Quick Books & Sage Again

[Darren B]

OK i know this has been around the block a few times but i am still trying to justify spending a few hundred quid.

Can people that use either software let me know if it will do the following,

1) Export orders from actinic to quickbooks or sage as seperate customer orders
2) Manage my stock levels so i can raise purchase orders from these levels
4) Let me add all my purchases and postal exspenses
3) Produce a set of accounts for my accountant to do my returns

I know this sounds a bit daft as when you read them they say they will do it but having seen various posts here it seems not always that easily.

So from the people who have experienced through there own blood and sweat the pit falls please step forward, also what version you are using

Thanks in advance
Darren

[Miranda Stamp]

They both do all 4 points in my experience. After using both I can say I initally found Sage more difficult to get used to, but in reality once I'd got used to it I find entering stuff far quicker overall in Sage.
My accountant prefers to receive in Sage, but on looking I can't say it's reduced the bill much if any.
Our reason for moving was that at the time Actinic didn't integrate with QB, but it does now.

Not a helpful post, sorry!

[Darren B]

Thanks again miranda

I had hoped a few others might be able to impart some info but alas it is not to be.

Darren

[chris ashdown]

Darren

Not sure exactly what sage does on stock control as we dont use stock control, but it does the rest very well

As said before QB is cheaper but Sage is recognised by all accountants and more book keepers when you grow biggernough to need them

Sage is a bit like Microsoft everyone loves to hate them but they are still the market leader

QB also had a problem on this forum last year about the maximum number of customers it would accept so suggest you do a search

[Darren B]

Thanks Chris

Do you use it for purchase orders? and do you use the product numbers and description in sage as they are in actinic, What i want to do is have my products with cost prices and supplier details so when i raise a purchase order i can be sure to order stuff from the right supplier. Then if i go down the road with actinic link i can use real time stock levels and hopefully make ordering alot quicker than using actinics print out then deciding what comes from where with the aid of an excell spread sheet.

i know what comes from where at present but i am expanding weekly and need to start to get on top of this, i have almost 250 products on the kite site want to look at this before it all gets to big

If anyone has any other suggestions on how to best manage this.

Thanks Chris

Darren

[Jan]

They both do all 4 points in my experience.

I thought that the quickbooks link transferred all orders over to a special internet shopper account.

Regards,

[Darren B]

Jan

anythoughts on making an advanced profit and pricing tool, maybe add the supplier details and export current stock levels and mark items for ordering?

Just a thought

Cheers
Darren

[Jan]

Jan

anythoughts on making an advanced profit and pricing tool, maybe add the supplier details and export current stock levels and mark items for ordering?

Just a thought

Cheers
Darren

Yes, I'm thinking along those lines myself - I was going to write a separate little stock product but have decided to expand profit and pricing instead. Oddly I have just posted about this extended tool to another of your questions. :-)

Regards,

[Darren B]

Great minds and all that

[Darren B]

Jan i will be honest with what i am looking for

A low cost solution to the following

1) To add supplier details and cost pricing to products
2) Set warning/reorder levels and suggested order quauntities would be neat (i know that gets more indepth with analysing sales and predicting trends e.t.c) but maybe minimum order quantity would be a stop gap.
3) Export the data by supplier or all suppliers with part number / descriptions/ cost price
4) Get a current stock level and valuation with both cost price and list price


I know i made it sound simple but sage line 50 and Quick books are over the top for what i require, i can not use the basic package because they either do not intergrate with actinic or they do not have the functions i require and spending £500 + on a package i only need to get stock levels and raise purchase orders i struggle to justify.

I had though about adding custom properties to the products then adding the cost price, i already have one for the manufacturers, but then i could not see how to use this information easily then time came in to play. So common sense said suggest it to the people that know.

So i hope you can come up with something. I would probably be your 1st customer and i no doubt a number of people here would appreciate the tool

Cheers
Darren

[chris ashdown]

Darren

Sorry I do not use sage line 50 as I should in that originally i did set it up with the correct details ref no, supplier, cost & selling price etc but due to workload have just left it as all the sales info transfered by link which fills in the sales side of the accounts and then enter the purchases seperately directly into sage

I imagine you will need a accounts package somewhere along the line if only to save having a horrible bill from your local accountant, and transfering orders over is so quick on ours it would pay for itself in a month or so. The trouble is that you will need to go down this route sometime and the earlier you start the more easy it is

Jans profit and priceing tool is great and we use it but no comparison to getting up to date financial info from a accounting package, Horses for courses

[grimsacre]

Darren,

Sage will do all that you want and, as Chris says, you may well want an accounts package in the future and the earlier you set it up with the right structure (i.e. before the job gets really big) the easier it will be.

One point though. You mention real time stock control. You will have to kick off the transfers yourself. The transfer itself is quick but if you have a very fast stock turnover you may have to do it quite often. It's only a couple of mouse clicks but I don't think you can set up an automatic batch job (somebody more knowledgable may correct me). So "real time" will be as real as you make it. It won't necessarily stop somebody from ordering an item if stock has run out since your last transfer.

[Darren B]

Thanks Chris / Richard

The real time stock control was probably a bit over the top as without using a sql database it is never really going to be in actinic.

So Richard do you use it this way already, you and Chris seem to be reasonably well versed in what is can do and i guess this is from experience

Thanks for you help in this,

Darren

[chris ashdown]

Darren

If you give me your address I will post my Sage Book that comes with the software so you can read all the features and how to use them its for V11 so only one version 1.5 years old. Just send it back when you have finished

[Darren B]

Thank Chris

Your a star, i have sent you a PM, i promise i shall return it

Darren