Board pack due Thursday. Three Sage 200 companies, three trial balances exported to Excel, and one consolidation workbook that only one person on the team fully understands. Sound familiar?
None of that means Sage 200 has failed. It means the business has changed. Your Sage 200 set-up was built for the company you were five or ten years ago, and finance has spent the years since working around it. If you are weighing up a move from Sage 200 to Sage Intacct, the useful question is not which product is better. It is which of your problems a new system would fix, and whether those problems are big enough to justify the move.
The short answer
Moving from Sage 200 to Sage Intacct fixes the problems that come with growth, such as consolidating several companies in spreadsheets, reconciling intercompany by hand and month-ends that get longer every year. If you run a single company with stable reporting needs, a better-configured Sage 200 can still be the right answer.
| The problem on Sage 200 | What changes on Sage Intacct |
|---|---|
| Each company sits in its own database, so group results are consolidated in Excel | Every company sits in one system, and the group consolidates inside it |
| Intercompany is posted and reconciled by hand in each company | Intercompany is entered once, both sides post, and balances eliminate on consolidation |
| Every new analysis question needs a new nominal code or another spreadsheet | Transactions carry tags such as department, location or project, so you report on any of them without changing your accounts |
| Month-end takes longer every year | The exporting, mapping and re-keying between ledgers and group results comes out of the close |
| Servers, backups, upgrades and a VPN to work away from the office | Finance signs in through a web browser; Sage runs the servers and the updates |
| Add-ons and custom reports nobody wants to touch | Fewer bolt-ons, because consolidation and reporting by department, location or project are part of the core system |
Six signs the business has outgrown Sage 200
None of these problems arise overnight. Each one starts as a small workaround and grows with every new company, location or reporting request. Here is what each one sounds like inside a finance team, and what is different after the move.
“We consolidate the group in Excel”
Sage 200 holds each company in its own database. That works well for one company. Add a second, a third, or a new trading entity after an acquisition, and group reporting becomes an export-and-paste exercise every month. The numbers are right only as long as every mapping in the workbook is right, and the person who built it is often the only one who can say for sure.
What changes
Sage Intacct holds every company in one system. Each entity keeps its own ledgers, and group results consolidate inside the system instead of in a spreadsheet. Adding a new company becomes a set-up task, not a new workbook.
“Intercompany takes days to reconcile”
When one company recharges another, someone posts the transaction twice, once in each database. Then someone else spends part of month-end checking that both sides agree. When they do not, the difference has to be found before the group can close.
What changes
In Sage Intacct, an intercompany transaction is entered once and the system posts both sides. Balances eliminate when the group consolidates, so the work moves from chasing differences to reviewing them.
“Every new question means another spreadsheet”
The board asks for margin by location. Operations wants profitability by project. In Sage 200, the answer depends on how the nominal ledger (the list of accounts every transaction is posted to) was structured years ago. If that analysis was not built into the account codes back then, you either restructure the ledger or build another spreadsheet. Most finance teams build the spreadsheet.
What changes
Sage Intacct tags each transaction with dimensions: labels such as department, location, project or customer that sit alongside the account code instead of inside it. You report on any combination of them without adding codes or restructuring the ledger. New question, same data, no rebuild.
“Month-end takes longer every year”
Month-end grows with the business. More companies, more intercompany, more reports assembled by hand. The close slips from days to a week or more, and the board ends up making decisions on numbers that are already out of date when they arrive.
What changes
With consolidation, intercompany and dimensional reporting in one system, the exporting, mapping and re-keying that stretch the close come out of the process. The finance team spends month-end reviewing numbers instead of assembling them. How much time that saves depends on how much of your current close happens outside Sage 200, which is one of the first things worth measuring before you decide.
“We are still looking after servers”
If your Sage 200 runs on-premises, meaning on servers in your own building or a data centre you manage, someone has to look after them. That means backups, security patches, version upgrades, and the VPN or remote desktop (the secure connection that lets staff reach office systems from home) that finance relies on to work away from the office.
What changes
Sage Intacct accounting software runs in the cloud, meaning online rather than on your own servers. The finance team signs in through a web browser from wherever they are working. Sage runs the servers and delivers the updates, so there is no upgrade project to schedule and no hardware to replace.
