Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate Reviews

Sage is a good value for the the money I paid

Comments: Despite their short comings,I can tell you that sage 300 is the best management software out their with good value for money,and I highly recommend it for either large or small real estate or construction companies.

Pros:

What I like is the face that sage helps me to boost my project productivity, limiting errors, improving correspondence among parties,and creating adjustible reports

Cons:

I have been using this software for a while now and my only issues us that I still cant remove some dormant account.that is my only issues

Versatile and Allows for Growth

Comments: I love this software but feel the customer service has tanked over the years. If I have an issue I want to pick up the phone and reach a person, not hours of hold time and voice mail only to be told to go look up the answer myself via the knowledgebase. It is extremely frustrating.

Pros:

There is a lot of versatility in this software that I know we don't even tap into.

Cons:

You can post, or rather the software allows for, negative debit and credit postings. For me it is fine but when you have someone on staff who maybe doesn't understand it can make things tricky.

Sage 300

Comments: Overall, it is one of the best software's I've ever used in my career in accounting.

Pros:

I liked how user friendly it is and how easy it is to fix any errors.

Cons:

Some improvements can be made on the ease of finding answers to various questions.

Functional ERP, not particularly user friendly

Pros:

It has just about every feature one could need in a construction ERP.

Cons:

User interface is not particularly great - very easy to screw things up with one misclick.

Perfect program for tracking jobs, invoices, POs etc.

Comments: Overall its a great resource to have for managing your business.

Pros:

In my position, I use job cost and accounts receivable most. I like that I'm able to set up a job with ease and keep track of all expenses associated with that job. I can look up a job quickly using job cost, enter invoices, enter direct costs. etc.

Cons:

I love using sage but I have run into one problem. We only have 1 user at a time so If I'm in job cost entering direct costs and someone tries to log on, not knowing I'm already using it, it interrupts the system and I cant save what I have entered. I have to erase and start all over.

Timberline Property Management Software Review

Comments: When we first purchased Timberline in 2002 we were extremely satisfied with the software. Their Customer Support & Third-Party Consultants provided the best & knowledgeable support I have ever been involved with in over 40 years of use. They still provide great support in answering and fixing my problems, but the response time has been degraded. Unfortunately, once Timberline was acquired by Sage, the Real Estate (Property Management) portion of the software seemed to become "orphaned" in favor of the Construction portion of the software and has not "kept up" with today's technology.

Pros:

When we first purchased Timberline Property Management Software 19 years ago, we felt it was the best Property Management Software on the market. It had all the modules we needed at the time and they were tightly integrated to each other. The report designer module made it easy to produce both "canned" and "custom" reports. Bottom line, it fit almost all of our Property Management needs with minimal reliance on third-party software.

Cons:

Timberline Property Management Software was acquired by Sage Software and in my opinion over the years since acquisition, became Sage 300 Construction Software. If you look at the focus of the software today, it seems to be over 95% focused on the Construction industry and only 5% on the Real Estate industry.

Okay software for multiple companies but many glitches

Comments: Took us 2 years to sort out the issues caused buy a Sage consultant not setting up the system correctly with us.

Pros:

The ease to show combined financials for multiples companies works great.

Cons:

We have run into many glitches where things do not post correctly due and Sage cannot tell us why. Does not do everything that the sales rep told us it would.

Sage 300 Helps Get The Job Done!

Comments: Any large-sized construction enterprise with revenues of $2 million or above should absolutely consider this software. It keeps track of your fixed assets and performs a number of additional robust accounting tasks.

Pros:

dependable software with an excellent and strong support staff. Sage is one of the top market leaders in the field of building software, and its moderate degree of integration complexity with third-party apps makes it a remarkable choice for businesses that already have their Master set well-defined in terms of construction standards.

Cons:

Without the right capacity assessment, total cost of ownership can be prohibitive. By sending your administrators and staff to Sage University for training, you can maximise your investment. Custom features need special consideration from knowledgeable advisors.

Sage 300

Pros:

Batch entry for invoicing, to be able to create multiple batches and update accordingly for the GL to balance on a monthly basis

Cons:

Convoluted reporting, invoice correction once uploaded is a difficult process to reverse

Sage 300 Review

Pros:

sage 300 is good for project management, financial integrations and making some reports to prevent future problems

Cons:

Sage 300 has a very large learning curve due to its very complex features and high cost

Solid Construction Accounting Software

Comments: The tracking of costs and billings is great in this software. You are able to capture just about every detail you could possibly need and it's all integrated together. With the available 3rd party add ons this is a very good product.

