My name is Craig Taylor and I am Implementation Manager for Smith Cooper System Partners, based in Derby.
Smith Cooper System Partners have offices based in Derby, London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle, and Reading. They are the current ‘No1 Sage 200 Business Partner’ for the Midlands.
I manage our highly skilled and knowledgeable team of Sage Consultants.
My responsibilities also include Pre-sales support, Project Management, internal/external Project Handovers, scoping, installations, training, configuration, data migration, report writing and ongoing support assistance.
I have implemented Sage 200cloud Professional for over 10 years, including new installations and upgrades (including migrations from Line 100 and Sage 50).
My Sage 200cloud Accreditations include:
Financials
Commercials
Bill of Materials
Project Accounting
Web Time & Expenses (WTE)
Manufacturing
Business Intelligence
Installation
Report Designer
I also have a decent knowledge of other Sage products:
Sage CRM
Sage 50
Sage Intacct
As well as the following Sage 200cloud add-on’s:
Spindle Professional (Draycir)
Spindle Professional Document Capture (Draycir)
Spindle Document Management (Draycir)
Spindle Self Serve (Draycir)
Credit Hound (Draycir)
Excel Data Bridge (Draycir)
Data Exchange (Eureka Solutions)
Plus Pack for Sage 200 (Eureka Solutions)
Sales Order Plus (Eureka Solutions)
Purchase Order Plus (Eureka Solutions)
Sales Ledger Head Office (Eureka Solutions)
Stock Kitting (Eureka Solutions)
Sicon Job Costing (Sicon)
Sicon Debtor Module (Sicon)
Sicon Document Manager (Sicon)
Sicon Enhancement Pack (Sicon)
Sicon Fixed Assets (Sicon)
Sicon Inter Company (Sicon)
Cash Flow Manager (Sicon)
Talking Sage 200 
Hi Craig
I am not sure if you can help me, I have an issue with SOP, in that I have archived sales orders over two months old but now I cannot reprint any of the invoices associated with the orders (a bit silly I know, but I had no idea that would be the effect of archiving) I now need to send out copy invoices to some customers but other than replicating the data on an excel spreadsheet and creating an invoice that way, I have no idea how to solve this issue??
Is there something that I can do to reprint archived invoices?
Thanks for your input.
Mandy
Hi Mandy, if you go to View Orders, select the archived tab and find the Order. View Order to open the order. there is an Invoices button at the bottom and you can reprint from there NB. The layout is specific for archived orders and so will need to be amended to look like your own if required other wise the default will be used. Thanks ctayts
Hi Craig
This is probably a silly question but here goes – I have set Re-order levels for each stock item but this information does not appear in the Reorder Level column in list view. Is this because I have multiple locations?
Hi Shelagh
Yes I am afraid it only shows if Multiple Locations are not enabled.
ctayts
Hi Craig,
I think the reset desktop has fixed it! Amazing how something so simple can be overlooked.
I had to add legacy view back in but other than that it loads SOP quickly.
I will have to be onsite to test the printing side of things but I will give you some feedback when I can.
Many thanks,
James.
Brilliant, no problem
It’s slow with the dashboard set but not when you use workspace for any user.
It’s not a sql / data issue either as the working users eliminate that theory. No one has filters set and they have no impact anyway.
I can try creating a new spool directory out of hours but I would have thought this would have impacted all users rather than 70%.
It’s like an unnecessary hang for printing and SOP.
I can certainly try and reset the desktop. Is there any Sage logging I can look into for more info?
I have waited 5 months for the BP and no resolution yet.
Thanks,
James.
Definitely Reset the Desktop, if Workspaces are not slow then this may help. There isn’t any logging to help (that I am aware of!).
I agree that you would expect the Spool to impact all users if an issue. However experience with Sage 200 tells me that this expectation is not always correct. It may be that 70 % have the most spool files or something like that. There certainly isn’t any harm in ruling it out.
Hi Craig,
It’s not permissions at domain level as most of my users are in the same groups.
I have also tried switching user roles but again, most of my users are in the same roles with the same company access.
It certainly has me stumped.
The spool directory has caused us some issues since the upgrade as many users still utilise it rather than printing direct. This has caused us some performance issues every 6 weeks or so if users do not clear their old files down.
At the moment the spool folder is < 500mb and fairly well maintained. Why would it effect some users and not others though?
