Why I built the #1 Shopify Sage 50 App

Finding a Shopify Sage 50 app is not the most obvious search. First, you probably checked out the Shopify App Store and saw a few options, but they ended up just being weird connectors for the cloud versions, others didn't work, then you might have check the Sage 50 Marketplace, which houses apps specifically for the Sage products, but they all seemed to do everything and nothing at the same time.

A few years ago I was in search of an app that could connect our Shopify store with our accounting system: Sage 50 Desktop version. We had been running on Shopify for nearly ten years, and using Simply Accounting (now Sage 50) for the better part of 20 years. We were not strangers to either platform. Thanks to e-commerce, our business started taking off, but so did our responsbility to enter these growing sales into our books. At the start, I was entering Shopify Orders into Sage 50, one by one, line by line, taking the Shopify payout, matching the orders, and closing out the month. At first, we were probably talking about 1-5 hours of work. As order volume increased, time spent entering orders grew, I was starting to make errors, taking short cuts (entering less and details on the invoice), and burning out. The first week of every month was entirely dedicated to entering these orders. We are talking a 20-30 hour effort every month.

There had to be an integration that would connect my Shopify store with Sage 50. Heck, there were plenty of our integrations that connected Shopify to QuickBooks, to Zoho, Xero, and far more obstructure accounting platforms.

We stumbled upon an integration company that would set out to build this integration for us. After back and forth with him, we had something set up. However, it quickly became obvious to us, that they were never experts in Shopify nor Sage 50. They were a generic integration company that would come in, build you a connector between any two systems, or 3, or 4 and then start a contract with you.

Our issue was that our setup wasn't so cut and try. We had bundled products, we had wholesale customers, we had retail customers, some were tax-exempt, certain states did not charge taxes, we ran sales, we were paid in multiple currencies. While complex, most businesses operate in a similar fashion. Our issue, our rather theirs, didn't know the exact intricacies of both Shopify or Sage 50 to understand how to handle all this behavior.

The result was an importer that brought in orders, but would still require myself or a team member to review the invoice, and make changes. Essentially, we shifted our work from no longer entering invoices, but editting them. The result was maybe a couple of hours saved, and more frustration for a system that should have replaced all this work to begin with. We redefined our roles, and did not save any time.

Around this time, I was tinkering with custom Shopify apps, building systems for our backend operations. For example, automating order tags based on spend levels, upsell features on our website, checkout customization. I knew a thing or two about Shopify's development ecosystem. I worked in Sage 50 all day as well, so I knew my way around the system. I knew its quirks, and I knew what our accountants needed.

Armed with this knowledge, and my frustration that there wasn't anyone that understood the need of a business that uses both Sage 50 and Shopify. Sure, it's niche, but we are talking about two companies that serve millions of customers! I decided to build out a prototype that at least replicated the workflow of our existing shopify sage 50 integration.

To my excitement, I had something workable within a couple of weeks albeit, it was a crude implementation. It booted up a terminal on your computer, it was completely text based, but I could see all the texting zooming by as it was taking in our Shopify orders and creating sales invoices in Sage 50. It was exciting. I showed our team, got feedback, and started building our Shopify Sage 50 App.

There's a lot of details from that point forward, but I'll cut to the chase. My app Sagify is built by someone that knows the Shopify ecosystem, knows the intricacies of Sage 50, and knows what businesses need from both of these systems and let them talk to each other.

Sagify is designed to replicate your existing workflow. Do you sell to wholesale customers and those orders need to be entered as Sales Orders? No problem. Do you sell only to retail customers and all those need to be assigned to an "ONLINE SALES" customer in Sage 50? No problem. In Sagify, you set up rule-based logic to mimic exactly how you would have entered that order yourself. I custom tailor the software to your needs.

I am proud to say that Sagify is listed on the Sage 50 Marketplace ↗, vetted by their team of engineers. Sagify lives on your desktop as an application, it is a semi-automatic process where you log into it everyday, run your sync, approve/disapprove entries, and remain fully in control of the outcome. Nothing is going on behind the scenes, none of your company data hitting some random server over the internet.

If you are looking for an app that connects your Shopify store to Sage 50, or you are looking to bring your business to Shopify and want something that will integrate Sage 50 to your store, then schedule a demo with me so I can show your Sagify. I can make it work the way you envision the two systems.

You can reach out to me via the support page and send me a message. Book a demo on the Sagify product page