Pros:

Sage 300 CRE, formally known as Timberline, is a very robust construction accounting software. The customization is really endless and although the software platform is older, the 3rd party software packages available allow you to use current technologies with it. It is not the most user friendly as new software is but it is a very solid working product that has been around for years. I like being able to customize the software to how we do business. I have not run into too many situations in which the software was not capable of handling something. Certainly you might need a consultant to help you create complex reports and other processes but at least it is available if you need it.

Cons:

I would say the biggest con is the fact the software is built on an older database platform and the screens are a bit older and do not scale well with newer systems. Although there is a SQL database replicator now to move your data to SQL for enhanced and faster reporting, the program itself still runs on the Pervasive database. It tends to run slow when you have a large database so you constantly have to keep up on the archiving. I also wish the program had a few more preventative features when it comes to posting transactions to closed GL periods. Certain tasks do not validate if the GL is closed prior to posting which I find to be a pain. Sometimes the fix is easy but other times it is very difficult to figure out.

Good for Construction

Comments: I have used Sage 300 for years. Many companies use it although I find that it needs some element of support or a strong user on the team to resolve things that come up. Office Connector is a nice addition as many reports are not available out of the box...such as a CashFlow Statement and a good WIP report that can be modified and adjusted. You can write into the software so many applications can share data which is a plus. I feel like we have multiple additional technologies to make up for all the short-comings of Sage. Their support however, is amazing. Very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. Additionally, the SageKnowledge Base can answer most questions a user has so there are solutions, but takes a bit to get familiar with how to find what you are looking for.

Pros:

I like its ability to link with multiple applications including PROCORE, HH2, Paperless.

Cons:

Out of the box financial reports are limited and it is not super intuitive in my opinion. We are currently running desktop in a hosted environment. I think I would have preferred the cloud based package.

Pros and Cons of Sage 300

Pros:

On par with some other offerings, but does not excel in any specific area, hence no one are where it really excels.

Cons:

The overall accounting approach to how information is presented is lagging, in my opinion. Various inquiries need to be made in order to retrieve specific vendor, or client information, instead of making the reports and inquiries available through either the A/P, or A/R modules - all of them. The software also needlessly complicates interaction with the GL through the Cash Management and the Register feature(s), all this in my opinion should be centered around and through the GL module. Certain options under Agings are also puzzling, offering various reports that have little to do with actual aging(s), such as presenting the outstanding amounts in aged-buckets. When one is also more used to dealing with Debits and Credits, Sage presents some of these as 'Additions' or 'Subtractions'... which takes away the purely accounting approach to dealing with transfers, and debit and credit activity within various GL accounts, while a non-accountant might find the 'Additions' and 'Subtractions' easier to work with when it comes to dealing with actual bank accounts, the layout becomes more puzzling when dealing with other, non-cash accounts, where straight up Debit and Credit columns would be a lot more appropriate - for any entries. The 'Register' module mitigates this to some extent by a pop-up box, where some of this is automatically pre-filled, but in my opinion it's just an extra step that adds to the confusion and easiness of entries through GL only.

