Sage 50 (now known as Sage 50cloud) is a finance and accounting system developed by the Sage Group that is aimed at small to medium-sized organisations. There comes a point, however, when many businesses outgrow a simple accounting software package and need to consider an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. In our blog, we look at six reasons why you should consider an upgrade from Sage 50 to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
1. More than just a finance and accounting system
While Sage 50 is a simple accounting solution with invoicing and cash flow management functionality, Business Central is able to manage much more. It is an all-in-one business management tool (known as an ERP) that connects sales, service, finance, and operations teams to help them adapt faster and deliver results.
2. Scalability
Scalability is a very important element of any business management solution. Organisations are looking for solutions that will grow as their businesses grows. Sage 50, however, has very limited scalability capabilities with limited features. Plus, you are only allowed 20 users per instance.
Business Central, in contrast, is designed to scale. With a monthly subscription fee, you can easily add users as needed. It has extensive functionality that grows with you as your business grows. You can add multi-company or multi-currency options too, and creating consolidated companies is very straightforward.
3. Seamless integration with the Microsoft stack
As stated earlier, Sage 50 is a simple accounting solution. It does have the ability to integrate with other business applications through API connectors or third-party software. However, this can be a complicated process and there can be related security risks. Business Central, meanwhile, is part of the Microsoft stack This means that it connects seamlessly with other Microsoft products, such as Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure, which are often very familiar to many organisations.
4. Easy, up to date reporting
Reporting with Sage 50 can be a complicated process: users can spend a great deal of time collecting and interpreting data and get few real-time business insights as a result. Business Central, in contrast, offers easy to access and real-time business insights at every level of your business, from a high-level overview of your entire business to practical analyses using so-called “Dimensions” of individual customers, products, departments, sales teams, etc.
In addition to Business Central’s standard reporting functionality, there is seamless integration with Power BI, Microsoft’s own business intelligence application, as well as leading third-party reporting applications such as Jet Reports.
5. Automation capabilities
One of Sage 50’s major disadvantages is its lack of automation features. With Business Central, meanwhile, you have the ability to seamlessly connect to Power Automate and create effective workflows that will automate tedious and time-consuming business processes. As a result, you and your team will have more time to focus on higher value business activities.
6. Maintenance features
The maintenance features of Sage 50 and Business Central are very different. While Sage 50 requires users to manually check for the latest updates and upgrades, Business Central is governed by Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy. This means continuous service updates and a major update every six months.
These updates happen automatically, with you managing the schedule, and ensuring that your software is always the latest version. This means that your business has access to the very latest technology, as soon as it is available.
Life after Sage 50: what about a move to Business Central?
If reading this article has made you realise that you have outgrown your solution and you feel you need to upgrade from Sage 50 to a more robust and modern business management solution, TVision Technology can help you make the next step.
We are one of the largest and most experienced providers of Business Central and NAV in the UK. Our team take real pleasure in working with our clients to develop, implement and support the best possible ERP implementation for their needs, and it’s this enthusiasm for our work which sees us keep our relationships with clients long after the initial implementation is complete.
If you want to know more about Microsoft Business Central and how TVision could help you, please feel free to contact us to arrange a demo to see how an upgrade from Sage 50 to Business Central could be the right business move for you.
