7xPDF covers for Mike:Layout 1 15/1/07 14:53 Page 7 Sage 50 Accounts User Guide Line50.book Page 2 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM 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 Line50.book Page 3 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM 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. Line50.book Page 4 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM (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. Line50.book Page 5 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM 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]. Line50.book Page 6 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM 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. Line50.book Page 1 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM 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 Line50.book Page 2 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM 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 Line50.book Page 3 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM 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 Line50.book Page 4 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:21 AM 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