Sage Cloud Accounting Review – Pros, Cons and Details (2024)

Editor’s Note: From what I’ve learned during my research of the Sage Business Cloud Accounting platform, I can say that this software is a good option for micro and small businesses, freelancers, and self-employed individuals who need a simple, basic accounting platform to keep track of their invoices and expenses. Even though it promises that it offers all-encompassing accounting software, many users have reported that this platform lacks some features.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting – What Is It?

Sage Accounting is a platform that offers bookkeeping features for micro-businesses, small businesses, freelancers, and self-employed individuals. The platform comes with a mobile app for people who need to keep track of their finances and make payments while on the move.

The Sage Accounting platform features are designed to enable time-saving automation, and fast payment features even for people with limited accounting knowledge. The platform is a full-service software and wants to be complete accounting software. That is why it’s also fully integrable with all the other Sage software platforms. All the platform’s functionalities are user-friendly, and there is a good knowledge base on the official website for help with any possible issues.

Sage Accounting Features

The features of this platform are designed to help with the accounting needs of micro and small businesses, self-employed individuals, and freelancers. These features differ per the different pricing plans and include:

• Creation and sending of invoices
• Tracking what you’re owed
• Automatic bank reconciliation
• Unlimited users
• Sending quotes and estimates
• Forecasting cash flow
• Automatically snap and post receipts
• Customizable per industry
• Manage purchase invoices
• Financial and tax reports
• Tracking of inventory
• 24/7 customer support

These features are designed with the needs of the freelancer, self-employed individual, and small business owner; they cover the basic accounting needs of this type of business. However, the Sage Accounting Start payment plan only covers a fraction of these, and to get the complete set of features; it looks like you’ll have to pay for the pricier Sage Accounting payment plan.

The Sage Accounting functionalities are well designed, and the main dashboard is easy to navigate. The setup process is straightforward, and it takes only a couple of minutes. To set up your account, you’ll be asked to fill in a checklist, and the platform will adjust all the necessary details for you.

The dashboard has a summary page and separate pages for Sales, Expenses, Contacts, Products & Services, Banking, Adjustments, Reporting, and Settings. I’ve tested the Sage Accounting plan and reviewed the main dashboard and the available options. The summary page holds all the pertinent information regarding your business’s financials – the Sales, Expenses, Cash Flow Statement, and Cash Flow Forecast. All of these make it simple to get a clear view of your business’s financial health.

With the pricier Sage Accounting plan, you have the option to create quotes and estimates and automatically convert them into invoices. The plan offers the option to connect your bank and credit card accounts and keep track of the bank transactions right from the platform. There is also the option to connect with your Stripe payment account and make immediate payments through the Sage platform.

The Sage Accounting plan is customizable by industry; you can use the Inventory feature and keep track of your inventory and adjust orders for stock quantities. It simplifies many things, especially if you are more tech-savvy and use the import feature and automatize part of the process.

The Sage Accounting platform offers you to create about 20 different financial reports. These include essential reports like Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Accounts Receivable Aging Report, Cash Flow Statement, Cash Flow Forecast, and many more. Use the Favorites tab to keep your most often used reports; to do this, simply click the star icon next to the report.

Sage Accounting Pricing Plans

The Sage Accounting platform comes with two payment plans, both with different functionalities.

• Sage Accounting Start – this plan will set you back $10/month. It offers only entry-level accounting features like creating and sending invoices, tracking what you’re owed, and automatic bank reconciliation. This plan only supports one user.
• Sage Accounting – the price for this plan is $25/month. It has all the features from the starter plan. Still, it also has all the other Sage Accounting features like inventory management, automation of sending/tracking invoices, automatic tracking of expenses, managing cash flow, and cash flow forecasting.

If you wonder if Sage Accounting is for you, you can use their free trial for thirty days and see whether this platform can satisfy your needs. They have occasional discounts on their pricing plans, and at the time of writing the Sage Accounting review, the Sage Accounting plan comes with a 70% discount for the first six months.

