Can anyone offer me any advice please. When I try and do a bank reconciliation in Sage - its all fine for the matching process but when I actually click RECONCILE the software just freezes and I have to kill it. I'm using Sage 50 - 2010. I've googled this problem and the answers online were so complicated I thought I'd ask here in case anyone has some understandable advice.
I'm afraid this sounds like one for Sage themselves to investigate - though ISTR that saving reconciliations was pig slow in the 2010 version. If memory serves, I found disabling its saving of the reconciliation PDFs largely solved that - but I wouldn't recommend that to you or anyone else as a solution; those PDFs can be handy. (I'm a special case ;)
It may or may not be related, but I've been encountering something vaguely similar in other contexts in Sage 2012. It also happened in 2011, but not so often. I don't remember it happening when I was using 2010, but it might have done.
In my case, it's when saving data, such as a batch of supplier invoices (for example).
When this happens, I get a small message box saying "Waiting for " where filename could be - for instance - SPLITS.DTA.
(Usually, when this happens, it's a case of go and make a coffee. Take a break. Come back and it'll have done the job - but in one case after an hour had passed, and I needed to go home, I had to kill Sage off, which resulted in corrupt data, and I had to restore the previous day's backup. I almost lost a day's work through that, but had a fiddle with the broken data files, and managed to export all the new transactions and import them into the restored version).
Sage's first (obvious, and only) suggestion when I reported it was that someone else was accessing the file across the network. However, I run Sage stand-alone; it's a single user licence - and checking disk management confirmed that no files, least of all the one in question, were held open at all. Sage remain flummoxed.
And in all honesty, I don't think it's a problem with their code - my gut instinct is that it's a Windows 7 problem, because I see a similar, though not as pronounced problem in other programs - just random 'stalls' where I click on something, and I get a minute or so's worth of hourglass activity, and the program 'fades' (which Win7 supposedly does to indicate a problem.)
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Am I the only person that's noticing that the site has question after question after question now related to Sage issues.
It's certainly no secret that I'm not a fan of the software due to their licencing but I never complained at the softwares functionality.
I'm now begining to think that this software itself has real fundamental problems in that Software is supposed to make one's life easier and yet I'm reading nothing but anguish and work arounds out there.
For software that has more how to guides and training courses out there than the rest combined it seems pretty shoddy that people are having such major difficulties with it.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Unfortunately this issue arises quite a lot, and not just with Sage 50. Other Sage products also have similar issues. My only suggestion would be to try to reconcile fewer items in one go, this has helped me before. Not an ideal solution, but it could be worth a go.
To some extent, it's down to the sheer size and complexity of the software; Give a program 10% more functionality, you'll probably add 15-20% more bugs!
However, in some cases when I've spoken to people at Sage regarding some of the problems, the explanations and answers I've received have left me somewhat shocked, and thinking I'd be ashamed to put my name to the software if I was involved in developing it.
And, as you say, there are their licencing (and support) issues. How many here know there's a clause in the licence that permits Sage to come knocking on your door and inspect your systems if they think you're not complying? (I'm not entirely sure a clause like that is enforcable in UK law, but IANAL).
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
I used to have bank rec issues. Reinstalled the software and it sorted it. Back up first if you're going to give that a try. You could also check you've got all the software updates. Sage used to have them on their website but it's been a very long time since I last looked! Sonya
One of my versions of Sage has taken to flicking me on to another programme when the Bank Rec is finished, and I wondered what the heck was going on to start with, but it's just an Alt and Tab back in to Sage to see that all is well. Could this be what your Sage is doing? (Although from the earlier responses Hanging is def a problem)
To some extent, it's down to the sheer size and complexity of the software; Give a program 10% more functionality, you'll probably add 15-20% more bugs!
Morning Vince,
from other posts you know my background and I believe that the issue with Sage software is lazyness and cutting corners.
There seems to be two components to the software.
The front end and the engine.
