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Sage 50 & Instant Accounts Support
Frequently Asked Questions .
Sage 50 / Instant Accounts FAQs click to view
Vat Decrease VAT Cash Accounting
How do I credit an invoice at the old VAT rate?
Note: To determine the correct VAT rate for a particular credit note, please contact
Revenue.
There may be occasions when you need to credit invoices at the old VAT rate. If you
need to do this, you must select the Item VAT Amendable check box in Settings >
Company Preferences > VAT tab.
After selecting the Item VAT Amendable check box, to enter a credit note at the old
rate of VAT, when you enter the items on the credit note, press F3 on your keyboard
then manually amend the VAT amount as required.
Note: All of the standard invoice layouts in Sage 50 Accounts include the VAT rate.
Any credit notes on which you amend the VAT will incorrectly print the VAT rate as
21%. The Sage 50 Accounts VAT Report Pack includes new invoice and credit note
layouts that you can use to print the correct rate. For further information about this,
please contact Sage Support on 1890 88 20 60 or email sage50.support@sage.ie.
How do I enter a supplier invoice at the old VAT rate?
If you need to enter a purchase invoice at the old VAT rate, you can manually amend
the VAT amount when you enter the invoice providing Item VAT Amendable has
been enabled. To do this, check Item VAT Amendable in Settings > Company
>VAT Tab.
There may be occasions when you need to credit invoices at the old VAT rate. If you
need to do this, you should create a new tax code at the old rate of VAT.
Note: To determine the correct VAT rate for a particular credit note, please contact
Revenue.
To create a new tax code at the old rate of VAT
- Open the Settings menu, choose Configuration then click the Tax Codes tab.
The tax code information appears.
- Select the first tax code that is not in use then click Edit.
Note: If you created a new tax code for 21% when the standard VAT rate
changed in December 2008, you can edit this tax code and change the rate
to 21.5%.
The Edit Tax Code window appears. - Complete the Edit Tax Code window as follows then click OK.
Rate Enter 21.50 in this box. Include in VAT return Select this check box. Reverse Charge Do not select this check box. EC Code Do not select this check box. Description Old standard VAT rate.
- The Edit Tax Codes window closes.
- To apply the change, and return to the Sage Accounts desktop, click Apply
then click Close.
Tip: If you are prompted to save your changes, click No.
You have successfully created a new tax code for the old standard rate of VAT. If
you need to enter a VAT only credit, please contact support on 1890 88 20 60 or
sage50.support@sage.ie.
How do I enter a supplier invoice at the old VAT rate?
If you need to enter a purchase invoice at the old VAT rate, you can manually amend
the VAT amount when you enter the invoice once Item Vat Amendable has been
selected. This can be found in Settings > Company Preferences > VAT
What is the default Username and Password for Sage 50?
By default, use the logon name MANAGER with no password.
Why am I getting the message “Username in use” when I access the program and how do I resolve it?
This is usually caused by an incorrect shut down of the program, eg, a power cut or closing through CTRL ALT DEL. The system doesn’t recognise the user leaving Sage and ultimately leaves the user logged in.
To resolve this issue, do a search on your pc for a file called QUEUE.DTA. Once this has been found, delete it. The data will be held at the data source.
**NB. If you are on a network and someone is genuinely logged in as that user, they may be logged out. Make sure no-one else is logged in when removing this file.
How can I find my Serial Number and my Version number?
To see your Serial Number and which version of the software you are using, choose Help menu > About.
The serial and version number is shown on the General tab of the About window.
Do I need to run the Bank Reconciliation option?
At some point you will need to reconcile your bank account, although how regularly depends upon the needs of your business. The Bank Reconciliation is used to ensure that the figures you have entered into the program match with the figures in your actual Bank Account.
Also, when your software has accumulated many transactions it is often desirable to clear old transactions, usually from an old financial year, from the system.
This is achieved using the Clear Audit Trail routine. This routine will only remove transactions from the software that have been reconciled with the bank.
Therefore, even if you do not usually use the bank reconciliation option there will come a time when the reconciliation routine must be followed unless you have disabled the bank reconciliation previously.
This means that either:
- You have posted transactions dated in the previous period after you reconciled your VAT Return. These should then be included in the current return.
- You have just started to use the VAT Return option or have not set the VAT reconciliation flags when running previous returns.
What is the importance of the Financial Year End routine?
This procedure takes care of all of your financial year end accounting.
The balances for the current financial year for your profit and loss accounts are transferred to the Retained Earnings account. The balances of your balance sheet accounts are carried forward into the new financial year to give you an accurate picture of your ongoing financial position.
This allows you to provide up to date and accurate management reports.
Error "Setup failed to register sage HR"
This issue can occur if the Quickpay is installed to the computer’s root folder, to help resolve this, you can try a new install to another folder.
