Last month the Sage Group Plc bought Multisoft Financial Systems. This months sees Sage on the acquisiton path once more, but this time overseas. The accountancy software supplier has paid UKP3.3m in cash for Timeslips Corp and has agreed to find another UKP7m if Timeslip meets projected sales targets. Timeslip, which supplies Windows-based personal computer software for time billing and management reporting systems, is currently based in Essex, near Boston, Massachusetts. It will move to Dallas and integrate with the sales, marketing, finance, administration and productions of Sage’s US subsiduary, DacEasy, in what chief executive Paul Walker has described as a sensible overhead reduction. The company sees the acquisition as a logical extension into a product sector closely related to Sage’s traditional accounting software market. TimeSlip software will be initially sold through UK resellers but Walker says that Timeslip software has international possibilities. He expects the product to be popular with small law and accountancy firms that don’t have a networked system but need a time and management software package to run on personal computers or Apple Macintoshes. Timeslip’s time and billing system links directly to US accounting software packages including DacEasy Accounting while TimeSheet Professional is a network based time tracking and budgeting tool designed to enable work groups to monitor the time and cost involved in specific projects. The Sage Group is also now shipping a networking version of Sterling +2 which its touts as the first Windows accounting package from a major vendor to incorporate networking capabilites. The product is available in two formats; Sterling +2 for Network Account Plus includes sales, purchase and nominal ledgers plus stock control and invoicing, and costs UKP800, while Sterling +2 for Networks Financial Controller has additional order processing and multi-company support facilities and sells for UKP1,000.
