Intuit Online Payroll was a small business payroll option available as a standalone SaaS solution, that Intuit announced it was discontinuing in favor of Quickbooks Online Payroll, available via Quickbooks.
$22.50
per month
Sage Accounting
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Sage Accounting is online accounting software made to simplify life for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers by providing the functions needed to take care of daily business to-dos.
Users can create and send professional quotes and invoices, track income and expenses and know where the business' financials stand. Every Sage Business Cloud Accounting subscription includes unlimited access to support as well as automatic backups and product updates.
$10
per month
Pricing
Intuit Online Payroll (discontinued)
Sage Accounting
Editions & Modules
Core
22.50 + $4 per employee
per month
Premium
37.50 + $8 per employee
per month
Elite
62.50+ $10 per employee
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Intuit Online Payroll (discontinued)
Sage Accounting
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
Versions and pricing listed are for US products. Versions available and pricing may vary by country.
Although I've used a number of other accounting systems, Sage is really comparable to Xero and QuickBooks Online, as it is competing in the same basic accounting software category. Sage One Accounting has been selected in certain client situations where they were already using …
I believe the ideal scenario is when you are already using the Intuit family of products and the payroll bolts on to your existing QuickBooks infrastructure. Payroll software products have been around a long time, and this is a very competitive niche. Most of the companies do a good job of filing taxes promptly, reporting W-2 items properly, providing good reports, etc. Where you might really get some extra efficiency and benefit is the fact that the payroll is woven into the accounting system, creating one seamless enterprise solution. Also, where it might be less appropriate is in a really simple use case such as a one person company where there aren't complex fringe benefits to deal with. In that scenario, you can set up the ACH debits directly with the state agency and the IRS and possibly file your own 941, 940, W-2/W-3 and state equivalent forms. Of course, if you're willing to do this and are good with details, you can save yourself some money.
Sage Accounting is well suited to our need to quickly and easily capture and allocate banking transactions. The ability to create allocation rules saves a great amount of time.Some of the people in our congregations are not skilled in bookkeeping, and for us this product offers a great solution because it's so user-friendly. We don't claim VAT and we don't have sales as we have membership fees. The pre-setup account list is not suitable to our operation and we can amend it to some extent, but not to the extent we would like to.
Integration with QuickBooks Desktop. This is the key strength of IP... it is a complete, native integration and let's you maintain all employee records and time keeping in QuickBooks
Job Costing. Another key differentiation -- some payroll outsources say they do true job costing (by work or item code). Don't believe them. If its' not integrated with your accounting system, you will not get "TRUE" job costing. You can get costs ASSIGNED to jobs (which may be fine), but you won't get item level detail in QuickBooks from anyone but Intuit.
Variety of Payment options. Use Direct Deposit or manual checks... or whatever you want. Since its in QB, you can make payments any way you want.
Cash Flow. This is both good and bad, but IP will not take taxes out of your bank account until they are due. That's different than some other providers that want assurance that you have the tax payments available at the moment you push "SUBMIT."
Traceability - where you are spending. I started with a spreadsheet which had a column for 'electronics & computing' this captured everything from monthly software subscriptions to hardware and from light bulbs to dash cams. Sage has helped me streamline the spending.
MTD - I am MTD compliant, although I do not need to be as my accountant is and they complete my HMRC submissions. It does mean that I have a contingency plan if I have to change this service.
Debtor's - It is easy to be a busy fool and not realise that accounts are overdue. For a small business, the restriction in cash flow due to late paying clients is a killer. The dashboard feature helps with this.
My biggest issue is that they do continue to raise their prices on a regular basis and it makes people feel stuck when there are so many clients already using the system.
They do not support roaming employees, so employees that cross over into various tax jurisdictions in one pay period pose a challenge for calculating taxes and pay.
The setup can be a bit daunting still if you are not familiar with the system or the various taxes and requirements for reporting.
I find it difficult to record journals in cloud accounting. Maybe I just don’t have the knowledge.
It’s important to export all unrecorded sync bank transactions to Excel to send to clients to explain the payment receipts before being posted. This function is not available on the cloud and makes life harder, having to call out the transactions to clients over the phone.
