• New Sage Payroll Update v27.1 Released
    Includes ERR and CWPS enhancements
  • New Sage Payroll Update v27.1 Released

Tag: Sage 50

sage 50 vs sage 50cloud

Sage 50 or Sage 50cloud – what’s the difference?

Written by Admin on .

Sage 50 vs Sage 50cloud

Sage 50cloud is the newer and more feature-rich version of Sage 50. In this blog, we give you an idea of the added functionality of Sage 50cloud, letting you make a decision that’s right for YOU!

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The first point to make is that Sage 50 is not being ‘pushed out’ by Sage 50cloud. Your desktop version of Sage 50 will continue to work just fine into the future, but maybe you’re missing out on something by not moving to the latest version?

The second point we’d make is that if you’re already familiar with Sage 50, then making the move to Sage 50cloud will be a piece of cake. It’s just as intuitive to use, and you’ll feel right at home immediately.

sage 50 vs sage 50cloud

Remote Connection

So let’s look at what additional features Sage 50cloud can offer you and your business. Sage 50cloud is the ideal choice for ‘road warriors’, remote workers, the self-employed, or businesses that have multiple staff working outside of the office environs. Connected users can access key business data and information from Sage 50cloud via Office 365 integration.

Easy collaboration with your accountant.

Another big difference relates to ease of collaboration with your accountant, or with staff members at different sites. With Sage 50cloud the data being shared or worked on is secure and available. The big benefit of this is that any number of authorised people can access, review or amend the data in real time.

Safety and security.

Another big difference between these two versions of Sage Accounting relates to physical security. Imagine your office was burgled or went on fire – what would happen to your data? In most cases, it would be lost forever. With Sage 50cloud, however, using the scheduled backup option in Sage 50cloud Accounts and syncing with Microsoft Office 365, you can set your software to upload your backups automatically to Microsoft OneDrive. Therefore, it can be it’s stored securely in the cloud, and can be retrieved whenever or wherever you like. This offers a huge sense of peace of mind to small and medium-sized businesses.

Back-up of data

Sage 50cloud also means that your data can be scheduled in advance for back-up. And despite all our good intentions, many of us either forget to back up on a daily basis, or put it on the long finger. Remember, too, with the help of Microsoft OneDrive you won’t need any external hard drive for your back-up. It can be all waiting for you in the cloud, safe and secure, and impervious to the malware and spyware that threaten non-cloud environments.

Integrates with MS Office 365 for your ‘office anywhere’.

Another major benefit of Sage 50cloud is the fact that it offers full integration with Microsoft Office 365. You’re probably familiar with Office 365, but if you’re not, it’s become the preferred cloud-based provider of universally-used packages such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel. There are very few offices in the country that don’t use at least one of these on a regular base.

Because Office 365 integrates so easily with Sage 50cloud, you effectively end up with an ‘Office Anywhere’ environment. You can run your business from a hotel bedroom, from a tradesman’s van, from your primary office, or from pretty much anywhere around the globe.

Stay on top of your expenses.

Expense Capture is another benefit of Sage 50cloud that you might not have expected. When you work on the move, you can often lose or misplace expense receipts. And if they don’t exist, they can’t be claimed for by the business – or the individual. Missing receipts can also drive your accounts personnel to distraction. With Sage 50cloud, however, your staff just use their smartphone to take a photo of their expense receipts. They can include a short note explaining the nature of the expense, and migrate this to Sage 50cloud via Office 365.

The power of Sage Drive.

Another handy feature of Sage 50cloud is Sage Drive. This is the engine which powers Sage 50cloud hybrid-cloud capabilities. What this means is that users appoint a Sage 50cloud Administrator (normally a member of staff) who can push all data into the cloud.
They then authorise users within your company – including your external accountant. The upshot of all of this is that any changes made by the authorised users are automatically synced back, so there’s never any doubt as to whether staff are viewing the most up-to-date version of a particular document or record.

Remote invoicing and admin is super-easy.

For companies who have sales reps working on the road, and who rarely visit the office, another handy feature of Sage 50cloud is the ability to engage in remote invoicing. Authorised users can create and send invoices remotely. Even better, these invoices can include a Sage Pay Now link. This lets the customer pay instantly via PayPal or an approved credit or debit card. This can be a massive plus for cashflow, and will prove very popular with your Financial Controller.
It’s also worth mentioning that these sales reps can access details on the customer via Microsoft Office 365. This can be anything from a delivery address to historical orders or payment history. This means that your reps can leave a meeting, log on from their car, and complete the paperwork there and then – with absolutely no need to return to base. This is a huge plus on the part of the cloud version of Sage Accounting.

Integrate other apps for even greater efficiency.

A final point we’d make is that Sage 50cloud also lets users integrate other applications that can increase efficiency and contribute to the bottom line.
The bottom line is with Sage 50cloud you can work smarter.

Bank Feeds in Sage 50

Written by Pimbrook Support on .

In this video, Stephanie Davies, Managing Director, Pimbrook Software, takes a look at a key feature in Sage 50 that can help Sage 50 users be even more efficient; bank feeds. The bank feeds option in Sage 50 is a fast and secure way to link your desired bank accounts with Sage 50 in just a few clicks.

If you would like to discuss or if you have any queries at all, please visit our contact page.

Musings on Management – Promises, Promises

Written by Tom Shields on .

 

Mahatma Gandhi said… “Never make a promise in haste”. After watching the recent election and being offered the sun, moon and stars by the various parties, I started to think about how many of us make promises at a particular point in time but then don’t or can’t deliver on them.

