Sage 50 Accounts Essentials License

SUGGESTED

Hi

I purchased Sage 50 Accounts Essentials in 2018 with a Perpetual License.  I have now been told that it will effectively be canceled by Sage in the next 3 months and I am now being forced to 'upgrade' to a subscription based product. According to the Terms and conditons published on Sage's web site this license should be valid for 15 years.

“Licence Period” – the length of time for which you may use the Software from and including the Effective Date and, in the case of perpetual licence periods, we mean 15 calendar years; 

https://www.sage.com/en-ie/-/media/images/sagedotcom/master/global/feature/pdf/legal/consolidated-perpetual-and-subscription-licence.pdf

I don't need or want any upgrades or support on the product, so how can I continue to use it for the remainder of the 15 years ?

Thanks

Dominick

  • 0

    Following as in same position

  • 0
    SUGGESTED

    Hi Dominick,

    Thanks for using Sage City.

    Let me try to clear things up and provide more context to the points you’ve made in your post.

    TLS (Transport Layer Security) is an external security protocol, widely used in communications over the internet. Sage 50 Accounts communicates over the internet, silently, when performing license validation with the Sage License Server. It then communicates back to your Sage software to inform it that a valid license exists, which enables you to keep using it. TLS is not a Sage product or a Sage Software, it is an external security protocol.

    In June 2018, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) formally discourage the use of TLS 1.0 and 1.1. Therefore, by 30 September 2022, we're aiming to switch off TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for our remaining services, AutoUpdate and Sage License Server following the latest industry standards.

    We are not terminating certain versions of Sage 50 Accounts, but the fundamentals for them to work are being changed. We are supportive of the decision to protect you, and your data, to eradicate any risks, which could be detrimental to your business. We are contacting all impacted customers with options available to them.

    You can visit our handy help centre article for more information.

    If this has answered your question please click More then click Verify Answer.

    Regards,

    Paul

    Sage UKI

  • 0 in reply to Paul Morgan

    Hi Paul

    Thank you for your response.

    As an IT consultant with 35+ years of working in the It industry with numerious national and international companies, I am full conversant with the TLS security protocol.

    If as your response indicated that your primary consern if for my 'data', then I am more than happy to operate my accounts PC as an 'Air Gapped' computer. This, I am sure you would agree is one of the highest standards of security for a PC as it has no physical connection to any network or internet and stands completely isolated from any other computer or network.

    I do not connect Sage to my Bank and as an Irish customer I do not connect it to HMRC for Making Tax Digital (MTD) or to the Irish Revenue for ROS.

    I do not require any updates or online support.

    I am sure that you will confirm that my ONLY issue is that the product which I purchased from you 'dial's home' every 28 days in order to confirm that my license is valid. Which I trust that we can agree that I have a valid license?

    You may not be intendng on  'terminating' my Sage 50 Accounts Essentials but it appreas that you are intending on switching off the licence server, which actions will have the direct effect of 'terminating' my accounts package. Or can you indicate a method that I can continue to use the software without this constant 28 days validation from Sage.

    I purchased a Perpetual license for my Sage product in 2018 and according to your Terms and Conditions the license period is 15 years.

    Also, according to your Terms and Conditions "10.3 We may stop providing technical support or replacement software at any time, though we will give you a reasonable amount of notice. This will not affect your licence to use the Software." . Can you please confirm that by stoping support for this product you are indeed affecting my licence.

    It appears to me and other users that I have been incontact with that Sage are intending on 'terminating' my license before it is due to expire and forceing me to pay a monthly subscription to use an alternative product that has no effective benifit for my company.

    If as you say you were aware iin June 2018 of the TLS changes and that as a result Sage were going to 'shut down' the license servers and have not provided any update/patch or alternative method of validating a license then the product that was sold to me on October 2018 was sold in bad faith.

    I await your respons as to how I can continue to use this product for it's valid license lifetime without any additional costs or expendiditure on my behalf.

    Regards

    Dominick Higgins.

  • 0 in reply to Dominick Higgins

    Hi Dominick,

    Thanks for your reply.

    The security of our customers and the security of our customers’ data is very important to us.

    I understand you don’t necessarily require support or want to update your software, however, our software updates are important, as they can include legislative changes, as well as feature enhancements to make processing easier.

    I appreciate you don’t want to move to a subscription contract, however this is the best way to ensure you receive the necessary updates to stay legislatively complaint. We’ve moved to subscription offerings, coupled with online licence management, in part following customer feedback and in recent years had to make short notice changes to our software in response to new legislation. We anticipate further changes as time goes on, so our operation model has had to adapt to these changing circumstances.

