Accounting updates

You can now shave hours off your admin processes with the ability to import a file containing updated records. This eliminates the need to update existing records one by one and reduces the potential for errors. Choose to update or skip an existing record when importing to ensure your records are always on point.

• Make the Import to Update option visible to Customers - update stock price and quantities, contact settings, etc.
• Accountants and direct customers can access a new option to update data through a file import. During the import, we will ask whether you want to update or skip an existing record. If you choose to update, we will replace any data that is different such is prices on stock, quantities, contact settings etc.

Export Contact and Products in an importable format to streamline the time spent on changing your records. This enhancement, combined with the ability to update records with an import, will allow you to successfully export existing records of contacts and products, update them, and later re-import the file - eliminating the need to change these records one by one.

The benefits of this new feature include:

• Providing you with access to data in a machine-readable format, part of the GDPR regulations.
• Providing data in a Sage readable format that will make it easier if you need to restart your subscription when advised to do so by Sage. 
• Accountants will be able to make use of these exports if they need to move a client subscription. For example, if the accounts are mixed up or they have been provisioned on the wrong tier and billing.

You can now re-order and move lines during invoice creation as well as after an invoice has been created. When creating, editing, or viewing an invoice, you simply need to click ‘re-order invoice item’ to be directed to a page that will allow the re-ordering of lines. You then return to the create/edit invoice page once completed. Just choose to save your invoice as a draft first to re-order.

When customers create an invoice, we save their invoice to a draft so that there are no changes to the ledger accounts (such as trade debtors, sales, and VAT on sales), customer activity, or balance.

This update will help minimise frustration with manual mistakes, let you spend more time on process efficiency, and provide the flexibility to add information and work separately on a document format.

SBCA customers can create refunds against an unallocated bank feed item directly on bank feeds. This update tackled the challenges that customers previously had with being unable to allocate refunds by a creditor (supplier) or record partial customer refunds. Previously, you would have to delete transactions and re-do them, but this has now been resolved to take the extra effort out of managing refunds.

With the new update, you will be shown the option within the bank feed transaction card to 'refund'. This will change the contact list to either customer or supplier (based on the transaction being money-in or money-out). The refund can then be processed as the correct transaction type.

Batch manage your recurring invoices. Activate, deactivate, or cancel in just a few clicks.

Customers now can activate, deactivate, and cancel recurring invoices in batches, such as using the sales invoicing list view. This makes your admin simpler and more straightforward.

Within the Sage Accounting mobile app, customers can now capture data with time-saving automation. You can:

• Take a picture of a receipt or purchase invoice.
• Upload a picture that is in your camera roll.
• Upload a file directly into the SBCA app.

NOTE: Purchase Automation must already be enabled via the Desktop app to be used on mobile.

Purchase expense will later appear within mobile after being reviewed and approved in the desktop app. This helps customers capture purchases and expenses on-the-go, with the ability to automatically upload it right away into SBCA.

A new File Import type is now available.

You can adjust incoming and outgoing transactions, including cost price updates where needed. Users must enter the item code, the adjustment in /out, adjustment quantity, cost price, date, and the reason for the adjustment.

Customers will be able to make both adjustment-in and adjustment-out transactions, including cost price updates if desired. Users must indicate the item code, the adjustment in / out, adjustment quantity, cost price, date, and the reason for the adjustment.

Customers can make multiple adjustments as desired, to both stock in and out, including price, using one bulk import.

This is separate to Import Items and will only apply to stock items.

You can now filter invoices by status and search by contact, reference, or amount. This allows you to sort and configure columns to help you find the information you need much quicker and easier.

• Filter by status. For example: Finished or Paused.
• Search by contact, reference, or amount.
• Sort the recurring invoice list by contact, reference, last or next invoice date, end date, frequency, or amount.
• Sort in ascending or descending order by clicking the column headings.
• Show or hide columns with ease using Configure Columns.
• Use to action toolbar at the top of the list to pause and resume, delete, or copy recurring invoices.
• Use check boxes to select required invoices in bulk.

