Sage 50 Accounting Software Serial Number
Lillia Iniguez
I'm trying to sign up for Sage university and it's asking for my account number. Where do I find this? I believe I'm using the accountant version of sage online accounting, I can't tell for sure. This just all seems way more complicated than it needs to be. I'm legit trying to see if Sage is a program I can use. I'm tired of Quickbooks. Please can someone guide me to the best place to begin to learn how to use this program?
Hi I'm just starting to enter bills for things I've paid for. 1) when it asks me for the account number, how do I know what to choose? 2) in the list of accounts I see Visa payable but no Mastercard Payable, so I went to add that and it is asking me for the an account number, but I have no idea what to number it as.
On a different note was I wrong in thinking I could use Sage 50 by myself (not an accountant or bookkeeper) or is it really meant to be used by people with some sort of accounting training? I find it very frustrating for a just a simple high school graduate like my self!
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Hope this helps!
Erzsi
Not wrong to think that! Many, if not most, small businesses make use of a professional accountant or a trained bookkeeper to set up their business and accounting systems and help them with filing tax returns.
When you're starting out, there is a lot of setup to do, and it can be time consuming. Once you have the credit card set up, for instance, you probably won't have to do it again unless / until you change accounts.
Hello, we upgraded to Sage 50 and I'm not 100% familiar with everything it can do. The item numbers weren't set up in the old version but I want to do it in the new one. I'm not sure how to proceed (inventory of service) as we are an injection moulding company which means that we buy material to produce items for clients but rarely have inventory for sales but we do for raw material.
In my case, should I create inventory numbers for sales items? If so, what COGS and Variance account should I use as I have no clue (maybe our material account number for the COGS)? If I have to choose Service instead for the item number, what expense account number should I choose?
1) As you said it's a good idea to have part numbers and that is my main goal for clients and suppliers. it will save me time retyping everything and at the same time avoid risk of errors in the description. Can you explain a little more about the COGS account? What is it really used for and I'm not sure if I should create one or use an account that already exists.
2) I would like to keep inventory of the suppliers' material if possible. At the end of the month we do a manual inventory count and I have to enter the numbers in an Excel sheet. I believe that I could enter those month end inventory count numbers in Sage 50 instead to adjust my inventory. Right?
The COGS account is an expense account specifically for inventory purchases. It can be one account or many. You should have a matching revenue account for each COGS account (this is very important). My business sells printing machines, consumables, and printing services so I have 3 major COGS and revenue accounts because the profit margins for each are different.
1) Selling Price - If a customer comes to me with a project, I find out how much it will cost me (in material only) and divide that by 40% to get my selling price (of course there are always other factors to consider, like competitor pricing, but this provides a starting point).
Same thing with Operating Expenses. Keep an eye on the numbers. If my Operating Expenses are typically 30% of sales then I use the previous month's sales to determine my budget for this month. Higher expenses might mean cash flow problems. Keep the operating expense accounts separate from COGS expense accounts and group them how you want (depending on what info you want to know).
Great idea for the part numbers. Record the inventory received from vendors throughout the month, count inventory at the end of the month, and record the adjustments in Sage. This can be done by issuing an invoice to your own company, enter each inventory item to be adjusted, the selling price will be $0, and when you post the invoice Sage will adjust the inventory and post the COGS amount to whatever GL account you linked the item to in the inventory file. You can also do an inventory adjustment but I like doing an invoice so I have a record of the adjustments.
The Variance account is used for handling 'Negative Inventory'. I would suggest that you shut off the ability of the accounting system to allow negative inventory right away, before you do anything else. (under Setup Settings Inventory Options, in Single User Mode)
This account is for posting of variations in the purchase price of replenishment inventory when the inventory quantity was negative before the inventory was replenished, and is only needed if you want to keep track of those dollar amounts separately.
On first look, you might think that the 'variance' account is designed to record manufacturing cost variances on bill-of-materials or Item Assembly transactions, which would be really handy, but it doesn't, and therefore it really isn't.
Sage 50's Bill-Of-Materials is fairly capable of doing the basic recording of a simple manufacture of a batch of finished product. It's possible to set up item you sell, with a bill-of-materials in the item's Bill-Of-Materials tab such as:
Using a Purchase invoice to yourself also works, except it's a little more difficult to set up (you return all the raw materials, and 'buy' the finished goods, from yourself, and you can have multiple expense accounts and service items on it). Your inventory reports will show every transaction as a purchase, so it's hard to get good reports to help with purchasing
I understand the principle but I wonder how to apply it to our kind of business. You see, we buy raw plastic material (beads) that we mix with coloring beads. We then poor that mix in the molding machine which melts the plastic mix and injects it in the mold to produce a final product as per the client's order. Once the order is completed, we bill the clients and ship the goods (no goods inventory just material)
Lets say I create a part number for some Petrothene. I should link it to Asset, Revenue, COGS and Variance. When I click on each it gives me accounts choices. So, as per the choices offered, my logic tells me to put the following:
Variance : I checked and the "Allow Inventory levels to go below 0" is unchecked which is what Randy suggested and I will leave as is. The variance would be practical if I would keep inventory of selling goods and I end up getting an order and there is nothing left in stock. Right?
**For the Revenue account, I guess I would need to ask my boss where the goods produced with a particular material is sold (Quebec clients, U.S. or Other) but if we sell products made with that same material to more than one place for example QC and US, then I'm screwed, No?
But what about the selling unit? Products are sold by pieces or sets? Should I uncheck "Same as stocking unit" and put "pieces" instead? If so, I would have to figure out what is the "Relationship" per "kilo" (10 pieces, 100 pieces, etc.). Right? This seems complicated.
Then the "Pricing" screen. There is Regular, Preferred and Web price. The adjacent column says price per selling unit... If it is a product item # it's fine but if it is material, how can I put a price per selling unit because that part produced can be a different price depending on the size of the order and depending what part is produced?!
Last question: How would I create my item numbers for selling products for which I don't have inventory but would allow me to save time and avoid errors when retyping the information all the time? Should I check "Inventory" or "Services"?
If you can easily and quickly and accurately check your inventory manually, and / or you don't keep significant amounts past period ends, and you don't need (or don't want) to keep a eye on the amounts of materials used day-to-day, then you don't need to use the inventory system at all.
If you don't want to keep track of the quantity of materials in relation to the quantities produced and sold, then you can just set up your purchased, and sold items as 'Service Items'. Sage 50 doesn't as obviously support using the Inventory & Services module for the tracking purchases and sales of 'non-inventory' items as does QuickBooks, but you can get the same effect by setting up any items that you are likely buy or sell more than once, as a 'Service' item.
I would advise making your buy, stock, and sell quantities the same because it's simpler. Don't use those automatic calculations unless you are certain that it makes sense to do it. i.e. if you are buying rolls of something as a single SKU, and selling it by the foot / metre, or buying drums of oil and selling litres, etc. (maybe that's a bad example, electricians buy and sell wire by the Kilometre, and lube shops buy and sell oil by the litre).
I just started to try to enter the item numbers (sales goods) as "Service" but it's asking me for a Revenue and Expense account. Revenue is easy to find but what about the Expense account. Do I have to put an Expense account? I put 4020-Sales Quebec for Revenue but I really don't know what to put for expense. Can I skip the expense account? If not what would be the logic account to choose?
These should all say "No". Don't confuse this with regional taxes. You sell plastics so all your items are taxable. If you were a grocery store you would make some items, like milk and bread, tax-exempt. When you set up a U.S. based customer you will make that customer tax-exempt so they will not be charged tax on your taxable items. I hope this makes sense.
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