Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate Reviews

"SAGE 300 CRE - For Serious Job Costing and Estimating"

Comments: We have had this product since it was called Timberline (1988). It has morphed some over the years, but continues to be a benchmark for Job Costing and Estimating software. The company is innovative and produces a robust suite of software modules that integrate seamlessly and produce business intelligence that is useful, accurate and complete.

Pros: The ability to produce meaningful reports with the data entered

Cons: Slightly challenging to learn all aspects of the modules.

"Mediocre construction software"

Comments: This is not a program that is easy to learn or catch on. If you are not familiar with construction software, don't anticipate figuring out all out the right away.

Pros: The program has a lot of options and customization features. It is a great feature, but may be a little overwhelming at times.

Cons: The program is very complex and difficult at times. A lot of tasks are very tedious and things like creating a report require a lot of conditioning.

"Liles Construction Review of Sage 300"

Comments: Sage 300 aka Timberline is a very robust construction accounting software that can be configured to accommodate almost any type of construction related business. By utilizing 3rd party interfaces we are able glean critical cost management data from Sage that is used to create in-depth cost forecast and profitability reports.

Pros: Very robust . Can be configured to accommodate, pretty much, any type of construction accounting scenario .

Cons: Interface is dated. Very little change to interactive features or appearance in over 20 years.
Requires extensive and in depth knowledge to initially configure and considerable user training to effectively operate and maintain.

"Robust and Easy to Use Accounting Software"

Comments: overall this has been a good experience and has served our company for all needs.

Pros: custom reporting, ease of use, customized to meet our specific needs

Cons: Print features for the reports, Does not keep the columns and rows consistent when the reports are converted to Excel

"Sage Accounting Software"

Comments: I am able to perform all phases of accounting and generate real time reports for the owner.

Pros: I have been working with the software for over 25 years and the fact that everything is integrated helps to run a drywall company much easier.

Cons: Performing the annual updates to both the server and each desktop has always been a challenge.

"Sage 300 CRE Review"

Comments: It's clunky, it's hard to pull info from in a timely manner, but it works well for our input controls and has our entire lifelines in it so we make it work!

Pros: Inputs are good. That is, the software seems tailored towards having good controls for the input of documentation so things don't get missed.

Cons: Reporting and pulling data - terrible. Inconsistency between inquiry/reporting, inability to customize reports as needed, all seems to go back to either a mess of how the databases are set up or the historical addition of apps that led to data shoehorned in with poor relationships.

"Sage is a bit clunky but gets the job done"

Pros: The separate modules work very good. Certified Payrolls are easily done thru the payroll module. Payables and Receivables modules work nicely, with some help. Has a ton of reports available.

Cons: Although it has a lot of reports, they are hard to find the one you want/need. The separate modules seem like they came from separate companies sometimes and without an expert help or customer support, it would be really hard to get what you need out of them. I have had to pay for custom reports to be done to get what I need several times.

"Sage 300-Timberline"

Comments: Our experience on both the construction and real estate sides has been very positive over the years.

Pros: The assistance of United Solutions through implementation back in 1996 and the ongoing support through the years has been invaluable. The software his highly customizable and can be used in its most simplistic form to most complex in terms of tables, rates, billings, etc.

Cons: No good print to Excel feature. No cloud based version yet.

"The software is relatively easy to use."

Comments: Reporting is relatively easy once you have done the set-up. Able to export to excel for outside users such as auditors is helpful.

Pros: Input is quick and easy. It has been around long enough that most bugs are sorted out unlike some software. Once you learn some of the tricks/shortcuts it is even easier.Updates are frequent and the help desk resolves issues quickly. Able to customize reports.

Cons: Like most software it takes some time to setup. Customizing to your business is a feature but then you need to learn to us crystal in order to make updates. Closing month in one module doesn't always update or close the others.

"Sage 300 Review"

Comments: Coming from Simply and QuickBooks this software take you way beyond their functionality. Highly recommend for any construction companies to take this software on as it really goes above and beyond allowing you to track multiple projects, invoice using different products. The app entry allows such variations including Manual Cheque, E-transfers, Credit Card (entry by a vendor) and regular cheque runs. As a company we want to streamline double payments and this system allows us to catch many duplicate submissions. I can't say enough of how happy I am that it integrates with Excel and if you don't want to invest in excel custom reports if your accountant uses ODBC at all they can extract the information easily.

