Pros & Cons
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- New cloud version
- Excellent, customizable dashboard
- In-depth record and transaction forms
- Advanced inventory management tools
- Voluminous reports
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- Pricey
- Some interface elements look dated
- No mobile apps for core functionality
Sage 50 Accounting Specs
| All Major A/R, A/P Forms | |
| CRM Integration | |
| Customer/Vendor Portals | |
| Double Entry | |
| Live Support | |
| Mobile Access | |
| Multi-Currency | |
| Payroll | |
| Time Tracking | |
| Tracks Inventory | |
| Training Available |
Sage 50 Accounting is the oldest (over 40 years) and arguably most capable accounting app we've reviewed. The latest version introduces a substantial number of new features and enhancements, including cloud-based customer portals (Sage Connect), expanded connections with more banks, and a new expense management tool (Sage Expense). The biggest news, though, is that you can now access the full product from a web browser. That said, Sage 50 Accounting does far more than many small businesses need, and you can't simplify its feature set. Most people are better off paying less for one of our Editors' Choice winners, including FreshBooks for service-based businesses, Intuit QuickBooks Online for companies that sell both products and services, and Wave for microbusinesses that don't need payroll.
Pricing: Robust Features Come With a Hefty Price Tag
Three subscription tiers are available for the local desktop app version of Sage 50 Accounting, and all require a one-year contract. You receive a discount if you pay for a year up front rather than on a monthly basis. The Pro Accounting tier ($69.42 per month) supports a single user. This level provides access to the product's core features, including automated bank reconciliation, invoice and bill tracking, expense management, inventory management, purchase order and approval, and reporting.
The Premium Accounting ($114.33 per person per month) plan unlocks advanced budgeting and reporting features, audit trails, and change and purchase order management for up to five users. Finally, the Quantum Accounting plan ($198.42 per person per month) gets you role-based user permissions and workflow management features for up to 40 users.
An integration with Microsoft 365 Business Premium incurs an additional $317 per user annually. You must buy this directly through Sage, and I found it extremely challenging to set up in the past.
Sage 50's desktop app is often available at a lower price in physical stores; however, you still need a subscription to receive product updates and access any cloud-based features.
Sage 50 Cloud plans run considerably higher. They offer the same features and user experience, with the added benefit of being able to do everything online without needing to install the desktop app. The Pro, Premium, and Quantum plans, respectively, cost $124.42, $169.33, and $253.42 per person per year with the same minimums.
As for competitors, QuickBooks Online’s prices range from $38 to $275 per person per month. Other cloud-based competitors are far more affordable. FreshBooks costs between $21 and $65 per month, with extra licenses available for $11 each per month. Microbusinesses might consider Wave; it has a free edition, and paid plans start at a reasonable $19 per month. The free version of Zoho Books is also quite robust.
Interface and Ease of Use: Powerful, But Dated
Sage 50 Accounting uses a wizard to guide you through creating a new company, walking you through the setup process, and asking questions to accommodate your specific needs. The company offers various help options, including excellent online and software-based resources, as well as chat, email, and phone support.
All accounting applications have dashboards. Most start you off with a default set of charts and lists, but Sage 50 lets you start from scratch, providing a lengthy list of program pages that you can display in the order you want. These include Aged Receivables, Customers Who Owe Money, and Revenue Year to Date. You can assemble multiple dashboards if you pay for the Quantum tier.
(Credit: Sage/PCMag)Sage 50 uses a traditional horizontal menu at the top. Alternatively, a vertical toolbar provides another way to navigate more easily by dividing the software’s tasks into modules. Click the first module, Customers & Sales, and a map opens with links to common actions, along with related charts and lists. Another page in this section shows each customer’s transactions. Every module works this way.
The new Sage 50 Cloud edition opens the software up to a much broader audience: anyone with a computer and a web browser. This hosted version features automatic updates and backups, which minimize business disruptions. I'm glad to see Sage 50 dispense with one of its biggest historical drawbacks, though you pay a lot more for this version, as mentioned.
(Credit: Sage/PCMag)Although it’s easy to understand how to use the software’s multi-pane pages, Sage 50 has stuck with the same interface and navigation scheme for decades, even when it was called Peachtree Accounting for Windows. It has updated some, but not all, pages over the years, which results in a somewhat uneven appearance. It looks dated, though longtime users might like the consistency. A couple of operational quibbles: The text is very small and hard to read on some pages, and the software frequently opens new windows that you have to close to proceed with your work.
Sales Management: Detailed and Flexible
Sage 50 excels at sales management. The software’s depth is readily evident here as it is elsewhere. Open a customer record, for example, and you see multiple layers of detail: contacts, custom fields that can answer pretty much any question you have, historical financial data, and sales data.
