The Total Guide to Sage 50 ERP
Our guide covers everything you need to know about Sage 50 accounting software, including integration, market fit, pricing, features, and comparisons. Access our free e-book to learn more about automating accounts payable and global mass payments with Sage 50.
What is Sage 50 ERP?
Sage 50 is Sage 50cloud Accounting software, a desktop software product with a cloud connection for small businesses that includes payroll. Some medium businesses also use Sage 50. Sage 50 also offers an Accountant Edition for CPAs and bookkeepers. In the U.S., Sage 50 is an acquired accounting software product, originally called Peachtree Accounting. The Sage 50 label is applied to different Sage software accounting systems, depending on the country.
Originally, Sage 50 meant business accounting software for up to 50 users, although Sage currently caps its Sage 50 Quantum Accounting plan at 40 users in the pricing plan features list.
Sage 50 is one of the software products comprising Sage ERP. Besides Sage Intacct, other Sage ERP products are Sage 100 ERP, Sage 300, and Sage X3. ERP is enterprise resource planning. Sage 50 is primarily small business accounting software that competes with QuickBooks.
Sage 50cloud has three cost-effective pricing plans, offering a different version of Sage with more features and users at each level.
Sage 50cloud Accounting software includes:
- Sage Security Shield for cyber threat protection, business identity protection, and internal fraud security
- Cash flow and invoicing with Cash Flow Manager
- Accounts payable, payments, and banking with bank feeds
- Advanced inventory management, including tracking and status
- Job costing for jobs and project management
- Budgeting
- General ledger
- Financial reporting
- Over 150 reports
- General business or industry-specific for construction, manufacturing, and distributors
- Reports drill-down to transaction-level company data
- Insights and business intelligence for making business decisions
- Sage Security Shield for cyber threat protection, business identity protection, and internal fraud security
Features
Key Features and Benefits of Sage 50
These are some key features and benefits of Sage 50.
Comprehensive accounting software
Sage 50 is accounting software with modules visible in the Home window either in an Enhanced View or Classic View.
Includes customer support plan
Sage 50 includes customer support, including unlimited phone and online chat support, with all pricing plans.
Optional payroll bundles
Sage payroll integration is optional, with pricing based on the number of employees.
Integrates with separate Sage HR ERP module for Payroll users in the U.S. and Canada
Sage HR integrates with Sage 50 accounting software and works with Sage Payroll and TimeSlips.
Integrates with Microsoft 365 with upgrade
The optional add-on for Microsoft 365 software includes Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Microsoft 365 may also include Microsoft Teams with your subscription.
Manual purchase order creation
Sage 50 includes manual purchase order creation and approval and adds change order functionality for the Premium and Quantum plans.
Foreign currency transactions
Sage 50 lets your company enable foreign currency transactions, set up currencies, and use live exchange rates.
ePayments and paper checks
Sage 50 accounting software supports ePayments (direct deposit) and paper checks through the Payments window when you provide the payment details.
Inventory tracking and stock status
Sage 50 inventory tracking includes viewing inventory in stock and on order, tracking inventory movements, and adjusting quantities when required. Premium and Quantum plans include serialized inventory tracking.
Advanced job costing with Sage 50 Premium or Quantum plans
Job costing allows customization, uses unique records, phases, and job codes for control, and lets you view job profitability and status.
Advanced budgeting
Sage 50 advanced budgeting is used to set up department budgets with nominal codes for cost or income analysis, reviewing prior budgets, and copying budgets to future months.
Manual employee expense report reimbursement
Reimbursable employee expenses functionality with expense tickets is available in Premium and Quantum Sage 50 plans.
Audit trail
Sage 50 lets you create and print an Audit Trail report that documents activity by user.
Multi-company in Quantum plan (with a Sage Multi-Company License)
The Sage 50 Quantum plan for one to 11+ users lets your business manage more than one company.
Industry-specific in Quantum plan
The highest-level Quantum Accounting SaaS plan offers industry-specific software functionality.
Remote Data Access (formerly Sage Drive) to share data and manage users with remote access
Sage 50 Remote Data Access lets users connect to Sage 50 via the Internet.
Sage 50 Accounting (formerly Sage 50c) is easy-to-use accounting software. Sage 50 is part of Sage Business Cloud.
The lowest level Sage software plan is Pro Accounting for only one user, which includes a basic accounting program and bookkeeping features.
Sage 50 accounting solution lets users create invoicing with a PayNow button for customers, record accounts receivable, create purchase orders from sales orders, record credit card payments to vendors, perform automatic bank reconciliation, and do simple job costing.
With the Sage 50 Premium Accounting plan serving one to five users and the Quantum Accounting plan for one to 11+ users, Sage 50 offers advanced inventory management with item tracking, advanced job costing, advanced budgeting, and role-based security. Best practices are built into industry-specific Sage 50 accounting software for manufacturing, distribution, and construction at the Premium and Quantum plan levels.
Integrating the Sage 50 accounting software with optional modules, Microsoft 365 software, and other third-party add-on apps increases Sage 50 functionality.
Modules
Sage 50 Modules
Sage 50 Accounting modules include:
Customers & Sales
The Customers & Sales tab (Navigation Center) shows customer information (with some drill-downs highlighted in blue), recent customer reports, and an overview of aged receivables. Sage 50 Premium and Quantum plans add a customizable Customer Management tab to find information about customers, such as sales invoices and receipts.
Vendors & Purchases
The Sage 50 Vendors & Purchases tab (Navigation Center) shows summary vendor information, recently accessed reports, and aged accounts payable with some drilldown access. The Vendor Management tab (with Premium and Quantum plans) provides lists of transaction and history for each vendor, including POs, purchases, and payments.
