Made for South African buyers. Every price in rand, read from the vendor.
In depth review
Sage Group plc · Accounting software
Desktop accounting for businesses with an in house bookkeeper, with cloud access and backups added, priced in rand excluding VAT.
Sage 50cloud Pastel is the long running desktop accounting product from Sage, connected to the cloud. It has three plans: Start at R1 375 a month for two users and two companies, Core at R1 915 for four and four, and Plus at R2 715 for up to five and five, all excluding VAT. A long list of modules sits on top, from Point of Sale to Advanced Reporting, so the headline is a floor and a quote is the way to learn the real bill.
Starting price
R1 375 a month
Excluding VAT, Start plan
With VAT added
R1 581.25
A business not registered for VAT pays this
Users and companies
2 / 4 / 5
Start, Core and Plus each include that many of both
Extra user
R265 a month
On Plus
Modules listed
9
Currency, POS, warehouses, serial numbers, reporting, time, GL, debtors, receipting
Free trial
30 days
The full desktop version, data kept if you buy
Experience
30 plus years
Sage's own statement about the product's history
Vendor founded
1981
Sage Group plc
Figures marked as a vendor's own are that vendor's claims about itself and are not tested here.
Every plan Sage 50cloud Pastel lists, in rand, with a button to Sage Group plc's own pricing page.
Plan
R1 375
a month excluding VAT
R1 581.25 including VAT
Two users and two companies.
Plan
R1 915
a month excluding VAT
R2 202.25 including VAT
Four users and four companies, supplier payments, recurring invoices and bespoke reports.
Plan
R2 715
a month excluding VAT
R3 122.25 including VAT
Up to five users and five companies. Extra users R265 a month.
Each button opens Sage Group plc's own page in a new tab, where you buy or sign up. Prices are the vendor's, shown in rand.
Sage 50cloud Pastel lists 3 priced plans: Start at R1 375, Core at R1 915, Plus at R2 715. Every figure is shown in rand.
The vendor states a VAT basis, so both footings are known: Start is R1 375 excluding VAT, R1 581.25 including VAT. A business registered for VAT claims the VAT back, so the figure excluding VAT is its real cost.
Modules are extra: foreign currency R460, Point of Sale R725, multiple warehouses R460, serial number tracking R460, Advanced Reporting R650, time and billing R460, GL Manager R725, Debtors Manager R595 and Receipting R460 a month. Prices exclude VAT.
Read from sage.com/en-za/products/sage-50cloud-pastel on 11 October 2026.
A plan priced per user or per employee shows the price of one. Both VAT footings are shown where the vendor states its basis.
Added to the plan price. A bill with several extras can be a multiple of the headline.
Pick a plan, your team size and any extras. It adds Sage 50cloud Pastel's own prices in rand and shows the month and the year, with VAT in and out where the vendor states its basis.
Your bill
R1 581.25
a month including VAT
R1 581.25
a month including VAT
Opens Sage Group plc's own page in a new tab. Nothing is bought on this site.
From R1 375 /mo excl VAT
Starting prices of the priced products in the same category, cheapest first. This is a price sort, not a ranking: the cheapest product is not the best one, and some are priced per user, some per month and some excluding VAT.
Bar lengths use a square root scale, so a very high price does not flatten the rest. The figures are exact.
The middle starting price of the paid products here is R415.
Positions use a square root scale, so a very high price does not flatten the rest. The figures are exact.
A dot is one plan. Free plans and plans on request have no price to place. A per user price is the price of one user.
A founding year says how long a company has existed. It says nothing about how good the product is.
An official video from Sage Customer Support and Training on YouTube. Software Register did not make or edit them. They are the vendor's own account of the product, so read them beside the prices and limits on this page.
How journals work in Sage 50cloud Pastel Accounting
How to, 4:13, published 26 August 2020. From the Sage Customer Support and Training channel on YouTube.Made for South Africa
A video loads from YouTube only when you press play. The still picture before that comes from YouTube's image servers.
Sage describes 50cloud Pastel as accounting software for small businesses with in house bookkeepers who need to simplify everyday invoicing and financial management alongside more complex accounting and payroll tasks. It combines desktop power with cloud connectivity. Sage says it has over 30 years of experience behind it and that it serves over 2 million businesses, which is a claim about the whole Sage range rather than this product alone.
In practice this is the product for a business that has outgrown a simple cloud tool, or that has always run Pastel and sees no reason to change. Sage's own FAQ calls it the more expensive desktop accounting software for advanced businesses, and Sage Accounting the affordable online one.
All three plans carry no long term contracts or hidden fees, according to Sage. They differ by users, companies and a few features.