As you say, is does not explain the switching to SOP.
Regards,
James.
Its perhaps worth Creating a new Spool directory. Its not something I have normally needed to do in 2013 but occasionally there were corruptions in old versions which were resolved by recreating the Spool file.
Just rename the current one Spool_Old and create a new one called Spool. You can always revert back if no change.
Is it slow with another Output Mode set?
I would also do a Reset Desktop in Tools > Options to see if this resolves the List view issue. Its the only other thing that is User specific and could help. If it works you would need to do for all affected users.
Its difficult without looking, it may be a case of getting your BP involved to look at.
Hi Craig,
We have recently upgraded Sage200 from v5 to 2013 and have a strange issue occurring for multiple users.
When switching screens to SOP (in list view or dashboard) some users experience a delay of approx 7 seconds before the screen loads.
These users also experience a delay in printing of approx 10s. The CPU usage of sage200desktop ends but the windows spooler holds onto the job for 10s or so.
It does not appear to be a windows permissions issue as the working and faulting users are in the same groups. Anywhere I logon a faulting user on (win7 client or 2008 TS session) the issue is always present.
The roles of some of these users are the same withing sage200, as are the SOP permissions.
Maybe I can track this with logging or have you experienced this elsewhere? I cannot find anything online that discusses the problem.
Thanks,
James.
Hi James
Its not a specific thing I can say I have seen.
Is it definitely User specific, as opposed to machine specific? (Does a “Working” user access ok on a “Faulting” users machine, or vice versa?)
Does the issue occur on the Server?
I suppose the first thing to start with are the standard. Any Anti Virus on the machines? Have all the required Deployment guide settings/pre requisites been met? Are the machines all to Spec? Are the required Browser settings applied?
How much data is there? Could it be that there is a lot for the List views to populate? has any been archived?
Are Named Pipes enabled within SQL Configuration Manager?
ctayts
Hi Craig,
Thanks for your reply….
Yes it is definitely user specific, even if I log on directly to the Sage200 Server I can replicate the issue with my known “faulting” users.
I have done a lot of troubleshooting with permissions, user roles in Sage etc but you can exclude the configuration issues you mention as it simply comes down to the user.
There can’t be a global configuration issue like named pipes when I have several users working perfectly.
It is incredibly frustrating as the delay in switching and for print is causing all sorts of issues at the trade counters.
Thanks,
James.
Is it a new Spool directory? It wont impact on the list views, but I am just wondering of there are lots of files in the spool directory or if this has been corrupted in some way.
Have you tried moving a Faulting user to the Role of a Working user, to see if it could be Role specific?
There isn’t really anything else I could think of without looking, other than permissions at a Domain level.
No..it needs to be outside of sage but looking at the tables so needs to be crystal reports..
Sorry i read it the wrong way around. But the report cant be converted. It will need to be re-written in Crystal. You can find the required tables and joins from the Sage Report Designer. Then aslong as you have access to the SQL Database you will be fine.
Anyone ever converted a Sage 200 report to a crystal report..I know it sounds an odd way round but the Sage BP who created the report has no knowledge of Crystal and the report now needs to be independent of Sage pulling data from a Sage View.. thanks
You would need to re-write in Sage 200. Although Cryatal is normally used when the Report Designer has reached its limits in terms of what is required.
Hi Craig
Firstly my apologies if my question may sound a bit silly and secondly apologies I was trying to send you a message but couldn’t quite navigate as to where to send the message on the site.
My issue/problem is I have just started a new job today and part of my role is to provide reporting for my company using sage 200 now no one in the department knows how to use sage so there is no training for me except self learning (which i have been doing today but not had much luck) been goggling and reading the manuals etc but just don’t feel as clued up on the reporting designer as i should be.
I see there are a few you tube videos which i will watch when i get home (no sound in the office) but can you help recommend any literature to read or tutorials? Or even any courses?
Basically a newbie to sage. Please help have 2 months to produce amazing fancy reports for the Directors or wont have a job. 😦
Thanks in advance
Look forward to your reply.
There is little in the way of documentation and guides out there as Sage 200 is supported and sold through the Business partner channel.
I have created this blog to help. But in terms of courses/training you will need to contact your business partner.
If you haven’t got a Business Partner let me know.
Ctayts
hi
cant seem to leave any messages on the ask for help page,
i would like to use subcontracting within works orders.