Get better visibility and access the level of detail you need by personalising your financial reports to suit the demands of your business. 

Sage Accounting Standard and Plus:

• Break down information and access more in-depth detail by project, department, or cost centre across four key financial reports: Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, and Nominal Activity Summary. Identify opportunities and issues for better day-to-day management and future planning.

 

All Sage Accounting products:

• Access three new pre-configured views per report, across four essential financial reports: Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, and Nominal Activity Summary. The pre-configured comparison and period views make it easier for you to keep up with the performance of your business. 
• Add comparison columns by previous period or year on year view. Add variance columns by percentage and/or amount.
• Export reports to Excel and keep the same table layout for easier visualisation and data manipulation.
• Save customised report views for easier frequent access. 
• All reports are now fully accessible and responsive.

Find out more about smarter reporting.

We’ve made it easier for you to know which sales and purchase transactions have attachments. The new Attachments column shows the number of attachments per transaction. This saves you time, as you no longer need to open a transaction to see if it has attachments.

You can find the new column on the Sales Invoices, Sales Credit Notes, Purchase Invoices, and Purchase Credit Note pages. Select the header to sort the column by number of attachments, which helps you to find transactions.

 

By default, the Attachments column is last, but you can use Configure Columns (located to the left of the header row) to change the order. If you don't want to see it, you can also remove the column from the view.

Showing or hiding the column also effects your exported CSV files. If the column shows and you export to a CSV file, it will include the number of attachments per transaction. If you don't want this, remove the column from the view before exporting.

 

We've made it easier for you to add journals to Accounting with the new journal entries import feature. This saves you the hassle of manually creating journals. For example, you can import ledger adjustments you've got in a spreadsheet as journals. You may also need to regularly import totals from another system (such as point of sale or payroll) as journals.

When preparing your file, you decide how journals are created for your business. Create individual journals per entry or one journal for several entries, all in the same file.

Find out more about importing journal entries.

If your bank statement fails to import, Accounting will now open an error list page. The list includes the transaction number, column, data, and reason for each error. Use this information to go right to an issue, fix it, and get your transactions imported.

Find out more about importing a bank statement.

With the AutoEntry integration, Accounting automatically creates transactions from scans or images. Details from your documents map to like transaction details in AutoEntry.

By default, the Invoice # field in maps to the Reference field on purchase invoices. This means that your invoice numbers from Accounting show in the Reference field when purchase invoices are created.

You've told us that this is often unideal, so you can now change this mapping. Instead, map the Invoice # field to the Supplier Reference field on purchase invoices.

Find out more about Changing the invoice number mapping in AutoEntry.

We’ve added to multi-currency banking to make it easier for you to do business in other countries. You can now:

• Add bank accounts in currencies other than your base currency
• Select bank accounts in other currencies when creating transactions
• Toggle between currencies when reviewing bank account activity
• Revaluate bank accounts, showing gains and losses
• Transfer funds between bank accounts with different currencies
• Create journal entries for bank accounts in different currencies
  
  

Multi-currency banking is available only to Sage Accounting Plus subscribers.

We’ve made it easier for you to import bank transactions in a way that suits your business. Plus, save time by applying bank rules to automatically create transactions.

More flexibility importing transactions

Once your statement has been uploaded you can also:

• Apply bank rules to transactions to automate the process, saving you time 
• Bulk delete any duplicate transactions before importing them

Automate bank rules

Bank rules will automatically categorise and set details on incoming bank transactions with the conditions you choose. You can now:

• Apply bank rules to bank feeds and imported transactions 
• Copy and import rules between accounts - no need to recreate them manually

• The detailed CSV report now correctly shows the Standard VAT rate values on payments for quick entries, unallocated payments on account and reversed payments on account when the transactions span the Standard VAT rate change.
• You can now refund VAT reconciled customer receipts.

