Sage announced a new partnership with Tide, the UK’s leading business financial platform. The partnership will deliver a tightly integrated banking and accounting solution to Tide customers. Tide offers simple to use business accounts through Clearbank. Free to set up, fees include transfers and ATM withdrawals. Higher charge-bands exist with additional benefits, including a limited number of free transfers. Integrations now exist with QuickBooks, Xero and Sage. This partnership will enable Tide customers to leverage Sage’s new accounting and compliance as a service platform (AcaaS). It will enable Tide customers to automate several tax compliance processes, including self-assessments and year-end accounts. Importantly this will also include Making Tax Digital which will impact most UK businesses, including those without an accountant.
Neal Watkins, EVP of Small Business Segment at Sage, said, “By partnering with Tide, we hope to encourage more people, who have so far only dreamt about being their own boss, to start a new business. Many entrepreneurs are held back from starting a new business by fears around getting their tax right, but with this new offering, accountancy and compliance will become a simple and seamless service, meaning that the business owner can sleep easy knowing that they’re getting their tax right and making well-informed decisions.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
It isn’t clear whether this is an exclusive partnership with Sage, but with Tide trialling Sage ACaaS to 340,000 members later in 2021, it seems to be. Oliver Prill, Tide CEO, said: “Adding an accountancy offering to the Tide platform is a huge step towards our mission to make life easier for people who work for themselves, saving them time (and money) on their financial admin.
Tide has chosen to work with Sage to deliver this product due to Sage’s long and impressive record in accounting and compliance and their strategic alignment with Tide. We share a similar customer base, and combining our expertise will bring the right technology solutions to small business owners at the right time.”
This is a significant deal for Sage in the UK. It will gain access to a large customer base in a single deal that may, in time, look to enhance their business efficiency with other Sage products.
