15 September Chips IT Africa

Visitors to IT Africa will have the opportunity to learn more about Pastel and Sage products, which are among the most popular accounting software brands in both Zimbabwe and South Africa and in many other parts of the world too.

In Zimbabwe, Pastel is the leading brand among small to medium-sized businesses. Where larger businesses are concerned, more than a hundred companies, about 20 of which are listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, use Sage packages.

Chips Computing Services holds the franchise in Zimbabwe for both Sage and Pastel Products. Its Pastel division trades as Pastel Software Zimbabwe.

The company not only sells and distributes Sage and Pastel software but carries out the software installation. It provides training on-site and at the training schools run by both the Pastel and Sage divisions.

Among the Pastel products in use in Zimbabwe and being showcased at the  IT Africa exhibition are Pastel My Business, Pastel Xpress, Pastel Partner and Pastel Evolution.  Sage products include Sage Line 500 and Sage 1000, as well as Sage ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) X3, which was launched in Zimbabwe in June this year.

The Pastel range of products is designed for businesses of varying sizes. My Business is a simple, basic accounting package ideal for start-up and owner-run businesses. Pastel Invoicing is another basic package. Pastel Xpress is the next step up in the range.

Pastel Partner has more functions and is well suited to a multi-user environment. At the top of the range is Pastel Evolution, which is suitable even for large medium-sized businesses. Both Pastel and Evolution have multi-currency add-on modules and a Business Intelligence Centre module.

Business Intelligence Centre makes access to business-critical information easy. It makes it possible to design standard reporting templates in Microsoft Excel and update these reports from Pastel at the click of a button.

My Business is an ideal first accounting programme for the small owner-run business. It frees him or her from laborious manual accounting, giving more time for concentrating on sales and developing the business.  

It is designed for those with limited accounting or bookkeeping experience and does away with accounting jargon in favour of easier-to-understand terminology.

It does not include many of the advanced features of other Pastel software packages, which  the first time accounting software user  is unlikely to need. There is no general ledger but there is invoicing, stock, purchasing and cashbook capability.
 
A user-friendly dashboard feature provides a bird’s eye view of what is going on in the business.

Where Sage is concerned, the most popular packages in Zmbabwe are Sage Line 500 and Sage Line 1000.