SageAccountantsLink

Summary

This page gives clients of Accounting & General advice on setting up and using the Sage Accountant Link.

Many businesses send their accounts data to an accountant to prepare their final accounts. This can often involve suspending processing while the data is with the accountant. The Accountant Link allows you to continue processing in Sage Accounts while Accounting & General has your data. When we send back a file containing any adjustments to your data, it is imported into Sage Accounts and the two sets of data are merged together.

To Enter Your Accountant's Contact Details and Set the Default Import/Export Folders

1. Open the Settings menu then choose Company Preferences.

Note: If you use a password when logging in to Sage Accounts, the Password Entry window appears. Enter your password then click OK.

The Company Preferences window appears.

2. From the Company Preferences window, click the Accountant tab.

The Accountant information appears.

3. Enter your Accounting & General contact details.

Note: If Accounting & General contact name and email address are entered here, Sage Accounts uses these details when creating an email to send your accounts data to us.

4. If required, default directory paths can be entered in the Accountant Link Import/Export Folders section on this window. Sage Accounts uses the paths entered here when exporting and importing the Accountant Link data files. If no directory paths are entered, Sage Accounts defaults to the Exports and Imports folders located in the local program directory.

5. To save the details that you have entered and return to the main program desktop, click OK.
If required, to exit without saving the details, click Cancel.

You have now entered Accounting & General contact details into Sage Accounts and set the default folders to be used when exporting and importing the Accountant Link files.

To Export Data and Record Material Changes

1. Open the Modules menu, choose Wizards then choose Accountants Link.

The Accountant Link Wizard window appears.

2. Select Export accounts data to a file for my accountant then click Next.
Note: If you have previously exported the data and no corresponding adjustments have been imported, a window appears warning that if you export the data again any existing material changes recorded will be cleared and any adjustments to the original exported data cannot be imported at a later date. To continue with the export, click Next or to cancel the export, click Cancel.

The Create Export File window appears.

3. Complete the Create Export File window as follows:

The Save as box displays the default file name and directory path to be used when the export file is saved. The file name consists of your company name together with the date and time the file was created and has a file extension of .sae. This directory path and file name can be changed if required by over typing the path or using the Browse option.

In the Password box, enter a password of at least eight characters. Enter the password again in the Confirm box. You must advise Accounting & General of this password to allow us to access the data.

The Save file with this comment box contains a default comment. This can be replaced or added to if required.

4. To export your accounts data to file, click Export.

If required, to exit without exporting the data, click Cancel.

The export file saves and the wizard gives the options of sending the export file to your accountant by email or closing the wizard.

5. To close the wizard at this point, click Finish. To use the wizard to send the export file to your accountant by email, click Next.

Note: If your email settings have not yet been entered on your PC, an email settings window appears. For further information about the email settings, please contact your system administrator.

An email window appears. If the Accounting & General contact name and email address were entered within Company Preferences, they automatically update the email.

6. Amend any details on the email as required then click Send.

The export file is emailed to your accountant and the Accountants Link Wizard window closes.

The export file has been created and the word Recording now appears in red at the bottom of the Sage Accounts desktop. This signifies that material changes which are made to your data are now being logged.

The export file issued to Accounting & General is similar in nature to a backup and contains a full data set.

Once recording has started, when a material change is posted to the data, a message appears asking if you want to record the detail of the material change. To record the details of the posting within Material Changes, click Yes or to post the entry to the data without recording the details within Material Changes, click No. To prevent this message appearing every time you make a material change, select the Don't ask me this again while I'm working in this dataset check box before you click Yes. Any postings are then automatically recorded within Material Changes.

When using the Accountant Link functionality, it is possible to transfer files from an older version of Sage Accounts to a newer version and back again. For example, a file may be exported from Sage 50 Accounts v12.xx into Sage 50 Accounts 2008 then back to Sage 50 Accounts v12.xx. The only exception to this occurs if program features that were new to the latest version are used, the resulting transactions can not then be imported back to the earlier version.

To View and Send the Recorded Material Changes

1. Open the View menu then choose Material Changes.

The Accountants Link - Material Changes window appears.

If required, enter your own comments which can also be read by Accounting & General, in the Comments tab.

2. To view the list of material changes, click the Material Changes tab.

A list of the material changes recorded since your data was exported appears. To view full details of an entry, select the entry and the details appear in the Change Details window.

3. To print the list of material changes, click Print List.

The summary list prints.

4. To send the list of material changes to your accountant, click Send.

Note: If your email settings have not yet been entered on your PC, an email settings window appears. For further information about the email settings please contact your system administrator.

An email window appears containing four Sage Data files (.dta) which contain the material changes recorded in the data. Check the email address in the To box is correct, make any required changes to the message in the email then click Send.

Details of the material changes have now been sent to your accountant.

Note: The recording of material changes continues until either the adjustments from Accounting & General are imported, a backup taken prior to when the recording started is restored or if the recording is cancelled. To cancel recording, open the View menu then choose Material Changes. Click Cancel then to confirm you want to stop recording changes, click Yes.

5. To return to the Sage Accounts desktop, click Close.

You have now viewed and sent details of the material changes to Accounting & General.

To Import Adjustments From Accounting & General

1. Open the Modules menu, choose Wizards then choose Accountant Link.

The Accountant Link Wizard window appears.

2. Select Import adjustments and narratives from a file from my accountant then click Next.

The Select File to Import window appears.

3. Complete the Select File to Import window as follows:

In the Import box, type in the path to the import file or click Browse then locate it.
In the Password box, enter the password supplied by your accountant.

4. To import the adjustments, click Import.

If required, to exit without importing the adjustments, click Cancel.

The Accountant Link - Comments and Adjustments window appears. The Comments tab displays any comments entered by your accountant. The Adjustments tab displays the adjustments to be added to your data. Some types of adjustment are applied automatically but others must be entered manually.

5. To start applying the adjustments, on the Adjustments tab window click Begin.

A message appears advising you to use the dates recommended by Accounting & General when processing any manual postings, to continue, click OK.

To process each adjustment individually, click Next or to run through all of the adjustments, click Continue. For each manual adjustment you must process the change and then select the I have completed this task check box, then click Next or Continue. The following adjustments are posted automatically: