With the array of cloud-enabled features and cloud products that can interface with Sage 50—U.S. Edition, sorting out what exactly does what can be confusing. Here is a guide to terms, products and features that should enable you to make sense of what features perform what function so that you can more effectively determine what you need.

The "Cloud" 

I realize that for many of you, this new concept and method of computing is not such an easy concept to grasp. Shoot, I'm in technical support and the more I learn about it, the more I'm convinced I may barely understand it myself. Bear with me, though, and hopefully you'll see that using the word "cloud" is just as good a metaphor for this concept as any. What exactly do we mean by "cloud" in a computing context? What does it mean to store your data "in the cloud?"

There's a saying, "There is no cloud; it's just someone else's computer." Cloud computing is slightly more complicated than that, but not by much. When we talk about "the cloud" we do indeed mean someone else's computer--or rather, someone else's vast, massive array tightly secured and monitored computers. Haven't you ever wondered exactly how when you're using a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, you can search the content on hundreds of millions of computers and deliver a search result to your computer in fractions of seconds? It's not magic. Those companies maintain an index, or table of contents, on their own massive array of computers, or "cloud". They possess many data centers where server racks full of hard drives fill the place. Sophisticated software systems distribute the data, so that the data required for a particular function or operation might exist on more than one hard drive, in more than one server rack, or even in more than one data center. This is why the word "cloud" is as close to an appropriate metaphor as we're likely to get.

As an example, say that you signed up for a free 5 GB of Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage space, and you stored some photos and documents on it.  More than likely, the cloud storage for that OneDrive account would actually be physically stored in the Microsoft data center nearest the region where you live. It's more efficient for Microsoft to store data physically closest to where it's accessed from.  In this regional data center, it would be pretty unlikely that the data for a particular photo of yours would be split up on more than one hard drive in the Microsoft data center where it's stored, but the file right next to it, from your viewpoint, might be on a completely different hard drive in the same server rack, or in the next server rack over. To illustrate the example: I live in Georgia and I do possess some OneDrive cloud storage space. It would be highly unusual for say, all of my photos to be in one data center in Atlanta, and a spreadsheet of mine to be stored in a data center in Canada. 

You will find the term "Sage 50cloud" in both our print and web marketing, and it is used synonymously as both the name of the software itself as well as the name of the software subscription plan that you buy from Sage. One thing I do want to point out about Sage 50cloud is that it is the same Sage 50 you know and love, it's just been enhanced with new cloud-connected features and services. I've encountered a fair amount of confusion as to what specifically that means, and I'll endeavor to clear that up for you. 

The cloud connected features and services offered does not mean your actual program will reside in the cloud. Your Sage 50cloud program will still need to be installed on your local workstation the same way it has been for years. Will you be able to get rid of your server? Maybe. The answer to that question depends greatly on what you were using your server for, how many users you have, and more importantly, where they are working. 

There are two distinctly different categories of cloud-enabled features of Sage 50cloud: There are the features and services that are stored on space that Sage provides, and that come with your subscription plan at no additional charge, and there are the Microsoft Office 365 integration features for which it is necessary to possess either a Business Premium or Enterprise subscription to the Office 365 service. The Office 365 subscription is a paid online service. It is not to be confused with an Office 365 desktop license that comes with many new computers. It is certainly possible to get an Office 365 subscription for free, but it's typically offered as an add-on for another bought service or product (like a free year subscription with a new computer or new GoDaddy account). I get clients who frequently confuse this with the Office that comes loaded on their new computer, and that's not what we're referring to here. Microsoft does refer to both as "Office 365," but what I'm referring to is the online version only.

Features and Services that come with your Sage 50cloud Subscription

Sage Drive is the feature that comes closest to the concept of using Sage 50 “in the cloud." It does indeed involve uploading your data to cloud storage—but it does not move your program to the cloud. Using Sage Drive, what you’re doing is simultaneously saving data to your local hard drive and to the cloud storage at the same time. You still have to have the Sage 50 program installed on each computer that you want to access the data on. What's the use of this? This means that a remote user that has been granted access can download the data from the cloud location without having access to a backup. You can see my previous blog post if you want the full detailed explanation on how it works: https://sagecity.na.sage.com/support_communities/sage50_accounting_us/b/sage50us_supportinsights/posts/what-exactly-is-sage-drive-and-why-would-i-want-to-use-it.

