Jamie works in a recruitment agency. They use an operational system to log all the timesheets, outgoing payments, and recruitment fees. They also use an accounting system for their; staff salaries, overheads and expenses. Unfortunately, neither system is able to communicate with the other. Poor Jamie has to spend hours exporting financial data from the operational system into an Excel spreadsheet and then manually inputting the exported data into the accounting system. What a faff!

Sound familiar?

Not only is this time consuming and unproductive, but it also provides opportunity for human error such as creating typos or the duplication of data. However, let’s not be too critical because It is of course possible to transfer some of the data if the data fields are compatible in both systems, but unfortunately this is not always the case and the only solution is manual data entry.

Surely there’s got to be a better solution?

Yes, there certainly is - phew! The solution is Importers.  Specially designed importers take item lines from a spreadsheet and turn them into transactions, invoices, or sales orders. They also allocate and group them by customer/supplier account and invoice reference.  With a click of a button your data can be imported into Sage 50 Accounts, speeding up your efficiency and productivity allowing you to;

  • Import multiple records in one go
  • Achieve full data validation as part of processing
  • Use it at the same time as other users are logged into Sage

The functionality of the importers is designed to make the accounting process more streamlined and efficient whilst ensuring the integrity of the data is maintained.

The functionality of the Invoice Importer add-on;

  • Allows you to group your invoices;
    • Line items by Customer account
    • Line items by Customer account and Invoice/Sales Order number
    • Produce separate document for each line item
    • Line items by Customer Account and Purchase Order number
    • Group by values in ‘group together’ column
  • Import Product/Service Invoices/Credits/Proformas/Quotes
  • Overwrite non-updated invoices (setting to prevent if required)
  • Include zero value items (setting to prevent if required)
  • Allow description to be imported rather than Sage description (setting to prevent if required)
  • Decide where to import Customer PO number (Customer Order No, Comment 1, Comment 2)
  • Use Invoice Date from import file OR select a date to be used during import
  • Accumulate carriage from line items (setting to prevent if required)
  • Default emailed flag (setting to prevent if required)
  • Use three name parts (first, middle, surname) to make up the name (setting)
  • Multiple line items per import row available (setting)
  • Sales Invoices are created in Sage and then these are updated to the ledger as a separate process
  • Invoice documents can be generated and sent out to customers
  • Fund ID, Currency and Exchange Rate are fields that you cannot import in Sage, but can via our importer

Transaction Importer

  • Manual or Automated option available
  • Group ‘like’ transactions together (setting to prevent if required)
  • Use Default Chart of Accounts for Charity Fund re-balance (setting to prevent if required)
  • Prefix/Suffix reverse journals
  • Match Payments using department (setting to prevent if required)
  • Match Payments using Invoice Nominal (setting to prevent if required)
  • Check for duplicate references (multiple options)
  • Allocate Payments (multiple fields available)
  • Compress Header Splits (setting to prevent if required)
  • Compress SA/PA splits (setting to prevent if required)
  • No external documents are produced as part of this process e.g., Invoices to be printed/emailed – use Invoice Importer for this
  • Fund ID, Currency, Exchange Rate and Project Reference are fields that you cannot import in Sage, but can via our importer
  • Transaction Types; SI/SC/SR/SA/SP/PI/PC/PP/PA/PR/BP/BR/CP/CR/JD/JC/VP/VR
  • Foreign Currency import available – either take the exchange rate from Sage or from within the import file
  • Only include fields in the file that you want to import
  • Add-on to link journals to projects available separately

So, you see, you don’t need to struggle like Jamie. Take a moment to calculate how many hours are wasted in your accounts process. I would guess it’s too many! If you feel that it’s time to take control, give the team at Advantage Services a call on 0330 335 0011 or email info@advantageservices.co.uk.

Posted at 9.48am on 06 July 2021 by Dawn Smiley in category General
Tags: Accounts