In the late 1980s when it was first released, Sage 100 was an innovative solution. Originally named MAS90, the software has evolved over the years and undergone many name changes and technology advancements. Although Sage 100 still provides basic capabilities, over the last few years many organizations have decided to migrate to a more robust, cloud-based accounting software. While clients’ reasons for migrating from Sage 100 to Sage Intacct vary, there are some common themes outlined here:
1. Upgrades
With Sage 100, a customer who is current on maintenance receives the ability to upgrade annually. However, those updates need to be applied manually and often by the VAR. If a client opts out of upgrading, they face an issue in future years, when their server becomes outdated. Furthermore, a new server cannot run old software, so a forced upgrade occurs, at increased and oftentimes unexpected expense. However, with Intacct, four automatic upgrades are included in subscriptions per year. Updates take place outside of business hours, eliminating extra cost and downtime.
2. Company Consolidations
Within Sage 100, you can add multiple companies which are separate, and with an additional module within Sage Intelligence, you can set up consolidated financial statements and run those reports as often as needed. This functionality is contrasted with that of Sage Intacct SaaS, whereby one instance can house an unlimited number of entities, and any report can be run in real-time on a per entity or consolidated basis. To go a step further, Intacct dashboards can display reports, charts, and graphs. These dashboards update in real time to reflect either a consolidated view or one entity view, or even that of a group of entities in a tier, region, or territory.
“Sage Intacct real-time reporting gives immediate insights into our metrics versus Sage 100. The project billing captures all billing components and then allows us to track costs per project effectively. Batch processing is a thing of the past. The dimension feature allows us to easily create reports by service line, product and department. The drill down features allows you to quickly go from a report directly to the source document, reducing the time and effort required when reviewing data.”
-Maria Palumbo, Director of Finance and Administrative Services, Besler Consulting
3. Remote Access
The on-premises nature of Sage 100 dictates that the company or VAR will need to set up the client for remote access, typically through Remote Desktop Services (RDS) or RDS with advanced features like Citrix, to boost performance, at extra cost and maintenance. But with Intacct, its Cloud platform was purposefully built for remote access. This allows users log in via an Internet browser without the concern for IT infrastructure.
4. Integrations
While Sage 100 has a number of integrations with best-in-class programs for business processes such as barcode scanning, EDI, and shipping, if you wish to integrate with a newer software or SaaS, there is more expense and less stability with those customizations. Upgrades present a challenge with customized Sage 100, and often there is added expense with ensuring the usability of the customizations with the upgraded versions. This is in sharp comparison with Intacct, whereby the open APIs afforded Sage the ability to provide a Buy with Confidence guarantee of backwards compatibility. This means that customizations are guaranteed not to break with the upgrades that are applied automatically.
5. Fund & Project Accounting
Sage 100 does not have true fund or project accounting modules that you can get if you migrate from Sage 100 or MAS90 to Sage Intacct. This makes it especially difficult for nonprofits and project-based businesses. Intacct provides better ways for nonprofits to track various grants and funds. This includes advanced reporting capabilities that are compliant with FASB and government requirements and geared to meet the needs of funders and board members. For project-based businesses, Sage Intacct has a project dimension as well as a strong project billing and costing system.
In short, software development has modernized since the mid-1980’s and MAS90 days. Sage has learned from past software gaps and workarounds, all the while solving them within Sage Intacct. Migrating from Sage 100 to Intacct means no more headaches around broken customizations with upgrades, integration issues, server compatibility, consolidations, and version control, to name a few.
Want to learn more about the benefits to migrate to Sage Intacct? As a Sage Partner for over 35 years, our team is here to help!
