Sage 50 Accounts User Guide

786 Pages·2008·21.66 MB·English

7xPDF covers for Mike:Layout 1 15/1/07 14:53 Page 7
Sage 50
Accounts
User Guide
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Copyright
© Sage (UK) Limited, 2008. All rights reserved
If this documentation includes advice or information relating to any matter other than
using Sage software, such advice or information is provided for information purposes
only. While Sage takes responsible steps to ensure the accuracy and completeness
of such information, it can only be general in nature. You should therefore take
appropriate steps to ensure it is correct and relevant to your circumstances. You
should also consider taking professional advice when appropriate, for example to
ensure that the results obtained from using the software comply with statutory
requirements.
No part of this documentation may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated,
microfilmed, or otherwise duplicated on any medium without prior written consent of
Sage (UK) Limited, publisher of this work.
Use of the software described in this documentation is subject to Sage (UK) Limited's
Licence Agreement enclosed with, or displayed by, that software.
Sage, the Sage logo, and other Sage logos and brands are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Sage (UK) Limited, or its holding company, The Sage
Group PLC. All other marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective owners.
Sage (UK) Limited
North Park
Newcastle upon Tyne NE13 9AA
Issue date: 30/06/2008
Pbn No: 13639
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Read This First
This document is the Sage 50 Accounts User Guide. It is intended to be read by all users of the
Sage 50 Accounts software, and is designed to guide users through all the tasks associated
with installing, setting up, and running the system.
The guide is divided into a number of chapters, which fall into logical groups.
The first two chapters are concerned with installation and helping you get started using the
software. They are intended mainly for new users.
(cid:132) Welcome to Sage 50 Accounts
This chapter describes how to install the software onto your PC, how to register it, and the
support and training options available to you.
(cid:132) Getting Started with Sage 50 Accounts
This chapter describes how to access the software for the first time and how to use the
demonstration data to get used to the way in which the system works. It also provides a
guided tour of the Sage 50 Accounts desktop.
This chapter also gives you an overview of the tasks involved in setting up Sage 50
Accounts ready for use, and a description of the administrative and maintenance tasks
which need to be carried out from time-to-time to help keep it running smoothly.
The next three chapters describe how to set up Sage 50 Accounts. New users will need to carry
out the tasks described in these chapters in order to provide the software with the information
it needs to satisfy the accounting needs of your organisation. Existing users will carry out these
tasks from time-to-time, to help keep their information up-to-date.
(cid:132) Setting up Sage 50 Accounts
This chapter describes how you define various system settings, preferences and defaults.
(cid:132) Setting up your Chart of Accounts
This chapter describes how to set up and maintain a chart of accounts.
(cid:132) Setting up Records
This chapter describes the tasks involved in maintaining records, including nominal
accounts, bank accounts, customers and suppliers, products, and projects.
Chapters 6 to 12 cover the full range of accounting tasks. You will only need to carry out those
tasks which are appropriate to your organisation. The content of each of these chapters is
designed to match the way in which the functionality of the software is divided into modules.
(cid:132) Company Tasks
Company tasks include: prepayments and accruals, managing fixed assets, preparing
Intrastat declarations and VAT returns, entering scale charges, carrying out month end and
year end processing, entering journals, and clearing down and compressing old data.
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(cid:132) Banking Tasks
Banking tasks include: recording receipts, payments, transfers, reconciling accounts,
creating and processing recurring transactions, and managing petty cash.
(cid:132) Customer Tasks
These include: setting pricing and discounts, handling quotations and proformas, sales
order processing, handling invoices, dealing with recurring transactions, receiving
customer payments, and managing credit notes.
(cid:132) Supplier Tasks
These include: supplier pricing, processing purchase orders, entering invoices, payments,
and credit notes.
(cid:132) Product Tasks (Stock)
These include: stock taking, recording adjustments in and out, handling shortfalls and
stock returns, managing bills of materials, and allocating and issuing stock.
(cid:132) Project Tasks
Project tasks include: setting up a project, applying costs, working with purchase orders,
enquiries, analysis and reporting, billing the customer, and completing the project.
(cid:132) Reporting
Sage 50 Accounts provides a wide range of financial and management reports.
The final group of chapters describes particular tasks, which can be performed using Sage 50
Accounts but which may not be required by all companies. These include:
(cid:132) Support Tools
Support tools are options and utilities designed to save you time, so that you spend less
time entering data and more time running your business.
(cid:132) Working with Foreign Currencies and Accounts
This chapter contains information on how to handle foreign currency accounts and
transactions in Sage 50 Accounts, and includes the use of the Foreign Trader feature and
the Foreign Bank Revaluation Wizard.
(cid:132) Recording Opening Balances
If you are a new user of Sage 50 Accounts, you will need to enter a series of opening
balances. This chapter takes you through the process of entering your opening balances,
from gathering a list of your opening figures to entering the opening balances on your
nominal, bank, customer, supplier and product records.
