Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate

Kommentare: If I wasn't working such long and demanding hours, I would like to look into Sage University educational opportunities...as I do believe many questions I STILL have, could be answered there. ONE THING that would be useful, IMHO, would be a detailed listing of the online classes/tutorials that are available, and the list of topics/subjects that they deal with.

Vorteile: Sage is an amazing product, with so MANY complex programs and modules. There are (literally) dozens of reports and functions that I still know little to nothing about (after 3 yrs of working with the product). It's got everything a general contract would ever need, and then some. Customer support (GOLD) is awesome (tho expensive) . 99% of the time, I have had pleasant, knowledgeable, helpful, experienced assistance from Customer Support. The individuals who work in Customer Support helped me make it that first year, and there is no question of that. Their patience and their availability (and their sense of humor) helped me retain my sanity, that first year (04/14 - 04/15)....hands down.

Nachteile: The complexity of it....each module is multi-faceted and highly complex (and complicated). If a person comes on the scene (such as myself) with no prior construction experience, it's very difficult to simply "pick it up". Also, In order to have Gold Support (a genuine necessity, unless the office employee has a degree in accounting...OR...10 years of prior construction experience) is very expensive. We are a small construction company, and the thousands of dollars we pay, each year, for Gold Support, is not an easy check to write.

Kommentare: In deciding to purchase this software, you need to determine your real commitment level. You can use an easily implemented software such as Quickbooks, but you'll need to manually enter a great deal of estimates and information. The implementation and training is costly - be sure and get the total price of all the software modules that you will need in addition to the estimated cost of implementation and training.

Vorteile: I like that in general you are able to import tables from other software or ones created in Excel rather than either not having history or having to manually enter it. There are many very sophisticated modules to help you manager your business. There are awesome video's with lessons that you can use (over and over) for a period of time to learn each module broken down step by step. The job cost is able to import estimates created in Timberline (SAGE) Estimating, another very sophisticated program. From those estimates you can actually create purchase orders for items estimated, and email them directly to your vendors. Very slick if the program is set up correctly.

Nachteile: This is a complicated system and not for the average AP person or Controller/Accountant. You will more than likely need to hire an expert to train and walk you through implementation. The reports are rarely exactly what you want, so you either have to pay the expert to change them or to learn to change them yourself. The whole implementation process is lengthy - there is a learning curve.

Kommentare: I highly recommend Sage 300 to any contractor out there. It's ease of use and numerous modules make tracking things like inventory, job costing, cash management etc a breeze. All modules sync up to the General Ledger and at the end of each month, we are able to see how we are progressing. This has helped us catch numerous mistakes on our end. Whenever there is a problem, we will phone the Sage call center. They are able to troubleshoot things in no time. Not only do they help fix the mistake they also teach you how to spot them yourself. The odd time we have had to escalate a problem to the programmers they always end up contacting us back the same day. I started using Sage 2 years ago with very little knowledge of the platform and accounting in general and through the proper training, customer service, excellent help articles and Sage U I can confidently say that I have mastered this program. I could never see myself using another product after Sage 300.

Vorteile: Ease of use
Customer Service
Training and Sage U
Reporting
Custom Reports to fit your business needs.

Nachteile: Other than the odd Software Glitch which Sage is more than happy to fix I have no real complaints. Anytime I seem to bring something up that would make the product better Sage seems to be working on/implementing that change.

Vorteile: By far the best thing about Sage 300 is the customer support. It is simply phenomenal. For whatever shortcomings the software has, it is made up in the ability to pick up the phone and directly contact Sage employees who speak our language, understand our concern, and our very knowledgeable of their product. You don't get the "run-around" when you call in. They are very willing to remote into your computer to explain and help with troubleshooting the problem or implementing the solution. They aren't perfect as some experiences have been disappointing, but many times as I conclude a customer support phone call I am reminded just how impressed and pleased I am with their service.

Nachteile: Many of the user interfaces are somewhat archaic and not the easiest to work with. That said, there seems to be a modernization process underway that will be addressing this in future versions. There are minor quirks/irregularities with the software, but that is to be expected since it has so many capabilities and tries to fill diverse needs.

Kommentare: The software does what you need it to do for daily accounting functions with minimal crashes or delays. However, the reporting function needs to be updated to a usable format so that it takes the end user less time to gain the information needed.

Vorteile: The software is very reliable and there are very few hiccups in day to day use.
It's also very handy to have features such as:
- Attaching documents/invoices to an AP or Journal Entry
- Recurring journal entries
- Project Coding

Nachteile: I find the interface layout to be a little archaic. It is not very modern in comparison to other accounting software.
A troublesome area is when making entries in the General Ledger module, the entries are not reflected in the AP, Bank, or AR modules. However, making entries in the AP, Bank, or AR modules are transferred correctly in the GL.
Lastly, the reports that are generated by Sage 300 can be put into Excel 97-2003 only. Furthermore, the reports are generated in a very complex manner with poor formatting and many merged cells. Trying to manipulate and sort data can take a long time.
It would be very helpful to be able to search/filter through Sage by the invoice/document number. The only option to do this is to either export the data to Excel, or search by vendor.