Sage 50cloud Pastel is installed on your PC. You back up locally if you like, and you do not depend on an internet connection to use it, which Sage says lets it handle large volumes of data without lag. Cloud connectivity adds Remote Data Access, so you can review your accounts away from the office, and a set of automation features that connect to the desktop product directly.
Sage can back your data up to the cloud automatically. A trial installs and runs the full desktop version for 30 days, and if you buy you receive a new serial number and activation key and keep the data you entered.
Sage sells a long list of modules on top of the plans, all excluding VAT: foreign currency at R460 a month, Point of Sale at R725, multiple warehouses and inventory at R460, serial number tracking at R460, Advanced Reporting at R650, time and billing at R460, GL Manager at R725, Debtors Manager at R595 and Receipting at R460.
A Core plan with Point of Sale, multiple warehouses and Advanced Reporting is R1 915 plus R725 plus R460 plus R650, which is R3 750 a month excluding VAT. That is why Sage offers a request a quote button beside buy now.
Pastel is Sage's South African accounting brand, and Sage South Africa sells and supports the product locally. Sage describes it as built to keep you VAT compliant, with a live feed from your bank, a personalised dashboard and reporting automation. Local accountants and bookkeepers know it well, which is a practical advantage when you need help.
Support is by phone on 0861 237 243 and through the same knowledgebase and community that Sage runs for its other South African products.
The cost is the obvious drawback for a small business, and module pricing makes the final bill hard to know without a quote. A desktop product also means installation and updates are your responsibility in a way a browser product does not require. If you want something you can open on any device in thirty seconds, the cloud products in this category are a better match.
Within Sage's own range it sits above Sage Accounting and below Sage 200 Evolution. Against Xero or Zoho Books it costs several times more, so it only makes sense when you need what it adds: multiple companies, deeper stock and reporting, and a desktop workflow your bookkeeper prefers.
Strengths
Limits
Best for
Think twice if
In short
Worth it for an established business with a bookkeeper and a need for multi company depth, and hard to justify for a small business that mainly wants to invoice and file VAT. Ask for a written quote that lists every module you will use, and remember that the R1 375 excludes VAT.
Start where the vendor sells it, and keep this page open beside you for the limits.
From R1 375 /mo excl VAT
Sage Accounting is online software that works from anywhere and suits small businesses. Sage 50cloud Pastel is installed on your PC, handles larger volumes of data and several companies, and adds cloud access and backups.
Sage says Pastel can automatically back your data up to the cloud, or you can back up locally.
Sage says that after the 30 day trial you receive a new serial number and activation key, and the data you entered remains.
No. Sage quotes 50cloud Pastel excluding VAT. Adding 15 percent makes the Start plan R1 581.25 a month.
Sage 50cloud Pastel starts at R1 375 a month excluding VAT. It lists 3 priced plans, from R1 375 to R2 715.
No. The prices are quoted excluding VAT. Adding 15 percent to the first paid plan makes it R1 581.25. A VAT registered business claims the VAT back.
Yes: Sage 50cloud Pastel offers a free trial.
Sage 50cloud Pastel's own page lists these: VAT201. Ask the vendor to show the step that reaches SARS in a trial, because preparing a return and submitting it are different jobs.
Sage South Africa's own desktop accounting product, priced in rand and supported on a local phone line.
On this register the closest are FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Sage Accounting, Sage Intacct, Wave Accounting. Each has its own page, and the compare tool sets any two side by side.
South African guides that help you weigh Sage 50cloud Pastel: what the rules ask, what to test and what to put in writing.
Six products, one checklist
Most advice on accounting software is written for America or Britain. These are the six questions that decide whether a product works for a South African business, with the register's own tables to check each one against.
Read the guideWhere a full tax invoice starts to need more detail
R5 000
A customer who is registered for VAT can only claim back the VAT on an invoice that meets the law. Your software should produce one every time, and you should know what to look for.
Read the guidePrepared by your software, filed on SARS eFiling
VAT201
The VAT201 is the return a registered vendor submits to SARS. Accounting software can prepare it, and some can transfer it into eFiling. Those are different things.
Read the guideEvery price and fact on this page was read from Sage Group plc's own pages, researched on 11 October 2026. A figure the vendor states about itself is marked as the vendor's. This review gives no score and no rank, and a vendor cannot pay to change it. Read how the register works.
Something wrong on this page? Suggest a correction, with a link to the vendor's page that shows it.
Sage 50cloud Pastel is priced as above. Go to the vendor to buy or to ask, or compare it with another product first.
From R1 375 /mo excl VAT
Use Sage 50cloud Pastel? Tell other South African buyers what it does well, where it falls short and who it suits. An editor reads each review before it appears, and it is published as written.
Sage 50cloud Pastel
From R1 375 /mo excl VAT