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Other Sage 50 Accounts documentation
In addition to this User Guide, the following user documentation is also provided, both on your
CD and in the software from the Help Menu:
(cid:132) Introduction to Accounts
Use this guide to explore and understand the fundamentals of double-entry bookkeeping,
and learn about key accounting concepts.
(cid:132) Sage 50 Accounts Opening Balances
With this guide you can explore the process of entering your opening balances.
(cid:132) Sage 50 Accounts Credit Control
The Credit Control features within the software are fully described, providing you with all
the tools to manage customer and supplier debt and optimise your cash flow.
(cid:132) Sage 50 Accounts for Charities
This guide explains how to tailor Sage 50 Accounts for a non-profit making organisation.
It focuses particularly on fund analysis and SORP reporting.
(cid:132) Getting Started with Excel Integrated Reporting for Sage 50 Accounts
This guide aims to introduce the basic concepts of integrating Microsoft® Excel with your
Sage 50 Accounts data.
(cid:132) Transaction Email
This guide explains how to set up, register, and use Transaction Email, which allows you to
send and receive paperless invoices and orders.
(cid:132) Sage 50 Accounts Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)
The Sage 50 Accounts CIS module is designed for anyone, who carries out construction
work in the UK as a contractor, and is registered to the Construction Industry Scheme
(CIS). The guide describes the features of the CIS module, and how it is integrated with
Sage 50 Accounts.
The information provided in these guides is intended to complement the material provided by
this document, the main Sage 50 Accounts guide.
These documents are supplied in electronic format, as .PDF files, and are available as options
from the menu displayed when you start installation of Sage 50 Accounts and, after installation,
from the Sage 50 Accounts Help menu option.
We hope you will find the documentation comprehensive. If you want to send us your
comments, please email the Sage SBD Documentation Team at
SageR&[email protected].
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Instructions in This Guide
Sage 50 Accounts is a fully Windows compatible product, which means that all the usual
windows elements are used. This User Guide also uses the same terminology and instruction
conventions that are used in your Windows User Guide. So, if you are familiar with Windows,
you will already know how to navigate around your Sage 50 Accounts software. If you are not,
the basic elements of Windows are described in this chapter.
This guide takes you through many different procedures, step-by-step, such as recording a
payment or running a report. To make it easy for you to follow, these instructions are written
using the following conventions. For example, a step by step procedure always starts in the
same format and continues as a series of numbered steps, as shown below.

Examples
1. Select Customers > Invoice List.
Note: This instruction should be read as "select the 'abc' module from the navigation
bar on the left hand side of the window and then select the 'xyz' Task or Link option".
2. Select a record you want to delete from the Records list.
3. Click Delete.
Note: If during a procedure you are asked to type specific text into a box, this text is
always shown in boldface, as shown in step 3 below.
4. In the Command Line text box type d:\setup.exe and then press ENTER.
If you are required to press a specific key on the keyboard, this key is shown in CAPITAL
LETTERS. You will notice that the key you needed to press in step 3 above, the ENTER key,
is written in capital letters.
Italic text is generally used to refer you to other sections of the guide, for example:
5. To print your VAT Return, click Print. For more information, see Managing your VAT on
page 249.
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Contents
Read This First.................................................................................................iii
Instructions in This Guide................................................................................vi
Chapter 1: Welcome to Sage 50 Accounts .........................................1
Introduction to Sage 50 Accounts....................................................................2
Installation........................................................................................................3
The ActiveSetup Wizard...................................................................................4
Registering Sage 50 Accounts.......................................................................18
About SageCover..........................................................................................18
SageCover Online Support............................................................................19
sage.co.uk & sage.ie......................................................................................19
Sage Training.................................................................................................19
Chapter 2: Getting Started with Sage 50 Accounts ..........................21
Accessing Sage 50 Accounts........................................................................22
The Practice Data Mode................................................................................23
Using Sage 50 Accounts Demonstration Data...............................................26
The Sage 50 Accounts Desktop....................................................................27
Sage 50 Accounts Window Types..................................................................32
Using the Search to Find Records..................................................................52
Finding Transactions......................................................................................57
Using ActiveSearch........................................................................................59
Function Keys................................................................................................60
An Overview to Setting Up Sage 50 Accounts...............................................64
Administrative / Maintenance Tasks...............................................................65
Chapter 3: Setting Up Sage 50 Accounts .........................................85
Setting the Financial Year...............................................................................86
The Configuration Editor................................................................................87
Entering Your Company Preferences............................................................109
Entering Your Bank Defaults.........................................................................133
Entering Customer Defaults.........................................................................134
Ageing Transactions in Sage 50 Accounts...................................................137
Entering Supplier Defaults............................................................................142
Entering Product Defaults............................................................................144
Entering Invoice and Order Defaults.............................................................147
Setting Up Users.........................................................................................161
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Sage 50 Accounts User Guide
Chapter 4: Setting Up your Chart of Accounts ...............................163
Setting Up your Chart of Accounts...............................................................164
Adding a Chart of Accounts.........................................................................167
Editing your Chart of Accounts....................................................................169
Checking your Chart of Accounts................................................................170
Deleting a Chart of Accounts.......................................................................172
Copying a Chart of Accounts.......................................................................172
Chapter 5: Setting Up Records ........................................................173
Nominal Ledger Accounts Explained............................................................174
The Nominal Account Structure...................................................................179
Control Accounts.........................................................................................180
Entering Nominal Records...........................................................................182
