Sage Payroll: No Updates were installed

Occasionally, you may find that Sage Payroll “Software Update” will continue to prompt for an update that has been installed previously.

After hitting “Install Now”, you get a further notification that “No Updates Were Installed”.

The next time you start payroll, it will repeat the whole process again!

Fixing this is easy enough. Just delete the “softwareupdates.dat” from the “C:\ProgramData\Sage\SBD Software Updates” folder on the workstation.

You should now receive the correct notification that your software is up to date.

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SAGE 2010: Adding a Custom Menu Item

Each Sage 2010 User is associated with one or more “Roles”. Users with multiple roles can use “Switch Configuration” from the Sage 200 File Menu to choose the most appropriate one.

It is the “Role” (set within Sage System Administration) that determines the Menu Items they are presented with.

In Order to add a New Menu Item to a particular Menu, we need to complete the following Steps:

1. Add a New Feature / Target (set within Sage System Administration)
2. Authorise the New Feature for the Role (set within Sage System Administration)
3. Add a New Menu Item and Link to Target (using Sage Menu Designer)

In this example, we are adding a “Sales Orders (Live)” report to “Construct” Role within Sales Order Processing.

Step 1: Add a New Feature
Features apply to the system as a whole. Start up Sage System Administrator: Sage Tools => Sage 200 => System Administrator.

Find a suitable place within the features structure and choose “Add Menu Item” from the Context Menu. In this case, we are adding a new “Feature” to “Sales Order Processing”.

For consistency, populate the “Name” field with the name of chosen Menu Item. Leave the default GUID.

Click OK.

Still within “Features”, locate the newly added Item and add a new “Target” as shown below.

Note:

• A “Target” is simply a shortcut to a Report / Program that can appear as a Menu Item (within any Menu).
• A Feature can contain multiple “Targets”.
  

Fill in the details using the screen shot below as a guide. Leave the “Target GUID” field alone.

Step 2: Authorise the New Feature within the Menu
Start up Sage System Administrator (if you have not already done so): Sage Tools => Sage 200 => System Administrator.

From within “Roles”, select the appropriate “Role Name” (that matches the Menu) and then select “Features”.

Locate the new Menu Item within the Tree and ensure that “Sales Orders (Live)” is checked.

Click OK.

Step 3: Add a New Menu Item
In this final Step, we will actually create the Menu Item and link it to the “Target” created above.

Start up Sage 200 / MMS using a valid Username and Password (must be an Administrator) and select “Menu Design Mode” from the Tools Menu.

Select the Appropriate Menu (Desktop) using the Desktop Design Toolbox. Since we are adding a new item to the “Construct” menu, we need to choose “Construct” from the list.

Find a suitable place in the menu structure, then “Right Click” with the mouse and choose “Add Menu Item”

Use the example below as a guide to completing the fields.

Choose “Existing Target” and then “Select Target”.

Locate the newly added Feature and then Click “Select.

Leave the default Icon alone. Click “Save”.

To move the new Menu Item further up the Menu Tree, select “Move Up” on the context Menu.

Save the Menu Changes when complete.

Close the Menu Designer and return to Sage 2010.

That’s basically it. All users using the “Construct” menu should now have a new report to play with.

Stephen Holder
28 August 2015

Sage 200: SOP Schema

This is the first in a series of articles documenting the Sage 200 Database Schema.

Click here to download a PDF of the Sage SOP Schema.

Sage 2010: Stock Balances

The terminology used by Sage within the 2010 Stock System is not always clear. Here is a brief attempt to document the various types of Balance.

Qty Allocated = Qty Allocated Stock + Qty Allocated BOM + Qty Allocated SOP. These are the three mechanisms by which Stock levels can be depleted.

Unconfirmed Quantity in Stock
Essentially, this is POP Stock Received but not Invoiced. Therefore, the Stock Value cannot yet be “Confirmed”.

Confirmed Quantity in Stock
POP Stock Received and Invoiced. Therefore, the Stock Value is “Confirmed”.

Actual Qty (Physical Stock) = Confirmed Qty + Unconfirmed Qty. Within Sage, the terms “Physical” and “Actual” stock are used interchangeably.

Free Stock = Actual (Physical) Qty – Qty Allocated.

Windows 7; Sage Construction and Outlook 2010 Incompatibilities

Many applications that purport to run on Windows 7 often require UAC (User Access Control) to be disabled or additional privileges to be given to Standard Users.

I had reasonable success running the latest version of Sage Construction (v14) on a Windows 7 Workstation, until one of the users attempted to Email a Report from the Print Spooler.

This generates an “R5Manager.exe” run time error, causing the program to bail.

The only way to get this to work is to set Sage Construction to start up in “Compatibility Mode” with with “Administrator” Privilege.

This is fairly standard procedure, but we now have an additional problem on systems where UAC is enabled. Each time a user wants to load Sage Construction, they will receive a UAC warning and they will not be able to continue unless they are an Administrator on the local machine (or enter Administrator credentials when prompted). 

So, we are now faced with the possibility of giving Standard users Administrative permissions for their Workstation.

Not only that, but (to “resolve” the problem fully) we also need to Configure Outlook 2010 to run in “Administrator Mode” as well. Personally, I think this is a step too far and Sage needs to get a patch issued ASAP to address this issue.

Despite Sage Support advising me that Sage Construction will run on Windows 7, it is clear that more work still needs to be done.

Sage 50 HR Firewall Ports

Sage 50 HR requires the following Firewall Ports to be open on the Server:

TCP 4197
TCP 5150

Sage 200 Suite 2010: Web Service Enhancements 3.0

I recently had some difficulties installing Sage 2010 on Windows 7 (32 Bit). A couple of machines were complaining about Microsoft Web Services Enhancements (see Screen Shot).

It’s easy enough to resolve. Install “WSE 3.0 Runtime” from the WSE3_0 Folder on the Sage 2010 CD before running the Sage 2010 Setup Routine. Note: it is possible to download WSE 3.0 from the Microsoft web site, but you must use the version provided on the Sage CD to resolve the problem.