Sage to ‘revolutionise accounting’

The UK holding company of South Africa’s accounting software leaders has announced a range of apps and partnerships that it says will revolutionise the way accountants operate around the world.

At the Sage Summit in New Orleans this week, Sage continued its quest to use technology to reinvent accounting. Sage is the UK-headquartered enterprise software company that acquired South African market leader Softline and its Pastel Accounting system in 2003.

Among its announcements, it unveiled a major new mobile app for customers of its Sage View business intelligence dashboard in the United States. The launch represents the first in a rolling programme of innovations and partnerships announced by Sage as, it says, “it works with accountants to revolutionise the way they operate around the world”.

The Sage View mobile app enables accountants to harness mobility to serve their customers anytime, anywhere by providing access to predefined alerts and an easy-to-view recap of client key performance indicators (KPIs). This empowers accountants to deepen client relationships, regardless of their location, by providing actionable business advice based on real-time financial data. It is available now to U.S. customers of Sage View in the Google Play and the Apple App Stores.

Sage announced the launch of the app at its global Sage Summit in New Orleans today along with two significant new technology partnerships with eFileCabinet and ICB Global. These are a few of the many installments included in the Sage roadmap of forthcoming technology innovations, driven by customer demand and rapidly cocreated with accountants. Additional launches slated for this summer include two new apps on Sage Impact, a fully customizable online hub that brings together everything accountants need to run their business.

Speaking from the Sage Summit stage, Jennifer Warawa, global vice president of product marketing for accountants at Sage, explained: “When we launched Sage Impact in May, we set out to review and rethink the changing role of accounting professionals, and we haven’t rested for a moment since.”

“We’re absolutely committed to putting customers first and helping our accountants put their customers first as well. This summer’s partnership and product announcements show that we’re constantly working with our customers to find the best products that suit their needs,” added Warawa. “We know every customer is different, and if a product doesn’t exist that best suits them, we’ll either cocreate one with them or partner with the best in the business to provide a solution. It’s that simple.”

Sage highlighted three major new innovations for accountants to watch out for:

* Sage Match will be a new app on Sage Impact that allows accountants to market their practice online, be matched with new clients and expand their business in a streamlined, easy-to-use format. Sage Match will help accountants improve their market reach and connect with new clients in a targeted way, matching them with small businesses looking for accountants with their specific skills and expertise.

* Sage Value, another new app on Sage Impact, will help accountants to combat the commoditization of their services. It includes a powerful pricing tool to support value-based billing, more productive cost discussions with clients and the ability to measure the profitability of clients to optimize practice performance and revenue.

* Sage Small Firm Payroll is a solution for accountants and bookkeepers in the United States to provide payroll services to their clients using a single, scalable platform, allowing them to grow their practices and be more efficient. Accounting professionals will be able to configure in the solution what parts of the payroll process their clients can access based on the services they provide.