Inventory & Services
Inventory and Services module tracks inventory by category with quantities for internal use and resale or service provision, sets price lists, costs the inventory, and provides an inventory profitability report.
Employees & Payroll (includes Time Slips)
Employees & Payroll (Navigation Center) includes employee and 1099 vendor information, recent reports access, and employee-related task flow.
Projects
Sage 50 Projects tracks costs and expenses for contracts or jobs, compares to project budgets, and provides project profitability reports.
Banking
Sage 50 Banking includes eBanking with a bank feed, bank reconciliation, and payments.
More Modules
Company (includes Accounts)
Use the New Company Setup Wizard to set up the accounts and chart of accounts for your company in Sage 50.
Human Resources (HR)
Sage HR (with Sage Payroll and Sage Timeslips) integration with Sage 50 enables core HR including automating custom HR workflows, document storage, and communication, employee self-service access to PaySlips and updating personal information, timesheets, shift scheduling, and leave management.
Remote Data Access
Remote Data Access lets users access Sage 50 over the Internet. The Sage 50 Manager can individually set up remote users after the company is linked to your Sage Account and can lock out users from Remote Data Access.
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Industries
Industries Using Sage 50
Small businesses with up to 40 users use Sage 50cloud Accounting as their accounting and payroll software. While Sage 50cloud Pro Accounting and Premium SaaS plans are for general businesses with up to 5 users, the Quantum Accounting plan includes industry-specific reports for manufacturing, wholesale, distribution, construction, and non-profit industries.
Sage 50 users are also operating in these industries:
Software and technology
Online services
Business services
Healthcare
Financial services
Ecommerce and Retail
Education
Other industries
Implementation
How to Implement and Use Sage 50
Sage 50 and Sage 50cloud Accounting software is simple enough to implement on your own. Sage partners with implementation consultants if you need tech support help. Sage 50 ERP support provides online resources, including those located at Sage Support Central, for a searchable 24/7 Knowledgebase, Sage City Community, and Sage 50 training courses. Training videos are used as a Sage 50 tutorial. Sage 50 support includes chat and online Q&A support.
Step 1
Designate lead implementer
Assign responsibilities for Sage 50 implementation.
Step 2
Consider using Sage Partner
Determine whether your company needs a Sage Partner consultant to guide the implementation.
Step 3
Planning
Plan the implementation with any assigned employees, milestones and deadlines. Also select and plan third-party software implementations.
Step 4
Training
Train users on how to use Sage 50 accounting software.
Step 5
Testing and Going Live
Determine if data cleaning and data migration from another software system is required (although Sage 50 is considered entry-level software). Test the Sage 50 software before going live.
Step 6
Post-implementation Review
Document the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation and opportunities for improvements in future software implementation projects.
How Does AP Automation Software Integration Work With Sage 50?
Add-on Tipalti AP automation software can be accessed through the Sage 50 login, using flat-file integration. Payables and global mass payments software streamlines accounts payable workflows and automates these business processes. Tipalti reduces fraud and error risk and validates regulatory payments compliance.
Tipalti AP automation features include:
- Multi-entity payables by entity with Sage 50 Quantum Accounting plan
- Replaces manual data entry with digitization and automation
- Self-service supplier onboarding with tax form collection and payment method choice, including EFTs
- Taxpayer identification number validation
- Digital invoice capture by heading and line items
- Automated invoice processing with 26,000+ payment rules for error checking
- Tipalti Detect for fraud detection related to payee suspicious activity
- Scanning payees against OFAC/SDN blacklists
- 3-way or 2-way matching with purchase order and receiving data
- Generative AI coding of invoices to general ledger accounts
- Automated approval routings
- Global payments to 196 countries in over 120 currencies with many payment methods
- Large batch payment scheduling with views of cash requirements before payment
- Real-time automated payment reconciliation after syncing data to general ledger
- Ask Tipalti AI℠ spend queries with answers
Tipalti’s unified finance automation platform integrates with Sage 50 Accounting. The other Tipalti products besides AP automation software are mass payments, Multi-FX, FX Hedging, Expenses, and Procurement. Tipalti also offers a corporate spending card, the Tipalti Card, which is issued to designated employees to control their spending not requiring a purchase order.
Businesses and nonprofits use Tipalti mass payments to make efficient global payouts to creators, streamers, affiliates, publishers, influencers, and independent contractors like freelancers. Applications include paying royalties to creatives like musicians and artists. Tipalti mass payments integrates with some performance marketing platforms to make payments from within their software.
Tipalti Expenses lets employees submit expense claims from captured receipt photos, and approvers approve them, through a mobile app. Expenses software integrates with Tipalti AP automation software to make employee reimbursements. Tipalti Expenses flags expenses that don’t comply with your company policy for travel and expenses, resulting in expense reimbursement denials for non-compliant expenses.
Tipalti advanced FX software works with its AP automation and mass payments software. Multi-FX uses a centralized virtual payment account to make payments for all global subsidiaries in different currencies without requiring an international regional banking network. Tipalti FX Hedging lets your company lock in foreign exchange rates before supplier invoices or payouts are due.
Tipalti Procurement software enables simple purchase requisition intake from employees, PR approvals, and automatic purchase order creation from approved POs. Your organization can improve its spend visibility with a dashboard and reduce maverick spend.ed account. FX Hedging for payables lets your company lock in foreign exchange rates on invoices before the payments are due. Mutli-FX supports 30 currencies.
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