Small Business
Sage One offers SaaS accounting for micro-businesses
Feb. 27, 2013
Sage One (www.sageone.com) is a business management application targeted at micro-businesses, or those with zero to nine employees.
Although the product is hosted on a global platform, with different versions for the U.S., United Kingdom, and Ireland, the U.S. version of the product was designed and created after significant local market research and consultations with American accountants and small business owners.
The publisher of the product, Sage PLC, is a global business management software company, whose portfolio includes Sage 50 (Peachtree), Sage 100 (MAS 90/200), Sage 200 (ACCPAC), Sage ERP X3, Sage Act!, and many other accounting, ERP, and customer relationship management applications. The product is one of the highest profile new products aimed at a new market (micro-businesses) from Sage in over a decade.
Sage reports that its market research told them that the average micro-business owner was using three or more applications to perform different tasks for their company, and this lack of integration between the management tools and accounting tools caused time to be lost entering data.
The U.S. version of Sage One has been designed around having a single platform to provide operational tracking and reporting, project management, customer management, and financial recordkeeping.
Sage’s research also indicated that many entrepreneurs use accounting and business management tools too complex for their needs, which they believe are basic cash receipts and disbursements, client billing, and management of receivables and payables.
Although Sage One performs accounting, this functionality is somewhat limited, as the product is designed to simplify the process of managing the overall business for the entrepreneur, with the accounting being an outcome of using this process-oriented business management tool. Sage One connects contacts, projects, tasks, invoicing, accounting, payment processing, and reporting.
A project tracked in Sage One can simply be turned into an invoice. The recipient can pay the invoice online with a credit card, and the receipt creates a transaction in Sage One automatically. The Company plans major enhancements to the product in the next year, including enhancements to make it easier for accountants to work with the product.
Since Sage One is a web-based project tracking tool, all of an organization’s employees and some outside contractors will log into the application to receive their assignments, report on their completion, and record any time or expenses associated with the work. Users can also have threaded discussions and share files securely with the entire project team. The product is web-based so business users have access to it anywhere, and data is constantly backed up.
Although the product is currently targeted at end users and not accountants (yet), we encourage you to stay tuned as this product builds out additional functionality within its integrated toolset over the coming months and years.