Benefits of Actinic Link with Sage? advice for a newbie

[glasgowmike]

I've read what I can in the knowledge base and from the general info about the Actinic Link. Before I invest in software that I don't need, can someone just reassure me? My aim is to use the Actinic Link with Sage 50 Accountant to merely manage my sales figures for accounting purposes. The other features like batch order transfers are a nice to have as I think I can manage most things on the Actinic side. I assume knowing one system will be easier for staff as well. I will have both the retail EPOS & E-commerce software and rather than manually keying sales figures into Sage, I want to have a more seamless and accurate process. Perhaps I am thinking too much about this but I want to make sure I use the software that I purchase. Any advice for a newbie on this? Would I be better to forget using the link and just buy the simple version of Sage (instant accounts)? Or should I assume things will grow and I will need a more robust software and the link will be utilised?

Thanks, Mike

[john@stinkyink.]

Hi Mike,

We've been using the link into Sage Financial Controller since V6 and it saves a huge amount of time and errors. We have now upgraded to Sage 200 and export all of our orders straight into Sage and use it to allocate stock and generate invoices. Sage Line 50 is nowadays a brilliant piece of software for managing your business and the Link with Actinic makes for a seamless joining of the two programs

Regards

[glasgowmike]

Thanks John. I think I made some wrong assumptions about the Actinic link with Sage. Not having Actinic or Sage familiarity, I was assuming the link was a financial management/accounting tool and it is really a stock, invoice and ordering tool. I think (hope) we'll get to a point where we have greater sales needs so the link in the long run will be worth it and thus I will need to make sure I purchase the appropriate Sage product to make it functional.

[GamesLore]

Sage Brilliant ? Really!!

Hi Mike,

We've been using the link into Sage Financial Controller since V6 and it saves a huge amount of time and errors. We have now upgraded to Sage 200 and export all of our orders straight into Sage and use it to allocate stock and generate invoices. Sage Line 50 is nowadays a brilliant piece of software for managing your business and the Link with Actinic makes for a seamless joining of the two programs

Regards

Sorry that line about Sage Line 50 being brilliant nearly made me choke! The inaccessible database corrupts and the Sage solution to simply delete the records and charge you for the privilege of their software failing does not remind me of brilliant. We are using the Accounts 2008 version in multi user mode.

[nileshpa]

Mike,

Sorry, I should have replied earlier as I use Sage Line 50 FC2007 and Actinic 9.0.2 with ActinicLink inbetween, all in single user mode. Got both products some 15 months ago.

Overall, the basic core of Sage (line 50 or otherwise) is pretty solid but new functionalities are very, very flaky. Also, its not very forgiving if you make a mistake. You have to raise a reversal & it really gets very messy. Note that if you are new, you will need to tread extremely carefully. I tend to take a backup before I do anything new. if it goes wrong, simply restore back. Just a word of warning, the producta are very expensive but support cost is even worse. No sagecover means no access to support & no access to knowledge base either. Simply have to rely on generosity of experienced guys on Sage Forum. Only go for Sage if you have to & then again ensure its 2008 as with 2007, you cannot even sort transactions in date order.

At present, my use of Actinic Link is one way only i.e. products definitions from Sage to Actinic. Existing products update well & new products get picked OK. However, delete products in Sage & you will have to manually delete them from Actinic. As for transferring Actinic sales/orders to Sage, I have no confidence to do this as yet.

Hope the above helps.
Nilesh

[chris ashdown]

We have used sage line 50 with Actinic multi-user since 2003 and only use a small part of the system, which is we invoice direct from Actinic and dont use stock control but at end of each day transfer orders to sage,

This way our accounts are always up to date apart from the monthly stocktake

Quite a hard learning start but the same as instant accounts but no problems that i can remember after first few weeks

You dont even have to input data (ref no and description etc) into sage as this way it takes all data from Actinic, though some people input products and descriptions etc into sage and then use link to update Actinic

Keep it simple and it soon pays for itself

[john@stinkyink.]

If you are serious about using Sage then take one of their trainin courses. They are absolutley worth every penny, the trainers are all excellent.

Regarding the support, I think that the Sage support guys are the best software support that I have ever had to deal with. Whoever you talk to sorts out your problem, they never refer you to someone else and if they say they are going to do something they do it.

Nothing in life is perfect, but once you understand how Sage works it will keep your business running smoothly, and in these tight times you need all the help you can get!