Mastering Sage 50 v. 2018 Training Tutorial

Welcome to Mastering Sage 50 Made Easy™. In this training, we will cover the basic skills required to effectively manage your company’s financial information using Sage 50 Premium Accounting. After completing this course, you should understand the way Sage 50 tracks and manages your company’s basic financial information. You should also have the required skills to do the most commonly performed and necessary tasks within Sage 50. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After opening a company file in Sage 50, you can click the buttons within the Navigation Bar that display the names of the Navigation Centers to display the related Navigation Center. In all three versions of Sage 50 (Pro, Premium, and Quantum), you have access to the “Business Status”, “Customers & Sales,” “Vendors & Purchases,” “Inventory & Services,” “Employees & Payroll,” “Banking,” and “System” Navigation Centers. Learn this and more during this lecture.

All versions of Sage 50 contain a Menu Bar that lets you access the windows where you perform business-related tasks, like invoicing customers, writing checks, and entering bills. To use the Menu Bar, click one of the command groupings in the Menu Bar to view the sub-commands within the command group. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Shortcuts” section appears in the bottom section of the Navigation Bar at the left side of the company file window. You can click the links here to open the related window or task form. This gives you one-click access to the features and tools you use most often in Sage 50. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You don’t have to be an accountant in order to use Sage 50, but you must have a basic understanding of some simple business bookkeeping and accounting concepts before entering information into the program. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To create a new company file in Sage 50, use the “New Company” wizard to create it and enter its information. To start the “New Company” wizard, select “File| New Company…” from the Menu Bar. The “New Company” wizard shows different windows into which you input your company’s information. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can also convert an existing company file from either QuickBooks or DacEasy to Sage 50. However, note that the conversion process will not create perfect replicas of the existing company files from these other programs. While much of the data can be converted from these applications to Sage 50, some of it will be lost. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Before entering new customers into your company file, you should ensure you have the “Customer Defaults” set the way you want to prevent entering repetitive data values for each new customer record you create. To access the default customer settings in the “Customer Defaults” window, select “Maintain| Default Information| Customers…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Before entering new vendors into your company file, ensure you have the “Vendor Defaults” set the way you want to prevent entering repetitive data values for each new vendor record. To set the default values for new vendor records, select “Maintain| Default Information| Vendors…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Setting the “Inventory Item Defaults” lets you specify the default settings when creating new items for invoices, bills, and purchase orders. To set the inventory item defaults, select “Maintain| Default Information| Inventory Items…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To set up payroll and employee defaults, select “Maintain| Payroll| Payroll Setup Wizard…” from the Menu Bar. You must set up your payroll item defaults before you can set up your employee defaults. Sage 50 understands this, and even if you selected “Maintain| Default Information| Employees…” from the Menu Bar to set up your employee defaults first, it would instead launch the “Payroll Setup Wizard” to make you set up your payroll items first. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can directly change many payroll item fields within the “Employee Defaults” window. To open the “Employee Defaults” window, select “Maintain| Default Information| Employees…” from the Menu Bar after finishing the “Payroll Setup Wizard” in Sage 50. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you work on specific jobs for customers and need to track amounts spent and earned by job, you may want to set your “Job Defaults.” To access the job defaults, select “Maintain| Default Information| Jobs…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You must backup your Sage 50 company data to prevent having to re-enter many hours of data in the event of data file loss or corruption of the company data file. Even minor events like a power outage can damage a company data file, so it is recommended that you back up your data frequently. Backing up your data creates a single file which includes all your company information and customized forms created at the time the backup is made. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you have a subscription to Office 365 Business Premium or higher, you can also create a backup that is saved to the cloud using Office 365. To enable Office 365 integration with your Sage 50c products, you must also be a global administrator of the Office 365 account. In addition to backing up your company file to the cloud, this feature also backs up archive copies of the company file to the cloud, too. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Restoring a company file replaces all information in a selected company file with information from a selected backup file. This is a critical feature you must learn to do in case of company data file corruption or loss. You can choose to restore the company data only, the customized forms only, the web transactions only, or all three things at once. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Restoring a company file replaces all information in a selected company file with information from a selected backup file. This is a critical feature you must learn to do in case of company data file corruption or loss. You can choose to restore the company data only, the customized forms only, the web transactions only, or all three things at once. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can create additional user accounts that can access your Sage 50 file. You can also restrict the areas to which they have access and the procedures these users can perform within the company file to secure the company file data. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can also configure automatic local backups for company files in Sage 50. Doing this creates regularly scheduled local backups of a company file using the Windows Task Scheduler, by default, although you can also use other task scheduling applications, if needed. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can also configure automatic cloud backups for company files in Sage 50c. Doing this creates regularly scheduled cloud backups of a company file to your linked Office 365 cloud service. Like the other Office 365 integrations, this requires you to have Office 365 Business Premium or higher. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The General Ledger records all financial information for your company. Every transaction that occurs is eventually posted to the set of accounts that make up the General Ledger. This set of accounts is called the Chart of Accounts. Here we will look at setting the defaults for the General Ledger. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you selected to create your chart of accounts using one of the business types listed in the “New Company Setup Wizard,” then you likely have a full chart of accounts which will give you all the accounts necessary to run a business. Learn this and more during this lecture.

