Sage 50 Accounts (previously known as Sage Line 50) is the UK’s best selling accountancy software for small to medium sized businesses. In this article we cover some of the most requested tips, tricks and shortcuts to take your Sage 50 Accounts software to the next level.
Sage 50 Accounts Shortcuts
F1 – Brings up the Sage Help Screen
F2 – Brings up the Calculator
F3 – When creating invoices, sales orders or purchase orders, this opens the Edit Item Line window
F3 – When creating a customer receipt or supplier payment, this enters the amount in full line by line
F4 – Opens a quick reference list containing all reference numbers for a particular box.
F5 – If the cursor is in a value box, the Currency Calculator appears, if pressed in a text box, the Spell Checker appears
F6 – In data entry screens copies information from the field above
F7 – In data entry screens inserts a blank line in the row above
F8 – In data entry screens deletes the whole line of information
F9 – Activates the Calculate Net amount option, which splits the total you enter in the net box into the net and VAT amounts
F11 – Opens the Windows Control Panel
F12 – Brings up the Sage Report Design
Sage 50 Accounts Tips and Tricks
Remove the Sage Welcome Page on Start-Up
- Tools
- Options
- Click ‘View’ tab
- Go to ‘Global Settings’ at bottom of the box – from here you can put a tick in the box to remove the Welcome Page
You can also set how you would like your opening pages on Customers, Suppliers, Bank, Nominal and Products and turn off all Dashboards and Process Maps.
The Lock Date Function
- Settings
- Go to ‘Lock Date’
- Tick the box and enter your cut-off date for posting
This prompts a message each time you try and post in the period that has been locked if you are logged on as ‘Manager’ but other users will be denied access.
Separate Lines on The Customer, Supplier, Products, Projects and Nominal Record Lists
Add colour on alternate lines to make things easier to see.
- Tools
- Options
- Colours tab
- Click the box to the right hand side of a module and select a colour
- Ok to save
Submit Your VAT Return to HMRC Directly from Sage
- Go to ‘Settings’
- Go to ‘Company Preferences’
- Go to the ‘VAT’ tab
- Enter your user ID, password and contact details
Ungroup Bank Transactions
Sage defaults to grouping ‘Bank payment ‘and ‘Bank receipt’ transactions together if they have the same date and reference. This makes it much harder to do your Bank Reconciliation. To avoid this do the following:
- Settings
- Bank Defaults
- Untick the Group Bank Transactions box
- Click ok
Creating an Archive Data Set
- Tools
- Period end
- Archive company
- Enter a description or the name of your archive folder
- Click ok
To View Your Archived Data Set
- File
- Open
- Company Archive
- Select the year to open
Sage now closes your current live data set and opens the Archived data set in read only format.
Entering a Customer’s Purchase Order number
- Invoices and Credits
- Select the invoice and click edit
- The new box for Customer’s PO is now on the right hand side in between the header and body, just below the account reference box and not in the ‘Order details’ tab
Creating Favourite Reports
- Open the relevant report browser from the top line
- Click on the blank star to the left of the report. It turns yellow to denote it as a favourite
- The next time you open your browser this report will appear first in the Favourites folder
- Favourite reports can also be access from the ‘Favourites’ button at the top of every screen irrespective of which module it belongs to
Setting Up Departments for 2nd Tier Analysis in The Nominal Ledger
- Departments (In the left hand margin)
Departmental Profit and Loss Reporting
- Departments
- Departmental Profit and Loss button on the top line
Reverse Charge VAT
- Settings
- Configuration
- Tax Codes
- Click T22 – place tick in the ‘Reverse Charge’ box
You will also need to edit your sales invoice to include the words “This invoice is subject to the Reverse Charge in the Country of receipt”.
To Compare Your Trading Performance to Last Year
- Nominal Codes
- Select the ‘Comparative Profit & Loss’ button on the top line
- Enter dates you wish to compare
- The report will show you figures for this year and last year and include any variance between years
To Add or Remove Fields in Posting Screens*
- Place the cursor anywhere on the black description line above the entry row
- Click Right Mouse button
- Untick columns that are not needed
Columns can be easily restored using the same method and re-ticking the boxes.
*This action is user specific and will not change any other user’s screen.
To Add or Remove Functions on The Top Line*
- Place the cursor anywhere in the top line
- Click Right Mouse button
- Untick functions that are not needed
Functions can be easily restored using the same method and re-ticking the boxes.
*This action is user specific and will not change any other user’s screen.
To Add or Remove Functions in The Navigation Area*
- Place the cursor anywhere in the left hand Navigation Area
- Click Right Mouse button
- Untick the Modules that are not needed
Modules can be easily restored using the same method and re-ticking the boxes.
*This action is user specific and will not change any other user’s screen.
To Add or Remove Columns in Customer, Supplier, Projects, Products and Nominal Record Lists*
- Place the cursor anywhere in the black line above the list of records
- Click Right Mouse button
- Untick the columns that are not needed
Columns can be easily restored using the same method and re-ticking the boxes.
*This action is user specific and will not change any other user’s screen.
All of the above are cosmetic changes only that can be easily restored. For permanently arranging a user’s access to functions you need to sign on as Manager and use the Access Rights function.
To Use the Sage 50 Customer and Supplier Record Databases to Create Letters Using Microsoft Word
- File
- Microsoft Integration
- Contents to Microsoft Word
- New Document
- Follow the Wizard to choose the fields you would like to integrate
- Click Finish and Sage will take you into Microsoft Word to create the document using the chosen fields from your Customer and Supplier records
For further training and advice, please see our Sage Training Services.