It's been a while since I posted but would really appreciate any help. I'm looking for any recommendations due to a hard drive failure on my computer, luckily I have back ups. Previously had Sage Instant 2011 alongside another copy of Sage (V17 I think) as we have two separate restaurants (Ltd's) so separate accounts kept on the same computer. I have a new computer but with no disk drive so cannot restore my back ups, I have phoned the accountant and am waiting for a call back so see if he can provide any help. I'm wondering if now would be the time to look at changing our software, I had planned on using bridging software along with Sage but now I have no software at all. I did download Freeagent to have a play with a few months ago but I wasn't keen, that may be due to the fact I've always used Sage and don't really like change! Sage was inherited, all my training completed on Sage, and I think it's the fear of the unknown and having no-one else to ask if I'm unsure of anything is putting me off. I also think the accountant has been recommending Kashflow to other clients but I'm not sure what to think after having a nosy on their website.
hi Donna
Everyone comes back in the end, although it would be good if you could visit more often and help other folk out as well (not a dig, just a suggestion, as its too quiet on here!)
Just get a separate disc drive, they are as cheap as chips. plus in, re-load sage (v 17 - it works, dont waste you time or cash onmoving software).
Then do what you did before and run via separate bridging software.
Freeagent is having issues. QuickBooks Online, Im learning (but its carp!).
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Thanks, I do visit - just don't have the confidence give an answer even if I think I know!
I never even thought about a separate disc drive, my head is all over the place trying to figure out what has been saved, updating/restoring things and getting used to a new computer
I can only find the Sage Instant 2011 disc, do you think it may work for both companies? I'm scared to try in case I mess anything up! I really don't want to start this year again - Y/E Jan and Feb so a fair bit of work.
I did look at QuickBooks, I thought it looked better than Kashflow - that might have been more the support section though.
Hi Donna
Just join in the silly stuff instead. Im sure you probably know more than you think.
Anyway - I misunderstood earlier - so what you have is one company who was on sage 2011 and one who was on sage v17?
If have now understood correctly the company who is on instant 2011 can stay on that. The company on an earlier version, cannot go backwards, if I recall correctly. You would need to be careful of moving up several years in sage.
Shame its not the v17 disc you have located - I know a lady who could pull the data from 2011 to v17. Can you get some others on the case to locate v17? That is probably pretty critical.
You may need to consider if they are loadable anyway to your new OS on your new PC. If its Win7 you are fine. If its 10 you will need to check out the sage helpfiles (but dont ring them as they will just say you HAVE to update for MTD purposes, which is wrong.
Does your Accountant have sage? Including the older ones?
If not I could see if my contact can help drag info from both companies backups so at least you have some reports and a Trial Balance to work from, because you will need them for the year end, but also to do opening balances in any new software. Might then be worth considering if you can drop it into a newer perpetual version of Instant, although you would also need to do some shopping around to find a disc.
Otherwise recommendation for new software depend on what you do with data input. Eg do you need departments?
Sorry, might be a bit slower on responses later - mid VAT nightmare and birthday partying(not mine).
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
No problem, thanks for your help so far - I really appreciate it!
Yes two companies on separate versions of Sage and unfortunately both installed before my time. I have found both serial numbers and activation codes for both versions but only the Instant 2011 disc, I highly doubt the other disc is in the office. I have left a message with the accountant to see if he can help at all and I'm still waiting to hear back, that's when I was told he has been recommending Kashflow these days. I know we initially bought Sage on his recommendation, many moons ago.
The computer does indeed have windows 10, so I guess my next step will be the sage help files and hunting around for a newer perpetual version to see what's possible.
Software wouldn't need to be all dancing really, no need for departments or any customisation (I think I tweaked some nominal codes and that was it). We have a fair bit of purchase invoices. Petty cash I do monthly on an excel spreadsheet as again there are a lot. Daily takings are also done on excel and entered into Sage as a monthly total. Very few sales invoices.
