We at Kirkwood Wilson have just had our first few days hands-on with this year’s release of Sage accounts – and we are excited to tell you it’s looking great and packed with new features. In this week’s blog, I am going to run through a number of the new elements included in the package and try to explain why these features will benefit you as an SME.
New user interface
Sage has radically improved the usability of their interface in the new version, making it simpler and faster to get where you need to be within the program. The new navigation pane means access to all of your most used ledgers stay in the same place, no matter where you are in the software. For instance, click on suppliers and all options that relate to supplier now lie in the dynamic toolbar. Need to add a new invoice or even sort out a refund from your suppliers? They’re all in one place along the top of the supplier page.
Backup manager
I don’t know about you, but if there’s one thing I’ve never managed on a regular basis it’s remembering to backup my work. Well if this sounds familiar, you no longer need to worry. Backup manager now lets you schedule backups even if you aren’t around to do it yourself. Just set the date and time and relax in the knowledge that your data is safe.
Inactive accounts
There comes a time in any business where inevitably some customers will move on and suppliers are no longer used. Previous versions of Sage kept these ‘inactive’ accounts in your lists, creating the possibility of errors in processing. These potential errors can now be removed by switching an account to inactive with a simple check box.
Windows selection method
If you’ve ever had a large delivery of several purchase orders come in at once, then you’ll appreciate this new addition. Much like selecting a range of data within excel, Sage now lets you highlight the start of the data and holding the shift key, select the end of your range. In three clicks you can now select all of the data you need, saving you time.
Access Rights
Access rights has also been given an overhaul this year. The new system lets you add or remove users and even restrict access to certain modules within the program, allowing for a tailored experience for each person in your workforce.
Shortcut Keys
You can now use your keyboard to navigate around the system without the use of your mouse. Simply press the alt key and press the option for the shortcut you require from the options that appear on the screen.
Keyboard Search
My personal favourite this year is keyboard search. Open up your supplier list in last year’s version and you will notice the difference. In old versions if you were looking for Kirkwood, you would press the ‘K’ key and scroll down until you found our name. With 2015, if you press ‘K’ ‘I’ and ‘R’ in quick succession, as long as no one else has the same name, Sage will take you right to us in your list.
Sage Drive
This year Sage will be introducing a new cloud-based system called Sage Drive. The advantage to this is it will allow Kirkwood Wilson to offer you more when you need us most. If you’re having issues with a particular element or even just need us to post some adjustments for you, back up your work to Sage drive and it will allow us to work on it from the office in real time whilst we talk to you.
Sage 50 2015 really is looking like being the best version yet and we hope you are as excited as we are. To upgrade to the new version or for more information on anything discussed today, give us a call on 01704 546000 and we’ll be happy to help.
