Sage partners with Microsoft for Office 365 integration

Sage has introduced Sage 50c, its cloud-based accounting software for small and medium businesses, integrated with Microsoft Office 365. Sage 50c is the online version of Sage 50, formerly known as Peachtree Accounting. Instead of running on the user’s computer, the software is accessible via the cloud, much like Office 365 is the cloud-based version of Microsoft’s widely used office productivity suite. Sage 50c comes with the Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium.

Sage 50c is the modification of Sage’s most popular on-premise accounting solution, Sage 50, powered through deep integration with Microsoft Office 365, it is designed to give both growing and established business builders complete control over their accounts and finances.

Sage 50c combines the trust and security of slick desktop software with new cloud and mobile services. This delivers freedom, control and automation into the hands of business builders around the world, through better access to their business information, files and key tasks on the move. It is also complemented by real-time insight to help them make quicker decisions, aid the automation of manual processes and improved productivity, and to go paperless. Sage 50c is the first by Sage to be integrated with Office 365. The company plans to develop additional cloud and mobile services for Office 365.

New features include:

• ·   Sage Contact – syncing with Microsoft Outlook to ensure users can access key contact details, information, notes, history and files from any platform, at any time.
• ·       Mobile invoicing and expenses – allowing business owners to quickly record expenses and generate invoices on the go.
• ·       Bank feeds – direct connections to bank accounts so businesses have the most up-to-date view of their finances at their fingertips… flowing automatically into their accounts.
• ·     Sage Capture – giving users the ability to photograph receipts and capture expenses, invoices and other paperwork digitally using Microsoft OneDrive.
• ·      Sage Intelligence Reporting – supporting users to make faster, better and more informed decisions with the capability to create powerful, in-depth Microsoft Excel reports with Sage 50c simple design tool and smart templates.
• ·         Cloud Document Storage – helping businesses get rid of paperwork by providing secure file storage, sharing, data access and more for documents digitally using Microsoft OneDrive.
• ·         Business Performance Dashboards – putting all business processes into one, real-time dashboard so that users have everything they need to make decisions at their fingertips.
• ·         Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium – the market-leading, powerful business productivity suite is included with Sage 50c, giving Small & Medium Sized businesses everything they need to unlock 50c new capabilities alongside the wider benefits of Office 365.

Jacqueline de Rojas Managing Director: UK & Ireland – Northern Europe, of Sage said: “Our partnership with Office 365 massively extends the benefits of Sage 50c, by combining the power of Sage and the power of Excel to service millions of Small & Medium Businesses around the world. 50c gives small businesses the freedom to make day-to-day business processes more productive and more efficient, enabling them to enjoy the flexibility of web-based working without necessarily undertaking wholesale changes to their day-to-day process.

“At Sage, we believe that Small & Medium Business owners can use our technology to create enough competitive advantage to put them on the same playing field as their enterprise rivals. This is what can be achieved by working with the world’s best innovators and demonstrates the power of smart partnering.”

Ron Markezich, corporate vice president, of Office at Microsoft Corp. said: “Together with partners like Sage, we’re empowering accounting professionals and small and medium-sized businesses to get more out of every moment. The new Sage 50c offering, which is integrated with Microsoft Office 365, enables customers to manage their businesses across multiple devices and from multiple locations—with confidence that their information is live and up to date.”