July 2019 News & Tips
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SAGE 50 |
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EXCEL |
Version 2020 of Sage 50 released 7/17/19.
Custom report for Washington State Family Leave reporting |
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What's new in Sage 50 version 2020? |
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Spreading Text Over Multiple Rows in Excel Using Fill-Justify |
News
Sage 50 2020: Version 2020 of Sage 50 Accounting US Edition released on July 17th. See the Sage 50/Peachtree tip below for details on what's new. Users with a current subscription or support plan should see it appear through the normal updates within the next few weeks. Sage normally rolls out updates gradually to spread out the load on their download servers.
WA Family Leave Reporting: Do you need to submit a CSV file to the state of Washington for Family Leave? I have just built a report using Sage Intelligence Reporting that can simplify that process. This report can be filtered by date, employee ID, and employee type. It creates a list in Excel with columns for:
- Social Security Number
- Last Name
- First Name
- Middle Initial
- Total Hours (rounded to the nearest whole number)
- Gross Pay
From Excel you can save the report as a CSV file suitable for uploading to the state's website.
IMPORTANT RESTRICTIONS:
The gross pay on the report is the sum of each employee's hourly or salary fields. If you have set up miscellaneous fields (fields on the right side of the payroll entry window) that add to taxable gross, this report would not include those amounts.
The total hours on the report includes hours for all pay types. So if you use an hourly pay field to pay bonuses, commissions or other items that don't relate to hours, this report does not have a way to exclude those hours.
I'm making this report available for $185. Please contact me at the phone number or email below if you're interested. I can also customize the report to adapt it to your specific needs for an additional charge.
Steve Collins
IQ Accounting Solutions LLC
918-851-9713
scollins@iqaccountingsolutions.com
www.iqaccountingsolutions.com
Sage 50/Peachtree Tip - Sage 50 version 2020 New Features
Sage 50 2020 doesn't bring any groundbreaking new features but it definitely brings some welcome changes. These are the kind of small changes that long time users often wonder why they can't get, but software publishers are hesitant to invest time into because they don't give them new features to advertise. So here's what's new in version 2020.
- Select a Customer Contact When Emailing - When emailing an invoice or other customer form, there will now be a drop-down list that let's you choose from the list of contacts for that customer. Previously it would only send to the primary email for each customer. You are still limited to one contact per email. This only works when sending individual emails, not when batch emailing forms. This new drop-down menu is available in Quotes, Sales Orders, Proposals, Sales/Invoicing, Receive Money, and Credit Memos.
- Longer Deposit Ticket ID - The Deposit Ticket ID field has been expanded from 8 characters to 20 characters. This will be a big benefit to anyone who likes to use the date as part of their deposit ticket ID.
- Longer Address Fields - The address fields for customers, vendors, and employees have been expanded from 30 characters to 50.
- Longer Item Type Field - The Item Type field for inventory items has been expanded from 8 characters to 20.
- Vendor Notes Field - In the Maintain Vendors screen a Notes field has been added that can hold up to 255 characters. The note field does not print on any forms.
- Additional Fields on the Withholding Info Tab - Several states have passed legislation that requires new payroll deductions and formulas. To accommodate these new formulas and the variables that they require, Sage has added "Special 3", "Special 4", and Special 5" fields to the Withholding Info tab of the Maintain Employees window.
- Inbox Bell Icon - In the upper right corner of the main Sage 50 window, a bell icon has been added to notify you of unread messages from Sage.
- Database Upgrade from Pervasive v11 to Actian Zen v13 - The database engine that Sage 50 uses to manage your data (Pervasive) has been renamed "Actian Zen" and Sage has switched from using version 11 to version 13. This is a behind-the-scenes change that won't directly affect how most people use Sage 50. But according to Sage, it will improve performance in some database operations, it includes the latest security countermeasures to protect your data, and it helps ensure compatibility with the latest Windows updates. There is one aspect of this change that will affect some users. Because of the database change, Sage 50 versions older than 2019 will not work on the same computer as Sage 50 2020. But this will affect very few people other than accountants who need to support clients on multiple versions of Sage 50.
The first time you open your company in version 2020, the data will need to be converted. This is an automated process, but it can take a little while for a large database. So don't install the upgrade at a time when you'll be rushed to get back into Sage 50. After installing the upgrade I strongly recommend first opening your company at the server or the computer that holds your Sage 50 data.
If you want assistance with installing your upgrade, contact me at 918-851-9713 or scollins@iqacct.com to schedule an appointment.
Excel Tip - Spreading Text Over Multiple Rows in Excel Using Fill-Justify
Have you ever wanted to put a block of text on a spreadsheet? It may have been instructions for those who would be using the spreadsheet or just a long description, but it was definitely a nuisance trying to get the right number of words on each line. The Justify option on Excel’s Fill command makes this process easier than you could have imagined.
Let’s say you made a form in Excel and you want to place these instructions in a block, spread over several rows, instead of in one long line.
Through trial and error you could type a few words into each cell until you figure out what fits. Or you could type it all into one cell, select the area you want the instructions to fill, click the Fill button on the ribbon, and choose Justify. Excel will spread the text over as many rows as it needs to fit all of the text within the width of the area you selected. The area you select can cover multiple rows and/or columns.
Caution: If the text won’t fit it the area you selected, you will get a warning that reads “Text will extend below selected range”. Choosing Cancel will stop the Fill operation. Choose OK and Excel will continue filling your text into the cells below the range. Anything already in those cells will be overwritten without further warning. This is probably a good time to remind you of the greatest keyboard shortcut of all time, Ctrl+Z, the shortcut for Undo.
In this example, I had you type everything into one cell. But the text can be on multiple rows too. In fact, that is the best way to work around the 255 character per line limit of Fill – Justify. If you place more than 255 characters into one cell and use the Justify command, you will lose everything after the 255th character (remember Ctrl+Z). But if you put some of that text in the next cell down and then use Justify, (make sure both cells are in your selected area) and all of the text will be distributed, just like in the first example.
The ability to justify multiple rows means you can even re-justify a block of text. If you edited your text after using Justify, select the range and Fill – Justify again. Text will move up or down within the range as needed.
If you know other Sage 50/Peachtree users, do them (and me) a favor and pass this along to them. If you are someone that this has been passed on to, and would like to be added to my email list, you can subscribe for free at
www.iqaccountingsolutions.com/signup.html or send me an email at
scollins@iqacct.com. If you need to change your email address or would like to unsubscribe, you can use the links at the end of this email.
Steve Collins
IQ Accounting Solutions LLC
918-851-9713
10611 E 17th Place
Tulsa, OK 74128
