The trend world-wide is indicating that on-premise accounting & ERP solutions will be disappearing in the immediate future ( +- 5 years ) and Cloud Based Accounting Computing / SaaS (software-as-a-service) will become the norm – no more having to invest heavily in your own hardware servers, database servers (Microsoft-SQL-server) and expensive IT support services. The latter will ALL be served by SaaS vendor.
The SaaS vendor also ensures fast disaster recovery, assuring business peace-of-mind for Cloud Based Accounting users. These solutions provide server and data redundancy and often most businesses do not even cater adequately for this risk.
As Cloud Based Accounting software has advanced, software providers have flooded the market with business solutions that, on the face of it, all look similar in their offering. In this blog will look at industry leader Sage, who has several business accounting solutions on the market.
Sage’s main offerings are Sage Business Cloud Accounting, Sage 200 Evolution and Sage Intacct. Sage Business Cloud Accounting is a widely used Cloud Based Accounting system, but we won’t discuss it in this article because it isn’t of comparable functionality to Sage 200 Evolution or Sage Intacct. This blog will focus on the critical differences between Sage 200 Evolution and Sage Intacct – and why YOU should consider Sage Intacct.
What is Sage 200 Evolution?
Sage 200 Evolution is a powerful ERP system popular with many businesses. The software provides businesses with rigorous functionality to address all your core business functions, including financials, supply chain and inventory management, to name just a few. It provides a more comprehensive view of the business than might be provided by several systems.
Sage 200 is designed for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with up to 100 employees and turn over between R2 million and R100 million and with more a single-company focus, e.g., not multi-company consolidation and reporting.
Sage 200 is an on-premise solution – requiring you to invest heavily in your own hardware servers, database servers and expensive IT support
What is Sage Intacct?
Sage Intacct is a SaaS Cloud Based Accounting financial management software developed in the US by the Intacct Corporation. It was created in 1999 then purchased by Sage for £850 million in 2018.
Sage Intacct is an entirely cloud-based ERP solution and allows you to streamline your processes, increase data accuracy, and gain better visibility and control of the entire company. Whilst Sage 200 and Sage Intacct probably look very similar there are differences that set the software apart.
What are the primary distinctions between Sage Intacct and Sage 200?
Entirely cloud-based
Firstly, Sage Intacct is an entirely cloud-based solution meaning that there is no need for on-premise hardware or software, which will reduce costs. It also has the added benefit of the software always being up to date as it’s maintained on remote servers by Sage, and version upgrades are instant and automatic, with no risk to you.
Automated currency conversion
Sage Intacct is genuinely a worldwide financial platform. It supports multiple currencies and taxes. Automated currency conversion enables you to aggregate transactions from several international locations and complete the books more quickly.
Advanced audit functionality
The advanced audit functionality of Sage Intacct is particularly appealing to Financial services businesses. This functionality permits the business to track intercompany transactions, offering complete traceability and transparency.
Customisable reporting dashboards
One of Sage Intacct’s core strengths is its highly flexible and customisable reporting dashboards enabling various industry sectors to develop customised dashboards according to their needs.
Multi-company data consolidation & reporting
It also offers better functionality in consolidating data from many companies. Sage 200’s standard reports are not as advanced or flexible.
Innovative general ledger includes 8 built-in dimensions.
Includes department, item, and employee – permits analysis of the business drivers that matter to the business, without having to manage a complex chart of accounts. With Sage 200 this would require many more and numerous sets of GL accounts adding more complexity to your GL.
Visibility – Visualization tools
The software’s visualisation tools are customisable so that users can adjust what they see based on individualized needs. Visualisation methods include graphs, charts, and tables. This feature can alleviate the amount of time that employees spend combing through data to gain actionable insights.
User process workflows
Intacct offers your users control over a wide variety of tasks associated with financial management. It provides for instance a view of cash flow and automates user workflows based on your user-inputted requirements and lets your users develop their own configurable dashboards.
Automated accounting processes
From purchase-to-pay, from quote-to-cash. Sage Intacct’s detailed configuration menus permit set up of contract and revenue policies without scripting, meaning you don’t need IT know-how to keep a handle on your most important data.
Intuitive User Interface
Precisely 65% of users stated it has an intuitive and user-friendly interface with a manageable learning curve.
Highly Configurable
The system is highly configurable and thus can cater for many different industries.
Summary of Key Benefits of Sage Intacct
- Strong multi-currency and multi-tax capabilities.
- More flexible and customisable dashboards.
- Advanced multi-company consolidation reporting.
- Powerful integration with Salesforce CRM.
- Fully cloud-based reducing costs associated with on-premise solutions.
- Intuitive User Interface
- Highly Configurable
- General Ledger with dimensions – simplify design of GL account structure
