Accounts

New Report Finder V30.1

Sage 50 Accounts comes with a multitude of reports, and it can be difficult sometimes to find the report you want. In Sage 50 Accounts V30.1 a new AI-Powered search engine for reports has been introduced, which means that you can use everyday language to find the reports you need.

Enable the new report finder

Go to any module with a Reports button:

1. Click Reports

The first time you access the reports window, you will be prompted to enable the new report finder:

2. Click Enable Now

Note: if you have not already connected your company to your Sage account, you will be taken through the process to do that first.

3. You will then see the new search bar:

Tips for searching

Be specific but be concise.  Tell the report finder about the report you want to create, and it will try and find it for you.

Why are my query results empty?

The search feature will try its best to make a good recommendation, but if it is not confident in providing a recommendation, you may not see a result.

If your results are empty, try adding more detail to your query or reformulating your question.

If you would like help finding the right report for you or need help amending a report or need any other help with your Sage Accounts, please contact us

Payroll

Record and delete holidays as booked or taken.

You can record holidays as booked or taken on the absence dairy in Sage 50 Payroll to help keep a track of your employee’s holidays to ensure they do not take more than they are entitled to.

You can set up different holiday schemes which can be assigned to different employees.  Full time employed employees are entitled to a minimum of 28 days holiday including bank holidays per year, for part time employees and employees who work irregular hour this is pro-rated.

You can pay more than 28 days holiday if you wish.

Record holidays booked or taken.

1. On the Employee List, double-click the required employee.
2. Click the Absence tab then click Diary Entry.
3. In the Absence Type drop-down lists click Holiday and Taken or Booked.
4. In the From drop-down list, click AM or PM then enter the required date(s).
5. If required, enter details of the holiday on the Comment box then click OK.
6. Click Save then click Save.

Delete holidays booked or taken.

1. On the Employee List, double-click the required employee.
2. Click the Absence tab then select the date range of the holiday.
3. Once you have selected the full date range of the holiday, right click then click None.

If you need help setting up holiday schemes or recording holidays or need any other help or advice with your payroll, please contact us

We can also provide a remote access service where we can link into your computer to help you resolve your Sage Accounts or Payroll problems.

Accounts

Compress Data

After clearing the audit trail or deleted a large volume of records in your software, this does not reduce the size of the data files.  It is therefore recommended after clearing the audit trail and/or deleting records you compress the relevant area.  You may also need to compress your data as part of fix any error in the data.

Compress your Data

1. Before you compress your data, take a backup of your data.
2. On the menu bar, click File then click Maintenance then click Compress Data.
3. Clear the Compress All Data Files check box.
4. Clear the check boxes against the data files you do not want to compress. For example, to compress the supplier records only, clear all the check boxes except Purchase Ledger.
5. Click Compress then click OK, then click Close then click Close.

The supplier records have now been compressed.

You can then remove old, unused records, invoices and orders and then compress your data, see earlier articles on how to do this.

If you would like help on Clearing the Audit Trail or removing old records, invoices and orders and compressing your data or need any other help with your Sage Accounts, please contact us

Payroll

Submit an Employment Payment Summary (EPS) to show no payment due and reclaim CIS deductions

If no payment is due and Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions are suffered in the same period, you must inform HMRC and submit an employer payment summary. (EPS).

HMRC can only accept a single submission which includes both no payment and the CIS amount.

Submit an EPS

You can send  an EPS to notify HMRC that no payment is due, if you have also suffered CIS deductions in the same period.

1. Click e-submissions, then click Employer Payment Summary.
2. Select the statement You have suffered CIS deductions.
3. Click Next, check the tax month is correct, then click Next.
4. Verify your statutory payment recovered values and NIC compensation amounts.
5. Use your P32 to check that the values are correct. If you need to change the values, you can change then here.
6. The EPS contains cumulative year to date figures.
7. Once the figures are correct, click Next.
8. Enter both the value of CIS deductions suffered and your Corporation Tax Reference.

Note: You must enter you 10-diget Corporation Tax Reference, also known as your Unique Tax Payer Reference, before you can send CIS deductions suffered on an EPS.

9. You can not calculate this value in Sage 50 Payroll, you must enter it manually based on your external records.
10. If there is no payment due to HMRC, select the No payment is due for tax month check box.
11. Click Next, then click Finish.
12. Complete the Internet Submissions wizard.