I believe that the engine has been developed by people who knew what they were doing. Possibly accountants and strong development support. Under the hood I think that Sage have a robust product that is very fit for purpose.
The other side of the coin is the front end which to my mind has been developed possibly using a fast development methodology such as Agile.
I've seen this sort of thing so many times where one has great software but then you have windows front end slapped on it that doesn't do the core product justice... But it looks pretty.
Going further I don't think beyond tweaks that the core product actually changes much between releases. What does change is the front end and from the volume of issues people are having with it I'm thinking that it's not fit for purpose.
On the non Sage specific subject of 10% more functionality, 20% more bugs.
There should never be any bugs in live software if it's developed properly but the new development methodologies which are all about reducing development costs and cycle times skip the importance of proper testing.
I was brought up with the old adage that for each hours development there should be at least 5 hours of properly structured and documented testing by a team other than the one that did the development but nowdays it's all about getting things into production as quickly as possible.
I've seen cases of the same person doing the development and testing.
I've seen people make changes to code after a failure and continue testing rather than going back and rerunning the test pack from scratch.
I've seen cases where people sign off testing that they obviously never did
Thank goodness that I'm now out of that world as quality has suffered greatly for managers bonuses.
Whats the old saying.
You can have it right but it won't be cheap
You can have it cheap but it won't be right
You can't have it cheap and right.
Well, all I can say is that certain institutions are now reaping the benefits of some pretty short sighted cost reduction policies that have cost them far more than they ever saved.
Rant over,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Am I the only person that's noticing that the site has question after question after question now related to Sage issues.
Hi Shaun
I thought that I had logged ito the Sageforum site instead of the bookkeepers forum earlier when nearly all the posts were to do with one Sage query or another
One piece of information I found when googling the problem was that it is a conflict between Sage and generating the pdf report. I didn't know it was possible to turn this feature off but you seem to suggest it is, so could you tell me how please.
That sounds right - I remember someone at Sage commenting a year or two back that they were changing the software they use to generate PDFs. If memory serves, the reason given was speed, but there may have been more to it than that.
Anyway, in the 2012 version, you go to Settings on the menu bar, then Bank Defaults, and there is a tick box in there marked "Always create remittance" - untick that. I'm not sure if it was there in 2010, or if it could be found somewhere else.
However, another option (I think) was simply to keep the 'Statement reference" field blank when you start a reconciliation; in some old versions, if that was blank it wouldn't save the file (it used that for the filename).
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
from other posts you know my background and I believe that the issue with Sage software is lazyness and cutting corners.
I don't disagree. As I said, some of the things they've said when I've spoken to them are perfect examples of that. I don't think that's the case throughout - the situation with freezes that I described being a case in point - but there are certainly plenty examples of poor programming, be that because of laziness, cutting corners, getting YTS teaboys to head programming teams, or whatever. I've been saying that for years - and must have mentioned examples of it on this forum by now!
There should never be any bugs in live software if it's developed properly but the new development methodologies which are all about reducing development costs and cycle times skip the importance of proper testing.
For certain types of software, I'd agree - but for stuff running most desktop computers, well, I'll just skip to the end of what you said:
You can't have it cheap and right
Having said that, Sage's products, with their annual support tax can hardly be called cheap, so they have much less excuse than smaller companies who produce software for much, much less.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
on the cheap line I was referring to development costs rather than the amount they charge for the product.
agree totally on your last line. I'm thinking of products of the quality of VT and 12pay which I would take those two over Sage any day.
That said, I don't currently have 12pay as I try to avoid Payroll work so the tiny payrolls that I run for directors I do on Excel. If my Payrolls expanded though that would be the product of choice as when I tried it out I found it very easy and intuitive... Not at all like some other products. lol
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I have a similar but slightly more complicated adage, which is that you can have a maximum of any two of cheap, right, and available soon. Many projects achieve less than the theoretical maximum (defence projects frequently manage expensive, wrong, and never delivered)
...I try to avoid Payroll work so the tiny payrolls that I run for directors I do on Excel....
