Alternatives to Sage

supersnoo

I am starting my ICAS project and struggling to find a good alternative to Sage 50 which I can discuss. Our tutor said that the other options should be discussed even if your recommendation is to stick with Sage. I have only used Sage and whenever I search for alternatives for a small UK company get a load of systems that I have never heard of and many seem web based and very cheap.

charlotte224466

Hello!

What about SAP?

GreenMousey

We use Pegasus Opera in our business and it's an alternative to Sage, if that's any help

totleyblade

You could try VT Accounts - http://www.vtsoftware.co.uk/ I use them for smaller companies and find they are very good alternative to Sage. They are relatively inexpensive and user friendly. You can download a free trial programme for 60 days to play around with and work out your own comparisons.

Malcolm Green

It would be a good idea as part of your overall research to look at other potential alternatives.

If you do a simple search on Google as you have mentioned this will give you a number of options to consider and you can then put together a summary of this information to be used as an appendix in your report.

Each system will have its own pros and cons such as you have already picked up on, like only web based etc and you can then use this as part of your filtering process to take them out of consideration.

For the purposes of this project you are in control of the direction of your final recommendations.

This could then mean from your findings you would have to take into account the existing use of Sage in the business and cost of training to date, which may mean the best recommendation in this case would be for the existing Sage system to be upgraded from Sage 50 accounts to accounts plus or professional and you could build your case around this.

As you will need to show reasons for changes to be made in the business.

Also do not forget the current type of licence package being used and how users can access the software ie on a network or stand alone, which could be another area of change required.

The benefits of staying with Sage could be less training would be required as staff would already have a good level of knowledge of the system and the benefits to the business would be the extra functionality that could now be used which would save £X etc and as staff would be familiar with the layout of Sage, they should be able to make the step up to this new package very easily with minimal extra training costs etc.

I trust you will find this of some help,

supersnoo

Thank you, I am really struggling with my project. My tutor kept telling us at the start that we needed to be concise and not waffle and now I am being told I need to go into more detail. I have really found all your comments helpful. If you have any general tips for passing your project first time that would be great as I don't seem to be doing too well

Malcolm Green

I would not get worked up about the project, as what you have already done could be more or less right on track and only need a bit of fine tuning.

The secrete for passing this project is to remember it is not a real project and you are the one in control of it.

For this project the AAT have set out clearly the assessment guidelines what you will need to demonstrate to pass the project and my top tip is to start with the end in mind and make sure you are able to tick off all of these points as you go along.

This will also male you mapping a lot more easier as well.

You are limited with you total word count of only 4,000 words and will need to make sure you give as much detailed information as possible to make your point, but also not go over board.

The good thing is that if you find yourself going in to to much details you can always turn this further information in to an appendix to help back up the information/point you have made.

You may like to have a look at the link for the ICAS resources on the AAT website:
https://www.aat.org.uk/training/study-support/search you will just need to select level 4 and ICAS.

I have also attached for you a copy of the report writing guide we have been using with students.

Attachment not found.

I trust this information will be of assistance and all the very best for completing you ICAS project.