With the incredible mess and brouhaha that Sage has mde of Sage 50 CDN 2025.1 update - forcing 2FAand Web Logins for the “data owner” for all kinds of silly purposes on files that don’t need them - they’ve just angered a huge portion of their accountant/bookkeeper base.
If Xero doesn’t “xero” in on these folks, I’d be very surprised.
(And yes, three weeks waiting for a fix and none yet. Thankfully TC responds much more quickly to its professional base…and we appreciate that!)
Actually we started having those problems back in November. Around the beginning of December they seemed to have fixed it. Then it came up again around the middle of December, and a week later it seemed to be fixed. Now the problem is back for a third round…
IMHO, I don’t think Xero is even trying to compete with Sage 50. They are trying to compete with QBO. QBO user growth has been outpacing Sage 50 for at least the last 5 years, though those who have been using Sage 50 for years tend to remain loyal. But both Xero and QBO have their own quirks and glitches and limitations. You can’t find a perfect solution anywhere…
And Sage 50 price increases have been modest compared to QBO:
In 2019 QBO Plus was $15/mo; now it is $95/mo
In 2019 Sage 50 was $493/yr for a 2-user license; now I’m paying $879 for a 5-user license
And QBO growth is going to just keep going up now that there’s not going to be any more editions of QBD released. We had QBO managers tell us straight up they are working to discontinue QBD and shift all users to QBO as fast as they can.
Brutally slow for high-volume data entry files.
Even for low-volume manual entries - sometimes there is a 5-10 second delay waiting for the system to post, or even show the characters you type. They need more servers in Canada.
I’m assuming this is mostly a problem with Sage cloud version? I use the desktop version, and have come across the “unable to access” error twice in the last couple of weeks. So, I just go back to the previous window, select from the recent file list, and carry on. I have to say, I’m not planning to use an online version anytime soon. For pricing, back in the early '90’s (previous century, dinosaurs and all) Simply with payroll was about $150 to BUY, not RENT, and annual updates were about $100. I have one client still on Simply 7. Bugger to get it converted to Sage 2025. For February, 2025, my Accountants Edition renewal will be $913 + tax, not to buy, but to rent. And, if I don’t renew, I lose data access. One client was really upset by this trick. QB started this years ago, and Sage caught up a few years later. One of my clients uses Sage 300, and I log into their file server and run Sage from one of their workstations. It is quite slow, and I’m often kicked out, but I put that down to my 6-year old Lenovo. We’ll see how it goes with a new one this year. Maybe I should resurrect my old copy of MYOB, or whatever it morphed into.
No - it was a problem with the Desktop Version of Sage 50 CDN if updated to 2025.1 (and occasionally to 2025.0). Users were being forced to provide login creds for the “data owner” … this was NOT a local login, but the login to Sage for those who use Remote Data Access (RDA). ie I have on one of my servers a number of client files which sync remotely to various unrelated clients all over the country. Each of those has:
If the sysadmin user had an email addy, the problem occurred. They have now - weeks later - provided a tool to workaround it …but not actually fix the issue.
Why? Because (unlike TC) they didn’t bother to consult with accountants and bookkeepers on the likely impact. Many had no idea who the “data owner” was, what their creds were, or their 2FA access codes.
I’m not sure that’s the answer…mostly it is that desktop programs were BUILT for data entry…the Web wasn’t. The fact that the desktop is “next door” to the keyboard vs time to transmit characters to the web host, vet it, store it, send it back onscreen to the user reinforces that, no matter how fast the connection.
One of the (many) reasons that if we’re ever forced to do all tax work only online, I’ll retire that instant.
It’s convenient, but that is all (IMNSHO).
The “fix” they sent out today is supposed to be for both - the “data owner” problem and the “unable to access” error. I get that, too - first time each day I open an un-shared Sage 50 file (second try it opens w/o error). It seems to have fixed the “data owner” problem, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it fixed the “unable to access”.
I was having an internet chat yesterday with Microsoft’s CoPilot AI Companion which required several lengthy replies from me to add detail to generate a more specific reply. I was amazed that no sooner I pressed the enter key, my screen was populated by the AI response to my question. The AI response showed clearly that it had read my response, taking perhaps a mere millisecond of time, then did the required research in what seemed perhaps another millisecond of time, and spit out its very articulate reply, which to me seemed almost immediate. This tells me that lightening fast, near instantaneous responses can happen over the internet with today’s technology.