As long as there are no transactions in an account and it is not set as a default account for any items, vendors or customers, you can delete it from the Chart of Accounts. Just select the account to delete and click the “Delete” button in the “Maintain Chart of Accounts” window. Then click “Yes” to confirm that you want to delete the selected account. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Sage 50 can record account beginning balances in any period for companies that have no posted transactions. After one or more transactions have been posted, Sage 50 instead records beginning balances as prior period adjustments. To enter beginning balances for accounts, click the “Account Beginning Balances” button. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You use lists in Sage 50 to view records entered into many of the “Maintain” and “Task” windows. The “Maintain” windows, which you can access from the “Maintain” command in the Menu Bar, are windows that let you add, edit and delete data records used by the program. The “Task” windows, which you can access from the “Tasks” command in the Menu Bar, let you perform the different tasks within Sage 50 and often use data entered into the “Maintain” windows. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can post transactions to the General Journal to record transactions that are not recorded by other journals. You can also use it to enter and edit account reconciliation adjustments. You enter both debits and credits in the “General Journal Entry” window to post a balanced transaction. You must perform “double-entry” and ensure that the credit and debit amounts are equal for the entire entry before you can post the transaction. Learn this and more during this lecture.

General Ledger Reports show the detail of transactions recorded by various journals by account number. To view the basic General Ledger reports, you select “Reports & Forms| General Ledger…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can create budgets for both of the two open fiscal years, and also for the two years immediately prior to and following the two open fiscal years. To create a budget in the “Maintain Budgets” window, select “Maintain| Budgets…” from the Menu Bar. Then enter a budget name and description into the “Budget Name” and “Description” fields. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In Sage 50 you have access to a cash account register that lets you enter transactions that affect cash accounts into a checkbook-like format, if you prefer. To view the cash account register, select “Tasks| Account Register…” from the Menu Bar. Then use the “Cash Account” drop-down to select which cash account to use. Then use the “Show transactions for” drop-down to select a date range for which to show transactions in the register. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Setting up sales tax is a two-part process. First, you have to set up the sales tax authorities you will use. Second, you must create the sales tax codes using the sales tax authorities. Sales Tax Authorities are the tax rates for individual governmental agencies. A sales tax code is a group of one or more sales tax authorities. When you create the invoices, the sales tax code is what is used to calculate the sales tax. You can see how much sales tax has been collected per authority in the “Taxable/Exempt Sales” report. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Sage 50 automatically collects sales tax for you within the “Sales/Invoicing” window, based on the information you enter. When you fill out an invoice for a customer, you simply need to record the tax code for that customer in the invoice. You also need to make sure you have marked all your taxable items as being taxable in the “Maintain Items” window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When it comes time to write the checks to the vendors for the sales taxes that you owe, you will need to find out how much you must pay to each one. You can do this by pulling up the “Taxable/Exempt Sales” report. You can access this report by selecting “Reports & Forms | Accounts Receivable…” from the Menu Bar. This will open the “Select a Report or Form” window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Your company’s “Accounts Receivable” account monitors the amounts of goods and services sold to customers. When a transaction is posted to Accounts Receivable, Sage 50 first updates the associated journal and then posts the amounts to the General Ledger. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The customer’s “Beginning Balances” are the invoices that were outstanding as of the start date for your company file. The total balance of the “Accounts Receivable” account in the General Ledger should equal the total amount of all customer beginning balances- as long as no other transactions have been made within the company file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you add new vendors, they will have their default information set to match the settings specified by your “Vendor Defaults.” You can change this information, if necessary. Then all you will have to enter is information that is unique to each vendor. You add new vendors through the “Maintain Vendors” window in Sage 50. You can access this window by selecting “Maintain| Vendors…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Beginning Balances” are the outstanding vendor bills as of the company file’s start date. The balance of the Accounts Payable account in the general ledger should equal the total amount of all vendor beginning balances, as long as no other transactions have been made. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Sage 50’s inventory features track the goods and services your company purchases and sells. As you make inventory-related transactions, Sage 50 posts the information to the General Ledger and adjusts the quantities and costs of the goods, accordingly. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you are ready to enter the beginning balances for your inventory items into Sage 50, open the “Maintain Inventory Items” window and click the “Beginning Balances” arrow on the “General” tab to open the “Inventory Beginning Balances” window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can modify the IDs assigned to records within the “Maintain” windows in Sage 50. To change a record’s ID, open the corresponding “Maintain” window for the selected record type. For example, open the “Maintain Chart of Accounts” window to change an account ID. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You should set the default settings for customer statements and invoices by choosing “Maintain| Default Information| Statement/Invoices…” from the Menu Bar to open the “Statement/Invoices Defaults” window. Here you can change these settings before sending customer invoices and statements. In this window, there are two tabs: “Statement Print Options” and “Dunning Messages.” Learn this and more during this lecture.

