Sage 100

Has anyone compiled information comparing Sage AP Automation (Beanwork) to competitors?

No but I'm interested. I have a demo scheduled for 8/23

There is a document in My Sage Sell in the AP Automation playbook that has the comparison.

Thanks, I grabbed the spreadsheet this morning. I'm hoping to find some unbiased materials

The only problem with the spreadsheet is that the AvidXchange column is nearly empty. Surely this is Beanworks' largest competitor?

We don't have a write up, but I do think that AvidXchange is indeed Beanworks' largest competitor. We've only sold one Beanworks program and several AvidXhanges. The biggest difference is that Avid actually solicits all of the vendors a user has to use their Virtual Credit Cards where Beanworks makes the user do that themselves. Which means, Avid has a much better conversion rate and gets more discounts for the end user than Beanworks. And Avid does solicit the user's vendors! The second thing that folks like more about Avid is that Beanworks doesn't provide a ""lock box"" - a virtual email so to speak, where Avid does the receiving, scanning, and OCRs any emailed invoices that the user typically receives. Avid does that - Beanworks does not.

Beanworks has decent PO matching; Avid doesn't yet have PO matching tool. @SueBennett - has that changed? Beanworks PO tool can also act as a good Purchase Req facility, too. With workflow approvals. Avid interfaces to Sage via import/export files. It is straightforward as such things go, but it can be challenging for a low-tech-savvy AP dept. Avid's vendor portal is clever. Vendors login to an Avid site, and from there can see those customers using Avid and the status of the vendor's invoices. Once Avid signs up a vendor for Customer A, that Vendor is then signed up for future Avid users. I get suspicious when such huge holes go unanswered in competitive matrices ...

Thank you for the feedback. My memory of Beanworks is that customers were happy, the implementation took very little consulting time and that contacting sales and receiving a reply can be challenging. Helping customers to engage with third party solutions is an issue with me. I do NOT want to become the unpaid sales department for any of these third parties. I'm struggling to find where we make much money on these deals unless we are only doing these evaluations for customers who are on an access agreement with us. Some third parties promise ongoing commissions but it's a full time job to track and chase them...

@JerryNorman - we've only sold Avid to Core Accounting clients and so we don't have experience with Avid and PO. Wayne - I will say that they both have their challenges - Beanworks promised the client we sold it to that they could scan receipts using the new Beanworks ""mobile"" option, which apparently didn't exist when the client purchased Beanworks. Avid is a challenge once they get a sale - we have had to call them multiple times to begin the implementation. The client chooses them, and then we have to chase Avid to get the implementation of Avid started.

@WayneSchulz - and yet Sage is discounting late fees/additional fees for clients who are off plan if they purchase between $10K and $20K of third party products. As a reseller, we're in a tough position because we do take a lot of ""free"" time in helping the clients with that. That, along with the Sage 100Cloud compensation (or lack thereof) is really hurting our bottom line!

After 9/28 I'm not offering free licensing assistance to anyone who is not on my access agreement. They can call Sage directly or pay use to provide assistance. The margins and compensation is not covering both our direct time spent with the customer and our significant indirect time spent here and in other places keeping updated on what's available. The old days of providing a lot of free handholding and advice because we were making money off maintenance will quickly fade. Most VARS won't realize it until another year or two. I am beginning by adding in an additional fee for new / renewal third-party add-ons or enhancements to cover the time spent installing and often debugging the installation.

Well said! On each and every Scope of Work we do, especially Sage 100/Sage 100Cloud Upgrades these days, we have a line in the ""Out of Scope"" section of the SOW that says ""We are not the manufacturer of Sage 100 Software, and are not responsible for data conversions or corrections that need to be made as a result of the upgrade."" And it goes on to say that we haven't included time in the SOW for those resolutions and that we reserve the right to invoice for said corrections/issues/problems. As you say, when we were making money off of the sales of the software (and maintenance, too) we could absorb those additional costs. We can no longer afford to do that...

Yes, a ""project management"" fee. We started the same. We offer 3 levels, depending on how much we interact. Don't underestimate the value to customers of having somebody they more or less trust to get them ""trained.

I have added ""not responsible for hidden damage"" clauses for quite some time. I used to spend time telling customers that I'd have to do a test upgrade for one price before I could give them the final price. That got old really fast. Now I tell them that if I find any issues that we'll have a conversation about how to correct them and if there is an added cost. So far that has worked. The vast majority of my customers have no issue paying though I have one or two clunkers that have tried to take full advantage.

This could be either a session at MOTM or some type of early morning / late night discussion. I think there are a lot of ways we have to change the way we manage our engagements and what we need to be charging for. My experience is that customers dislike PM fees and dislike constant changes. So I've built both into my fixed pricing. 90% or more of my customers typically take the middle or highest priced option. I should probably raise my fee...

Also, I've used 9/28 (which is the day Sage says they will stop offering the 100cloud promo migration pricing) as the line in the sand. After 9/28 if a customer who isn't on plan wants me to get another quote it's going to be a prepaid charge on a CC unless they are on plan. I will also give them Sage's 800 number as I found dealing with Sage is my most effective deal closer in convincing customers to use our services...