Sage Instant Accounts V16

Having used Sage Line 50 previously at work, this is a reasonable cut-down version of it for small businesses. There are still some bugs (Line 50 has always had various problems, and this is the same!) the main one is that it occasionally just closes altogether when opening a new menu item, but when it's restarted, the data checker always says the data is fine, and you can continue, so just a minor annoyance.
The built-in reports (for invoices etc) are a little poor, usually designed to fit in with Sage pre-printed stationery and therefore make them more money, but a little time put in to learn the report designer helps as you can design your own without too much trouble.
I have read that Sage's features for petty cash control were poor in previous versions; it is now treated as just another bank account and works fine.
So altogether a reasonable buy especially if you've used Sage before.

I've used spreadsheets for many years now and consider myself competent with them, yet didn't wish to continue. I wanted to move onto an accounting package that should offer far more functionality than I'm likely to build into a spreadsheet. I spent a lot of time over several weeks looking for a good accounting package, and personally feel that the entry-level choice is dire, and doesn't do anything to encourage us to migrate away from spreadsheets.

Sage provide an online demo of their software, which may work for some people. I could not however obtain a trial version of their software to work through adding some of my own data into the package and really understand if it would work for me. I downloaded their free invoicing package and also the QuickBooks free trial. Neither of these were encouraging, having archaic interfaces and frankly non-intuitive intefaces. I spent a lot of time asking questions of the Sage sales team, and getting extremely woolly responses, and finally, given there were few other options and they are such a well known brand in relation to accounting software, felt that I just had to get on and trust that the software would be fine.

In fairness, I've noticed that the content of the Sage website has been changing over the last couple of weeks or so, and there does seem to be more information appearing on it. Following my own learning curve, here is some information I believe to be true, yet really struggled to get clear answers on from the Sage sales staff/website:

1. I wanted a package that would allow me to enter supplier invoices (bills that I need to pay) into the system, and then pay them from within the accounting package, i.e. not re-enter most of the information in an online banking system in order to pay them. It appears the software does support this, but only if I'm using one of the banks that is currently supported (there is a list on the website). Instead of being provided with this information, Sage sales consistently pushed SagePay at me. For those not familiar, SagePay is an additional service that can for example be used with an online shop to accept payments from customers. I would need to pay a monthly fee for it and it does not supply the functionality I was looking for!

2. I currently have an account with WorldPay (a SagePay competitor). Since the Sage software has the ability to hook up to SagePay I asked whether it could be linked to WorldPay (I don't particularly want a piece of software that forces me into any one pricing scheme for the linked services). I was told it would. On obtaining and installing the software, I can find no option to do so. After several calls to the technical help team, it appears they only support SagePay. Fair enough, business is business, but don't sell products to users on incorrect information!
3. I was told the only difference between Sage Instant and Sage Instant Plus was the stock control functionality. I was later informed there are more differences and sent a chart, which does explain a bit more. Once you get access to the help file, you find lots of parts which are noted as only being relevant for Sage Accounts Plus users only. There are several of these that are not highlighted by the chart. At the current point in time there doesn't seem to be a definitive list of the differences between the products.

Other points to note:
1. I have concerns over the compatiblity with Windows 7. I tried it on 3 separate computers (all Windows 7 32bit), and it only installed correctly on 1 of them. I finally decided to put it back onto the computer I really wanted it installed on and phone their support line, and then I encountered difficulties getting it uninstalled from the only computer it installed correctly on. Rectifying the installation apparently involved manually checking an awful lot of files, and potentially in excess of 20 registry keys, and I had insufficient time to work through it, so that is now going to have to wait for another day.
2. I can't stress this point strongly enough. YOU ARE ONLY PERMITTED TO INSTALL ON ONE COMPUTER. ALL my other software applications allow me to install to both my desktop and a laptop. I'm not looking to use it on two computers at the same time, I understand that would require two licences. I just expect to be able to use it on a reasonable number of devices under one licence. As of April 2010, the Sage position on this appears to be that I can uninstall the application from my desktop and install it to my laptop everytime I wish to use it on the laptop, or purchase an additional laptop licence for £50. Given the installation issues with their software, I don't see the first as an option even if I was prepared to waste all that time on a regular basis. I'm unhappy enough with the software as it is, so I won't be purchasing the laptop licence. I suggest you consider how useful the software is to you, if it is putting up barriers to you entering information as and when you wish to.
3. There is NO PURCHASE ORDER functionality in Instant Accounting. I can't believe it either. It never occured to me to check that it was there, because it doesn't seem reasonable that it would not be!
4. There is no standard Chart of Accounts included for a sole trader. You have to look up multiple bits of information to understand what is missing from the chart of accounts and amend an existing one or create your own. Fine for accountants, incredibily unsupportive for others.
5. Things like PayPal or Google Checkout accounts are not pre set-up for your use. Again, you have to mess around looking up nominal code information etc.
6. You can't choose any year end you wish, you can only work in whole months! Yes, many accountants may prefer to work this way, but surely many people prefer to just work to a financial year?

I'm now left with a piece of software that doesn't do what I was informed (by Sage) it would do. Sage are not prepared to take it back because I purchased it from Amazon. Amazon are quite within their rights to refuse to take it back, as I've used it. If the points above have not completely put you off buying, think carefully about purchasing from anyone other than Sage. If you do find the software doesn't meet your needs, you may not be able to return it.

Being a small business owner, I wanted to buy an off the shelf package that would suit my needs and after a brief look round the available packages, I went for this one. It's a decent price - just under £95 at the time of purchase - and it arrived in a week or so from Amazon. Christmas came and went and I got round to installing it.

And that's about all I can tell you - the installation process fell over, booted me out and that was that. Attempted to reload a couple of times, but to no avail. My computer's spec is within the guidance on the packaging; I have a 4Gb Win7 laptop with a 2.5Ghz AMD chip, so to see the application crumble before it's let me process an invoice is frankly unacceptable and either shoddy product testing, or misleading product info on the packaging.

I wouldn't recommend this product on the basis that I can't and given that the product itself won't permit loading, that rather speaks volumes. Deeply unimpressed.