Quote Originally Posted by Alec Candiotes View Post
Hi Lindsay

I agree with Kevin and Neville regarding Pastel Xpress. Xpress gives you most of Partner's functionality. Most importantly is that you do not loose your transactional history as Xpress posts to a PSQL database as Partner does. Losing your transactional history is a big cost.

Your business data is one of your most valuable assets. I recommend you protect it as far as possible.

But Lindsay I can completely understand where you are. Admin and finance costs can be a heavy weight on a company. For me one of the biggest costs of Pastel is when users do not use it effectively. Capturing 1 by 1 transaction on a line by line basis for instance is slow and very expensive. Have you considered optimising and automating your capturing and reporting? In this way you free up time and resources to use elsewhere. Secondly are you using Pastel as a full ERP system or only an accounting system. For instance are you using it to quote, as a marketing database, to forecast and budget with etc etc.?? I have noted that SME's often use multiple tools and Apps to do all of this with. Consolidating all these activities into Pastel cuts out waste and ensure that your entire team focuses on enhancing the data within Pastel.

Hope this helps a little.

Kindest regards,
Alec Candiotes CA(SA), MCom Taxation

Hi Alec

Thank you for your insights shared and the advice offered - I appreciate the help.

I agree with your observations about the value of the data and the effective use of all of the functionality in a central place from an ERP perspective. These very things are what has made Pastel an excellent tool for me for the past 25 years (since version 5)where I have deployed its strengths effectively as and when required depending on my needs at the time.

Unfortunately, this economic climate has rendered my business to a very small shadow of what it was, and I have now down scaled to a basic 1 man show which again brings into play the value of the versatility that it offers as I am still obligated to adhere to the legal requirements of vat returns etc.

However under the current circumstances I have to extract the utmost value out of every cent that is spent to try to maintain even a static position but with a forward facing perspective of readiness should new business opportunities emerge. That position takes me to where my original post was made.... I have no dispute with how good Pastel is. My challenge is how to make it more affordable right now ...

As a matter of interest there is a sequel ..... I have followed the advice of Kevin and Neville and Yourself all of you who have so kindly advised me well and I re-evaluated the functionalities that I have, that could downscale or change and save some money e.g. I can downscale to a single user licence and migrate from Partner to Xpress ... thanks again for the good advice guys.

BUT this is where things have really gone awry .... yesterday I phoned Pastel .... ready to go through with my changes and pay the estimated lower fee for another year. This is what transpired -
1. 6 calls and 2 hours later I gave up and concluded that this is unbelievably difficult.
2. I could not get to speak to the person who sent me the renewal notice.
3. I kept getting through to a consultant on renewals who mumbled and I simply could not hear him because he would not speak up or more clearly AND there was so much noise around him that I could repeat to him word for word what his colleagues were saying so loudly in personal conversations in the vicinity.
4. In desperation I called in again and instead spoke to another consultant on new sales - obviously my requirements fall outside of the scope of his influence BUT he advised me to send an email requesting the migration / downgrade to the person who sent me the renewal notice and to cc the team leader whose email address he kindly provided to me - all of this I have done and marked my email for a read response.

As of the time of this post, (a day later) I have had no response to my email from the consultant or the team leader and I have software that is out of subscription and "view only" and thereby further cripples my ability to trade my business that is already struggling to survive.
I ask myself the question - is this what I would be giving my customers who have been loyal to me for 25 years? I don't think so!

I have shared this experience in the hope that anybody else on this forum can benefit from the knowledge of my experience and be better equipped to deal with similar challenges should they arise (which I hope never happens to anybody else).

Alec, thanks again to you and Kevin and Neville who have all kindly tried to help and guide me. I do appreciate it.

Best regards to all
Lindsay