Comments: I have used Sage 300 since 2010 and have found it the most troubling accounting software I have encountered. It has the capability to do a lot, but the product is so difficult to use that it makes doing a lot impractical, at least for a smaller company. Sage acquired Master Builder in around 2008 and has yet to implement many of the "smart" features I had expected after they bought it from Intuit in that acquisition. In Master Builder/Sage 100, you can drill down on just about any field or report for more data. This drill down does not exist in Sage 300. The built-in calculator in Sage 100 is so handy; it does not exist in 300. The feature to advance the date using the + and - keys in 100 does not exist in 300. The feature to verify successful check runs through a certain check number does not exist in 300. The use of non-accounting terms intermixed with accounting terms is frustrating to me. When looking at the Cash Management Module, it refers to Debits and Credits as Additions and Subtractions. It posts certain entries as a Negative Debit instead of a Credit or vice-verse. GL is driven by the modules and never the opposite. In 100, you can enter accounting entries and have the job costs updated, but not in 300. If you have to enter a GL transaction that will affect job costs, you have to then go into the job cost module and enter a direct job cost and debit and credit the same account for a net zero GL affect. It can only print one thing at a time. Let me clarify; you open one report, an AP aging. You realize you paid a vendor more than you thought. You then run an open invoice list for that vendor. You realize they haven't been paid on a draw that they should have. You then decide to print the Open Invoice list to give to the PM, Controller, etc., but you can't. The first report that is open gets the print priority. Then if you try to close your AP aging to print your Invoice list, you can't. When you opened the second report, apparently the first report tells the second that it is not allowed to print. You then have to close the second report and re-run it. My biggest issue with 300 is that it is extremely prone to being out of balance with itself. That phrase may not make sense to most accounting users. I am referring to the concept of the GL not matching the AP, AR, Cash, etc modules. I have had so many instances of something being off; most recently, certain sales accounts were showing a previous balance after closing the fiscal year. This required manually changing the previous year account balance on the sales account and changing the retained earnings by the same amount. These sort of internal errors are very scary to me because Sage doesn't know why they happen, and if it can happen in one place, it can happen just about anywhere, I would think. Sage support is decent; they are all pretty used to the odd quirks and defects of the program, so they seem to be able to get these problems solved. If you are a daily user of the software, I would recommend not getting Sage 300.

Yesterdays technology for yesterdays prices.

Comments: The only benefit can think about using Sage is the money I could make building add-ons and consulting opportunities it provides because it lacks the basics. Financial reporting is a joke.

Pros:

It works. It's fairly cheap. Not that buggy. I assume this is so because you haven't hired a team of developers since the late 90s. I'd bet the head of the user experience if you have one, has been ready to retire for the last ten years.

Cons:

You have not put any effort into improving the product. For example how hard would it be to put a link from the transaction inquiry to the entry batch by clicking a button. The standard reporting is terrible. Have you ever asked what an accounting team needs? Also, in 2021 one should be able to copy and paste into your tables (e.g. JEs). Another example of how sloppy your user experience is when you close the books for the month, someone has to open the prior month one at a time. We have 90 companies. I had to program a python script to do this! I also use an Oracle product for financial reporting.

The best applications for accurate accounting of supply chains

Comments: Sage 300 keep all supply chain tracking processes on track from the start until after the work is completed, which gives assurances to all supply chain participants that their entitlements and rights are known and thus facilitates transparent settlements.

Pros:

It is a comprehensive accounting program, useful for conducting audits and reviews of all accounts of suppliers (creditor and debtor). It integrates with many software that is used in project management, enabling users to apply comprehensive management concepts to their projects. I like very much the ease of setup, commensurate with the needs of the project, and its integration with many applications relieves you of double entry and enables you to import or export data as needed. With Sage 300, you will be able to accurately prepare the accounting lists for your supply chains, as you will be able to know the balance of any of the suppliers and delivery dates directly and without the need to search in invoices and files.

Cons:

All is well and after hours of training you will be able to use it efficiently, just needs some updates to the display and some colors to get a more modern look. The program's speed must also be increased so that you can exploit more than one window at the same time.

1990s product still held together with duct tape

Pros:

I have experience with it and can cope with it.

Cons:

It's insane that recording transactions in AP need to be separately posted in other modules. It's crazy that I can't run a general ledger transaction report with a job number. Why do we have to purchase separate software (Office Connector) in order to extract data with the flexibility we need? If I run are report and print it from the report menu, you shut the menu down and make me reselect all of the filters, is this intentional just to piss me off? Why can't I resize and save the screens such as the AP invoice inquiry screen or the GL inquiry entry screen? Why are so many screens kept as small as possible so that I am forced to function like I'm looking through a key hole(GL Change Entries) Why can't I enlarge that screen so I can see the full line of data and a much larger list of lines? This program needs to be at least brought into the 21st century if you can't get it modernized to today's standards. We are seriously considering modern software such as CMIC.

Sage Recommendation

Pros:

I started to use Sage 300 back when it was called Timberline. I implemented it at the Drywall company I was working at. The software is very user friendly and is very easy for anyone to use. I perfected the software use when I went to a General Contractor that was already using the software. When I first interviewed for my current position, in my interview I couldn't stop talking about Sage. That was the reason I was hired. I have once again implemented Sage from a manual system.