Pros: AP system (easy of entry, avoid duplicates
Job Cost (track multiple projects, ensure they are invoiced, reports by vendor, by code)
Cash Management System(reconcile your statements so easily, transfers between companies are so simplified, make an entry on the fly)
GL (reports ...allow you to analyze your accounts)

Cons: Financial Reporting (out of the box reports are functional but not friendly to them eye comparable to simply/QuickBooks) but they do the job but would be nice to have better out of the box reports. That being said you can also order customer reports if that is what you are looking for.

"Sage 300 Construction Review"

Comments: I do like the comprehensive reports that I get without having to create my own.

Pros: Once the software was set up it was easy to use.

Cons: There is little flexibility by the user to change somethings. Like to add more spaces for Job numbers I am locked in to only four Digits and to change this I was told they would have to re setup all my information.

"Paul's Review"

Comments: I inherited this product and have learned to work around its deficiencies, The price tag to switch and the value of all my customizations are what keep me using the product

Pros: The Data Tables are good and I like the partnership with Office connector and that I get Crystal Report writer with the product

Cons: THe software doesn't do a good job of fully synchronizing the modules, there are alot of useful data fields that become obsolete if you use certain modules, making capturing data more difficult if not impossible

"Outdated yet Effiient"

Pros: Sage 300 has a lot of features and can do essentially everything we need from a job cost, accounting and project management standpoint.

Cons: I feel like the UI is clunky and outdated. We've had to partner with several companies to get more out of Sage because they aren't updating anything. I also dislike their customer service. I've been on a phone call with a rep and instead of walking me through a solution, I am sent a link to a solution, put on hold and expected to walk through it myself.

"Inquiries and Reports"

Pros: I love the inquiries that you can create with this product. They are easy to create and once you are done, you can throw it to excel. It's a very powerful tool and saves us time.

Cons: The reports are harder to create and it is hard to get some information out of payroll. I feel the canned reports could be better designed and are missing some basic items that most companies would use.

"3213"

Comments: I would recommend Sage to other businesses.

Pros: I enjoyed the ease of Sage and getting around from one area to the next. Very self explanatory and easy to use.

Cons: I can't think of anything that I did not like but only have used the software for about a year.

"Accurate and Reliable with Minor Drawbacks"

Comments: The software does what you need it to do for daily accounting functions with minimal crashes or delays. However, the reporting function needs to be updated to a usable format so that it takes the end user less time to gain the information needed.

Pros: The software is very reliable and there are very few hiccups in day to day use.
It's also very handy to have features such as:
- Attaching documents/invoices to an AP or Journal Entry
- Recurring journal entries
- Project Coding

Cons: I find the interface layout to be a little archaic. It is not very modern in comparison to other accounting software.
A troublesome area is when making entries in the General Ledger module, the entries are not reflected in the AP, Bank, or AR modules. However, making entries in the AP, Bank, or AR modules are transferred correctly in the GL.
Lastly, the reports that are generated by Sage 300 can be put into Excel 97-2003 only. Furthermore, the reports are generated in a very complex manner with poor formatting and many merged cells. Trying to manipulate and sort data can take a long time.
It would be very helpful to be able to search/filter through Sage by the invoice/document number. The only option to do this is to either export the data to Excel, or search by vendor.

"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.

"Sage 300"

Comments: I have always believed in the product. Enough that I worked as a consulting for 9 years.

Pros: I like the way that these modules cover most of the activities that I need. Reporting flexibility and program stability have always been good.

Cons: I would like to see scheduling features included, purchasing fully integrated, eventually cloud-based. I would like to be able to make g/l accounts inactive. I have been having problems with module licenses and .lck. It needs updating to compete with newer programs and contact with support almost always requires a 45 minute wait.

"Very Capable Software with Tremendous Support"

Pros: By far the best thing about Sage 300 is the customer support. It is simply phenomenal. For whatever shortcomings the software has, it is made up in the ability to pick up the phone and directly contact Sage employees who speak our language, understand our concern, and our very knowledgeable of their product. You don't get the "run-around" when you call in. They are very willing to remote into your computer to explain and help with troubleshooting the problem or implementing the solution. They aren't perfect as some experiences have been disappointing, but many times as I conclude a customer support phone call I am reminded just how impressed and pleased I am with their service.

Cons: Many of the user interfaces are somewhat archaic and not the easiest to work with. That said, there seems to be a modernization process underway that will be addressing this in future versions. There are minor quirks/irregularities with the software, but that is to be expected since it has so many capabilities and tries to fill diverse needs.

"A believer....."

