If you’re thinking of starting a business you’ll need help, which is what you get with Sage Start-Up, a bundle of software, advice and online services to help you plan, start and run a new venture.

Sage, of course, is best known for its accounting software, but if you think that Start-Up is your average small-business accounts package you’ll be disappointed. Indeed, the software in the box is only designed to handle day-to-day cashflow management, leaving the rest of the financial donkey work to your accountant. But this is only a small part of what you get.

Sold on a subscription basis, Start-Up membership also provides access to a specialised website on which you’ll find a wealth of information and useful tools. Not least a library of more than 500 documents on subjects such as Vat and employment law, as well as case studies showing other people’s experiences and the pitfalls to avoid.

You can also download tools to estimate how much it will cost to set up your business and create a professional-looking business plan. Then, once you’re up and running, benchmark your performance against others in the same industry.

Of course, the Start-Up software is a major component too, equipping you with a cross between a business diary and a simple cash accounting application.

Some initial setup work is required, to define how your business works, enter banking details, add customer records and so on. However, it’s all pretty straightforward with plenty of jargon-free documentation to explain the whys and wherefores involved.

The Sage software was very simple to use with graphical menus, for example, to step you through the process of issuing quotations, creating invoices and, finally, banking the money.

Tools to handle Vat accounting and year-end procedures are also provided and the data exported to Excel. It’s also compatible with the professional Sage software widely used by accountants, so once a year you can just send your records off to be processed. There’s even a ‘find an accountant’ option on the website.

On the downside we did find the software a little simplistic. For instance, we expected to be able to generate invoices from diary entries, but had to do that manually, and there was no facility to email invoices and purchase orders, only to print them. We also encountered a couple of bugs, such as being unable to delete product and service records entered incorrectly.

The bug did, however, enable us to check out the unlimited support service included with the product, when we phoned for help. Naturally, we were put through to an automated system, but after a few key presses we were soon talking to an operator who quickly advised that it was a known problem before giving us a workaround until an update could be issued.

Software updates are included in the subscription and, although nothing to write home about, the Start-Up program does the job required, leaving you to concentrate on running your business.

More importantly we found the other information and advice concentrated the mind and got us thinking about what was needed when starting a new business. It also served to point us in the right direction to get further help and, that alone, makes it well worth the money.