Bookkeeping and accounting are two of the least liked tasks for both budding entrepreneurs and seasoned founders alike. They are unforgiving tasks where mistakes are punished—from reduced sales to tax audits—while the most praise you’ll get from a job well done is the anxiety that maybe actually you didn’t do everything correctly.
This is why so many companies have entered the scene to provide you with new accounting software. The options are endless, and it is hard to find a definitive case for what makes one better than the other—or even more suited to your needs than the rest.
While Sage is probably the best known, with its Sage Accounting and Sage 50cloud Accounting software packages, there are many Sage Accounting alternatives.
But how do you decide which Sage Accounting alternative is right for you? The ideal accounting tool will take the monotony and guesswork out of bookkeeping tasks so you can move on to other more important matters. That’s why we are going to give you a list of all the Sage Accounting alternatives in this article, so you can find the selection of accounting tools that fits your needs, from basic bookkeeping to financial forecasting and more.
Accounting tools and forecasting tools go hand in hand to make sure you have all the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and SaaS-specific financial metrics at your fingertips, all important information needed to make the best strategic decisions for your business. Baremetrics brings your real business metrics right into your Accounting software.
Baremetrics does all the heavy lifting for you, intelligently “automating away” meaningless numbers to uncover the true, bigger picture. The crystal-clear dashboard gives you a holistic view of your revenue, expenses, and profit for a specified period. This allows you to quickly spot inconsistencies, eliminate unnecessary waste, and more accurately model your SaaS business’s future based on multiple scenarios.
Baremetrics gives you all the key metrics for your business, including MRR, ARR, LTV, total customers, and more.
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Before we give you a list of the best Sage Accounting alternatives, let’s consider the four main functions of accounting:
Budgets: Budgets tell you how much money you should have coming in over a period and therefore how much you can spend over that timeframe as well.
Cost allocation analysis: This helps you assign costs to different business processes and products so that you can better see how different services are earning you profit or which processes are eating away at your bottom line. It is also an integral part of cost plus pricing.
Financial statements: These are your income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows.
Forecasting: Forecasting helps you plan for the future by giving you a better picture of where your revenue and expenses are heading over time. While often overlooked as an accounting function, it is one of the most important processes for a growing business and essential to success.
While most accounting software can help you with the first three functions of accounting, very few help with forecasting. That’s where Baremetrics comes in.
Baremetrics provides an easy-to-read dashboard that gives you all the key metrics for your business, including MRR, ARR, LTV, total customers, and more directly on your Baremetrics dashboard: check out a demo account here.
These metrics provide important information when you forecast your financials into the future to make strategic decisions about your company’s direction.
Sign up for the Baremetrics free trial and start seeing more into your subscription revenues now.
Every small business is different, and the functions they need in their accounting tools are also different. When selecting which Sage Accounting alternative will best meet the needs of your small business, consider the following five features:
Features specific to your needs: Every business is unique, and you may need specific functionalities to get the most out of your business, e.g., multiple currencies, payroll, or client tracking.
Ease of use: Especially if you aren’t an accountant by trade and just wearing many hats as the founder of a SaaS business, an easy-to-use tool will help you get the most of out the software.
Accessibility: Consider whether you’ll need to access your software using a smartphone, or whether having all your data on the cloud for access during travel is a necessary feature worth paying extra for.
Price: Especially when starting out, we are very price sensitive. In addition, spreading out the cost with a subscription model instead of a big upfront fee could be helpful.
Scalability: If you plan to keep growing, then you need software that can easily grow with you.
Baremetrics provides an easy-to-read dashboard
Get deep insights into MRR, churn, LTV and more to grow your business
With so many accounting software alternatives out there, it would be impossible to list them all below. At the rate of growth, there’ll probably be another before the article is published! (This is probably why we posted another article about accounting software.)
However, below are some of the most popular Sage Accounting alternatives geared towards startups, SaaS businesses, and growing businesses of all types. They all have unique features, which gives you an idea of what is currently being offered on the market.
FreshBooks is cloud-based finance and accounting software designed for small businesses. It offers competitive subscription rates and many features. It can also integrate with more third-party applications than Sage 50cloud.
Zoho Books is intuitive accounting software that helps users keep track of their cash flows in real time. It is very affordable and was specifically designed for small- and medium-sized businesses.
FreeAgent is one of the preferred systems for (very) small businesses and freelancers. The company offers great customer support despite the low price. It can also integrate with third-party applications.
Gusto is cloud-hosted software that blends HR and accounting functions. It is great for companies looking to streamline HR functions, such as payroll, and the technical customer support is superb.
Quickbooks Online brings one of the oldest accounting software packages into the 21st century. It is very easy to use this program because it offers only the most basic accounting functions—which also keeps the price low.
Xero can handle many different financial activities: bank reconciliation, expense claims, financial reporting, inventory management, invoicing, and payroll management, among many others. The interface is very user-friendly, with novice bookkeepers in mind.
Wave offers accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning together. Wave is free, which makes it the perfect Sage Accounting alternative for you to try first.
MYOB Essentials is a suite of online accounting programs specifically designed for startups and growing companies. It is optimized to run on smartphones and tables. The program automatically backs up your files for added peace of mind.
ZipBooks is a web app with bookkeeping and accounting tools. It offers a free plan so you can try the program before signing up for the paid features. The program can be integrated with many other productivity tools you may already be using for added functionality, and the whole program has been designed with beginners in mind.
Roboeyelabs is a unique combination of accounting and CRM platform. Thus, it helps you manage your finances with an eye on sales and marketing activities. With API capabilities, it is easy to customize to your specific needs. Roboeyelabs offers a free subscription level so you can see whether or not it is helpful to your business before committing to the program.
Fyle is an expense management software that offers superior control over the whole pre-accounting process and is ridiculously easy to use. It streamlines and automates business expense management for accountants and employees alike. It also integrates seamlessly with any business management software.
While all of the Sage Accounting alternatives above have their uses, it is worthwhile considering Sage 50cloud as well. Sage 50cloud has been one of the most popular accounting platforms for small- and medium-sized businesses since it was released.
It is very easy to use and has an impressive list of functions available. It also offers many optional modules that you can freely add to your dashboard as needed without going in search of other software.
However, Sage 50cloud is not for everyone. Many small companies don’t need all the extra functions, while others will be put off by the higher price tag (It starts at several hundred dollars per year and reaches well into the thousands to unlock all the advanced features).
Sage Accounting and all the alternatives mentioned above meet many of the main functions of accountancy. With this suite of software, you can make and track budgets, generate financial statements, allocate costs to different products and processes, and stay tax compliant.
However, you need to get the financial metrics first before you can do your accounting. Baremetrics fills this gap by providing 26 metrics about your business, such as MRR, ARR, LTV, total customers, and more.
Baremetrics gives you the information needed to forecast your growth, computing everything from your company’s MRR to the monthly churn rate.
Integrating this innovative tool can make financial forecasting seamless for your SaaS company, and you can start a free trial today.