    To give us the opportunity to review your concerns in more detail, I’ve sent you a PM with further instructions.

    Regards,

    Paul

    Sage UKI

  • 0 in reply to Paul Morgan

    Hi Paul

    Thank you for your response.

    However, can we please stay on topic 'Sage 50 Accounts Essentials License'. My query is not about upgrades or legislative changes and this is nothing but an attempt to distract from my query.

    I will retiterate, "I purchased a Perpetual license for my Sage product in 2018 and according to your Terms and Conditions the license period is 15 years."

    Again, if you were aware of the TLS issue in 2018 why then did Erzsi_I (Digital Services Program Manager) post in SageCity.com on 2 Dec 2020:

    https://www.sagecity.com/ca/sage_50_accounting_ca/b/sage_50_ca_supporthub_blog/posts/a-sage-50cloud-subscription-vs-perpetual-license-what-s-the-difference

    " When you buy a Sage 50 box from retail and install it on a machine, it is a perpetual license, which means you can always use basic accounting functionalities, like posting a general journal entry."

    She also mentions:

    "Some folks use Sage 50 on a device that is never connected online. For these installations, some features (such as payroll) come with an internal timer, and these features will not be entitled to the user once the timer times out (typically in one year's time)."

    Can you please confirm, that if I never connected online with the product then the issue of the 28day requirement to connect to the Sage Licence server via TLS would not now be an issue for me ?

    This is my understanding from your knowledge based article:

    https://gb-kb.sage.com/portal/app/portlets/results/viewsolution.jsp?solutionid=200910142529173&hypermediatext=null

    What if I'm not on a subscription for Sage 50cloud Accounts?

    Sage 50 Accounts v26.2 and below is also affected by these changes, unless your software has never been installed on a computer with an Internet connection. 

    If the above is true, then it implies that it is technicaly possible for me to continue to use the Sage 50 product for the remainder of the 15 year term without the TLS changes being an issue.

    It also follows that Sage have either made a change to a Registry entry or a field on a DTA file to indicate that my Sage 50 has once been connected to the internet. 

    If the PC was to be removed from the Internet i.e. 'Air Gapped' and this 'Data' field/record was to be amended then the product would continue to operate. This solution does not require any TLS changes, or any program changes or upgrades/updates from Sage. It simply requires Sage to confirm which Registry entry or which field in a DTA file that needs to be altered.

    Can you confirm if the above is true ?

    Regards

    Dominick Higgins

  • 0 in reply to Paul Morgan

    Good Evening Paul

    I have been following this conversation as I too am not bothered by upgrades.  I can follow legislation quite easily through HMRC and adjust accordingly myself.  I run a very small business and do not require additional features, Sage50 Essentials fulfils my needs. 

    I bought Sage50 Essentials with a perpetual licence in Nov 2018 in good faith.  The turnover of my business demands that I keep my outlay as low as possible so a one off payment for a perpetual licence made sense.  As Dominick has said "If as you say you were aware iin June 2018 of the TLS changes and that as a result Sage were going to 'shut down' the license servers and have not provided any update/patch or alternative method of validating a license then the product that was sold to me on October 2018 was sold in bad faith."

    Regards

    Ruth Narramore

  • 0 in reply to Dominick Higgins

    Dear Dominic

    Do you get the feeling we're being ignored?

    Ruth

  • 0 in reply to Ruth Narramore

    Hi Ruth

    I suspect that it is deliberate at this stage, they seem to be following a typical plan to force users to enter an ongoing never ending monthly subscription:

    1. State that it’s a technical issue and give loads of jargon and hope the user doesn’t understand the issue.
    2. Blame the user for not updating even though they don’t need to and an update for this issue was never developed.
    3. Tell the user that they are being the good guy and only doing for the users benefit, mention cyber security.
    4. Don’t admit you knew about the problem before you sold it.
    5. Don’t tell the user that they could have avoid the problem by not connecting to the internet until it’s too late.
    6. Don’t tell the user that this can be reversed and doesn’t need any program changes
    7. If all else fails, just go ‘Radio Silence’ until the user panics and submits
    8. Worst case we’re a big financial company and the client isn’t.

    I’m just surprised that they haven’t started to blame Covid-19 yet.

    I might be only a small user by their standards, but I am a computer consultant with 35+ years of experience that recommends ERP software systems to my clients.

    I’d be interested to hear what the CEO Steve Hare [email protected]  has to say.

    Regards

    Dominick