What are the key differences between QuickBooks and Sage?

August 11, 2022

Although QuickBooks and Sage share many similarities, there are a few key differences that should be considered when deciding on which solution to go with. This blog article discusses a few of the key differences with regard to the number of allowed users, audit history, reports, and extra features.

Number of Allowed Users

• Sage: Unlimited
• QuickBooks Desktop: 5 users of which 3 can access a file at the same time.
• QuickBooks Online: 1-5 users depending on subscription level

Audit History

• Sage: When an entry is modified or deleted in Sage, it creates a new entry to reverse the prior posting as well as posts the new corrected entry. There is a clear history of the changes made that is easy to understand. This method also prevents you from having discrepancies in your bank reconciliations.
• QuickBooks Desktop: When an entry is modified or deleted in QuickBooks Desktop it affects the actual posting, if you delete/change an entry this can affect your bank reconciliations and other reports. While QuickBooks “Discrepancy Report” is concise to solve what changed in your bank reconciliation, the actual audit report can be difficult for users to locate any other changes. Desktop shows the whole history of each transaction, which can clutter up your search.  Although you can apply specific filters to narrow your search.
• QuickBooks Online: The audit log in QuickBooks Online is more user-friendly than Desktop, you can easily sort changes by user, the date the entry was changed, and what the type of change was. From here you can select the option to view the whole change history, keeping the log clean and easier to navigate.

Reports

• Sage: Sage has a built-in feature to run comparative reports, such as the profit and loss (multi-period) or Trial Balance. However, you only see one year’s general ledger detail per open report.
• QuickBooks Desktop and Online: Both have user-friendly customizable reports, including selecting two different years viewing in the same report. You can also view the general ledger detail from the opening to balance, or any custom dates.

Extra Features

• Sage: A great tool in Sage is the ability to pin the vendor and payment method when doing invoices, this saves you time if you are doing multiple invoices to the same vendor.
• QuickBooks Desktop and Online
  • You can do math directly in QuickBooks
  • The comments/memo line in QuickBooks allows you to type in much more detail than Sage which has a limited character allowance
  • You can post entries to accounts receivable and accounts payable because you can attach the vendor to the entry. These entries will show under the vendor’s history as well.

Recommendation:

If you are considering using Sage, QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online, and require assistance, please do not hesitate to give us a call.