I could not live without Sage Accounting, it has become an integral part of my everyday. The more I have used Sage Accounting the more I have fallen in love with it. I am excited to be part of this ever-evolving accounting system that has grown from strength to strength, making life easier is something Sage does so well.
I would rate it a 0. It gets worse and worse all the time. It seems like every time I go into IOP to run a payroll for one of my clients, I have one more problem.
Sage Accounting is built for the business owner/user and not the accountant, it therefore guides the user and thus detailed accounting knowledge and experience is not a necessarily a prerequisite . It offers a monthly price and therefore no significant up front spend and it tailorable to your business with useful dashboards that again you can tailor to instantly see what's important to you.
Sage always works, it has 2 or 3 times in the past, bombed out and that at crucial moments like on month end when statements need to go out to customers, VAT needs to be submitted and financials deadlines however, it is not a regular issue and has not happened in a long time. I understand that things break, accidents happen and unforeseeable issues appear out of nowhere, as long as it is fixed and measures are put in place that it doesn't happen again. And Sage has done that, they have apologised and ensured it doesn't happen again. Errors will happen again in the future, and I am sure that Sage will handle it swiftly as their customers always comes first. Moving to another company is not an option when something like this happens, it happens to other companies too.
Sage Accounting work quickly and performs well, I have never had an issue with it running slow. It integrates with other software swiftly, so no waiting for the screen to load. Error messages are only something I have had when I have done something wrong.
The customer support personnel have always walked me through the steps they need to take to assist me. Never rushed through anything. Always exceptionally thorough, answering all my questions and even sharing my screen visually (I have control, not them). It actually helps me to resolve future issues and questions, if they should arise.
The support is world class - never ever during 30 plus years in business I have received such helpful, knowledgeable and genuine support as I have from Sage. At Sage people matter and i can chat to someone safe in the knowledge that they will actually listen and assist. This also backed up by huge online portfolio of help and resources
Staff are always friendly, and patient, always work at a speed that suits you. You are never rushed, and In only a short time they seem to be able to help you make great strides. It has been a pleasure not a chore, learning how SAGE Accounting works and benefits me and the company.
I find the online training was very informative and they answered all my questions. I am also certified in Sage One and provided online training in the program which I have set up several people on and they love how it keeps them organized.
The clients' business owner worked with Sage on implementation before I began working for them. After consultation with them it is clear the process was quickly performed and without complication. The key takeaway was that Sage is seen as a partner to the business. That said, it was always necessary to engage with an accountant such as myself to extract the best out of the software.
It's a payroll software with decent customer support readily available and direct integration with my accounting tools. This made it a prime fit for me, and made payment and tax reporting relatively simple, and errors readily correctable. It does not have time tracking, and I still believe that this software is overpriced, but it's the best fit for me right now.
Sage was just easier for me to use and more familiar for my staff, who had some experience with enterprise versions of Sage in the past. It became a no-brainer when I made the final decision about which package to go with.
The pricing structure is fair and offers good value for money. The billing is done through their online system and you can access your bills at any time. Most contacts only require 30 days' notice, so no need to feel tied in, although I can't imagine why you would want to leave Sage.
You can use Sage in your company for various aspects/positions such as bookkeepers, invoicing clerks, accountant, purchasing etc. Everyone can have their own user login and permissions can be set that specific people can do specific jobs without being able to access other peoples progress or accounts of the company.
Positive: Less of a learning curve to train payroll accountants, as they are already familiar with using Intuit. Also, in general there are a larger pool of candidates who know this system than many of the other "niche" lesser known payroll products.
Positive: More options to choose from depending on the level of service needed. For example, there is a Full Service offering if needed. This might apply to an organization that doesn't have the resources available or an internal person who has the time/bandwidth to handle the entire company's payroll. Thus, it is possible to cherry pick the level of service needed depending on the type of company/situation.
Positive: Good audit trail. This can be extremely important and cost efficient when a business is going through an external audit by an outside CPA firm and the payroll accounting function is undergoing testing (ie. less time required by the external auditor would likely lower their bill for their services).
Sage Accounting enables us to make quick and easy cash flow management decisions - having the dashboard on the screen gives us an immediate picture to how cash flow has been over the last few days, and the forecast dashboard allows us to better predict it to make better decisions
