A Sage account lets you use your Sage products with one login. You can sign in to Sage HR, Sage Payroll, Sage Accounting, and more using the same details.
Users with a Sage account for Sage HR can also enable 2-factor authentication (2FA), which enhances security.
📎NOTE: Enabling Sage accounts has nothing to do with integrating Sage HR with Sage accounting software.
All new Sage HR companies have used Sage accounts to sign in since 2023.
Some older companies still use a Sage HR login. From June 2025, all Sage HR companies must use Sage accounts. If you haven’t switched yet, you’ll see this message after logging in:
You can turn on Sage accounts by following the steps below or by clicking the Enable Sage accounts button on that page.
Manually enable Sage accounts for your company
Click your name in the top right, then click Settings.
On the settings menu, click Security, then click Sage accounts and two-factor authentication.
Under Sage accounts, click Enable Sage accounts.
What happens after I enable Sage accounts?
Everyone in your Sage HR company gets an email to set up a Sage account if they need one. If they miss it, Sage HR asks them to do it the next time they sign in.
📎NOTE: If someone has an existing Sage account, they'll receive a prompt to log in rather than create a Sage account. If they can't remember their password, they can use the Forgot password? option.
After they create a Sage account, the next time they log in, they enter their Sage account email address and password.
After you enable Sage accounts, you can see on the security page that it shows as enabled.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I don't enable Sage accounts?
Sage HR will keep prompting you to switch to Sage accounts. You won’t be able to sign in until you turn Sage accounts on.
Does this mean signing up for accounting software?
No, a Sage account is a login for Sage products. When you enable Sage accounts, you aren't signing up for or integrating with Sage accounting software.
Is there a cost to enabling Sage accounts?
There's no cost to this. It's just a change to your user's logins.
Do employees need to do anything?
When you enable Sage accounts, employees will create a Sage account the next time they log in to Sage HR. They'll receive an email explaining this, with a link to the Sage HR login page.
Do employees use the same email address?
The email address the employee uses remains the same. They'll need to create a Sage account for that email address, which means creating a password again.
What will change after we enable Sage accounts?
Nothing really changes apart from the login screen. Some users see 2FA as an extra step when signing in.
Why doesn’t an employee see an option to create a Sage account?
When an employee signs in, Sage HR asks for an email address and password instead of showing an option to create a Sage account.
This happens because the employee already has a Sage account linked to the email address they use for Sage HR.
If they don’t remember their password, they can select Forgot password? to reset it.
Do employees have to use 2FA?
Yes. In Sage HR companies that don’t integrate with Sage payroll software, all users must set up 2FA 30 days after creating their Sage account.
Why does a user have to complete 2FA when they never set it up?
Sage HR requests a 6‑digit code at sign‑in because the user previously set up 2FA.
If they don’t remember doing this, they likely don’t have their recovery key either. They can use the backup method option to reset 2FA.
If no backup method exists, an admin can contact Sage HR support to ask for a 2FA reset on the user’s behalf.