Quotes, sales orders, proposals, and the sales/invoicing form are all forms used in the process of billing customers and managing your accounts receivable. Each form has a unique purpose in the sales process. In this lesson, you will learn about the function of each form within the sales process. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To create a quote, select “Tasks| Quotes/Sales Orders/Proposals| Quotes…” from the Menu Bar to open up the “Quotes” window where you can create a quote to send to a customer that requests one. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After creating a quote, you can convert it into a sales order, proposal, or a sales invoice in the future if the customer accepts the quote. To do this, open the “Quotes” window by selecting “Tasks| Quotes/Sales Orders/Proposals| Quotes…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Sales Orders” window is used to enter amounts of goods or services that the customer agrees to buy, but which are not shipped and invoiced immediately. Remember, entering sales orders does not impact the amounts in the “accounts receivable” general ledger account. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Proposals” window lets you create a proposal of goods and/or services for a customer. If the customer accepts the proposal, you can mark the proposal as “Accepted,” so that the items can be transferred to invoices, as needed, by using the “Sales/Invoicing” window. Proposals also allow for progress, or partial, billing through multiple invoices in the “Sales/Invoicing” window. To open the “Proposals” window, select “Tasks| Quotes/Sales Orders/Proposals| Proposals…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Sales/Invoicing” window lets you create customer invoices for items shipped or services provided. Remember that invoices do impact the amount in “accounts receivable.” To open the “Sales/Invoicing” window, select “Tasks| Sales/Invoicing…” from the Menu Bar. To create a new invoice, click the “New” button in this window’s toolbar, if needed. Then select the customer for whom you are creating the invoice from the “Customer ID” drop-down. Learn this and more during this lecture.

There are a few ways to print invoices you have entered in the “Sales/Invoicing” window. If you do not intend to print invoices in Sage 50, but only enter them for accounting purposes, then type the actual invoice number assigned to the invoice into the “Invoice No.” field in the upper-right corner of the form and then save it. You can then receive payments against the invoice in the "Receive Money" window later. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can issue credit memos to customers for returned merchandise, discounts, and other types of credits. To issue a credit memo to a customer, open the “Credit Memos” window by selecting “Tasks| Credit Memos…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Receive Money” window, formerly called the “Receipts” window, is used to enter cash sales and deposits without invoices. It is also used to apply payments to customer invoices. When you select a “Customer ID” in the "Receive Money" window, all the customer’s unpaid invoices appear. You can enter payments for the entire amount due or partial payments. You can also apply credit memos and prepayments to invoices in this window, too. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You may want to assess finance charges on accounts with overdue balances. To apply finance charges, select “Tasks| Finance Charge…” from the Menu Bar to open the “Calculate Finance Charges” window. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