The cost vs benefit analysis by QBO, Sage, etc, to upgrade their technology to such ridiculously fast speeds is clearly not deemed to be viable based on their limited user base when compared to Microsoft and Google’s user base which requires these near instantaneous speeds.
Well, that sucks, because QBD is a superior product to QBO for anyone who doesn’t absolutely need online.
I was working on Sage 50 yesterday re-entering information that had been lost earlier in the week. I could go to the bathroom while the bank rec application opened or closed. I had lots of time to think between entries. The client said “well you just have to be patient.” I was glad to be working by the hour, not by what I accomplished. I was on a network on a new work station. They currently pay around $1,600 for the annual licence for premier with payroll. I usually go in for 1 day a month - this month it will be two days due to the 2025-01 upgrade. I recommended they look at Spire.
I switched a client to QBO from desktop, but am already starting to wonder if I will regret doing so. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
The sad reality is that, in the desktop accounting realm for SMBs with general needs, Sage 50 CDN desktop is BY FAR the fastest for volume data entry. My ‘keeper can pound in a number of entries a minute … as could I before… aging and arthritic calculator thumb…
I lied. $913 was my renewal in Feb, 2024. This year it’s $999.
I’m still using an old General Ledger software operating on Dos 6.22 installed on a Windows 98 box for super high volume data entry and presentation quality financial statements. It’s gotten us by for client write up, monthly bookkeeping, GST/HST returns and financial statements the last 28 years. I have tried them all, but still haven’t found anything that can keep up. We bought the software in 1997 and never paid again. It still mostly works today. @BertMulderCGA is familiar with the product, which wasn’t as Y2K compatible as it may have otherwise been.
Unfortunately, this software won’t run in anything other than pure DOS, not even in an emulator or a dos shell. Small price to pay I guess.
QBD is much too slow, and although has the ability to generate financial statements, you would be embarrassed to send out a set of statements that QB produced. I can’t understand why you are supposed to require yet another software if you wanted to actually produce financial statements. That’s what the “Accountant Version” of Quickbooks should have been able to do… but it doesn’t. Instead, you are expected to buy/rent Caseware or some other similar product.
I thought Quickbooks desktop was slow until I tried Quickbooks Online.
I rent the accountants version of Quickbooks desktop because I have clients who use QB, so I need to somehow extract their data. I also can log into QBO for clients who use that… just to remind me how painful it is.
I had a conversation with someone at Countable not too long ago and they confirmed you could not use their product for high volume bookkeeping and financial statement production. Not sure why someone doesn’t have an “all in one” system for accountants.
I’m in the same boat! I’m still using a DOS-based General Ledger system that was custom-made 30 years ago. It runs perfectly under Windows 7, thanks to an old PC I bought for less than $100 from Amazon.ca. To facilitate printing, I use Printfil software, which allows me to generate documents in PDF format.
For larger clients, I rely on MYOB Canadian Version 11 (2011), which includes a payroll module. The Canadian payroll tax table can be purchased from a third party for about $140.
I’m not a fan of QuickBooks, as I don’t think it’s worth paying a few hundred dollars annually. In my experience, it runs much slower compared to my old DOS-based GL program and MYOB.
MYOB also has an updated version called AccountEdge, which handles job costing and multi-currency transactions exceptionally well.
Wow! How do you keep it running? Did you stock up on CPUs and old IDE hard drives when they were still available?
I kept an old Windows XP machine running for about 18 years, but it eventually became too hard to find replacement parts.
I currently have 2 workstations that are about 8 years old, running Windows 10 on Xeon processors - still responds faster than any of our Windows 11 machines. But I’m worried about the security issues that may arise when Microsoft stops supporting Windows 10 next year. Maybe I’ll have to go back to Windows 98 if you can still find machines that run it. It’s probably safer than Windows 10 now, because it’s so old that the current crop of hackers has no idea how to attack it…lol.
Try amazon.ca, there is an old PC with Windows 7 installed in a 120 G SSD. Price is only $149.
I always buy old PC from amazon.ca as it comes with Windows already