The load on the server shouldn't be high but we have almost 50 total locations, our network isn't exactly lightening fast and we have financial data that simple cannot be lost or interrupted. And sadly, I don't think there's money for upgrades.

My main concern is mostly the lack of expertise with this. We have yet to hire a FT DBA and the person (not me) writing the reports may not be well versed using SQL Server.

This is good advice and thanks to everyone who posted. I'll take everything in to consideration when we discuss this again.

Mark