If you chose to use the “Select for Deposit” window to assign “Deposit Ticket ID” values, then you can combine the many customer receipt amounts into a single deposit amount with a single deposit ticket ID in the “Select for Deposit” screen. This can greatly reduce the stress of reconciling your bank statement with the multiple receipt amounts individually posted in Sage 50. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Purchase Orders” window is used to order inventory items from vendors. You can then receive the items as they are shipped in the “Purchases/Receive Inventory” window. Purchase orders can be edited by adding or removing line items and do not actually affect the amount in the “accounts payable” account until you receive the items ordered. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In a drop shipment, your vendor ships the items directly to your customer. You still “receive” the bill, but simply indicate that this is a drop shipment when you order the items. To create a drop shipment for a customer, first create and save an invoice for the customer and note the invoice number. Learn this and more during this lecture.

While the “Purchase Orders” task window is geared to creating vendor orders one at a time, the “Select for Purchase Orders” window lets you order inventory from multiple vendors at the same time. To open this screen, choose “Tasks| Select for Purchase Orders…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Purchases/Receive Inventory” window lets you enter purchases from vendors and also enter inventory received from purchase orders. Like the “Sales/Invoicing” screen, there are two tabs into which you can input information: the “Apply to Purchase Order No.” tab and the “Apply to Purchases” tab. To access the “Purchases/Receive Inventory” window, select “Tasks| Purchases/Receive Inventory…” from the Menu Bar. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Payments” window lets you select and pay individual vendors. To access the “Payments” window, select “Tasks| Payments…” from the Menu Bar. You use this window to enter purchases from vendors that do not have an associated bill or to make payments to vendor bills entered into the “Purchases/Receive Inventory” window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After entering purchases through the “Purchases/Receive Inventory” window, you can select “Tasks| Select for Payment…” from the Menu Bar to use the “Select for Payment” window to pay multiple vendor bills. When you select this option, the “Select for Payment - Filter Selection” window appears. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Vendor Credit Memo” window lets you enter credits from vendors for broken merchandise, vendor discounts, and other types of vendor credits. To enter a vendor credit, select “Tasks| Vendor Credit Memos…” from the Menu Bar to open the “Vendor Credit Memos” window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After creating inventory items of the “Assembly” or “Serialized Assembly” item classes and entering their bill of materials, you can then use the “Build/Unbuild Assemblies” window to build or unbuild the assembly items. When you build an assembly, the quantities of the component items are decreased and the quantity on hand of the assembly item is increased. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Sometimes, you have to make inventory adjustments so the amount shown in Sage 50 agrees with your physical count. To enter an inventory adjustment, select “Tasks| Inventory Adjustments…” from the Menu Bar. You can increase or decrease inventory using this same window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can re-calculate item prices for a range of selected items at once. To do this, select “Maintain| Item Prices…” from the Menu Bar to open the “Maintain Item Prices - Filter Selection” screen. Then set the desired filters to select the items or range of items for which you want to adjust the prices. After using the drop-downs to choose for which range of items to adjust the pricing, click “OK” to open the “Maintain Item Prices” window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Before you can issue a paycheck to an employee, you must have the employee entered into Sage 50. You looked at the process of setting up payroll and entering the employee defaults back in Section 2. Now you will learn how to create the individual employee records. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you enter your employees’ beginning balances as of the start date of your company file, you will ensure that your payroll reports and W-2s print with the correct figures. You can enter a beginning balance for each employee you had when you started entering information into Sage 50 and edit it at any time. These amounts don’t affect the General Ledger, but do affect the year-to-date totals for each payroll field. Therefore, you should enter the beginning balances before posting paychecks. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After creating an employee record, you can later return to the “Pay Info” tab in the “Maintain Employees & Sales Reps” window to enter information about job performance evaluations and raise history. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To pay a group of employees, select “Tasks| Select for Payroll Entry” from the Menu Bar to open the “Select Employees- Filter Selection” window, which lets you select the employees to pay. To select the pay period ending date for which to include all employee time tickets, select the date from the “Pay End Date” calendar drop-down in the “Include Time Tickets for” section. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To pay one employee at a time or to enter a handwritten payroll check, select “Tasks| Payroll Entry…” from the Menu Bar to open the “Payroll Entry” window. Then select the Employee ID of the employee for whom you are creating the paycheck from the “Employee ID” drop-down. Learn this and more during this lecture.