There can be many reasons for this (and in fairness not all bad) – from a noble but overly ambitious desire to do some good, to a careless throw away remark that fits the current situation, or, worse, as a blatant attempt to deceive. But for the people that these promises effect, when they are not delivered, it is, frustrating and disruptive (perhaps critically so).

Elections across the globe highlight this phenomenon as they are probably the most obvious example of promises made but, often, not delivered.

This is not unique to any particular political organisation or individual as the electoral system seems to be based on making promises to people to attract their vote and then worrying about how this can be delivered later. 

In electing a government, these issues can be huge. Think about health, education, climate, social responsibility. These are not issues that should be taken lightly. 

But are we, as a society, playing with fire here, in what we promise and what we expect, particularly when it comes to critical issues?

As a business you certainly are. The two key elements at play here are judgement and trust.

In business, and indeed in our personal life, promising can follow a similar trend to politics. Under a weight of expectation from others we can be tempted to make promises that we later struggle to deliver, often for very valid reasons.

Here in Pimbrook, we experience this process first hand. We provide software, but we also provide customer service, a service in which we strive to deliver excellence. However, this very effort to provide the best can sometimes cause challenges (e.g. a software fix within a specific timeframe). In some cases, this promise is made under the stress of trying to meet a customer’s expectation that may just be unachievable, while the better approach would be to explain that it may not be possible and work on an alternative. 

This is where judgement is crucial. 

You need to know the capacity you have to deliver and have an understanding of the customer’s needs, so that any promise made is kept and delivered while meeting the customer’s operational requirement. The ability to get this right, builds trust.

However, this is a two-way street. There is also an onus on the recipient of the promise to have reasonable expectations around it. If this is not the case, then both parties should work to set realistic expectations, agree what is being promised and then follow through on that delivery. 

For us at Pimbrook, it is a constant learning process to understand and judge our capacity to deliver and optimise our contribution to our customers and partners. It is a process that demands two things: consideration in planning, and confidence in delivery.

Sounds easy? If it was, we would all get it right all of the time: our elected representatives, our companies, you and me. But it is not always easy in this life, so Mahatma Gandhi’s simple wisdom (“Never make a promise in haste”) may just fit the bill to help us make better and more fruitful promises.

About Us

Pimbrook Software is the go to company when it comes to solving the most demanding accounting and payroll challenges of our clients. We are the acknowledged industry leaders in the area of Sage Accounting & Payroll Software being named ‘Sage Partner of the Year 2018’ and ‘Sage 50 Irish Business Partner of the Year’ for five consecutive years.  

We have staked our reputation for excellence on the level of support we provide across our entire product portfolio. Sage 50 Support is something we’re particularly proud of, and we take enormous pride in the positive feedback we receive from clients who have called on us for support or training.

As an SME ourselves, we have a particular understanding of the needs of our fellow SME’s. This is why we insist on such high standards when it comes to rapid turnaround and the strictest adherence to both timelines and budgets.

We have invested heavily in our staff in recent years, and we believe that this has paid rich dividends in the levels of professionalism and sheer value for money that we can offer our clients.

If you’d like to know more, why not contact us today for an absolutely no-obligation chat? It will cost you absolutely nothing – but could make a massive difference to your business!

SEO for SMEs

Written by Webmaster on .

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the benefits for SMEs of having an SEO strategy in place.

Generally, a large percentage of SMEs focus on traditional marketing practices and have done so for many years. However, SEO should now be a crucial consideration for any business with a website in order to increase brand awareness and sales. This is especially true for SMEs looking to build an online presence.

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of optimising your website in order to increase coverage on search engines such as Google and Bing and to drive users to your website. This involves a wide range of factors, such as on-page SEO, off-page SEO and technical SEO. There are a huge number of variables taken into a consideration by the likes of Google when a user enters a term or phrase on a search. By ensuring you have a solid SEO foundation in place, you’ll be more likely to show as high as possible in the results for a given term.

Why should SMEs care about SEO?

SEO should be high on the list of marketing activities for SMEs. Marketing budgets for SMEs may be tiny compared to large corporations and working on your organic search engine optimisation can help to achieve success at a lower cost. SEO is free in monetary terms but can take a good deal of time in order to gain traction but the more effort put in, the more likely you are to see results

What can SEO do for your company?

Competition is something we all deal with in business and SEO is no different. However, having a well planned and thought out SEO strategy can have a number of benefits. Some of these benefits are as follows:

  • High quality, relevant traffic to your website
  • A higher possibility to convert a website user into a sale or to convert a goal
  • Decreased budgets required on other marketing activities
  • Higher ranking on search engines (getting your site and brand out there)

To summarise, by deciding SEO is a feasible option for your website, you are sure to see some benefits from doing so. As an SME, coming into 2020 this should be high on your list of marketing priorities moving forward.

This post was written by Stephen Tobin, a Digital Marketing Specialist at 2Cubed Web Development.

Auto-Enrolment Pension Scheme

Written by Webmaster on .

Life Goals Financial Services look at the outline of the government’s proposed Auto-Enrolment Pension Scheme, published in August 2018.

  • Who will be included in the AE scheme
  • How the scheme will work
  • Interaction with existing private pension arrangements and more

If you would like to discuss or if you have any queries at all, please visit our contact page.

Cliff House Hotel Case Study

Written by Webmaster on .

Cliff House Hotel Video Case Study

Here’s what one of our happy clients had to say about working with Pimbrook Software.
For more information on Pimbrook Software, sage 50 and our other excellent accounting solutions please feel free to get in touch with us. Pimbrook Software are Ireland’s overall Sage Partner of the Year 2018.