• Emailed and printed invoices using a new VAT rate no longer display the Standard VAT rate.
• The Learn More link on the Summary tab now directs to a help article.
• Copied recurring invoices that use new VAT rates now display the correct VAT percentages.
• Reverse charge transactions now display the correct VAT percentages.
• The VAT Detailed report now separates Standard Rate periods from periods where the VAT percentage was mixed.

• You can now do a bank transfer between two cash accounts.
• We’ve improved the trial balance report to show headers on each new page of the report.

No business likes to chase its customers, or to have awkward conversations that they feel risks their relationship. To help avoid these awkward conversations we’re improving our emailed invoicing to minimise confusion and avoid uncomfortable questions. 
 
We’re pleased to announce Accounting will give you visibility of your sales invoices, sales credit notes, estimates and quotes. Created, sent, viewed or paid – you’ll know where it’s up to and helping you to get paid. 

• Fixed: Re-calculation of MTD draft return did not bring in new transactions within the period.
• Fixed: Sometimes unable to unallocate a bank reconciled invoice.
• Fixed: We now validate the maximum length of the reference and description on Bank Transfers.
• Fixed: Sometimes the customer receipt contact did not match the sales invoice contact.
• Fixed: Prevent VAT scheme change when you have unreconciled transactions.
• Fixed: Improve validation error messages on CSV imports.

When using Bank Rules to match you bank transactions, you can now create all the matched transactions in one click, instead of clicking each item individually. We hope this saves you some time!

Working with journals is now easier than ever. Our latest update completes a series of improvements, adding and improving journal functionality.

Viewing journals brings the ability to print and save a PDF file, plus ability to delete a journal.

When creating journals you can copy, delete and insert entries, plus drag & drop to reorder entries and also add attachments. Editing journals also gives you copy, delete, insert and reorder entries plus attachment functionality.

It all adds up to a better experience as we continue to improve Sage Business Cloud Accounting & Start.

• Improved: We now warn you when deleting customers if they have pending quotes.
• Improved: We have made it easier now to respond to subject access requests (SAR) for GDPR purposes. You can request a report of all data we hold for that contact.
• Improved: We have improved the GDPR options in Financial Settings. You will now be able to set your retention period with a period up to 99 years.
• Improved: Bank Rules - We now warn you for more cases when we cannot fully apply a bank rule.
• Fixed: We have removed VAT rates from an invoice VAT analysis that were showing in error.
• Fixed: We've improved the validation when uploading invoice company and association logos.

• Improved: In Journals grid column headers and the PDF report have been arranged in a consistent way.
• Fixed: VAT return stuck with status "HMRC Processing VAT Return - please check back later.".
• Fixed: Sales revenue report stuck loading when filtering by category.
• Fixed: Nominal activity report continuously spinning but never generated in some circumstances.
• Fixed: When changing from Standard VAT to Not Registered, historical invoices no longer showed VAT information.
• Fixed: Sometimes when printing your VAT summary you received an error.
• Fixed: Updated prices for Services are not being pulled through when an Invoice is created.
• Fixed: Quote and Estimates PDFs incorrectly showed a Pay Now button.
• Fixed: Delivery notes had an incorrect layout when using the Graphite Service template.
• Fixed: When changing from Standard VAT to Not Registered, historical invoices no longer showed VAT.
• Fixed: Deleting a Stock Category was causing a issue with the Stock Movement Report filter.

New reports have been created for GDPR reporting. Get a list of contacts that meet all requirements of data retention, show all contacts that have been already removed, plus ability to bulk operate over pending contacts. You can also see a history of events for contacts and settings.