I have ammended the BOM to show the subcontracting stage,
Do i then run MRP adn it will pick up the information from the BOM when making the works order,
i then go into works orders adn subcontracting adn i can raise a PO and also despatch adn print a despatch note,
not sure what i do after this,
How to i receipt the part back in adn then process the PO
Is ther a small manull somewhere with the process
thanks
Nadine
Hi Nadine
Apologise for not getting back to you.
I do not do an awful lot with the Manufacturing module these days. But I believe the PO is raised and processed via the POP module. Therefore the receipt is done within POP.
No Manuals are available, unless your BP has written anything, but the Help files are worth a look.
ctayts
Hi Craig
I am having trouble finding out how to add a question so I’ll try here – perhaps you can help me on your reply
We are looking at migrating from Sage 50 to 200.
I am concerned and can’t believe that Sage 200 only holds 36months of live data before archiving – we have Sage 50 with 4yrs worth of live transactions totalling 80K transactions, not a large amount, so I would have thought a SQL database program would hold atleast up to 6 years to meet statutory HMRC etc requirements.
Am I understanding what I am reading in the set up manuals right?
Why is there a 36month limit for live data on Sage 200 and can this now been lengthen to 6 years in newer versions? [I am concerned that we are making the right move and that Sage 200 is now not actually behind the times in the way it is written]
Thanks
Hi Charles
Thanks for your question. I pick the the comments up where ever they are entered but there is an Ask For Help page too.
So to answer your question. Firstly the setting you are querying is not restricted to 36 months as a maximum. This is purely what the setting defaults to out of the box. You can enter 99 if you wanted.
Secondly however, it is important that you understand what this setting is for. It is how long you wish to keep transactions on a ledger record. The setting is a default which each record inherits, but it can also be changed per record. Therefore the setting maybe to keep for 64 months in the Sales Ledger, which is fine for most records, but for some individual customers you may only wish to only keep for 12 months (for example if a lot of transactions are entered against them).
This setting is linked to the setting to ‘Archive transactions’. If you select to Archive transactions (which I strongly advise you to do) then when a transaction is over the ‘Keep transactions for…’ setting and as long as it is fully allocated it will be moved to the historical area. Basically it moves the transaction(s) from one table to another.
You still have full visibility of the transaction and it’s posting details, and have reporting capabilities. But it is a good house keeping routine that allows the system to work to it’s full potential.
If you do not select to archive then transactions are fully deleted from the system.
You are quite right regarding the SQL database and yes it will be able to cope with much higher volumes of data before archiving purely because it is on the SQL platform but it is still recommended to archive regularly.
The Sage 200 system is most definitely up to date technology wise and moving with the times as required. The 2013 version is also going to be “Cloud” compatible.
Craig
Hi Craig,
The maximum time you can set the default months to keep transactions is 36 Months. If you try putting in anything more than that the field turns red with a message saying ‘The maximum period transactions can be retained is 36 Months’
Seems strange you can’t set it any higher.
Phil
Hi Phil
That’s the maximum I am afraid!!!
Ctayts
Hi Phil
That is the limit unfortunately.
Ctayts
Can I just add another warning – do NOT set KTF to zero on any account, otherwise you won’t even get an archive!
And …. the archive process is not meant to archive un-allocated or part-allocated transactions on the Sales and Purchase ledgers.
And …. Isn’t it 36 periods not 36 months?
No Chris, its definitely ‘Calendar’ Months.
Thanks for the above because, of course, the Delete Transaction option (manual archive if you like) does not warn if a transaction is Un-allocated or Part-allocated. Therefore will archive the transaction in any case!
The maintenance routine however, will not archive Un-allocated or Part allocated transactions.
Ctayts
Hi, I have a Sage report building problem, I wonder if you could help? Basically I am trying to build a very simple Trial Balance Report which shows: Account Name, Account Number, and Balance (DR) and Balance (CR). Crucially, I want the user to be able to select the close of business date. But I don’t know where to start in the report wizard – which tables and fields to pull in. Could you help?
Many thanks!
Hi Simon
I am not entirely sure what you mean by Close of business date. Is this the Period end?
What is wrong with the standard TB reports? As they would give this information.
You will likely need: NLNominalAccounts, NLNominalAccountThisYear, SysAccountingPeriods
It may be easir for you to amend the standard TB.
Ctayts