Whether QuickBooks Enterprise is cheaper than renewing Sage 100 depends on six numbers that only your renewal invoice, your Sage partner’s invoices and your IT calendar contain. Neither vendor publishes a price you can copy into a spreadsheet: Sage quotes by organization size, Intuit by tier and seat count. So this post gives you a two-column worksheet, a clearly hypothetical worked example and a 24-month view, and lets your figures give the verdict.
The subscription line on the renewal notice is rarely the whole bill. Pull twelve months of invoices and fill in each of these:
Intuit’s pricing page shows “starting at” figures that change with tier, seats and promotion, so we do not reprint them; get a written quote and enter it. What you can rely on from Intuit’s page is the structure:
Two Sage lines usually shrink rather than move across. Partner support hours fall because Priority Circle is bundled at every tier, though a ProAdvisor retainer for the first quarter is sensible. Year-end upgrade services largely disappear because updates are part of the subscription. Server upkeep becomes the Rightworks fee, or stays put if you host in-house.
Print this or copy it into a sheet. Where a Sage line has no QuickBooks equivalent, write zero and note why.
| Annual line | Sage 100 (your invoices) | QuickBooks Enterprise (your quote) |
|---|---|---|
| Core subscription (bundle / tier × seats) | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Add-on modules and third-party apps | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Payroll (per-employee fees included) | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Partner / ProAdvisor support hours × rate | ____ h × $____ = $ ________ | ____ h × $____ = $ ________ |
| Hosting or server share | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Year-end / upgrade services | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Internal IT time × loaded rate | ____ h × $____ = $ ________ | ____ h × $____ = $ ________ |
| Annual run-rate | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| One-time: conversion + training + parallel month | n/a | $ ________ |
| 24-month total (2 × run-rate + one-time) | $ ________ | $ ________ |
If you would rather have the arithmetic done for you, the accounting software cost calculator takes the same inputs.
Take a hypothetical eight-user wholesale distributor on Sage 100 Advanced with Payroll. Every number below is invented to show the method; none is a published Sage price. Left column: subscription $14,000; add-on module and connectors $3,000; partner support 20 hours at $185, $3,700; hosted server $500 a month, $6,000; year-end and upgrade services $1,800; internal IT 40 hours at $60, $2,400. Annual run-rate: $30,900. Over 24 months: $61,800.
On the right, because we will not print Intuit’s figure, call the annual Platinum quote for eight seats plus payroll Q, and the Rightworks hosting quote H. Add a mid-range conversion at $3,500, a ProAdvisor retainer of 10 hours at $150 in year one ($1,500), and $1,200 a year for two replacement apps. Their 24-month total is 2(Q + H) + $3,500 + $1,500 + $2,400 = 2(Q + H) + $7,400. The switch pays off inside 24 months only if 2(Q + H) is below $54,400, meaning the combined software-plus-hosting quote must come in under roughly $27,200 a year. That ceiling is what this distributor takes into the Intuit sales call. Clear it comfortably and the math favors moving; land close and the decision belongs to workflow.
Twelve months flatters staying put, because the conversion fee and training land in year one. Sixty months flatters moving, because it assumes both vendors’ pricing sits still. Two years spreads the one-time costs across two renewals and matches how Intuit sells: the annual plan is a 12-month commitment with a 60-day money-back window, so two cycles is the shortest honest test.
Run the 24-month line twice: with hosting on both sides, and with Enterprise on your existing server. The second version often decides it.
The worksheet is not rigged. For some Sage 100 customers renewing is plainly correct, and the tell is usually in the module lines:
If two or more apply, renew and revisit in a year. If none apply and the Intuit quote clears your ceiling, the Sage 100 to QuickBooks Enterprise route is the one to scope, and our QuickBooks Enterprise page covers the tier choice in more detail.
Add up four sources: the Sage renewal notice (subscription and user count), your Sage business partner's invoices for support, upgrades and year-end work, your hosting provider's invoices or your server's annual share, and a time estimate from whoever maintains the server.
Intuit's pricing page shows "starting at" amounts that vary by tier, seat band and promotion, so we do not reprint them. Ask Intuit or your ProAdvisor for a written annual quote for the tier and seat count you need, and enter that figure. Hosting through Rightworks is quoted separately as a monthly add-on.
Licenses are sold in single-user increments from 1 to 10, then in 20 or 30 user packs. Only Enterprise Diamond supports up to 40 users, and Diamond is sold on a monthly plan only.
Numerawise quotes it fixed-price, currently $2,000 to $6,000 depending on years of history, module count and file size, with a firm quote within 24 hours of seeing your Sage 100 Product Information screen.
When your worksheet says move, the Sage 100 to QuickBooks conversion page explains what is migrated, how balances are reconciled and how to get the fixed quote.
Tell us what you’re working on. We respond same business day.
Founder of Numerawise Solutions, established MMXXIV in Atlanta. Intuit ProAdvisor Gold tier. Former Intuit Technical Support engineer. Has personally led two hundred accounting software conversions for US small businesses since founding the practice. Reachable directly at [email protected].