Sorry you have been having this problem.  Originally there was a 60 day money back offer but you are outside that time limit now so I am assuming they are not budging on it at this point.  In fact, one of my clients had the same problem last year and still has not received a refund.  I asked several times who the manager of customer service is so I could talk with him/her, I requested a call back from them several times and so far have been refused.  The last time I spoke with my client, they told me they have been reviewing other software because of it and are having to do payroll manually.

I don't know if there is much that can be done at this point but if there is, maybe Keith can pass along this thread to the customer service manager.  They don't publish upgrade pricing to consultants, only initial pricing, so I don't know what they are supposed to be without contacting Sage directly.

As for First Step, I have to agree with the concensus.  Years ago, I told this to the Sage staff, so they know my opinion.  It was designed wrong, outright wrong.  It was supposed to be a quick and easy way to get running for simple, small businesses but it forces you to use a consultant or accountant to set it up the way you want it.  That makes no sense, especially when many consultants and accountants don't know they can modify the chart of accounts.

However, if you want to let us know some of the issues you are having, maybe there are some ways around it.  I can't guarantee it but there are some hidden things in the program that are not obvious.  However if you are looking for a custom form, you must use a consultant or accountant (or possibly someone else with Pro or higher - I never tried this) to create one for you, it cannot be done with your version.  I did it once years ago and assume it is still possible.

Hope this helps

Yup, I agree: First Step is garbage. IMO, the product should be given away as a marketing ploy to entice people to upgrade to Pro.  However, I have had success with people paying the difference in price to upgrade to Pro. If you go under the Help menu, I think there is a choice for Upgrade... where does that get you to?

It used to be given away.

For someone with a basic, straightforward business, I've seen it work quite well.  For some it's like cutting cabinet plywood with a dull axe, but that may mean it's the wrong tool for the job / wrong job for that tool.

I'd much rather have a new 'First Step' client, than someone who did a bunch of lovely looking invoices in Word or Excel, and stuffed copies into a box, along with the unopened envelopes from some of the bank statements.  

When the box is a shoebox from a $250 pair of shoes, and the client really *needed* to be using Pro from the get-go, I don't put all that onto the people at Sage.

Hi Alton,

We understand your frustration.  We are sorry for all the inconvenience you had to go through.  

Thank you very much for your continuous support towards our product.  

For additional resource and assistance to your Sage 50 software, you can always come back to this forum for suggestion and solution from other experienced Sage 50 users.

You can also visit our knowledge base at https://support.na.sage.com/

You can also go to Sage University at http://www.sageu.com/ to see if there is any training that you find interested.

Once again, thank you so much for your support