Review by Eugene Tenenbaum... Reluctant Reader

Sage 50 Pro is easy to use also by non-accountants for up to 30 employees. Some screens closely resemble paper-based forms such as invoices or checks. Payroll tax cannot be entered directly and managing payroll without a $270-$380 subscription is difficult, but not impossible. Payroll calculations can be tediously imported. Similarly, Excel allows to import the data from another accounting programs, like QuickBooks, through manual linking of individual fields.

The Complete version adds credit card protection, bill payment, synchronization with Outlook, audit trail reporting, depreciation management, and phase and cost code level. The Premium version adds multiple budgets incl. selective printing, change orders, serialized inventory, and easier data archiving and restoring.

Sage 50 provides all the controls for accounting practices, extensive documentation and tutorials. The installation is simple, but may require turning firewall off. Then, a choice between the cash and accrual accounting, or real and committed transactions, must be made. Information can be displayed numerically or in flowchart format. Left navigation bar allows to choose a topic page. Any can be made the default start screen and each can be customized. Tabs at the bottom open shortcut lists, which can be customized, directly linking to ledgers and tasks pertaining invoices, payments, bills, lists, transaction, and general journal.

The inventory can be evaluated based on not only average cost, but also Last In First Out (LIFO), First In First Out (FIFO). Data can be moved to Excel also with a new template, which can be customized. The accounts can be reconciled by changing back entries and not accounting periods. Multiple vendor records can be deactivated based on a cutoff date. Long descriptions can be printed without voided checks.