Sage 50 Accounts Version 24 is it time to upgrade?

Sage 50 Accounts Version 23 and lower

Many Sage 50 Accounts users in the UK took up the opportunity of purchasing on e of the last perpetual licence upgrades Sage UK made available.  This was the last opportunity to upgrade a wholly owned licence.

Those who did not purchase V24 during the offer that ended in January 2018, are left on very old versions that are now presenting increasing performance issues when integrating with Office 365 or new hardware as old Windows 7 machines are replaced and servers upgraded.  For those businesses on ailing versions, the only option open is to move to subscription.    Software as a service like this offer from Sage UK is known as SaaS.

The good news is that businesses who need to upgrade but who prefer to use a trusted business partner for their Sage support and impartial advice – can still do so if they process their subscription through them rather than Sage UK.  The price to the end user is the same.  For customers moving from V22 or older they will need to work with a business partner as their data will need to be upgraded via an interim version in most cases.

 

Sage 50 Accounts Version 24 – do you need to upgrade to Sage 50c Accounts?

Making Tax Digital

By now – business users on V24 will be aware that upgrading to Sage to gain access to the Sage making tax digital module was not essential and have made use of one of the many HMRC approved bridging API’s available

Whilst it is not ideal to have to incorporate another step to return VAT an indicative cost for a full 12 months of use per VAT entity is only £90 plus VAT.  This is a massive saving if compared to the cost of moving to Sage 50C subscription.

 

Default Date on Sage 50 accounts Reporting – manual intervention is now required

Versions 24 and 25 have a maximum forward default date of 31st December 2019.

Since the start of 2020 users of these versions will need to manually set the date each time they need to run a report.

Users can use the small button with a pencil icon to quickly choose a date range see the screenshot below)

 

The need to manually change dates is also relevant to Sage 50 Manufacturing although it presents users with less of an issue as the solution relies less on date ranges for reporting.

 

Do you need to upgrade your Sage 50 Accounts?

Quite simply – unless you do not want to use a bridging API or feel the manual date change intervention is going to prove to be business critical then a business does not need to upgrade from Version 24.

 

But are there benefits to upgrading from Sage 50 Accounts Version 24?

In summary:

  • Better controls when updating multiple records
  • Last ‘good known backup’ i.e.: with zero errors is flagged and cannot be deleted
  • MTD compliant
  • Date default is 2050 for reporting purposes

 

Are there benefits to upgrading to Sage 50C Accounts on subscription?

In summary:

  • A controlled overhead for your accounts solution that includes support
  • MTD compliance and Sage’s commitment to keep the solution in line with future HMRC compliance
  • Major version upgrades and updates are included*
  • Use of Sage ‘cloud’ space*

 

*If you use any third-party solutions even Sage Manufacturing you can not download upgrades without ensuring that compatibility is maintained with those interfacing solutions.  Updates and upgrades can therefore be inconvenient.  If you require external consultancy, you will incur a cost to install the upgrades provided as part of your subscription contract for Sage 50C Accounts.

*The integration of some third-party applications and Sage 50 Manufacturing can not be achieved unless Sage 50C Account is installed on your on-site server and networked to your PC’s.

Our recommendation to customers over the 26 years we been a Sage business partner is to upgrade Sage Accounts every 3 – 4 years to achieve the balance of keeping your software ‘current’ whilst not heading for ‘overkill’ on upgrade disruptions and costs.

 

Thought for the Day

In truth each business using Sage 50 Accounts version 24 needs to assess how critical the differences between Version 24 and Version 26 are for their business and calculate what the return on investment for Sage 50C Accounts subscription looks like for them.

It is true to say that the industry is moving to software as a service.  It will be increasingly difficult to ‘purchase’’ software outright moving forward.  If everything your business needs for finances, manufacturing and CRM are provided by a single database solution then SaaS offers a range of powerful benefits.  If your business is using disparate solutions that need to be interfaced, then the many of the benefits that are core to SaaS methodology will be lost for you.

Get in contact with Qi to discuss and plan the timeframe for your upgrade to SaaS

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