New Sage Business Cloud updates now live 

Like you, more and more businesses are realising the benefits of switching to cloud-based solutions for accounting and payroll.

This means we get to learn about what parts of our software you couldn’t live without and what new capabilities top your wish list.

Driven by your feedback, we continually evolve our products to better suit the way you run your business. We also make them more robust, secure, and easy to use.

Over the past few months, we’ve worked on some new capabilities and experience improvements that all Sage Business Cloud customers now have access to.

In this article, we run through what these are for Sage Business Cloud Accounting and Sage Business Cloud Payroll.

We cover:

• Helping you tackle uncertainty
• Sage Business Cloud Accounting updates
• Sage Business Cloud Payroll updates
• Go beyond great software and become a Sage member

Helping you tackle uncertainty

Tackling financial uncertainty is a challenge most businesses face and something they want their accounting and payroll solutions to support and mitigate against.

No matter how the economy performs, resilience and growth are still priorities, and you need business solutions that help you achieve both.

This was the main driver behind the updates and enhancements we’ve made over the past few months.

Combining your feedback with the latest advancements in technology, Sage Business Cloud now gives you more visibility of your finances.

It’s easier to track every euro, which means you can make more confident decisions and continue driving your business forward.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting updates

1. Purchase automation

To help you digitalise and automate low-value high-impact tasks, Sage Business Cloud Accounting now includes purchase automation.

This automatically pulls data from your purchase invoices and receipt images and creates digital records of them. This helps you track expenses and gives you a true view of cash flow.

Check out this article to learn more.

2. Performance and security improvements

The overall experience of using Sage Business Cloud Accounting is only possible because of performance and security improvements.

This includes making the core Sage Business Cloud Accounting platform more robust and scalable in key areas.

This gives you an improved experience when using the software, strengthens the areas you use the most, and removes the potential for future minor incidents.

You can now also use Multi Factor Authentication, which brings an extra level of security to your account.

This adds a step to the login experience by sending an SMS to your mobile device, meaning you can be confident your data is still secure if your password is compromised.

3. Feature and experience enhancements

The following capabilities and product experiences make Sage Business Cloud Accounting even more powerful and easy to use:

Net from gross calculation

When you enter transactions with a known gross value, the net value will now be automatically calculated. So, you won’t need to manually calculate or manipulate any values yourself.

To learn more, check the net from gross help article.

Recurring invoices

Recurring invoices is a much-loved feature that massively reduces data entry. Now you can sort, search, and filter a list of recurring invoices.

This allows you to quickly manage recurring invoices and save time going through tabs and lists manually.

Error and corrections

Now you can make changes and corrections to “cleared” and “reconciled” transactions. This gives you the flexibility to get your numbers right without having to do complex workarounds.

The banking corrections help section covers this in more detail.

Inactive contacts

As one of the most requested features, you can now choose which customer accounts are inactive, and they’ll no longer show up in drop downs or the banking area.

This gives you a much clearer view of your accounts, saves you time on admin tasks, and reduces mistakes such as assigning invoices to the wrong customer or purchases to the wrong supplier.

Find out more about it in the inactive contacts help section.

Banking improvements

General improvements now make bank feeds perform better, faster, and with more stability.  

We’re also providing more critical support for any errors or bugs you experience.

Sage Business Cloud Payroll updates

1. Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) processing

With the introduction of Statutory Sick Pay in Ireland (effective 1 Jan 2023), there’s now functionality that enables Irish customers to easily process these payments.

Learn more about this in our Statutory Sick Pay article.

2. Bulk payslip messages

You can now edit payslip messages for multiple employees at the same time. This makes it easy to manage messages that apply to lots of people.

For more information, see the payslip messages article.

3. Delete employee records

If there are employees you’ve not processed in a pay run, you can now delete their records, making information around your payroll tidier and more accurate.

Find out more in the create and edit employee records article.

4. Add employee finish dates as a bulk action

When an employee leaves your company, you can now record their finish date. It’s also easy to do this for multiple employees, so you can keep your information accurate and up to date.

Get some tips on this in our dealing with leavers article.

5. Holiday pay

You can now add a holiday payment for both hourly and salaried employees when you process a pay run, giving everyone more visibility of their earnings.

Learn more about this in our holiday pay article.

6. Minimum wage check

The automatic minimum wage check helps you ensure you’re meeting the legal requirement for all employees. You can also view the minimum wage bands and rates for employees using a new report.

Get more details on this in our minimum wage check article. 

7. Payroll year end

Dealing with payroll year end? New updates allow you to complete year-end processing, process pay, and make submissions for the new tax year.

8. Customer feedback improvements

There are many more improvements based directly on your feedback (a few too many to list).

Go beyond great software and become a Sage member

Don’t forget that, as a Sage customer, you get more than just great software. 

You’re a member of the Sage community and can tap into exclusive benefits.

These include award-winning support, talks and articles from the world’s leading experts, and community forums where you can connect with other businesses like yours.

Between March 2022 and January 2023, we also increased the Sage Business Cloud customer support team by 36%, meaning we can better manage your waiting times on chat and phone should you need us.

This is all included—no matter what product or subscription you have. 

So, if you haven’t already, explore all the perks of being a Sage member.