Sage 50 v29.2 Update – New Release Highlights (2024)

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Introduction

We’re back with another lot of updates for your Sage 50 Accounts system! If you missed our previous blog, I went through some of the latest features and highlights that came from the v29 update. You can read more about the last update, here.

Fast forward a few months, and there’s now another update for Sage 50! So, in this blog, I’ll be taking you through all the newest features and improvements. Let’s jump right in.

Feature Updates

Bank Feeds UI Enhancements

The Bank Feeds process in Sage 50 has been given a complete makeover for the 29.2 release.

Bank Feeds Ledger

Bank Feeds will now appear as a task on the left-hand side of the screen within the navigation panel. It will open a new ledger dedicated to the process of managing the connection to bank accounts.

New Onboarding Experience

It’s now easier than ever to get started with bank feeds, as the process of connecting to an online bank has been updated. Simply search for your bank or click on the pre-loaded banks such as HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, and so on.

Once onboarded, the Bank Feeds process is split up into three distinct tabs. These tabs will allow a user to follow the logical path from downloading their feed, to confirming the transactions and proceeding to the reconciliation screen.

Auto-matched Transactions

Within the Auto-matched tab, bank transactions will automatically be scanned to look for transactions on the audit trail that are a likely match. This will be presented as a bank tile with a connector line to a Sage tile. Users will then be able to confirm or unmatch the transactions as appropriate.

To be matched Tab

This tab allows users to manually match transactions in Sage 50 Accounts to those that have been downloaded from the bank. You can do these two different ways:

• Drag select: Simply drag and drop the bank tile onto the Sage tile, or vice versa. The connection between the two tiles will be shown and when the values match, the tiles will be automatically moved to the confirmed tab.
• Click Select: Click on the bank and Sage tiles. Once the Selected difference shows 0.00, click Match selection to then move the tiles to the confirmed tab.

Please note that within the ‘To be matched’ tab, it’s possible to match the following combinations of transactions:

• One bank transaction to one Sage transaction
• Many bank transactions to one Sage transaction
• One bank transaction to many Sage transactions
• Many bank transactions to many Sage transactions (click select only)

It’s also possible to create a new Sage transaction if it hasn’t already been posted.

Confirmed Tab

Within the confirmed tab, this is where you will find all the transactions that have been matched in the previous tabs. Several tasks can be performed here:

• Create rule: A bank feeds rule can be created, which will automatically post transactions that meet the specified criteria on any future downloads from the bank. This in turn will save time on processing these transactions manually.
• Unmatch selection: If a mistake has been made, the transactions can be moved back into the To be matched tab.

Once you’re happy with the transactions that have been confirmed, users can either Save and close or Save and continue to reconcile – this will automatically open the bank reconciliation screen so you can finish off the process.

Create a Purchase Order from a Sale Order (PRO ONLY)

A brand-new button has been added to the Sales Order Ledger and the Sales Order, which has been called ‘Generate PO’.

This button will allow users to quickly create Purchase Orders from either a single Sales Order or from a selection.

When in the Create purchase orders from sales orders screen, the products from the sales orders are shown, and the Create purchase order(s) button can be used to create a purchase order on a per-supplier record basis to fulfill the sales orders.

There are several other features of note within this screen:

• The information panel will show the number of products that are selected and the number of unique purchase orders that will be created.
• Products can be deselected if there is no need to purchase additional stock.
• From the product record, the relevant information is displayed regarding the Quantity In stock, Free stock, Re-order level, and Re-order quantity.
• The quantity from the Sales Order is given as the default, but this can be amended as required.
• The supplier from the product record is given as the default, but this can be amended as required.
• The delivery address for the Purchase Order can be chosen from the delivery address on the Sales Order, the Supplier, or the Company delivery address.
• The due date from the Sales Order is given as the default, but this can be amended as required.
• Information is provided to alert the user’s attention to factors that may require consideration, for example, if there’s already sufficient stock, the product includes a bill of materials, or if the credit limit for the supplier record has been exceeded.

Once the purchase order(s) have been generated, if required they can be viewed, and any additional changes made to them.

Invoice Finance (UK Only)

For the v29 release, Sage partnered with Satago to offer an embedded Single Invoice Finance Solution. This allows companies (that qualify) to sign up within Sage 50 Accounts, and invoices raised within Sage can then be used to gain instant access to funds.

Now, for the v29.2 release, this feature has been improved to allow the transactions related to invoice funding to be posted automatically back into Sage 50 Accounts. This will hopefully help to save the time taken to post these transactions manually.

Invoice Finance has been further improved to support Full Invoice Finance. This means that where eligible, invoices are funded automatically, as opposed to Single Invoice Finance, where funding is requested on demand for individual invoices.

Again, not everybody will get this update as it has only been offered to those within the UK, but those who qualify can sign up within Sage 50cloud Accounts. For more information on Satago’s Full Invoice Finance, please visit this page here.

Credit Control and Risk Insights (Finance package only)

Only those with the Sage 50 Finance Package can access the following features:

• Credit Control: Automate invoice payment reminders to get paid faster, resulting in fewer debtor days, and in turn better cash flow for your business.
• Risk insights: Provides you with all of the information you need to make the right decisions. These can include your customers’ credit score, risk band, and suggested credit limit.

Help Portal Enhancements

A new Help Portal was introduced in v29, and this allows users to interact with Sage 50 Accounts whilst reading help content.

In v29.2, users who have completed a web chat within the help portal are now able to download the transcript from the chat, which is great if you ever need to look back on a question you asked to view the answer.

Those who engage in an active web chat are also prevented from selecting the Open in browser button, which means no more losing your active chat! Whereas previously, it meant you lost your chat progress, so this is a big feature we’re impressed with!

Installation Streamlining and Help

The overall process of installing Sage 50 Accounts has been improved further by combining information from multiple screens, guiding users on the recommended action to take, and allowing them to install the software with a single click.

A banner has also been added to all the installation screens, which allows users to self-serve solutions to issues that may have been encountered during installation.

Removed 50cloud and 50c References

Last but certainly not least, Sage has now removed all references to 50cloud and 50c, and the software should simply referred to as Sage 50 Accounts.

Conclusion

If you would like to learn more about any of these new updates, you can read more in the release notes which you can find here.

Alternatively, we have some of the best Sage 50 experts, so if you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us! You can email us at info@itassolutions.co.uk, or alternatively, you can give us a call on 01824 780000. We offer Sage 50 support, consultancy, and training options, just get in touch to learn more!

Again, if you’d like to learn more about the previous v29 update features and enhancements, you can read more in our previous blog, here.