Editing Nominal Records..............................................................................186
Deleting Nominal Records............................................................................187
Viewing Nominal Account Activity................................................................187
Entering Bank Account Records..................................................................190
Editing a Bank Record.................................................................................193
Deleting a Bank Record...............................................................................193
Planning your Customer and Supplier Codes...............................................194
Entering Customer and Supplier Records....................................................195
Deleting Customer Records.........................................................................200
Deleting Supplier Records............................................................................200
Setting Up Your Product List........................................................................201
Creating a Product Record..........................................................................201
Editing a Product Record.............................................................................206
Deleting a Product Record...........................................................................206
Setting Up Project Records
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................207
Setting Up Your Fixed Asset Records
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................213
Chapter 6: Company Tasks .............................................................219
Prepayments
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................220
Accruals
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................223
Budgeting in Sage 50 Accounts...................................................................226
Working With Fixed Assets..........................................................................235
Preparing Intrastat Declarations...................................................................239
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Contents
Managing your VAT......................................................................................249
Carrying Out Your Month End......................................................................285
Running the Year End..................................................................................300
Recording a Journal Entry............................................................................308
Clearing the Audit Trail.................................................................................318
Clearing Stock Transactions.........................................................................323
Compressing Your Data...............................................................................323
Chapter 7: Banking Tasks ................................................................325
Recording a Bank Receipt...........................................................................326
Recording a Bank, Cash or Credit Card Payment........................................331
Recording a Transfer....................................................................................343
Reconciling Your Bank Account...................................................................345
Creating and Processing Recurring Transactions.........................................353
Viewing Bank Transaction Activity................................................................364
Managing Your Petty Cash...........................................................................366
Chapter 8: Customer Tasks .............................................................367
Pricing and Discounts..................................................................................368
Customer Pricing.........................................................................................369
Proformas
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................400
Quotations
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................400
Sales Order Processing
(Accounts Professional Only)........................................................................404
Entering an Invoice......................................................................................437
Posting an Invoice........................................................................................470
Dealing with Recurring Transactions ............................................................471
Receiving Customer Payments....................................................................477
Entering a Credit Note.................................................................................479
Deductions
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional only)..........................................480
Deleting Invoices and Credit Notes..............................................................483
Viewing a Customer’s Transaction Activity....................................................485
Customer Refunds.......................................................................................487
Sage Payment Solutions Pay by Card Facility..............................................488
Chapter 9: Supplier Tasks ................................................................495
Supplier Price Lists
(Accounts Professional Only)........................................................................496
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Sage 50 Accounts User Guide
Processing Purchase Orders
(Accounts Professional Only)........................................................................502
Entering an Invoice from a Supplier..............................................................533
Supplier Payment Control............................................................................536
Supplier Reports..........................................................................................543
Recording a Supplier’s Credit Note..............................................................543
Viewing Supplier Transaction Activity............................................................543
Supplier Refunds.........................................................................................545
Chapter 10: Product Tasks (Stock) ..................................................547
A Note on Product Valuation in Sage 50 Accounts.......................................548
Recording a Stock Take...............................................................................549
Adjusting Stock Levels by Recording an Adjustment In or Out.....................551
Stock Shortfall
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................551
Viewing Product Activity...............................................................................554
Bill of Materials
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................557
Recording Stock Returns
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................563
Allocating Stock
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................566
Issuing Allocated Stock
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only)..........................................570
Chapter 11: Project Tasks
(Accounts Plus and Accounts Professional Only) ...........................573
An Introduction to Project Costing...............................................................574
Who Can Use Project Costing?....................................................................574
The Life Cycle of a Project...........................................................................575
The Project Life Cycle in Sage 50 Accounts.................................................575
Setting Up Project Costing...........................................................................577
Starting Up a Project....................................................................................581
Applying Project Costs.................................................................................588
Viewing Project Activity................................................................................592
Working with Purchase Orders
(Accounts Professional only)........................................................................595
Project Enquiries, Analysis and Reporting....................................................597
Billing Your Customer for a Project...............................................................601
Completing Your Project..............................................................................606