General Consultant Discussion

We have received multiple requests this month that we pay all outstanding Sage Invoices that are due by the end of the month as soon as possible. Obviously Sage is trying to clean up their Receivables in order to have a clean A/R Balance Sheet account by the end of the fiscal year. Has everyone else received these same emails/calls? Just a coincidence? Or maybe I'm reading too much into the fact that they're trying to have a good Receivable balance at the end of the month although Sage has never been this...aggressive...in previous years. Very curious...(Incidentally, regardless of the person asking us to pay Invoices early, my major is in Finance. And I was taught never ever to pay for something today that isn't due for another 2 weeks.)

Curious indeed!!!

Yes we received the same email. We've received similar requests almost each fiscal year end (and some quarter end months), usually by a direct email from our rep.

Oh, so we are supposed to pay them on a timely (or even expedited basis) but they can't get off the butts to process tier and commissions on a timely basis? Rather ballsy I must say. Found this in my Sage Emails. The second paragraph could be interpreted to be asking for early payment. Looking at it on a whole, she seems to be asking for permission to offset the outstanding invoices with credits. Sounds harmless unless you are withholding payment because they owe you more credits. Then things can get messy in a hurry.

My clients went to a different finance school. Never pay today what was due 4 weeks ago...

Mine subscribe to the be busy, don't return calls/emails and go into a never ending meeting after requesting multiple detail quotes/meetings/conference calls on the same project.

I read Jeff's email above and interpreted the real purpose as Sage wanting to clean up their AR by netting credits against open invoices.

@SueBennett, what is your guess as to why they are working so diligently to clean their balance sheet? Do you foresee some major change taking place?

@PhilWhirley - I can dream, can't I?!! That there would be a major change taking place?!! But alas, I don't know of one. I just haven't received this kind of push before - by multiple people - asking for payment of ALL invoice due by the end of the month. It just makes me wonder if there is indeed a reason they're trying to clean up all of their Receivables. And another question for folks: Our clients are also receiving phone calls and emails from Sage, telling the client that they represent Bennett/Porter and we want to urge them to move to the Cloud. And how much better the Cloud is for the client - especially with all of the third party cloud products that Sage 100Cloud integrates with. I have an issue with Sage saying they are calling representing us - but my biggest problem is that they're calling clients who just renewed their maintenance 2 or 3 months ago, and decided to NOT go to Sage 100Cloud. It just reeks of desperation from the manufacturer IMHO.

This isn't all that different than the sale 'stuffing' I saw right before Sage acquired SOTA

This is what happens when you centralize leadership overseas and your leader departs.

Or when a Marketing exec has a ""brilliant"" idea, and there is no competent Operations voice to veto things which are a nightmare to administer. Tiers: SMH.

Sage 100cloud Order, Renewal, Servicing = absolutely no operational plan. None. Well, actually there was one. Have the reseller pick up the slack and The customer to fax their orders.

Indeed it is really frustrating to spend so much time explaining to clients (who have been clients for years) their options when talking about Sage 100 and Sage 100 Cloud. We have those discussions, then if the client does want to move to Sage 100Cloud, we have to complete all of the paperwork for them to send to Sage. All for our $32.50 monthly credit. I still don't understand how folks can afford to pay their salesperson on new Sage 100Cloud sales, when we used to be able to use that profit to pay for said salesperson. Not sure how Sage expects loyalty with our current margins...or new sales with those same margins either.

This is one reason I told customers that if they weren't on my support plan after 9/28 they'd have the option to pay us to help them with licensing including migration or Sage was always available for free via 800-854-3415. The process has gotten a little bit better (Sage rep will now send the Docusign) but the amount of explanation about the deceiving naming of the product and how it doesn't mean they need to run in the cloud is crazy. To top it off my understanding is that Sage will attempt to assess a penalty if your subscription lapses and you want to re-subscribe. Just let that sink in for a minute....

Yep - I saw that same email today. That if the renewal isn't processed in the same month as the current maintenance expires, even if it expires on the last day of the month and don't renew until the first day of the new month - penalty!