Sagesoft nabs PACS

Newcastle-based Sagesoft has added accounts production specialistng portfolio. PACS Holdings to its portfolio of recent acquisitions.

PACS is the company behind Audit 2000, which is used by 400 accounting practices to produce statutory accounts from bookkeeping files imported from their clients’ systems.

Sage made an initial down-payment of #750,000 and will pay a further #1.25m if the rebranded Sage Audit 2000 and Sage Incomplete Records packages achieve an agreed revenue target in the next two years.

PACS Holdings’ Gavin May joins Sagesoft and will be responsible for developing Sage’s 2,500-strong Accountants Club into a wing dedicated to supplying the profession with its own range of software.

Sagesoft managing director Graham Wylie said that the acquisition cemented an informal relationship with PACS that stretches back three years. ‘The concept of a Sage user sending a disk to his accountant has always been sensible. By buying Audit 2000 and putting the Sage name to it, we hope to speed up that process.’

Wylie added that Audit 2000 would also contribute to Sage’s revenue stream and raise its profile with ‘a community that heavily influences our customer bases’.

In acquiring PACS, Sage is emulating the strategy of its rival Pegasus, which last year bought the tax and accountancy management software developer CSM. Wylie said Sage was getting a single product rather than a one-off shop. ‘We’re not interested in tax software,’ he added.

Sage customer Douglas Instruments reported the software supplier to the trading standards authorities last month for sending automatic invoices for the Sagecover support service.

Managing director Patrick Shaw Stewart threw away a reminder he received in December and received an invoice on 14 January. ‘I am sure that many slightly larger companies would pay the invoice without realising that they have not ordered the service,’ he said. Wandsworth trading officers found nothing wrong in the practice.