We received a notification from Sage today that they intend to discontinue access to everyone using a version of Sage 50 Accounts or Sage 50cloud Accounts of version 26.2 or below. The article is here. As an IT company whose client base has a heavy reliance on Sage, we are issuing this post with advice to our clients who are impacted by this event.
What does this mean practically?
It means that on the 30th of September in 2022, or shortly after, you will no longer be able to open affected versions of the Sage software at all.
Does this affect me, and how do I check my version?
You should open any Sage 50 Accounts or Sage50cloud Accounts software you are using and navigate to Help > About and take note of the version number. If it is 26.2 or lower then your version is impacted. If you are still unsure, please feel free to contact our Service Desk who will happily help you check.
Why are Sage doing this?
According to the Sage article, this is due to them discontinuing old technology used by these older software versions, which increases their overall security.
Do I need to upgrade my version of Sage?
If you’re on an older version of Sage, now is a great time to see if there are any alternatives that may be suitable. We know of a number of clients who have moved to Xero and are very happy. Xero is entirely based in the cloud and is accessed via a browser so there’s never any software updating/installation, nor does it require a server and all maintenance is included. We utilise this at Impact and we are very happy with it! You can find more about Xero, here or if you want to chat with our accounts team who actually utilise Xero, please feel free to give us a call!
I’m using an old version, is this insecure?
The short answer is yes. To illustrate that point, you would not currently be able to pass a Cyber Essentials assessment if you had this software installed. The guidance issued says “Is all Software on your devices supported by a supplier that produces regular fixes for any security problems? All software used by an organisation must be supported by a supplier who provides regular security updates. Unsupported software must be removed from devices.”
If you have any other questions then please feel free to give us a call and we will do all we can do to help.