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Invoices are equally detailed and customizable. Sage 50 offers customizable templates for more sales forms than any other accounting app I've reviewed. Besides invoices, you can create credits, proposals, quotes, returns, sales orders, and statements. Toolbar icons on sales forms make it easy to do related tasks while you’re creating forms. The software also offers powerful job costing tools. You can set up job cost codes, phases, and records to track job completion time and net revenues.
(Credit: Sage/PCMag)Sage Connect adds new cloud-based features to the desktop version of Sage 50: a portal where you can communicate with customers, as well as view and pay invoices (through Stripe and PayPal). You can use the new customer message templates to create boilerplate text and insert real-time data—similar to how a mail merge works. The ability to designate a preferred language for customer communications and to automate payment reminders are additional tools at your disposal. This is a great addition that brings accounts receivable automation to the software.
Purchases and Vendors: Thorough Tracking and Management
Sage 50’s vendor module is as comprehensive and detailed as its customer module. You can create and track bills, checks, credits, purchase orders, and returns. Electronic bill pay is available at an extra cost. The software’s sales and purchase tools are more suitable for larger small businesses than those in FreshBooks or Wave, as they provide more flexibility than smaller businesses typically need.
Time and Expenses: Functional, With Optional Add-Ons
You can create time tickets in Sage 50 Accounting by either completing an individual form for a single work session or filling out a timesheet. It's possible to use either to apply a ticket to a job, to a customer invoice, or as an administrative task, as well as to set a billing rate. Companies that require more functionality than Sage 50 offers can purchase Sage Timeslips, with monthly costs ranging from $61 to $168 per person per month.
Expense tickets have some of the same options, but they also ask if the expense is reimbursable to an employee. You can’t snap a photo of a receipt and transfer its information to an expense form in Sage 50, unlike some competitors, although you can attach a photo of such receipts.
If your company needs to record a high volume of expenses, you may want to consider investing in the Sage Expense Management app (formerly Fyle, which Sage acquired). It costs between $14.90 and 17.99 per person per month. Annual and custom pricing is available. This solution automates the expense management process for both employers and employees, providing real-time access to related data. Employers can use the mobile app to snap photos of receipts, allowing their managers to process them and issue reimbursements. The app supports everything you might expect in an expense management solution, from purchases to approvals and budgets.
Inventory Tracking: Industry-Leading Tools
Whether you’re selling one-off products or hundreds of the same item, you want to be able to track your inventory. Sage 50’s inventory management tools are exceptional—they go beyond those of any other small business accounting app I've tested. Item records can contain voluminous detail, from item types and locations to multiple price levels to serialized inventory items. The software supports both assemblies and multiple costing methods (Average, FIFO, and Specific Unit), as well as drop shipping. QuickBooks, Xero, and Zoho Books have inventory management tools, too, but Sage 50's are more comprehensive.
(Credit: Sage/PCMag)Reports: Comprehensive, But Uninspiring
Software as robust as Sage 50 Accounting needs exceptionally customizable and thorough reports—a lot of them. Thankfully, it offers more templates for reports than any other small business accounting app I've tested.
Reports support every one of the software's modules, from inventory to jobs, payables, and receivables. Standard financial reports are, of course, also available. You can apply filters to zero in on the data you want and modify the report's columns, fonts, and page setup; however, QuickBooks Online offers better, easier-to-use customization options. Its reports are more attractive and easier to read from the outset.
I recommend customizing the look of Sage 50 Accounting's reports as much as possible (especially if you're going to share them with financial institutions or potential lenders), because the default templates are rather uninspiring. When you’re satisfied, you can share reports via email and export them to Excel and PDF formats.
(Credit: Sage/PCMag)Security: Built on Decades of Expertise
Sage has built up experience and expertise in working with cloud data over the decades. The company says it implements the tools, technologies, and best cybersecurity practices to protect its data, devices, and systems wherever they sit. It encrypts data using the latest recommended version of the internationally recognized Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. Furthermore, Sage states that it searches for vulnerabilities in its software that a cyberattacker could exploit. The Sage Cyber Defense Operations Team continuously monitors every production environment for potentially malicious activity. Both the cloud and desktop versions require multi-factor authentication.
Mobile Apps: Core Features Aren't Available
Sage 50 Accounting is so data- and feature-rich that I can’t imagine a mobile app that could translate its content to a small screen. The company doesn't, in fact, offer any mobile versions of the core program at this time.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Sage)
Sage 50 Accounting
Sage 50 Accounting is an exceptionally robust accounting app that offers advanced inventory tracking, comprehensive financial tools, optional cloud-based access, and numerous in-depth reports.