There is good news on the Sage Drive front: Since we rolled it out, it has only been single-user editing. We added additional capability for multiple users to enter with view-only access, but it is anticipated that, in the coming months, we will be able to offer editing access in Sage Drive for multiple users at once! It is still in development, and the release date is not guaranteed, but it is expected to be released at some point in the near future.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting (formerly called Sage One) is the introductory-level cloud offering from Sage. It comes in two levels, Sage Business Cloud Start and Sage Business Cloud Accounting. The higher version, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, can be linked with a Sage 50 company. A mobile app available for both Android and Apple products called Sage - Accounting can also access the Sage Business Cloud Accounting data and allows the customer to record simple transactions on a mobile device. One free account of Sage Business Cloud Accounting actually comes with a Sage 50cloud subscription plan, for the purposes of setting up the account to use the app for tracking quotes, sales invoices and expenses using the mobile app. Due to the fact that you can link your Sage Business Cloud Accounting company to your Sage 50cloud company, that means that you can record transactions in the mobile app and sync them to your Sage 50cloud company.

If a client was active as of 16 November, 2016, he or she should have received an email with their Sage One (at the time) product unlock code. It should also be available on the customer portal. See How do I access product codes on the Sage Portal?  If they do not find it there, customers should contact Sage 50 US Support and Service Chat for a Sage Business Cloud Accounting unlock code. Pro Tip:  The Sage Business Cloud Accounting mobile app on the app store is titled, "Sage - Accounting."

Features that require Office 365

• It is a cloud subscription service, so all plans do require internet to access the online features, but most plans also allow you to install the current desktop versions of the Office suite.
• Confusingly, Microsoft has also been calling their desktop-only offering Office 365 for several years now. However, in 2020 this distinction will disappear,  as Microsoft ceases support on the standalone versions of the Office apps. From 2020 on, the only way to get the Office suite of apps will be to purchase a subscription to Office 365.
• It comes with a ton of storage space: 50 GB per email box, 1 TB storage per user.
• Emails and files hosted by Office 365 are automatically protected by Microsoft security.
• Excellent mobile versions of the Office apps are available for both Android and Apple devices.

Cloud Backup

Integration Features

Sage Contact

Sage Intelligence

Sage Dashboard

Sage 50c Capture

Sage Bot "Pegg"

Where's the remote access or remote capability?

It's a frequent misconception that the integration with Office 365 somehow allows Sage 50 users to use the Sage 50 program remotely, because it uploads their data to the cloud. We do advertise in our marketing that this offers you remote access to your data, and that is indeed true--but one detail that may be getting lost in the explanation of this feature is that your data is no longer in a format that is readable by the Sage 50 program--once it's synchronized with Office 365, it's then in a format that's only readable by the applications we've built for use in Office 365, or by the Office 365 applications themselves. 

Options

So, since you can't use Office 365 to operate your Sage 50 program remotely, what do you do if you want or need to use the program remotely? If you only need a one user at a time solution, you can take a look at Sage Drive, mentioned above, or look at other options. If you need multiple user access at once, multiple user Sage Drive is in the works, it's just not here yet.

• Remote Control

• Cloud Hosting

There are many providers that provide cloud hosting services. Contact a hosting provider and find out what services and support they provide. Sage does not recommend any cloud hosts in particular.

As an alternative, the Sage Business Cloud Financials product is very close in functionality to Sage 50. It is based on the very popular Salesforce platform, and its interesting use of tags instead of a heavy graphical interface makes it very agile and customizable. This would of course make reporting more intensive, but that's the tradeoff one would make. The feature set matches up pretty comparably. One major difference I would say that separates it from Sage 50cloud is that Sage Business Cloud Financials does not yet possess the graphical navigational front that makes data entry and use of Sage 50 easier for novice users. On the other hand, users who are professional bookkeepers or who are trained in the Salesforce platform will likely find the Sage Business Cloud Financials easy to navigate.