“Nobody wants to touch the custom reports”
Over the years, Sage 200 picks up add-ons and custom reports to fill specific gaps. Each one made sense when it was added. Together, they make every upgrade a risk, and the knowledge of how they work sits with a handful of people, some of whom have since left.
What changes
The move is a chance to review every add-on and ask whether you still need it. Several will exist only to provide consolidation or reporting by department and location, which Sage Intacct handles as part of the core system. The ones you still need are replaced or rebuilt as part of the project, not carried forward untouched. Our guide to Sage Intacct features covers how each of these works in more detail.
When staying on Sage 200 is the right answer
Not every frustration with Sage 200 is a reason to leave it. TSG implements and supports both products, so there is no reason for us to steer you towards either one. Staying is the better decision when:
You run one company, or a small group that consolidates in an hour, not days. The biggest gains from Sage Intacct come from multi-company finance. Without that, the case for moving is weaker.
Your current nominal structure answers the questions the board asks. If reporting is working, a new system will not change much.
Your main frustration is the servers. Hosting Sage 200 in Microsoft Azure (Microsoft’s cloud service) removes the hardware and keeps the finance system your team already knows.
The problems come from how Sage 200 was set up, not from what it can do. A review of the configuration, the reports and the support you are getting will often fix more than a new system would.
If most of the six signs above apply, that is a different conversation.
Sage Intacct implementation: what the move involves
The objections Finance Directors raise about moving are reasonable ones. Each has a practical answer.
“We will lose our historic data.”
You decide how much history comes across, from opening balances to detailed transactions, and how the rest stays available for audit and year-on-year comparisons. That decision is made early, based on how far back your reporting needs go.
“Moving mid-year is too risky.”
The start of a financial year or quarter gives the cleanest cut-over, but it is not the only option. What matters is planning around year-end, audit and your busiest weeks, so the finance team is never running a new system and a deadline at the same time.
“We have invested too much in add-ons.”
Each one is reviewed, not copied across. Some are no longer needed. The rest are replaced or rebuilt so they work properly from the day the new system is switched on.
“The team knows Sage 200 and the disruption is not worth it.”
The finance team is involved in design and testing, so the day the new system goes live is not their first look at it.
Our Sage Intacct implementation guide sets out the stages in more detail.
Why make the move with a partner that sells both
TSG is Sage’s longest-standing partner, implementing and supporting both Sage 200 and Sage Intacct. That means our advice isn’t tied to a single product. We can help organisations understand when Sage 200 remains the right fit and when it’s time to move to Sage Intacct.
After go-live, the same team that implemented the system supports it. You are not handed over to people who were not in the room when the decisions were made.
Frequently asked questions
Sage 200 covers finance and operations and can run on your own servers or be hosted, with each company in its own database. Sage Intacct is cloud finance software built for groups, with consolidation, intercompany and reporting by department, location or project in one system.
Yes. You choose how much history comes across, from opening balances to detailed transactions, and plan how the rest stays available for audit and comparisons. That decision is made early in the project, based on your reporting and audit needs.
It depends on how many companies you run, how much history you bring across and how many other systems connect to finance. A Sage 200 to Sage Intacct review gives you a timeline for your business, not a generic estimate.
It is better suited to multi-company groups that need consolidation and analysis across departments, locations or projects. For a single company with stable reporting, Sage 200 remains a strong fit. The right answer depends on which problems you are trying to fix.
Stay when you run one company, your reporting works, or your problems come from set-up rather than the software. If servers are the main frustration, hosting Sage 200 in Microsoft Azure fixes that without changing your finance system.
Which of these sounds like your finance team?
If you recognised one or two of the six signs, look at a better-configured Sage 200 first. If you recognised four or five, the business has changed more than the system has, and month-end will keep telling you so.
Talk to TSG about your next steps. Whether you're looking to get more from Sage 200 or exploring a move to Sage Intacct, our team can help you assess your options and decide what's right for your business.
Talk to us today
.gif?width=360&height=360&name=HubSpot%20Blog%20Images%20(73).gif)
.gif?width=360&height=360&name=HubSpot%20Blog%20Images%20(71).gif)