I'm taking the Sage disc home tonight to see if it will load on my ancient personal laptop, if so I will be so relieved as at least I can restore and produce some reports for one company. Fingers crossed.
Enjoy the birthday party, I'm jealous just thinking of birthday cake!
Hi Donna
Just a very quick one for now....you cannot do monthly uploads for takings and indeed cannot do receipts via spreadsheets now under MTD. Have a quick look at the constantly changing VAT guides. Daily for the former, split between zero rated and standard. The purchases for petty cash (and ordinary purchases) you have to split between tax codes and key in a certain way (shown in VAT guide). Need to be careful of what is classed as 'digital' records and where your links need to be. Ive not read such for a while. I got rid of my restaurant clients an age back!
Thanks - no cake, oops, I forgot, well she is on a perpetual diet so am sure we can fix something up.
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Hi John
I was meaning to look earlier what year version 17 was versus 2011 sage s I couldn't remember (old memory seems to be failing me!)
Anyway, as it happens v 17 is 2011. So that good news. So question remains what type of sage they both are, as you rightly point out.
Technically as both are 2011, you should be able to run both backs from the same software. But you cannot run sage 50 on sage instant. I seem to recall you can run an instant backup to sage 50.
If you buy new you can only run a backup from of a certain age. Failing that you need to jump up through a couple of conversions (hence where my contact might be able to help, depending on what year is acquired.) it's talked about in the article I've linked in.
Thanks Joanne/John
I went home with the Sage disc in my old windows 7 laptop, I have one working back up! So can pull the reports needed, Im delighted - Im not great with computers! Was tempted to try the other back up - Sage Instant 2011 v 17 worked, apparently the other version is 15 according to my back up. Any ideas if I could try to restore or if Id be better starting again? Dont want to mess anything up!
Joanne - thank you so much - I couldnt see the the woods for the trees and am super appreciative of your help! Know youre a bit of a Sage expert and have given up restaurants but would you suggest anything more suited? Big ask, I know! Restaurants/takeaways is all Ive known so am used to the bundle of paperwork to be sorted every couple of months!
I know Im rubbish at explaining things - but I can say that the excel sheets do have a daily breakdown of which cards/cash/tips taken daily, I only input the monthly total of cash, different cards and tips, with vat into Sage. I did look into MTD with panic, downloaded two different bridging programs to test - the day before so I actually thought that was what knackered my computer! I knew there would have to be tweaking - some sources say daily, others argue its not needed but I thought Id be prepared as I had both. I guess its down to interpretation. Same with petty cash expenses, the spreadsheets have nominal and vat codes, its all itemised,l. I have looked into the guidance and thought wed be compliant. Perhaps Ive misinterpreted but thats my whole problem with MTD, I feel its sneaking and we are left without any clear guidance.
Ps forgive any typos, Im on my phone and my eyesight aint what it used to be!
Quick update - I have managed to acquire a copy of Sage 50, v20 which works on Windows 10 and restored both companies! So happy I had recent backups, you never realise how important they are until you are faced with starting the year again. It turns out one was 2011 (v17) and one was 2009 (v15) but using the links you both provided I figured out v20 was the most up to date I could use for v15 and would work on windows 10. Thanks for your help, I'm extremely grateful. Now I'm off to re-enter the invoices that have not been restored for one company due to my laziness last week, it's definitely taught me a lesson.
Re the Making Tax digital requirements - start here for the daily gross takings thing I mentioned. Also - there will be relevant info re the keying of purchase invoices, split between vat and non vat elements (including small receipts), plus how to link spreadsheets into the bridging software if you continue to use them alongside your sage.
I had bookmarked a few things to look into when I had a bit more time so that's super helpful. I can't even remember which two of the bridging software I had narrowed it down to, guess I'll be trawling through the options again!
I wonder if now is the time for you to move to the cloud and reap its benefits. You see, such a situation would never happen on Xero or any other cloud based software. Plus Xero allows you to integrate your software with other essential restaurant software such as MarketMan or payment solutions such as Worldpay and Stripe. But don't bite the Bullet before you're ready!
