Sage Pastel drives accounting software beyond accounting

Sage Pastel has released the Sage Pastel Accounting 2005 range of products, designed to cater for all the accounting requirements of the SME market. The 2005 range is aimed at companies of all sizes, from small start-ups using Pastel Xpress Start-Up 2005, through to Pastel Xpress 2005 and Pastel Partner 2005 for larger businesses. The undisputed leader in accounting solutions for the SME market, Sage Pastel is leading the way in the financial applications market by ensuring its latest offerings add value, not only to customers’ financials, but also to their overall businesses.

“The latest releases deliver on Sage Pastel’s promise to go beyond accounting by focusing on developing features and functionality that address the holistic needs of running a business,” says Jeff Lewis , International Director of Sage Pastel . “As the market leader with over 16 years of experience, expertise and understanding of the SME accounting software market, we are delivering software that assists our customers to gain a greater level of efficiency, thereby enabling them to become more competitive.

One of the new features designed to enhance customers’ business efficiency is the Pastel Business Intelligence Centre (BIC). The Pastel BIC allows users to view their financial information in any way they wish, through the world’s most popular data manipulation tool – Microsoft Excel. The BIC dynamically links Pastel to MS Excel where information can be viewed, manipulated, sliced and diced to give the user greater insights into their business. Once the domain of larger organisations, SME’s now also have access to business intelligence functionality that’s easy to use and affordably priced.

Additionally, as part of the UK-based Sage Group, Sage Pastel can now offer users seamless ACT! integration. ACT! is the world leader in contact management with over 78% of the world’s market share, more than 4 million individual and 15 000 corporate users. This add-on module further enhances the software’s capabilities by managing the interaction between the business and its customers, potential customers and suppliers.

Ever-responsive to market needs, Sage Pastel Accounting 2005 offers even greater ease of use, enhanced security and a new Serial Number Tracking add-on module. Users can also look forward to:

• Enhanced e-mail functionality: e-mail documents such as statements, invoices, orders and quotations in PDF format.
• Enhanced Microsoft Office integration.
• The forms designer interface retains compatibility with older form files and provides enlarged, user-friendly processing screens.
• Improved help file: comprehensive, intuitive and easy to use, the help file allows users to make focused enquiries into specific fields.

“In addition, Sage Pastel has also made a substantial investment in its online technology to make it easier for our customers and business partners to deal with us,” adds Lewis. “Online registration facilities for our international Business Partners as well as links to Business Partner Web sites that provide the full spectrum of services make it even easier to interact with Sage Pastel.”

The international launch date for Sage Pastel’s 2005 range of software is the 1 st July 2005. “With over 160 000 businesses already using its applications in more than 50 countries around the globe, we are confident that the Sage Pastel 2005 range will continue to form the financial foundation of global SME businesses,” Lewis concludes.