Sage in a Nutshell: Cracking the misconceptions.

Sage. Everyone’s heard of Sage and millions of businesses across the globe use a Sage solution to help manage their sales funnel, cash flow, compliance, inventory, manufacturing processes, and payments.

However, there’s still a lot of misconception as to what Sage truly offers. I asked a few members of my own professional network, spanning various sized business in different industries and roles. There’s been some interesting responses, and to be honest, a lot of these would have been exactly along the lines that I would have said myself had I been asked, “In a nutshell, what do you know about Sage?” Here is a snapshot of the answers I had:

‘All I know is they (Sage) process my salary and send an online payslip.’

‘Payroll, isn’t it?’

‘Sage is payroll software.’

‘Our finance team use Sage.’

‘It’s a bookkeeping tool.’

‘I believe it’s an accounting and payroll system often used by small businesses.’

‘A small green leafed herb 🪴 or an SME Business Software solution focused primarily on financial reporting.’  (Thanks Michael Kerins - this one made me chuckle).

‘Used Sage for years - solid bookkeeping tool, vastly underused by most small businesses. Probably seems overcomplicated to many users when compared to Freeagent / Xero.’

‘With my ex-CFO / FD hat on, I would have described it as a market leading accounting system for small to medium-sized businesses.’

Now, whilst all the above are true, there’s also a lot more to Sage than you think. Let’s shed a little light on these misconceptions because there is so much more to Sage than just payroll!

First off, Sage has different solutions, designed to be flexible and scalable for any business of any size that extend way beyond just accounting and managing payroll. Allow me to elaborate a little bit on some of the Sage offerings and outline the capabilities…

I’ll start with Sage 200, and in keeping with the ‘nutshell’ synopsis, if your business is an established medium SME manufacturing, wholesale / distribution, business services or education company, then Sage 200 can support the entire lifecycle of your business requirements by providing visibility over all aspects of operations.

Next, let’s talk Sage Intacct. If you’re a well-established business in the SaaS, NFP, healthcare, professional services, or financial advisory industries then Sage Intacct was designed with you in mind! Particularly if you’re scaling up or have global operations as it’s a completely cloud native, centralised financial management solution that can grow with you.

Innov8 on what Sage really is….

Who better to ask than some of our own in-house Sage experts.

Gemma Rowley, our Business Development Manager (and Sage Intacct Guru) has worked in the Sage channel for over 20 years and says “If I had a pound for every time someone said, ‘Oh Sage, yeah that’s the payroll software’ then, needless to say, I would probably be sunning myself on a tropical beach somewhere! The reality is, it’s so much more than that. Sage is everything, to all kinds of businesses. Our customers range from PLC’s - where Sage is running their entire finance function - to manufacturing businesses that are guaranteeing their customers next day delivery on goods. Each of these functions are performed by the Sage applications that we offer at Innov8.

The beauty of the solutions that we offer from Sage is that they are modular, and this is why they are designed to work with all businesses, regardless of size or industry. Some organisations only require a small part of the solution, whilst bigger organisations need something that is going to digitally, totally transform their business. Part of my role is to understand the processes that businesses perform and why, so that I can advise how they can solve their problems by implementing Sage 200 or Sage Intacct. People are always surprised by the breadth of what Sage 200 or Sage Intacct can traverse within their business.”

Chris Housecroft, our Presales Manager elaborates further, “Sage is so much more than just a provider of software solutions around the world – It’s a global technology company born in the UK that offers solutions for all business (small, medium, large or colossal) in areas inclusive of payroll, finance, business management/ERP and HR. Sage is one of the best placed companies to offer these solutions as they make regular acquisitions to further compliment their core offerings within specific verticals such as construction, retail/distribution and manufacturing, to name a few.

What’s also great, is that Sage continuously invests in developing new technologies such as Automated Invoice Processing as well as having a passion for AI/ML aimed at driving digital transformation and improving efficiencies. Whilst they have product specific teams looking after solutions such as Sage 200 in UKI and Intacct globally, they also have dedicated teams who are focused on writing game changing AI and general platform solutions that sit across the entire portfolio of products - even expanding outside of the Sage product stack. All this is supported by a network of global partners. We’re proud to be one of those partners that specialise in delivering Sage solutions. Most importantly, we deliver these solutions whilst providing that all important personal touch and competency for understanding each of our customers unique business requirements.”

Sage Round-Up

So, whilst Mike Kerins was right, Sage is a little green herb, it is also one of the most well-recognised names within financial software ERP’s that offers robust, flexible, and scalable solutions to support successful business operations that extend way beyond just payroll functions.

Now, whilst I’m not a Sage Guru myself, I am the exception to the rule at Innov8….so why not spark up a Sage conversation with Gemma or Chris to hear first-hand how Sage and Innov8 can transform your perception of what Sage can do for your business.

*And a special thanks to the lovely members of my network who contributed to this article 😁🙏🏻