Another reason may be due to anti virus software installed on the system. If can try disable or uninstalling the Anti-virus software and reinstalling the produc
Do I need to run a Month End Routine?
No, you do not have to run the Month End routine before you can continue processing transactions.
The month end is used for posting automatic transactions and clearing the turnover on customer and supplier accounts.
If you do not have any automatic transactions to post and do not want to clear your turnover, you do not have to run the month end.
When you enter a date on a transaction, the software automatically checks the date and compares this to the financial year start date.
If the transaction is dated outside the current financial year - that is before or into the future, you will see a warning message.
If the date you have specified is correct, you may override the warning by choosing Yes to accept the date.
You will have the option in version 2010 to switch of this message.
You can post transactions into the new financial year before running the year end.
Because the software is date sensitive, the transactions you post in the new financial year will be held in what is known as a future Bucket.
This means the financial reports will not include these values. When you run the year end, these transactions are entered into the correct month, according to the date you entered in the Date box. They will then appear on the financial reports.
You will see a warning message, when you enter the date, advising you that the date is outside the current financial year and asking you if you wish to continue. Choose Yes to accept the date, or No to re-enter the date.
Before posting transactions into the new financial year, ensure that you run the Stock Valuation report. This report looks at the current level of stock and gives a valuation based on this level.
If you process transactions into the future before running this report, you will have a valuation based on the new level of stock rather than the level at the year end.
The software has a feature called Check Data that not only checks for some accounting problems, but it also checks for data corruption.
We recommend it is run every day and you will be prompted to run this before taking your daily backup.
Any problems, especially errors, should be dealt with straight away by calling the support line. Do not click on the Fix button until instructed to do so by a technician.
You have probably entered a value for carriage onto the invoice but not entered a carriage nominal code.
To check the carriage nominal code:
1. Display the invoice details by double-clicking on the relevant Invoice from the Invoicing window.
2. Choose the Footer Details tab and check the N/C field in the Carriage Area.
The first thing that you need to check is the Chart of Accounts. This will show you which accounts make up the Profit and Loss Balance.
To check which codes are grouped for the Profit and Loss click Company > Chart of Accounts and edit the relevant layout of accounts.
On the Edit Chart of Accounts window, check the Low and High nominal codes for the relevant line on the Profit and Loss.
When you have checked which nominal codes are included on the relevant Profit and Loss line files, you can then check the month or year-to-date balance for each nominal record.
When I run my Balance Sheet report I have a figure labelled Previous Year Adj. What does this mean?
The figure represents transactions posted after the year end has been run but with a date prior to the current year.
To check which nominal codes make up this balance run the Trial Balance and select the Brought Forward period.
Any Profit and Loss nominal codes with a balance will create a Prior Year Adjustment on your Balance Sheet.
Credit notes can be allocated to invoices within Customer Receipts.
To do this from the Customer Receipt window, select the invoice you want to allocate the credit note against and click Pay in Full.
Then select the credit note you want to allocate against the invoice and click Pay in Full. Click Save.
The credit note has now been allocated against the invoice.
What is the easiest way to view sales for a particular product on a month-by-month basis?
Open the product record and view the Sales tab. This window displays the quantity sold on a month by month basis for the current and previous year.
Yes. From the menu bar, choose Tools > Global Changes.
This starts a wizard that will enable you to increase your selling prices by a percentage or an amount.
In the wizard you can increase the selling prices for some or all of your products, you can also show product categories and amend the price for a specific category.
I have created a new customer and the record is not appearing on the list. Why?
This is because there is a search applied on your customer list.
To discard the search click on the spy-glass button at the top right hand side of the screen, the banner should then read All Records.
How can I delete a customer's record?
If there are no transactions on the customers activity, highlight the record on the Customers window and click delete.
If there are transactions on the activity, you cannot remove the record unless the transactions are old and can be removed using the Clear Audit Trail option.
If the transaction history is still required, to avoid people using the account you could open the record and change the name to Do Not Use.
I only want to see supplier accounts with a balance. How can I set this up?
From the Supplier List, click Search.
To view suppliers with a positive balance enter the following information in the Search window:
Join = Where
Field = Balance
Condition = Is Greater Than
Value = 0.00
To view suppliers with a positive or negative balance enter the following information in the Search window:
Join = Where
Field = Balance
Condition = Is Not Equal To
Value = 0.00
To apply the search, click Apply. To return to the Supplier list, click Close.
The Supplier list only shows suppliers with a balance.
I have entered a nominal code and I want to change the account type to bank. Can I do this?
Yes you can, as long as no transactions have been posted to the account.
From the Bank window, click Record. Enter the nominal code of the account you want to change in the A/C Ref field and then place the cursor in any other field, or press the TAB key.
A message appears: A nominal account with this reference already exists - do you wish to convert it to a bank account?
To do this, click Yes. Remember to check your Chart of Accounts layout to make sure your nominal codes are included in the correct ranges when you make changes to your account types.