I am pleased to announce that we are revising our pricing for subscription invoices sent on or after 1st July 2009.  The new prices, which apply for both existing and new customers, include reductions in the base subscription and the cost per additional user.

This is the first time that we’ve revised our pricing since the company was launched over 8 years ago, which is a testament to the decision made at that time to adopt the model of a simple fee structure for companies plus free use for accounting and bookkeeping practices.  We remain committed to the provision of free access for users within accounting or bookkeeping practices as we believe it to be the most compelling long-term model in the market.

So why are we making these changes?  Primarily because we want to make our pricing even more simple and transparent than it was before.  We were already maintaining a competitive pricing level, especially when you take into account that e-conomic is a complete accounting solution that provides functionality to suit both companies and accountants.  No other online accounting system has the same amount of basic functionality plus the level expandability that we provide through the optional add-on modules.

By making these changes we will maintain our competitiveness and resolve some anomalies in the way we used to charge for additional users within the Stock Management and Project Accounting modules.  Now there is just one price per additional user no matter which modules they have access to.

These price revisions will help us maintain our leading position as we work towards our target of over 100,000 companies using e-conomic by the end of 2011.

Here is a summary of the changes:

• The monthly fee for Small and Standard subscriptions has been reduced to £12.99 and £24.99 respectively.
• The number of transactions allowed at the “Small” subscription level has been increased four-fold.  Now you can have as many as 4,000 transactions per annum before being automatically upgraded to the “Standard” level.
• The price for each additional user has been reduced to £6.99.  (The first user for each company is included with the “Small” or “Standard” subscription.)
• The additional user charge is now consistent across all modules and types of user.  Moreover, it is only charged once rather than per module.  So the charge will be only £6.99 no matter how many add-on modules the user has access to, giving savings to customers using the Stock Management or Project Accounting modules for users who have access to more than one module.
• The Dimension module is now free of charge, so that companies can utilise department/cost centre accounting at no extra charge.  Further dimensions will be added in the future.
• The other add-on modules have had small roundings on their prices, some up and others down, but all customers will experience an overall decrease as a result of the reductions in the Small/Standard subscription levels.
• The special Project accounting user types “Project manager” and “Time logger” continue as before, but at the new price of £6.99 (previously £13.50 and £4.50 respectively).  Most customers will realise savings because of the reduction for Project managers, but companies with large numbers of Time loggers may experience an increase and are welcome to contact us so that we can resolve any issues.

The effects of the changes and comparisons with Sage

The following examples show the effect of the changes on typical customers, including a price comparison against Sage using prices taken from their web shop last night.  I’ve compared with the Sage products that would typically be chosen as a starting point by most small or medium sized businesses.  In reality, e-conomic provides additional functionality that can only be found in even more expensive Sage products, which is why companies can start small and grow with e-conomic rather than having to switch software at a later date.

The cost of SageCover Extra has been included in order to provide a like-for-like comparison with the service provided by e-conomic which includes support and upgrades as standard.  All figures exclude VAT.

Example 1

Our charge for a Small subscription with one user has reduced by 4% to only £12.99/mth.

The cost of Sage 50 Accounts 2009 with one user, including 12 months SageCover Extra (for support and upgrades) is £1,015.00.  e-conomic gives a saving of 85% in year 1.

The price without SageCover is £550.00, implying that SageCover Extra costs around £450.00.  So e-conomic gives an ongoing saving in the 2nd and subsequent years of around 65%.

Example 2

Our charge for a Standard subscription with two users has reduced by 11% to just £31.98/mth.

The cost of Sage 50 Accounts 2009 with two users and SageCover Extra is £1,405.00.  Therefore e-conomic gives a saving of 73% in year 1.  SageCover Extra costs around £600, so e-conomic gives an ongoing saving of 36%.

Example 3

For a company requiring Stock Management and two users, a subscription to e-conomic has reduced by 24% to only £40.97/mth.

The cost of Sage 50 Accounts Plus 2009 with two users and SageCover Extra is £1,865.00.  Therefore e-conomic gives a saving of 74% in year 1.  SageCover Extra costs around £800, so e-conomic gives an ongoing saving of 39%.

In summary, e-conomic enables even small companies to afford a proper invoicing and accounting system and it provides extra value compared to other software through extra functionality (for example – automatic bank reconciliation, online invoicing, integration to Excel) and free access for accountants and bookkeepers so that they can access clients’ accounts in real time via the internet without having to travel or transfer files.

The fact that backups or upgrades are included in our service adds further value, so that both company and accountant/bookkeeper are always working on the same data, using the same software, while we take care of the technical issues.

This entry was posted on 30 June 2009 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Press, Product info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.