Improvements

• Improved: In Journals grid column headers and the PDF report have been arranged in a consistent way.
• Fixed: VAT return stuck with status "HMRC Processing VAT Return - please check back later.".
• Fixed: Sales revenue report stuck loading when filtering by category.
• Fixed: Nominal activity report continuously spinning but never generated in some circumstances.
• Fixed: When changing from Standard VAT to Not Registered, historical invoices no longer showed VAT information.
• Fixed: Sometimes when printing your VAT summary you received an error.
• Fixed: Updated prices for Services are not being pulled through when an Invoice is created.
• Fixed: Quote and Estimates PDFs incorrectly showed a Pay Now button.
• Fixed: Delivery notes had an incorrect layout when using the Graphite Service template.
• Fixed: When changing from Standard VAT to Not Registered, historical invoices no longer showed VAT.
• Fixed: Deleting a Stock Category was causing a issue with the Stock Movement Report filter.

• Fixed: Reports: The Detailed Nominal Activity report was showing deleted entries - seeing deleted things once you’ve deleted them was more than a little confusing so now deleted things, stay that way.
• Fixed: When saving an invoice using Save & Print it wasn’t marked as Issued - now it will be.

We’ve extended the Attachments capability that we have in Purchase Invoices and Credit Notes so that you can now attach documents and images to all Bank Receipts, Payments and Refund transactions.

Quotes and Invoices are now sent in the same way as the Sage Accounting web application, so no matter where you send Invoices from - in your office, or on the go - your customers will receive the same experience. This enhancement also means that users who have integrated with Stripe will be able to get paid more easily, as emails will now include the View Invoice link.

We now support HMRCs Making Tax Digital (MTD)for VAT Beta programme. The MTD service delivers a fully digital on-boarding and VAT Return submission service for Customers and Agents, creating a much better experience for Tax Payers and Accountants. HMRC and Sage will be working with customers who’ve been selected as eligible to join the Beta programme.

Refunds: Other Payments & Receipts

It’s now possible to create refunds for Other Receipt & Payment transactions. Previously it was necessary to create a Dummy Credit Note and Refund in order to keep your accounts in order - now it’s just a case of raising the refund - simples!

Sometimes Stripe Payouts contained details of payments and refunds that were not created by Sage Accounting. This caused some mild confusion for our Payments logic - we’ve now worked out how to deal with this, so those payouts can be processed automatically.

Improvements

• Fixed: When Saving & Printing or viewing a PDF the Invoice wasn’t being marked as issued - now it is.
• Fixed: We noticed that sometimes telephone and mobile numbers changes were not updated when saved.
• Fixed: Broken GDPR "Help me choose" links on some countries and locales.

We've improved the Journal View to bring it in-line with the changes we shipped earlier this year around Quotes, Estimates and Invoices. The addition of the Action Panel makes it easier to manage your journals, by providing instant access to key tasks such as Reverse and Copy. We've also added the ability to Print a Journal.

• Improved: GDPR You can now view Quick Entries that have been anonymised as part of GDPR.
• Fixed: It shouldn’t be possible to create “Other Payment/Other Receipt” transactions for Overseas contacts via Bank Feeds - now you can’t.
• Fixed: If you raise a purchase invoice to an overhead code and save the invoice you receive an error 'Line items is purchase for resale invalid for this ledger account’.
• Fixed: In some rare cases, transactions were missing from Tax Returns - now we’ve scooped them all up.
• Fixed: Certain countries are not available for selection when creating a customer or supplier address, now they are - so if you trade with customers or suppliers in Vanuatu, French Polynesia or Curaçao then Sage Accounting is now ready for you.
• Fixed: If you tried to change the customer on an unpaid Sales Invoice, then you got an error - now you don’t.
• Fixed: Sometimes the "Money Out" tab in banking wasn’t accessible, we had a word and now it promises to be available whenever you need it.
• Fixed: The buttons didn’t look very good on smaller screens, now they’re fine and dandy whatever size screen you have.

• Improved: We used to let you connect a Stripe account to two businesses at the same time, perhaps not surprisingly this caused problems. 
• Improved: We've improved the performance of Data Imports.
• Fixed: Exporting the Detailed Nominal Activity report was showing deleted transactions.
• Fixed: In some circumstances the Nominal Activity Report didn't always show running totals correctly.
• Fixed: Some times the Invoice Address didn't show properly on Invoices.

