendors & Purchases dashboard.
9. Click Pay Bills and the Pay Bill option.
10. Input the relevant vendor ID.
11. Indicate the amounts paid by clicking the Pay checkboxes on each invoice line below.

Bank Reconciliation in Sage 50c

As with billing and invoicing, bank reconciliation in Sage 50c could be simpler and clearer. Most modern accounting solutions streamline this process by auto-matching bank line items and transactions. Sage 50c relies more on manual data entry, which we found cumbersome. That said, we appreciated the option to do bulk reconciliation (a feature not always offered by competitors at the basic plan level).

Here’s how to do bank reconciliation in Sage 50c:

1. Click the Tasks button on Sage’s top navigational toolbar.
2. Select the Account Reconciliation option.
3. Click the magnifying glass next to the Account to Reconcile field. Select the relevant account from the dropdown list.
4. Enter the Statement Date in the upper right-hand corner of the Account Reconciliation window.
5. Enter your Statement Ending Balance at the bottom of the window.
6. Select the Import button at the top of the window to upload a local copy of your bank statement OR
7. Click the Bank Feeds button for a dropdown menu. Select Connect to Bank Feed, then follow the steps in the wizard.
8. Sage presents a transactions list with deposits and bank credits automatically shown first.
9. Reference your bank account line items against the Sage transactions.
10. Click the checkmarks in the Status column to indicate which items match.
11. Reconcile line items until the Unreconciled Difference at the bottom of the window is 0.

You can unreconcile transactions by clearing their individual checkboxes or by going to the Clear button in the top nav and selecting the All option with the empty checkbox.

What Features Are Missing?

Sage 50c Accounting is a robust platform that allows you to take total control over your finance management. However, some vital features are lacking in Sage 50c, namely in regards to accessing your financial data from anywhere but a Windows workstation:

• Remote access: Today’s accountants and employees expect instant access to real-time financial data 24/7. However, Sage 50c is locally installed and only accessible remotely if you use the Remote Data Access add-on.

  Remote Data Access is a cloud service that provides a secure connection to your company accounts from anywhere, including at home. However, the data isn’t stored on the cloud. Remote Access just connects you to data stored on another computer using the cloud. If you’re looking for a truly web-based Sage product, we recommend Sage Intacct. It offers anytime, anywhere user access via your browser using a SaaS delivery model.

• Mobile app: The lack of a mobile app is unsurprising, as remote access to Sage 50c is limited. However, most accounting software users today expect to have a mobile option to access data from their phones or tablets.

• Modern interface: We found Sage’s user interface overwhelming and unintuitive. A complicated navigation menu, few visual or graphic aids, and a lack of contextual help within the software could confuse a beginner. That said, financial professionals will likely adapt without issue, as Sage 50c tends to structure its platform using core accounting terminology and concepts.

Pricing Plans

Plan
Pricing
Features
Sage 50c Pro Accounting

$57.17/month or $578/year

• One user
• Invoicing, income, expenses, payments, inventory management, automated bank reconciliation, and reporting

Sage 50c Premium Accounting

$92/month or $924/year

Includes all Pro features, plus:

• 1-5 users; up to 10 companies
• Job costing
• Advanced budgeting and audit trails
• Multi-entity accounting
• Serialized inventory tracking

Sage 50c Quantum Accounting

$152.42/month or $1,533/year

Includes all Premium features plus:

• Up to 40 users
• Industry-specific options for manufacturing, construction
• Workflow management
• Role-based user permissions

Every plan includes unlimited access to phone and online chat support. All plans are what Sage refers to as “payroll-ready.” However, the application does not have built-in payroll functionality, which is not uncommon for most accounting software. Instead, you must integrate a do-it-yourself payroll module.

The payroll module also allows you to create W2s and tax forms, set up employee vacation/sick time, and more. Pricing for the payroll module is unavailable online, so you should contact Sage for further details. However, their website indicates that the subscription is tiered based on your current plan and the number of employees.

Can I buy Sage 50c without a subscription?

No, Sage 50c is only available via a subscription license. Before 2021, Sage 50c offered subscription or perpetual licensing, but this is no longer the case. Pricing for Sage 50c accounting starts at $57.17/month or $578/year for one user with the Pro Accounting subscription plan.

Can I use Sage 50c without the Internet?

No, Sage 50c requires Internet access to activate and maintain support and services. The subscription service requires Internet connectivity at least every 20 days to verify entitlement and complete product upgrades. Sage is not able to offer subscription services to users without Internet access.

When did Peachtree become Sage 50c?

Sage Group purchased Peachtree Accounting in 1999 and rebranded the software as Sage 50 – US Accounting in 2013. Sage would later develop cloud-connected features for the application and renamed the application Sage 50cloud to reflect this change.

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Summary

We recommend using Sage 50c Accounting if you are a small to mid-level contractor with financial expertise. This software features robust job costing, accounts payables, receivables, and general ledger reporting.

Sage 50c provides limited inventory management capabilities, so there are better options out there for companies based in manufacturing or retail, for example. The software’s user interface could be better optimized, posing a greater learning curve for the layperson. However, accountants should be able to jump into the software without issue.

Organizations using Sage 50c must integrate an add-on service to receive remote access to their data. No mobile app is available for using this software from your phone or tablet. Overall, Sage 50c does not offer the same value as accounting software at similar price points. We recommend alternatives like QuickBooks Online or Xero for small companies looking to optimize their financial processes.