Cons:

I don't like the was the Job Cost module changed and would love it to go back to the old set-up screen. I used to use the condition button for looking for set up mistakes and not I literally need to go thru each job looking at the set-up. Also in the Payroll module I wish the reports and generating accruals would be able to use the daily entry grid instead of have to enter the date for each entry. I went for one entry per employee week to forty. That's not cost effective to get the work done.

Aging Product with No Future

Comments: I've been close enough to the product and support to know the many failings for well over a decade.

Pros:

I like the ability to be able to write reports that are meaningful and exactly what I need.

Cons:

The fact that Sage will never update the core of the software and just keep creating software additions to add functionality while still charging an annual fee for tax updates will bury this product eventually.

10 years behind

Comments: The software is long overdue for an overhaul, but it works.

Pros:

Stability. Continued support. Customization to meet needs of construction accounting. Reliable. It just works 99.9% of the time.

Cons:

Sage has done nothing to improve the product in the past 20 years. It is basically the same interface. The addition of desktop app was an attempt to bring a modern feel to Sage, but it is basically the same program. Upgrading the software costs me a full day of downtime to upgrade server and all of our workstations every year. Surely, there could be a better way to upgrade. Project management is light years behind other PM solutions out there.

Controller

Comments: The owner/ management likes the various reports I am able to produce from the system. Overall, we are pleased with the Sage product.

Pros:

all the accounting applications are integrated making it easy to run reports and pull information from the data.

Cons:

Recently have noticed a decline in customer service. It appears it has been outsourced. The telephone connections are poor and it is often difficult to understand their English. Oftentimes they are not able to answer the call and you get put back into the queue which is frustrating. About a year-ago we purchased the Sage Service Operations for workers in the field to submit their hours. We had higher expectations from the software but it has not been as smooth as we were told. Running reports from it is difficult, the workers in the field are not pleased with it and the back office having to spend a lot of time correcting mistakes because the software is not user-friendly.

Solid expandable software

Comments: good software can expand to your needs but customer service is not responsive enough, not quick responding to business needs. Need better hours of customer service operation (open before 9am EST) and need more people to answer technical service requests via phone wait time way too extensive!!

Pros:

payroll & accounting modules are great tools

Cons:

crashes easy, data loss or corruptibility not hard to realize

Good product, frustrating reporting, is Sage looking forward?

Comments: Solid ERP software. Expensive to get all the "bells and whistles". Requires work outside the software to get useful information efficiently.

Pros:

Once trained, easy to use. Good security policies in place to allow multiple users with access to only what they need.

Cons:

Cumbersome to get information out. If you want Job information about an AP invoice, you need to look at two different inquiries because the job info is in the Job Cost database while you are looking in the Accounts Payable database, or vice versa. Even with daily time entry, the Payroll module doesn't offer an inquiry or report to get daily info about an employee (Job charged to, EQ used, etc.) Finally, why doesn't Sage have any plans to develop a 64-bit ODBC driver? The whole world is going to 64-bit Windows platforms, but have to use 32-bit Spreadsheet software to use the ODBC connection to access the information that should be available from within the software itself.

Sage 300CRE review

Comments: While the support staff is very responsive and friendly, there is just things that aren't setup properly and Sage won't fix them.

Pros:

Entering AP, PR etc. is easy to use and understand. It's nice that all of the modules work together.

Cons:

There are just too many bugs. Some times the software just doesn't work. Example - we process a purchase order, when we finish we select to print the PO and it just doesn't happen. We have limits setup in payroll for deductions and the system continues to take the deduction past that limit. There is just a lot of quirks with the system that Sage refuses to fix.

Features

Comments: Overall I can find, research just bout anything as I learn the system.

Pros:

Once learned the program parts for my position I can work through most anything with ease.

Cons:

There are still missing features. Cannot pull a report by customer name under the inquiry option only the customer number. You cannot pull up a customer by customer name in service management when creating the work orders. You cannot adjust an invoice in service management unless you post over, then void and then make corrections. And finally unless you know the whole system reports can be quite complicated. WE are not able to export information in Service Management to excel as we need. WE have to pull reports from multiple areas to get information. Have ot been able to import documents to attach to the work orders.