Sage Pastel Accounting has teamed up with ORT JET – an initiative that focuses on helping Jewish entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses – to offer a 12-month subscription to the Sage One Accounting online software to qualifying members of the ORT community.

ORT JET is the enterprise development division of ORT SA — a non-profit organisation that has operated in South Africa for 79 years with the vision of empowering people with the knowledge and skills they need for success. In addition to helping Jewish SMEs, ORT JET and ORT SA work together to bring their mentoring model to entrepreneurs from disadvantaged communities.

The aim of ORT SA’s partnership with Sage Pastel is to help small businesses in its programme to take charge of their finances as they grow into self-sustaining enterprises. It addresses the reality that many owners of small businesses do not have the right infrastructure and training to monitor their finances.

“ORT JET attracts small businesses and entrepreneurs, while Sage has an amazing financial tracking tool,” says Sally Liebowitz, financial assessment mentor at ORT JET. “Together we can help small businesses to monitor their performance and chart their route to success”.” Sage One Accounting has been supporting a few of the ORT JET businesses in the past year and the benefit they have received has been immeasurable”.

Sage One Accounting will empower business owners in the programme to take ownership of and responsibility for the financial health of their businesses. Sage One is easy to use and because it’s online, it allows small businesses to access their financial information ‘on the fly’ as a byproduct of them just doing their normal business transactions such as sales and purchases on the system.

She adds that ORT JET’s mentors have found, through their experience of working with entrepreneurs, that many owners of small businesses need assistance when it comes to assessing and managing their finances. ORT JET’s Bootcamp training programme helps these business owners to better understand the need for disciplined financial tracking.

The relationship with Sage One Accounting means that up to 70 Jewish entrepreneurs in the ORT JET programme and business owners from ORT SA’s outreach communities will be given the tools they need to accurately record and monitor financial transactions over the next year.

Adds Steven Cohen, managing director of Sage One for AAMEA (Asia, Australia, Middle East and Africa): “Programmes such as the ORT JET Business Mentorship Programme contribute to a healthier business environment, in turn lifting employment and prosperity to the benefit of all South Africans. We’re proud to support an initiative that is helping diverse communities achieve personal growth, financial independence and sustainability.”