Sage 50 Accounts Version 24 (or 2018) was released in September 2017, but many people who pay for Sage’s subscription services won’t have upgraded to the latest version yet. To help you decide if it is worth it for you to upgrade your system, then here is a brief overview of the new features. Make sure you are aware that some features are available in all Sage 50 products, and others are only available in Sage 50c (Connected).
GoCardless Integration
GoCardless allows small businesses to take payment from customers in the form of Direct Debits. There was some element of GO Cardless integration previously with Sage, but this has now been vastly improved. See my previous blog post-Sage 50 and GoCardless integration for more details.
Bank Feeds Rules (Sage 50c Accounts Only)
Bank Feeds were added in version 22 (or 2016) two years ago. This version adds more functionality to this feature allowing for those regular payments to be automatically coded and matched in the bank feed, or saved in an approval screen for you to check over before posting.
Installation Improvements
The installer has been improved in both Sage 50 and Sage 50c
Hiding Nominal Records
Hiding inactive customer and supplier records has been available for a while, but has been added to the Nominal Records area by popular demand. You can only make a record inactive if it has no balance on it, just like in the other ledgers where this facility is available.
Excluding Suppliers
When you make a suggested payments run, then it can be very annoying if suppliers you pay by direct debit also appear in the list. It can lead to accidentally paying someone twice. Now if the payment method in the Bank Details screen of the supplier is set to DD/STO for the supplier you can exclude them from the payment run by ticking the box “Exclude suppliers paid by direct debit/standing order”.
Sales Order and Purchase Order Processing Field Moved
The Customer or Suppliers order number field was always hidden away on the Order tab in Sales orders and Purchase orders. This has now been moved to the front page just under the account number field. This one does keep catching me out as I am on autopilot to put the details in the box on the 2nd page. I keep putting the supplier’s order number in the Supplier Tel. No. and wondering why it doesn’t appear when I update ledgers.
Compliance Changes
SagePay Protocol
The current version of SagePay will no longer be compliant from June 2018 so you need to upgrade to the latest version if you use SagePay integrated with your Sage 50 software.
HMRC Gateway Changes
HMRC are decommissioning their Electronic Data Interchange channel (EDI) from February 14th 2018. From this date, all versions of Sage from Version 23 and below will no longer be able to submit their VAT direct from Sage. You can still log into the HMRC website and enter the figures manually in the free online system. Version 24 is the only version which will allow you to submit your VAT online directly through the software using the new method.
Need any help or advice?
If you would like any help or assistance in upgrading your Sage Software, or you are looking to install Sage 50 for the first time then do get in touch. We can offer training in the new features as well as help and guidance with knowing if your IT systems will effectively run this new Sage 50 software. We have many Sage TIps on making the most of sage which are still relevant to this latest version.
If you are running an older version of Sage 50 then take a look at my previous summary of new features to see what you could be missing out on.
