London, October 15th 2024 – Sage, a leader in accounting, financial, HR, and payroll technology for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), today announced that Sage Copilot – its new generative AI-powered assistant – is now available for users of Sage Active – its newest cloud and AI accounting product for small businesses and accountants across Europe.
With the launch of Sage Copilot in Europe, small businesses in France, Germany, and Spain using Sage Active, are the first in mainland Europe to benefit from an AI-powered assistant for accounting. Sage Copilot is designed to help small businesses and their accountants achieve more through automating routine tasks and workflows, including the generation of unique insights by constantly checking for mistakes, patterns or opportunities which they might otherwise miss, so they can take faster, better-informed decisions.
“Since 2016, we have been pioneering AI-powered solutions to help empower our small, medium, and accountant customers,” said Neal Watkins, EVP, Accounting & HR Division, Sage. “Sage Copilot marks a major milestone in our commitment to boosting productivity and helping small businesses make smarter, faster decisions. By integrating our generative AI assistant into Sage Active, we’re not just providing a tool—we’re delivering a trusted partner that empowers business owners to streamline daily tasks and approach decisions with greater confidence.”
Continuously built for customers, with customers
Sage is developing Sage Copilot to support the evolving needs of small businesses and accountants, particularly with the constantly changing legislative and regulatory environment for accounting and taxes across the European continent, for example, with the upcoming e-invoicing mandates. Sage Copilot is designed to adapt and improve rapidly its capabilities based on collaboration and feedback from Sage users, ensuring it stays responsive to real-world use cases.
Sage Active users will be immediately benefit from Sage Copilot’s actionable insights into the financial health of their company, relevant insights and reminders on outstanding invoices, as well as AI-generated notes to support their communications with their customers, suppliers and accountants. Upcoming productivity boosters like anomaly detection will further enhance workflows, helping businesses stay ahead of potential issues and improve efficiency.
“Sage Copilot’s integration with Sage Active has the potential to be a real a game-changer for SMBs like us,” said Patrick Russo, PRussoLive, a Sage Active customer. “By continuously analysing our business data, and translating it into clear insights, we can respond quickly and confidently. We’re really excited about its personalised recommendations, as we believe this will not just allow us to keep up but get ahead.”
Elevating the role of accountants as advisors to their clients
For accountants, Sage Copilot and Sage Active will revolutionise collaboration and communication with their clients. By automating the data collection and aggregation process within a shared ledger, it will significantly reduce the time and effort spent on these manual tasks, while also minimising the potential for errors.
This enables accountants to move beyond traditional, retrospective accounting cycles by providing real-time, proactive insights. These insights will allow accountants to anticipate client needs and deliver more strategic advice, becoming even more critical partners in the small business ecosystem.
"Sage’s commitment to strengthening the relationship between accountants and clients is evident in its forward-thinking solutions," said Carlos Pinto, Groupe SECAR. "Sage Copilot seamlessly integrates into Sage Active, providing clear, accessible analyses that facilitate our work. It’s a great tool that supports both accountants and clients with valuable AI-driven insights."
Find out more about Sage Copilot
About Sage
Sage exists to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive, starting with the millions of small- and mid-sized businesses served by us, our partners, and accountants. Customers trust our finance, HR, and payroll software to make work and money flow. By digitising business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, banks and governments, our digital network connects SMBs, removing friction and delivering insights. Knocking down barriers also means we use our time, technology, and experience to tackle digital inequality, economic inequality, and the climate crisis.