How Sage Accounting Fares Compared to Similar Platforms

Here I’ll compare Sage Accounting with some of its main competitors. For this purpose, I’ve selected Quickbooks Online, FreshBooks, Zoho Books, OnPay, and Patriot Accounting. One of the things all of these platforms have in common is that they all offer essential accounting and bookkeeping features.

Sage Accounting has a very affordable base pricing plan, but it comes with only entry-level accounting features and access to the Sage Accounting mobile app. Unlike Sage, the Quickbooks base plan is much more expensive, but it comes with a lot more functionalities that include reports, data import, and automation of transactions, among others.

The Sage Accounting advanced plan allows an unlimited number of users, as do Patriot, Quickbooks, and FreshBooks. In contrast, Zoho and OnPay charge an additional fee for adding extra users to the account. Sage Accounting looks like a good option for accounting software for micro and small businesses, freelancers, and self-employed individuals, judging from all the things I reviewed.

Sage Accounting User Experience

User experience is an area where accounting software platforms need to pay a lot of attention. The Sage Accounting developers have paid extra attention to it, and the result is a sleek interface that is easy to navigate. Also, at this time, 85% of all Trustpilot Sage Accounting reviews are positive.

The Sage interface has separate tabs for all essential features, and each tab is easy to customize with your company’s information. I need to note that I’m talking about the Sage Accounting advanced plan, and the screenshots below are from this platform.

• General User Experience – the Sage Accounting platform is easy to set up. The initial setup takes about a minute; once this is done, the welcoming screen offers you all the optimization options.
• Navigation – the navigation through the Sage platform is easy; the primary feature tabs are available in a menu on the top of the page. The platform has good contrast, with white background, black letters, and sage green highlights.
• Dashboard – the main dashboard is the summary tab, where you can see the key information about your business. There are shortcuts for the sales, expenses, cash flow statement, and cash flow forecast features. Below you can see the extensive information available when creating a new customer.
• Reports – the Sage Accounting platform allows you to create 20 different reports, including essential reports to keep track of the current financial state of your business.
• Mobile App – Sage Accounting is available in a mobile app version for both Android and Apple users. Both pricing plans allow access to the mobile app; since Sage is cloud-based accounting software, you can have easy access to all essential features when on the move.

Sage Customer Support

The Sage platform has several customer support channels in place. These are the customer support available via email, phone, or live chat, weekly from 9.30 AM to 5.30 PM EST. If necessary, you can schedule a one-on-one session with a support agent to get additional help about the platform.

However, the most valuable answers are available 24/7 in the Sage City, a Sage community forum. There is a resource library where you can read knowledge articles to help you solve your issues. The blog section on the official Sage website is named Sage Advice; most of the articles are focused on helping small business owners get the hang of the Sage platform and use it to their advantage.

If you have a question that is not covered anywhere on the platform, you can join the live Q&A session hosted via the main Sage website every weekday from 9 AM to 5 PM. An interesting part of the Sage customer support is the Sage University – a complimentary teaching platform on the Sage Cloud Accounting including training, certifications, and more.

Is Sage Business Cloud Accounting Secure?

As Sage Cloud Accounting is a cloud-based platform, the issue of online security comes into question. To help keep your account secure, you’ll need to create a strong password with at least ten characters, including numerals and special symbols. Having a weak password is the primary weak link. If you are using the mobile Sage Accounting app, you need to take good care of your smartphone.

Still, since the Sage Accounting platform only allows one username and password per company account, all people with access to the account need to know and uphold the safety options. It would be better if the Sage platform has two-factor authentication: this type of login is a double layer of security, especially when dealing with sensitive information.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting Software Conclusion

Sage Accounting is a part of the Sage Business Cloud. It is a cloud-based accounting software intended mainly for freelancers, self-employed individuals, micro and small businesses. All the functionalities are well designed and enable keeping track of the essential metrics necessary for running a healthy business.

The features of the Sage financial software are designed with the needs of the freelancers and small business owners in mind, meaning an easy-to-navigate interface, well-designed layout, and good organization of financial data. From my research, I can conclude that Sage Accounting works nicely for the people it is intended.