If you need help sending a nil payment EPS or reclaiming CIS if you are a Limited company or need any other help or advice with your payroll, please contact us

We can also provide a remote access service where we can link into your computer to help you resolve your Sage Accounts or Payroll problems.

Accounts

Clear Audit Trail

Once you have run the year end routine and archived the data, it can be a good idea to clear the audit trail depending on the number of transactions you have.  Clearing the Audit Trail removes transactions which meets a specific criteria.  An opening balance journal is posted that stands for the balance of the removed transactions. The audit trail history holds the details of the removed transactions.

Criteria

Clear Audit Trail removes all transactions that meet the following criteria:

• Date on or before the date you specify.
• Date must be before your current financial year.
• Fully paid.
• VAT reconciled, if applicable.
• Bank reconciled, if applicable.
• CIS reconciled, if applicable.
• If the transaction is allocated, the linked transactions must also meet all of the above criteria.

Any transaction that does not meet all of the above criteria are not cleared from the audit trail.

Memo – We recommend running Clear Audit Trail routine on the computer that holds your accounts data. This routine might take some time.

Clearing the Audit Trail affects retrospective reports that use transactional data, we recommend running any important reports before clearing the transactional history, remember you can always go into your archive data to run reports.

To Clear Audit Trail

1. Click Tools then click Period End and Clear Audit Trail.
2. Enter the date you want to clear transactions up to and click Clear audit trail.
3. Create a backup, click Browse and select the required folder for the backup and click OK, then click OK and click OK.
4. To view the removed transactions, click OK then click Close and click Close.

Postings

When you run a Clear Audit Trail, an opening balance journal posts to your nominal codes to replace the removed transactions.

You can then remove old, unused records, invoices and orders and then compress your data, see earlier articles on how to do this.

If you would like help on Clearing the Audit Trail or removing old records, invoices and orders and compressing your data or need any other help with your Sage Accounts, please contact us

Payroll 

Payroll New Year

1. Check you’ re using the correct version.

Before you start processing the new tax year, you must have installed the update for the 2024/25 tax year, V30.00.226.

2.     Update your NI rates.

The spring Budget 2024 announcement included a reduction in the main rate of employees’ National Insurance for the 2024/25 tax year.

You must update your NI rates in Sage 50 Payroll V30, before you process a 2024/25 payroll.

3. Update your employees’ tax codes.

For the 2024/25 tax year, the personal allowance and emergency tax code remains the same at £12,570 and 1257L. This means you do not need to change your employees’ tax codes unless informed by HMRC.

You do however need to remove the week 1 / month 1 flag on any employees’ tax codes before processing in the new tax year.

4. Small employers’ relief

If you are eligible for Small Employers’ Relief (SER) (previous years gross National Insurance must be less than £45,000), you need to set your Sage Payroll to calculate and claim it.

5. Apply for Employment Allowance

TIP: make sure your process date is set to 6/04/2024 before completing this.

In the 2024/25 tax year the employment allowance allows eligible employers to reduce their annual Employers National Insurance liability by up to £5,000.

Submit the Employer Payment Summary (EPS) for Employment Allowance

1. Click Company, then click Settings.
2. Click the Apply for EA
3. From the State Aid drop-down menu, select one of the following options:

• Applicable
• Not Applicable

If State Aid is applicable, select the relevant State Aid Sector. For more information on State aid, visit Gov.uk.

4. Click Submit then click Continue, then click Submit then Submit

At this stage, HMRC receives an EPS with Employment Allowance application.

• If your application is unsuccessful, you receive a notification in your IR Secure Mailbox within five working days.
• If you don’t hear back from HMRC, then your application has been successful, and you can then select the Eligible for Employment Allowance check box within Company then Settings. Once you select this check box, your software is set up to calculate Employer Allowance.

Memo

If you select the Eligible for Employment Allowance check box after you have already processed one or more tax months, you must re-run your P32 for each month of the tax year starting from month 1. Sage 50 Payroll then calculated the Employment Allowance due in each period and records these values in Company Settings > HMRC Payments of your software.

6. Pensions Data Exchange

If you use the Pensions Data Exchange (PDX) to send data to your provider, there are some additional steps to complete at the start of the tax year.

If you need help running your payroll year end routine or setting up for the new Payroll year or need any other help or advice with your payroll, please contact us

We can also provide a remote access service where we can link into your computer to help you resolve your Sage Accounts or Payroll problems.