Review by MagnumMan

Some may remember Peachtree Accounting from a few years ago. If so, this is it.

No, I’m not kidding or playing some sort of game, Sage 50 was actually Peachtree at one time and the box is nice enough to tell you so up front.

Does that matter? To some it may since Peachtree, while a very capable accounting package, was notoriously difficult to work with and had a steep learning curve. I can remember attending hours of classes just to get the basics down.nFortunately, Sage is a bit better. Even the initial installation is handled better with comprehensive instructions on how to do a network install versus a single computer setup, etc. Your biggest decision will probably be where to park the data files.

Of note, the importation of Quicken-style and Excel files is much more evolved than it was in the Peachtree versions, at least from what I could see. The last time I attempted an .xls conversion in Peachtree the end result was not pretty, but Sage just took it in stride.

The design is also better with a more manageable layout of tabs for different procedures such as banking, employee records, inventory, etc. While this is a carryover from Peachtree it has been shined and polished a bit here.nAs for the standard AP and AR functions, it should go without saying that setting up accounts is a snap with the biggest amount of time you’ll spend being on the initial entering of information. Once all that is established then entering future amounts and information is second nature. I do like the ability to accept one check from a vendor and move it over several AR accounts, something I found a little tricky in the past (attempting to use one check number and then splitting it among accounts often led to some dicey moments in older versions).

So, why dump a star? While the internals appear to have been tweaked and polished, the look most definitely hasn’t. Think Office 2003 if you want an idea of how this looks.

Is that necessarily bad? Possibly not, but anybody currently using the program (but an older version) may see no reason to fool around doing an upgrade if nothing much has changed from their trusty standby.

Second, there is the usual set of pitches to buy extra products. Never overwhelming nor will they ever interfere with what you’re doing, but doesn’t anybody else besides me think that paying $500 or more for a piece of software should stop the pitches?nnOh, and that price! C’mon guys, can’t you drop it a little bit?