• Fixed: If you tried to edit the main address, after deleting a contact you used to get an error.
• Fixed: When converting a quote to an invoice, sometimes the discount percentage was set to zero incorrectly - now it's correct.
• Fixed: Some users couldn't access Record & Transaction settings, this seems unfair, so now everyone can.
• Fixed: Adding a contact and delivery address to an existing contact used to cause an error.
• Fixed: Duplicate line items with same details were not showing on RTD report (Ireland Only)

Sage Business Cloud Accounting & Accounting Start now supports the GDPR right to be forgotten for all the contacts that our users have in the system. This functionality allows our customers to obfuscate all the contacts' personal data they have in the system and ensure that they can no longer be identified.

We’ve partnered with Stripe to enable you to take credit and debit cards from within Sage Accounting, or allow users to make payments themselves through the Online Invoices feature we released last week. Simply sign-up for Stripe (or connect your existing account), and start taking card payments in minutes. Payments are automatically processed by Sage Accounting, updating the Invoice status, allocating the payment, dealing with fees.

We’ve redesigned the way in which Invoices, Quotes & Estimates are displayed, making it easier to perform key actions.

When emailing invoices, quotes and estimates, your email now contains a link to the document stored in the Sage Business Cloud. This means customers can view their document on any device, with any screen size, and can easily print or download it, as well as see the latest status of the Invoice.

• Fixed: Changing the Nominal Code for a Bank Account used to result in a new account being created, now the Account is renumbered.

• Improved: We've added a county drop-down menu to address fields to help you quickly enter addresses accurately.
• Fixed: Sometimes you got an error when editing a purchase invoice after changing vat schemes.
• Fixed: Sometimes you got an error when saving a sales invoice with a date prior to the lock down date.
• Fixed: You couldn't save a contact for Belgium if you entered a tax number, even though the tax number was valid.
• Fixed: Profit and Loss and Trial Balance reports had problems running for the period 'Last Financial Year' if your year end date was set to a leap year e.g. 29/02/17.
• Fixed: The confirmation tick was a bit too big when creating new products and services.
• Fixed: The Statement Settings screen wasn't always remembering your choices.
• Fixed: If you try to post an other receipt or other payment to an invalid nominal code, clicking ok to the error message wasn't clearing the invalid code.
• Fixed: The product or service cost price wasn't picked up in the profit analysis report for invoices created on the mobile app.
• Fixed: A small number of customers couldn't view more than one page of the nominal activity report when it ran to multiple pages.
• Fixed: A small number of customers were getting duplicated transactions on the nominal activity report.
• Fixed: Sometimes when running a nominal activity report for a custom date range and drilling down into a nominal code, the custom date range is lost.

When matching bank feed transactions, you can now split an incoming transaction into multiple parts. You can also create new transactions there and then without leaving the page. We hope this makes matching your bank feeds quicker and easier!

• Fixed: Sometimes you got an error when trying to print a remittance for a supplier payment cheque.
• Fixed: The Sales Revenue report had some misaligned controls in Internet Explorer 11.
• Fixed: Some customers were unable to access the Bank Reconciliation screen.
• Fixed: Sometimes refunding a payment via the Sales Invoice screen caused an error.
• Fixed: The Aged Report was not picking up some allocation amounts for specific customers.
• Fixed: Sometimes the Aged Report was not picking up reversed transactions correctly.
• Fixed: If you upgraded from Cashbook or Accounts, the default price was not being populated on your invoices.

The global navigation bar has been updated to a new clean layout. You will still find all the links you had before in the new dropdown menus.

 

The new Sales Revenue Detailed report shows the individual sales transactions for your Products and Services and includes the quantities sold, sales revenue, cost and profit for each sale. The report can be exported for either one or all of your items to either PDF or CSV.

You can now specify all your search criteria before pressing 'Enter' or clicking the new 'Search' button to start your search. This saves time when setting multiple search criteria. When the search is complete you can change your search criteria and search again.