I have just had an email to say I had a discount on the finance package - now they are removing it.  I didn't know it was discounted and it comes with stuff I don't need and excludes functionality that I do!  No mention of the training package though!  

Not impressed Sage, you will lose very longstanding customers this way, especially when the fully cloud based solution is seriously lagging behind others....

Well, I hope they don't try that here. Having dealt with some exceedingly pushy sales people on the phone before, I'd rather not have to go through that again. 

I have *lost* functionality over time, so I have do more manual steps for given tasks. AI is of no use to me. If anyone knows how to make the AI prompts and icons vanish from the UI, let me know.

Just because Sage rename a "package" doesn't mean I need to be on it. Looking at the long list of line items on my Sage invoice, for things I don't use, or used to use but the functionality has been removed, baffles me. Given I'm the only company user of Sage, apart from the accountant a couple of times a year, apparently I *must* to pay for 10 users (was 5 back in '21 but increased to 10, yea, but at 3 x the price, boo) because I use some Adept tools to do things Sage does not.

Over the last 5 years I've seen a 60% price increase. I am seriously struggling to think of any enhancements that warrant that, especially as I need to more manual steps now that I did at the start! 

Don't get me wrong, I like Sage. I've invested a lot of time in getting to know it, and working around its deficiencies. But it looks like it won't be long before where it's cost outweighs it's benefits.

I agree, functionality has decreased, replaced by stuff many dont need.  I have just discovered that my predecessor was 'sold' Satago, which we have never needed, or used and will not.

Why do you need to pay for 10 users if you only need 1 and occasionally a second (licenses are concurrent and so as long as you don't log in at the same time as your accountant if you can make that work, you should only need the minimum.  Also, your accountant should be able to use a backup copy of your data and instal that on their system, so that should deal with that too - unless they need to process other than year end journals which you can do if they provide them?

I was told, when I started out with Sage, I *must* have a multi-user add on because I use some Adept tools, I wasn't given the choice. So, for example, I use the Sales Order CSV tool to pick up CSV sales from an online store to bring them into Sage automatically. The "Adept" user has never logged in according to Sage user manager. I knew I needed external tools to get round missing features in Sage, that was clear during a on-line demo of Sage, and the chap even pointed me to Adept Tools for things that would help fill the gaps.

My accountant uses remote data access to pull data they need, generally at year end. Then make any year end adjustments. I could do it, it's just easier for them as they do it all the time. I can easily not be logged in when either of those happen. Rarely I will need to ask the accountant something, and it is handy they can nip in check something, but again I don't need to be logged in at the same time. That has happened maybe a handful of times over the last 5 years. I can't recall the last time.

I have remote data access on, as for a while I kept another copy of Sage on my laptop and that kept things in sync. The laptop is a MacBook, and now Sage doesn't even install inside a VM, I think because its an Arm copy of Windows not Intel. Always some component is missing. My office PC is also a workstation running all sorts of electronics development tools and CAD. It was nice to have a backup machine to use if needed.

I have "Satago Plus PKG" on my invoices, no idea what it is, but there is no cost against it. Much like I have:

"Includes Auto Entry - 100" - never used it, it doesn't integrate with any workflow.
"Includes Salary & Supplier Payments - 50" - don't use it, have no need for it.
"AI Document Capture - 150" - tried it, works for one suppliers invoices. Useless for any invoice received as a result of a PO, but even then it gets it wrong. It takes longer to use than doing things manually.

My invoice is 3 pages long, full of lines that seem to do nothing. It's wonderfully confusing.

Ah ok, not sure on the add ons - I have used such things in a past life and don't recall having to have extra users to do so but it wasnt this one.
Sounds like you could do with someone having a look that isn't Sage wanting to upsell you!  It might cost you less in the long run.  Good luck!

Ah ok, not sure on the add ons - I have used such things in a past life and don't recall having to have extra users to do so but it wasnt this one.
Sounds like you could do with someone having a look that isn't Sage wanting to upsell you!  It might cost you less in the long run.  Good luck!

If I had the energy, I would probably give them a call. I just don't fancy the hassle of speaking with very pushy sales people who were obviously intent of moving customers to specific packages, regardless of if it was of benefit to the customer. Maybe that in itself is a sales tactic?

You may be able to tell my hour long call with a Sage sales rep a while ago is still what comes to mind when I hear Sage mentioned anywhere. Not in a good way.

Sage sales force has now become extremely aggressive, I got mis-sold a package last year for Sage Cloud (I call it baby sage), ready for ITSA. I was told that if I booked it now I would hold the price for a year and not have to pay until the clients came on board. They started charging me straight away and now I'm having difficulty getting a refund. I was also mislead about it's capabilities, it turns out it doesn't even have a purchase ledger section! They have since bought out another version that is neo-natal! How can any experienced bookkeeper justify approving that! I have been using sage since 1984, having made the choice on it's ability to process stock over the other brands available at the time.

Over the years I can see the decline in the programme as, in my opinion, version 9 was the best! I used Auto Entry when it first came out and could see the advantages of it. However when sage took it over it rapidly went downhill, I tell them every time they give it an update it's dementia get worse. Auto Entry is now processing invoices as credits and all we get for the costly time wasting correcting it is 'sorry for the inconvenience.' 

As with all sage products the price keeps escalating but the programme keeps deteriorating.  

I am currently battling programme issues with all my sage products, the payroll messes up the pension journals and other pay elements, Auto Entry has many issues now too and they all come back as known errors. Why don't they revert back to the version that worked correctly and then correct the issues, not use us a guinea pigs.