Comments: I have over 35 years experience as an account and experience with Sage less than one year. There was a significant learning curve; however, the support team is the greatest! I miss the ability to drill down into a transaction by point and click, but with this being said, I do not miss the out of balance journals/registers caused by this point and click. I came on board with this employer mid June 2020. My first impression was I hated Sage! I even contacted prior software company I had over 25 years experience with and asked them to get me a product to work with... their response "you have the best software for your industry...we can't touch it".... So, I had to pull up my big girl pants and learn Sage. Almost a year in and I feel very comfortable with this software for multiple reasons. First, their support team has been most helpful in assisting me with issues; sometimes *often* fixing my issues; and making sure I understand the steps to take to remedy these issues. Second, Sage is a very stable software. It can handle changes in payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general ledger without having a melt down. (Prior software.....*well known program*... ledgers would suddenly not balance, payroll would be out of whack, etc... long hours tracking these out of balance issues) Lastly, Sage made me realize I am never too old to learn something new. This is the program you want for your construction company.

Pros: The job costing of Sage 300 is phenomenal.

Cons: There was a significant learning curve when migrating from prior software to Sage.

"User for 25+ years"

Comments: Overall, my experience has been very positive. Other peers, and our external auditors, are amazed at how quickly a company our size can complete month-end and year-end procedures and how detailed we can get our reporting.

Pros: One of the best things about the software is that the core applications were designed together, unlike other software that tries to integrate applications from several sources. So, Job Cost, Payroll, AP, AR GL and CM flow together very well. Also, the software was originally designed specific to the construction industry so it really incorporates most of the financial needs of our industry.

Cons: We are running into issues in payroll due to the size of our current file. We are subject to job audits and we have many large projects so we like to keep several years' data in one file. However, Aatrix is not able to generate quarterly reports without archiving some payroll data. Also, it's really nice to have the ability to post to future GL periods. It would be even nicer to be able to roll FORWARD for financial statement the way we can roll back.

"Has great features once you learn how to use them"

Comments: I like Sage. When I started at my company I had never used it before, now I am more advanced than the rest. For construction with a larger company it makes it easy to organize information. And I REALLY like how it connects with ODBC. I have created 100+ reports in the past 5 years and they make things so much easier.

Pros: I like how it organizes invoices, how you can customize SOME field name and how you can add customized fields. It connect with ODBC to excel or access with Microsoft query. This comes with the software. And you can make so many live reports that you can refresh with a button. Also the option of make crystal reports.

Cons: Everything is additional. Crystal reports you have to purchase a license, paperless, each module, etc. This can become frustrating, especially when you have 1 license for AP and try to open it and it says "Someone else is using this". Most people that haven't used it take a long time to understand it. There is a conference but it isn't ran by Sage.

"Sage 300 CRE is an average database system"

Comments: Overall, we have used Sage 300 CRE (Timberline) for 15 years. We stick with it because we have invested so much time and money into customizing it and forcing it to work like we want it to work. It is a good database, if you can figure out ways of extracting the data you want (i.e. Access, ODBC, etc.). In general, the software is old and not as dynamic as others on the market, but switching is too much of a painful process to make us jump ship. We will keep sailing (and bailing) with Sage 300 CRE, at least for now.

Pros: We integrate other estimating and purchasing software for our home building division and that works fairly well. As a database repository, it works well. It is easy to get information in the system and you have a lot of ability to customize and create fields.

Cons: The reporting tools in Sage 300 CRE are not good. Getting information out of the system has always been our challenge. We end up extracting the data via other tools and creating our own reports in other tools (i.e. excel). The financial statement and other report writing tools are not easy to work with, and frequently have issues that need to be corrected (or acknowledged... still not sure why Sage can not figure out how to round properly to make a balance sheet balance)...

"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.

"A Proven Total Construction and Accounting Package"

Comments: Very good experience with the product and dealing with support and the knowledgebase. I have been using this product now over 15 years. I have worked for 2 General Contractors during this time and this product has served us well.

Pros: I like the fact that Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate software (modules) is a total solution for a few different industries, mainly construction. We have all the modules from Job Costing to Payroll to Project Management, etc. We do everything in house. I also like the fact that it integrates with Aatrix for Government and State e-Filing and reporting. That is very nice that it pulls everything from Sage and makes the reporting process seamless and easy. There are many other products that integrate well including MyAssistant.

Cons: I wish the software was cloud-based which would make upgrading and future improvements much easier and attractive. A smaller investment of hardware and resources would be needed since the server would pretty much be eliminated. Updates would be automatic. Sage does have other products that are cloud-based but this one will not be going that route.