Newcastle, 24th June 2011: Leading business software and services provider, Sage UK, has today unveiled the first in a series of functionality enhancements to Sage One, its family of software as a service tools, offering small business owners a simple, secure, low cost way to manage their finances and collaborate with their accountants in real-time.

Enhancements, which include the ability to run aged debtors and creditors reports, mean small businesses and accountants using the Sage One accounting service can now profit from greater cashflow visibility. The move, part of an ongoing development programme by the Sage One team, comes at a time when more than a third (36%) of small business owners have seen late payments worsen over the past six months, according to Sage’s monthly Omnibus of more than 1,000 UK SMEs.

“As the uncertain economic conditions continue, small businesses are under increasing pressure to ensure good cashflow management.  The ability to run aged debtor and creditors reports, as well as nominal activity and trial balance reports, will give Sage One accountants and their clients a detailed view of financial performance in real time,” said Michael Barber, Marketing Manager for Sage One.

The new features, delivered automatically at no extra cost, will make it easier than ever for accountants and their clients to share and collaborate on vital data whenever they need to:

export trial balance reports

track and export nominal activity reports

export data in SAP (Sage Accounts Production) and SAPA (Sage Accounts Production Advanced) formats

view aged debtors and creditors reports

Furthermore, Sage One business users will now be able to invite their accountants to join Sage One and pay for the service themselves, rather than via their accountant.

“Having successfully launched Sage One in January our development team has engaged with the user community - sole-traders, small business owners and accountants - to establish how the service can be enhanced in line with evolving needs and wants.

“This is the first major milestone in our ongoing development of Sage One. Our next release, which will be available in the coming weeks, will offer greater functionality to help business owners track payments and create invoices,” Michael Barber added.

Andrew Hill, founder of Hills Office Products, who was one of the first business owners to test out the software, said: “Like a lot of small business owners I do my accounts outside of working hours and at weekends. Sage One gives me the flexibility to access my financial data wherever I am, and the ability to share this with my accountant in real-time.

“Adding aged debtors and creditors reports into the functionality within Sage One will eliminate the need for me to send separate reports to my accountant each month, saving me time, without sacrificing any of the simplicity and ease of use of the service.”

Sage has also announced today that Sage One is now available to businesses and accountants in Ireland.

For further information on Sage One, or to sign up to a free 30 day trial please visit: www.sageone.com.