What’s new guide ‐ Sage 200 Suite v2011

Sage 200 Suite 2011 is scheduled to launch in summer 2011. This latest version of the Suite builds on Sages market led strategy and takes us further on our journey towards our vision of Sage 200 for a connected world. We have listened closely to feedback, utilising wish lists and focus groups, as well as adding new features which support those trends in the lower mid‐market which are relevant to our customers, highlights of the release include:

• New improved Web, Time & Expenses
• New Migration Utility
• New Business Intelligence for Project Accounting
• New improved Sage 200 mobile – now includes iPhone
• CRM v7.1 Integration

The 2011 release builds on the key themes of:

Accessibility – Market trends tell us that customers want accessibility of information and immediacy of response – our customers want the ability to make smarter faster decisions. This release takes further steps to providing customers with the choice of how they access their data wherever they are on using whatever device they choose to use.

Information Management – Our phased approach to the information management strategy continues by the delivery of business intelligence for Project Accounting, giving business intelligence an even broader reach within the Suite.

Improved Usability – We want systems that are easy for our customers to use and require little or no training, so we have really focussed on improving usability within this release, particularly for Web, Time and Expenses (WTE) and the new migration tool. So far we have conducted over 30 usability tests with end users, partners and internal candidates who had never used the system before. These hands‐on tests helped us spot design flaws early on and makes us confident that users will find it easy to use.

The new version of Sage 200 Construction will be issued following the release of Sage 200 v2011 – expected in June/July 2011. The next release will include a number of bug fixes and update the user interface for purchase documents. We will be providing additional details of the contents of this release over the coming weeks. Please note this means that any Construction customers wishing to upgrade to Sage 200 v2011 will only be able to do so following the release of Construction later in the summer, as no compatible CD will be issued in May.

Features in both P11D Standard and Professional

Sage 50 P11D Professional Features only

Sage 50 P11D 2010 goes on sale from January 17 2011, and incorporates all the legislation changes needed to be fully compliant for 2010/2011 tax year expenses and benefits submissions.

This year sees several legislation changes that Sage 50 P11D 2011 incorporates, making processing and submission of the returns quicker and more accurate than a manual process. And as ever, Sage 50 P11D 2011’s calculations have been tested by leading tax specialists Ernst and Young.

Important: Sage 50 P11D is not Windows 7 compatible and is not included as a supported operating system on the system requirements

What does Sage 50 P11D 2011 integrate with?

Sage 50 P11D 2011 will import data from current tax year versions of Sage 50 Payroll.

Legislation and other changes applicable from 6^th April 2010

Our offices will be closed throughout the Christmas period, so will be unmanned from 3pm on 24th December, through until the morning of Tuesday 4th January 2011.

We will however be processing any orders placed through our on-line shop on a daily basis, with the exception of weekends and bank holidays, this means we will be sending out any orders on 29th, 30th and 31st. Please be aware that we are unable to process orders on any other days as the Sage offices will be closed down, so we are unable to have license keys generated.

Normal service and our usual 2 day delivery time-frames will resume from January 4th 2011.

Please also remember that there is a VAT increase from January, so prices will increase slightly in the new year.

During testing of Sage Construction against Sage 50 Payroll 2011 Sage identified an issue regarding internet submissions. If you install Sage 50 Payroll 2011 on a pc that has Sage 50 or Sage 200 Construction installed, Internet Submissions via Construction will fail.

The temporary workaround was to use a pc that has Construction installed either without Sage 50 Payroll or with a version below Sage 50 Payroll 2011, in order to allow internet submissions and Subcontractor verifications via Construction to continue.

The Issue is now resolved:

To allow Internet Submissions and Verifications to continue whilst using Sage 50 Payroll 2011, the Construct file ACcsUtilities.dll needs to be replaced on each client pc.

Please note there are separate files for each version of Construct (11.6.2, 12.0 & 14.0) – all patches can be downloaded from the Sage website, or contact us for download links.

The Upcoming release/update to Sage Payroll (2011) has been tested and is currently NOT compatible with Sage Construct/Sage 50 Construction. Testing has shown that the problem arises with the Internet Submissions module within Sage Construct as it uses some of the same files as Payroll (Internet Submissions).

Sage hope to produce an update (to either Payroll, or Construct) soon, but until that time Sage Payroll 2011 is not recommended/approved for use with Construct.

We will update here as soon as a patch is made available.

The new release of Sage 50 Payroll, version 2011 will be available from Monday November 15th.

New Features of Sage 50 Payroll 2011

• The new features included in the latest release include:

• New Report Designer

• New Starter Management

• New Leaver Management

• New Pay Element Management

• New Salary Sacrifice Pension Scheme

• New Automatic Backup & Recover Feature

We hope to get our hands on a copy just before it begins shipping, so will update the blog with our findings.

If you would like to buy a copy from the start of November this year, please visit the Sage 50 Payroll section of our online shop for up to date pricing and to place orders.

The new release of Sage 50 Accounts for SQL, which was due to be released in 2011 is no more. Sage have decided not to further develop the product for release

Steve Attwell, the General Manager of Sage Lower Mid Market Channel said:
“As you are aware we have been working on the concept of Sage 100, which takes our existing successful Sage 50 platform and migrates it to a MySQL database. During the course of this project we have also been taking a long hard look at future market and customer trends including demands such as SaaS, on demand delivery and how these impact our technology roadmap. As a result we have taken the decision not to release Sage 100 in its current guise and development has stopped.

This is not a decision we have taken lightly, however we feel it is the right decision if we are to meet our long term goals. I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for all the time and effort you have given in supporting us throughout the development stages so far and hope that we can continue to rely on your support in our future plans. Your input and feedback are crucial in making sure we have the right propositions to bring to market.

We firmly believe that the opportunity still exists within the market for a premium offering for expanding and growing business that have larger customer and supplier bases, larger transaction volumes and an expanding user base. Some growing Sage 50 Accounts customers need an accounting solution that has the increased capability of growing with their business, without having to move to the additional complexities of the Sage 200 Suite.

We are currently reviewing the relevant technologies which will allow us to deliver our Vision.”

The New Release of Sage 200 Has been Delayed

The latest release of Sage 200 (version 2011) had been scheduled for release in January of next year along with the integrated Sage CRM v7.1. Sage CRM is an optional extra for Sage 200 users to provide a fully integrated contact management solution with the accounts system. They will now both be made available from May 2011.

The launch date of Sage CRM has been revised, as a result of this the upcoming release of Sage 200 has also been delayed so the two can be released simultaneously.

This is what Sage UK have said:
“This decision to revise the launch date not only allows us to adopt the very latest CRM version but it also brings added benefits by enabling us to test 2011 with live hand held sites throughout our customers year end procedures. This ensures we maximise the benefits of the hand held site process and our stringent testing procedures and reflects our commitment to delivering high quality, reliable software.”

Whilst it is always disappointing when a product release is delayed, we are confident that it has been done for all the right reasons, we will, of course, keep you updated with any further developments.

Sage 50 Price Increase

It has just been announced by Sage that there will be a slight price increase on most Sage 50 software from 4th October 2010. Whilst not a major difference (around £10 on most software) this will apply to every Sage Accountant Partner and Business Partner, so from the start of next month you can expect to see the increase on all web shops offering the Sage 50 range.

So our advice is if you are planning to buy anything in the near future, do it in the next 2 weeks or it will cost you that little bit more.