I wonder if now is the time for you to move to the cloud and reap its benefits. You see, such a situation would never happen on Xero or any other cloud based software. Plus Xero allows you to integrate your software with other essential restaurant software such as MarketMan or payment solutions such as Worldpay and Stripe. But don't bite the Bullet before you're ready!
By reap the benefits of the cloud I assume that you mean...
Become totally dependant upon a software provider
Allow your data to be held to randsom
Change your internal processes so that you company works with the software
increased time per transaction
Reduced security
Reduced Control
I would not be advising people to move to the cloud when the big money is going in the opposit direction!
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.
I wonder if now is the time for you to move to the cloud and reap its benefits. You see, such a situation would never happen on Xero or any other cloud based software. Plus Xero allows you to integrate your software with other essential restaurant software such as MarketMan or payment solutions such as Worldpay and Stripe. But don't bite the Bullet before you're ready!
That ignores all the issues with Xero and other cloudy software.
'essential restaurant software'!!! Over statement. Not in use in ANY of the restaurants I involvement in (many!)
Worldpay can be integrated with any good software.
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
by way of clarification: MarketMan is NOT an essential software, but the likes of it is i.e. an end to end software that measures the cost of your menu, recipe and allergen information, and control over POs and goods in to allow for adequate trace-ability etc. We used a custom excel template since the company was founded some thirty years ago to record this information and found that the links tend to break, lack of version control etc...
I'd be curious to hear if anyone knows if Shaun's assertions about the benefits of cloud is/could be backed up by reliable research.
-- Edited by see bee on Thursday 26th of December 2019 10:52:39 PM
I'd be curious to hear if anyone knows if Shaun's assertions about the benefits of cloud is/could be backed up by reliable research.
Doubt it. Managers don't like to admit when they make a f*ck up as their bonus / job depends on others views of them.
I've lost count of the number of companies I've worked with who pay for software that they do not use.
I've also seen many cases of companies using software in one team but completely different software to do the same job in another then need someone like me to come along to get their systems talking to each other.
As for thinking that Excel is something that is a legacy system... You really should take a serious look at how real businesses work.
The majority of data out there exists within SQL controlled databases. And the bulk of decision making is performed using Excel. Sometimes with the fancy front ends, automation and dashboards that people such as myself implement for companies and sometimes just managers extracting the data and hacking it around themselves in good old fashioned spreadsheets.
Be under no illusion Excel is one of the most powerful peices of software on the planet. You can learn the basics in an hour but you can spend a lifetime working with it and still find some new improved way to use it.
Think of Excel like a meccano set. And Xero as a finished crane model. With Excel you can make the crane that performs as well as Xero and also anything else that you can think of. Xero though would only ever be a crane.
__________________
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.
interesting read including comments by Shaun on cloud software. Have tried a few including Xero and my concern is how easy it is to tag using bank rather than suppliers invoice which leads to the question of the accounts being cash based rather than accrual for final preparation. Also a huge nightmare to unpick it all once someone has tagged it incorrectly and you find a load of supplier invoice's sitting unpaid.
Sage - glad you resolved this issue - sorry have only just found time to read the posts. I would not rush to change to a cloud software until you are confident, definitely try a few out before leaping into the unknown.
Happy new year to you all, lovely to see you are still here Joanne.
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Donna Curling - Complete Book-Keeping Ltd (CBKLtd) - 07939 101900
Im too much of a control freak to take staff on, even though Ive managed/had staff before. Only one I was ok with was my son, even though he often drove me batty!
I dont think this job is ever plain sailing, but hope you are still enjoying it (mostly!)
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
I would suggest you be with the software you've used for so long. expending money on trying something new must not be done with such a job as accounting.
You keep on using Sage v-17.
Get a new harddrive and clone the old one into a new one.
It is as easy as that.
Happy New Year!
