Sage 50 Accounting

Sage 50 Accounting is the most capable and oldest (over 40 years) accounting program we've reviewed. Available only for Windows machines, it offers full accounts payable and receivable functionality, in-depth inventory management, and top-notch reports. If you run a small to midsize business (SMB), however, it likely does far more than you need. If you're in that boat, you're better off paying less for one of our Editors' Choice winners, FreshBooks or Intuit QuickBooks Online, both of which operate on multiple platforms and offer outstanding blends of features, usability, and customization options.

How Much Does Sage 50 Accounting Cost?

The Sage 50 Accounting line has three plans. Pro Accounting costs $61.92 per month for one user. It includes all the basics, such as automated bank reconciliation, expense management, inventory management, invoice and bill tracking, purchase order and approval, and reporting. Premium Accounting, which I used for testing, starts at $103.92 per month for a single user and goes up to $239.17 per month for five users. It adds advanced versions of the basic features, audit trails, and the ability to manage multiple companies. Quantum Accounting begins at $177.17 per month for one user and increases to $333 per month for five users. This tier gets you role-based user permissions and workflow management features.

All plans require a one-year contract, but paying all at once gets you a discount. Bundles with Sage's payroll capabilities cost even more. An integration with Microsoft 365 Business adds another $180 per year to each plan. This allows you to access Outlook contacts, back up your data to OneDrive, design synced reports in Excel, and upload expense receipts from your smartphone. That said, it's challenging to set up in my experience.

Sage 50 Accounting now works with Sage HR, the company's multi-module human resources application. It starts at $6 per user per month. If your small business is growing quickly and you think you might need to incorporate HR software, it might be worth using.

Those plan prices are higher than any other SMB accounting application I've reviewed. QuickBooks' prices range from $35 to $235 per month, respectively, for one and 25 users. FreshBooks costs between $19 and $60 per month, with extra users available for $11 each. Patriot Software Accounting is $20 or $30 per month for an unlimited number of users, depending on the version you choose.

Getting Started: Excellent Help But a Choppy Look

A program as complex as Sage 50 Accounting requires extensive setup support. The software starts the process of creating a new company with a wizard. It walks you through the process, asking questions to shape your company file. Like Patriot Software Accounting, it asks about some structural accounting concepts (like real-time versus batch transaction posting) that might stump you. However, Sage has many help options to get you through the process, including excellent online resources.

Once you complete those initial tasks, you should set up your dashboard. Unlike some competitors, Sage 50 Accounting gives you lots of freedom here. You select the fields you want to appear on it and decide their placement. I appreciate this flexibility.

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If you remember how to use a traditional Windows program with the horizontal menu at the top, you won't have trouble navigating Sage 50 Accounting. An alternate toolbar makes things even easier 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 here shows each customer’s transactions. Every module works this way.

Sage 50 has used the same interface and navigation scheme for decades, even when it was called Peachtree Accounting for Windows. It has updated some pages over the years but not others, which makes for a somewhat uneven appearance. It looks dated, but getting around isn't too difficult.

A Remote Data Access feature allows you to share your company data with an accountant or bookkeeper, though each user must have the Windows desktop app for this to work.

How Does Sage 50 Accounting Handle Sales?

Sage 50 Accounting’s depth is evident everywhere you turn. Open a customer record, for example, and you see multiple layers of detail: its contacts, custom fields that can answer pretty much any question you have about the company, and relevant financial activity.

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Invoices are equally detailed and very customizable. Sage 50 offers 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. The software also lets you create and track jobs and treat them as projects, though FreshBooks and QuickBooks do a much better job of providing a separate set of tools for projects.

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Detailed Vendors and Purchase Transactions

Sage 50’s vendor module is as comprehensive and detailed as its customer module. Both are more appropriate for growing businesses (or larger small businesses) than those in FreshBooks or Wave. You can create and track bills, checks, credits, purchase orders, and returns. Electronic bill pay is available at an extra cost.

Like its competitors, Sage 50 lets you create records and IRS forms for 1099 vendors. But it also serves large enough customers that it tracks payments and creates 1099-INT, 1099-MISC, and 1099-NEC forms. This is an example of Sage 50's depth and flexibility. Purchase transactions, like sales transactions, have dedicated landing pages.

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Still, it lacks some tools that competitors offer. Xero, for example, lets you scan documents like bills and automatically transfer some of the fields into a form in the app. You can also upload bills and other documents into Xero using email forwarding. Sage 50 is comparatively weak in document management since you can only attach saved documents to transactions in the app.

Can You Track Time and Expenses?

You can create time tickets in Sage 50 Accounting by either completing an individual form for one work session or filling out a time sheet. You can use both for payroll or billing customers for services provided. Competitors offer similar tools for time tracking, though QuickBooks goes above and beyond with its QuickBooks Time integration. 

Expense tickets might not be useful to every business. You can fill out an expense ticket and bill it to a customer, but you have to create an inventory item to claim whatever you bought, which you wouldn’t do unless it’s something you keep in inventory. As such, salespeople can’t document meal expenses, and IT employees can’t immediately buy a necessary piece of equipment with the intent to bill the company later. You can’t snap a photo of a receipt and transfer its information to an expense form in Sage 50 either, though you can attach a photo of such receipts. 

In any event, you can configure both time and expenses to show up on invoices.

Outstanding Inventory Tracking

Sage 50’s inventory management tools are exceptional—they go beyond what any other small business accounting app offers. 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.

QuickBooks, Xero, and Zoho Books have inventory management tools, too, but Sage 50's are more comprehensive. QuickBooks lets you track non-inventory parts and build multi-item assemblies; Xero and Zoho Books don't do the latter.

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Thorough Reports

Sage 50 includes links to reports throughout the software on related pages, and you can also access a full list of all the possible reports. You get more templates for reports than in any small business accounting app I've tested. 

Reports support every one of the software's modules, from inventory to jobs, payables, and receivables. You can apply filters to zero in on the data you want and modify the report's columns, fonts, and page setup, though QuickBooks has better customization options. 

I recommend customizing the look of Sage 50 Accounting's reports (especially if you're going to share them) because the default templates are rather uninspired. Clicking on some line items opens the underlying transactions. You can share reports via email or export them to Excel.

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Is Sage 50 Accounting Safe to Use?

Sage has built up experience and expertise in working with cloud data over the decades. The company 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. Further, Sage says it searches for vulnerabilities in its software that a cyber attacker could exploit. The Sage Cyber Defense Operations Team continuously monitors every production environment for potentially malicious activity. If you choose to use the Remote Data Access feature, you can set up two-factor authentication.

No Mobile Apps

It's difficult to imagine a mobile app that encapsulates absolutely every one of Sage 50 Accounting’s features, and the company doesn't, in fact, offer any mobile version at this time. If you want an accounting application with excellent mobile apps, look to FreshBooks and QuickBooks.

Verdict: Comprehensive Accounting for Windows PCs

Sage 50’s deep capabilities should appeal if you run an expanding company and want all the accounting detail you can get, especially as it pertains to tracking inventory. It provides a useful, customizable dashboard, all the fields you could want on forms, and tons of exportable reports. That said, the more user-friendly FreshBooks and QuickBooks offer all that for less money, so they remain our Editors' Choice winners for small business accounting.