Sage Vs Quickbooks: Which Software Is Good for Your Business?
Sage vs QuickBooks
Being an owner of a small accounting practice does not make you less ambitious, and when you consistently follow the right policy, you can turn your small accounting practice into a fast-growing enterprise. However, as your practice grows, so does the number of complicated financial transactions, and you would love to get it right from the start to avoid complications. All this makes having accounting software in your accounting process necessary. To make it easy, we have narrowed it down to the two best options: Sage or QuickBooks.
Both accounting software programs offer multiple features and tools that can rationalise your accounting process, thus helping you handle higher volumes and equally complicated transactions without any issues. By incorporating these accounting software programs into your accounting process, you are enhancing your financial management. While Sage and QuickBooks have similarities, they are also different in many ways, thus raising one question: which one is best for you?
So, it is Sage vs QuickBooks. Both are equally good but which one of them can fulfil your requirements? This blog will help you understand both Sage and QuickBooks in detail. Based on that, you make the informed decision as to which software suits you.
What is Sage?
Sage has been a very dependable accounting software, especially for mid-sized accounting firms. It is popular for its features and flexibility, making it ideal for handling complex accounting requirements. Currently, Sage has several versions to meet the requirements of each accounting practice size and it has features that make it more than just accounting software. These features include project management, inventory tracking, and international accounting capabilities, which make Sage quite valuable.
Pros of Sage
Wide-ranging Features: To understand Sage, you will have to understand its features, which can cater to your requirements, especially mid-sized ones. While its main focus is streamlining accounting processes, it also offers multiple solutions to manage other functions of your accounting processes smoothly through international accounting capabilities, inventory tracking, and project management tools.
Flexibility in Services: You accounting practice will be unique and have specific requirements. Sage can accommodate these requirements by giving you the option to tailor the software to your needs. Thanks to this flexibility, you can handle your unique workflows and needs.
Ideal for Complex Businesses: Just because your size is small does not mean you will not have to deal with complex accounting tasks, especially when you are growing fast. Sage can help you in this transition by offering advanced tools and functions to handle advanced financial processes and follow international accounting standards.
Integration: While some may disagree, Sage is relatively easy to integrate with other software and accounting systems. Ease of integration allows you to transfer data seamlessly across different systems, thus enhancing your efficiency.
Cons of Sage
Extensive Training Required: Sage’s plus points are its features and flexibility, but familiarising with these features requires extensive training and learning about the software, which is time-consuming. Hence, some of your colleagues will find Sage difficult to use because it requires extensive learning to operate to its full potential.
High Cost: If you do a Sage vs QuickBooks on cost, then Sage is comparatively more expensive than QuickBooks because it offers various advanced features. Also, the cost of licensing and support should be considered, which will increase the cost and deter you due to budgetary constraints.
Limitation in Integration: Sage has integration abilities but is limited compared to QuickBooks. Limited integration can disadvantage accounting practices that rely heavily on integration with other software, systems, and data transfer.
What is QuickBooks?
QuickBooks software is an equally dependable accounting software. Compared to Sage, it is more user-friendly, easy to use, and easy to integrate with other systems. It is ideal for small accounting practices, but it has now expanded its horizon to cater to different sizes of accounting practices. It has achieved this through various versions such as QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Pro, and QuickBooks Enterprise.
To understand more about what is QuickBooks benefits, you will have to know its pros and cons.
Pros of QuickBooks
Easy to Operate Interface: The design of QuickBooks is such that even a first timer will be able to operate without much effort. It is easy to understand, thus making it easy to install, add up transactions, and generate reports.
Easy to Integrate with Other Systems: If someone asks you which accounting software is highly integrable, Sage or QuickBooks, the answer will be QuickBooks. While Sage can integrate with other systems, it cannot beat QuickBooks when it comes to ease of integration with payroll, CRM, and e-commerce platforms. With easy and strong integration, you can easily exchange data between various systems, thus reducing duplications manual entry, and improving workflow.
Affordable: QuickBooks is available in various price plans, giving you and various other accounting practices an option to consider. You can choose a plan that fits your budget and requirements.
Scalability: When your clients are expanding, the daily volume of your accounting tasks will increase. Thus, you will have to scale up your capacity with the help of QuickBooks. It can easily handle a higher volume of transactions and activities daily as you expand.
Cons of QuickBooks
Features are Limited: When you compare Sage vs QuickBooks in terms of features, QuickBooks is at a disadvantage due to its limited features. If you require help handling certain complex tasks, such as inventory tracking and project management, something other than QuickBooks will be able to fulfil your requirements.
Less Flexible: Although QuickBooks offers flexibility in its functions and features, it is not up to the level that Sage offers. This can be a disadvantage when you require certain tailored functions to meet specific requirements.
What Benefits Can QuickBooks and Sage Offer Your Company?
Whether it is Sage or QuickBooks, both offer benefits that can benefit your small accounting practice. Sage offers multiple features that meet different requirements and help streamline your process. The tailored services offered by Sage can meet your unique and specific requirements, thus helping you to handle your unique workflows. Furthermore, advanced tools should be taken into consideration, which will be highly beneficial in handling complex tasks.
On the other hand, QuickBooks offers a user-friendly interface, excellent integration with other systems, multiple price plans, and can handle high volumes of data and tasks daily.
So, it is important to evaluate your accounting requirements and the benefits offered by Sage and QuickBooks before making the choice.
What Features Do Sage and QuickBooks Offer?
Tracking of Expenses and Invoice
When you compare Sage vs QuickBooks, you will find multiple features that will benefit you. Let’s go through them one at a time.
Both offer this feature, but QuickBooks has an edge due to its user-friendly interface.
VAT Compliance
Both can handle UK VAT efficiently, thus helping your UK-based accounting practice to generate accurate VAT returns.
Bank Reconciliation
Both the accounting software’s do the job of bank reconciliation and modernise the matching process.
Processing Payroll
This is an important feature that both Sage and QuickBooks offer, including payroll processing per UK payroll regulations.
Management of Inventory
While both can manage inventory, the Sage has the upper hand because it offers multiple advanced features.
Financial Reporting
Sage and QuickBooks have multiple financial reporting options, including balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and cash flow reports. But it is Sage that offers the most customised and advanced reporting.
Integration
Both Sage and QuickBooks can integrate with third-party systems and apps, but QuickBooks is comparatively easier to integrate.
Cloud Accessibility
Through QuickBooks Online, you can get real-time access to financial data from anywhere, and same is true with Sage, thus promoting ease of business.
Access to Multiple Users
Multiple users can access QuickBooks, thus allowing multiple accountants to use it and work together. Even Sage offers the same feature, but you will require additional licensing for more users.
Conclusion
To conclude, we can say that choosing the right software is a decision that can have positive and negative consequences if not done in an informed way. Whether its Sage or QuickBooks both are equally credible and have their strengths and weakness. So, choose the right one after carefully considering your requirements.
But we understand that making such a decision is not simple. The cost involved in buying and training your staff in these software’s also has to be taken into consideration, which can put a burden on a limited budget. Therefore, it is wise to outsource your accounting tasks to a service provider such as Corient Business Solutions. We specialise in offering tailored accounting services for accounting practices. Our teams have vast experience in Sage, QuickBooks, Brightpay, Xero, Moneysoft, Earnie, and Star Payroll. Our year-end, VAT, payroll, and bookkeeping outsourcing services are designed to give your practice an edge in the market, thus saving you time to invest in other important tasks. We can connect at your convenience by phone or online meeting to discuss our services in detail.