You may find that option becomes much more difficult when RTI becomes compulsory from April. One return per month per employer, even if no-one is paid, apparently.
I know, it certainly puts 12pay back on the shopping list... Well, either that or I just outsource all payroll work but that means entrusting others to represent my business which being the control freak that I am I'm never comfortable with.
all the best,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Am I the only person that's noticing that the site has question after question after question now related to Sage issues.
Hi Shaun
I thought that I had logged ito the Sageforum site instead of the bookkeepers forum earlier when nearly all the posts were to do with one Sage query or another
Mark
Sorry missed your post Mark,
Yes, and it's continued today. End users are now also joining the site to ask questions about it.
Fear not though. I'm trying to convince new poster Alison that she really wants to be our resident Sage expert as she made the mistake of saying that she liked the product.
I'm thinking that maybe the site needs a new sub category purely for Sage queries (and possibly another one for Quickbooks, and another for Payroll software).
Then again, will we end up with too many sub categories so that they cease to be useful
Next time that I'me talking with Steve I may well have a chat with him to see if he feels that it would be a good or a bad idea to start recategorising the site
If we do go down that path I promise not to put the Convince me that I don't need Sage thread in the Sage category
all the best,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Just wondering if the original poster managed to resolve this problem and/or if anybody else can help please?
I have Sage Accounts 2010 recently reinstalled on a new PC running Windows 7 and have hit the same problem with bank reconciliations. I tried the suggested unclicking 'always create remittance' in Bank Settings and not entering a bank statement reference. This worked once.
However, at the second attempt at a bank reconciliation I can't progress without entering a reference - the 'Statement Summary' keeps reappearing after leaving the reference box blank and pressing 'OK'. (I did turn off the warning message about not having a saved report the first time - but not doing anything else differently I don't think).
Any suggestions gratefully received, thank you - I am worried Sage will suggest I need to upgrade to resolve this problem, which I was hoping to avoid just yet!
I had to look back at my earlier post to see if I'd really suggested unticking "Always create remittance" - and I did. I must have had a very long morning that day. Unticking that option will have no effect on the bank reconciliation! It will only prevent Sage from being able to send out remittance advices to suppliers when you pay them.
In the same dialogue (Settings => Bank Defaults from the menu), the option you want is "Create Bank Reconciliation PDF" - untick that one and, hopefully (if it's the PDF creation that's causing the problem) that will solve it.
However, note as I said before: That's where the option is in the 2012 version - it might not be there in older versions.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Thanks for your reply, I think this has steered me in the right direction! I did wonder about the relevance of the remittance, but was just clicking any old button by that stage in the hope of a miracle...
There is no option for turning off the create PDF in my version, but I looked at the SagePDFPrinter in the print queue and making that the default printer seemed to move things along - came back with a message saying 'printer not found' but the reconciliation seems to have happened anyway. Not a very elegant solution, but better than no reconciliation at all. I don't recall ever having looked at the saved bank reconciliation statement documents anyway, so hopefully can live without them.
I've a vague idea that there is an option, but it's not in an obvious location - and no longer using that version means I don't know where it is!
However, while reading your reply I remembered in another recent thread pointing out an update for the PDF driver as a solution to a problem that did appear to be with the existing PDF driver. I'm not sure if this will work in your case, but it might be worth a try if you're feeling brave:
Visit www.sage.co.uk/accountsupdates and select "Reporting updates" where it says "Choose your software".
In the list of available updates there are two related to PDF Drivers - "Sage PDF Driver Update" and "V12 - Sage PDF Driver Update [v2.10]"
It might be worth trying one of those (try them in the order they're presented) - but I have to stress that I've no idea if this will work for this particular problem.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
The problem is that the PDF drivers for that version of Sage 50 are not compatible with Windows 7 64 Bit. When you reconcile sage creates a pdf of the bank rec report. Sure you could skip the report, but better to fix the problems and hav ePDFs working. You can download and install new driver from Sage www.sage.com/au
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