50

Accounts

Installation and Upgrade Guide

Sage (UK) Limited Copyright Statement

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Sage (UK) Limited

North Park
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE13 9AA
Sage 50 Accounts 2009 Installation and Upgrade Guide

Welcome to our quick installation guide which will help you install
Sage 50 Accounts 2009.

Contents
1. System requirements

2. Information for customers in the Republic of Ireland

3. First time installation

3.1 Sage 50 Accounts 2009 single user installation
3.2 Sage 50 Accounts 2009 multi user installation

4. Upgrade installation
4.1 Preparing to upgrade
4.2 U
 pgrading to Sage 50 Accounts 2009 single-user
installation
4.3 U
 pgrading to Sage 50 Accounts 2009 multi-user
installation

5. How to get help

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1. System requirements

Before installing Sage 50 Accounts 2009, you should check that

your PC meets the following requirements:

Minimum Hardware
n An IBM® compatible PC with 1Ghz (or equivalent) processor

n 512MB RAM

n 700MB of free disk space after Microsoft Windows® has been installed

n Network users only: 100Mbps network with Microsoft Windows® networking

Recommended Hardware
n An IBM compatible PC with a 2 GHz (or equivalent) processor

n 1GB RAM

n 1GB of free disk space after Microsoft Windows® has been installed

n Network users only: 1Gbps network with Microsoft Windows® networking

Supported Operating Systems

n Windows XP (recommended)

n Windows 2000

n Windows Server 2003

n Windows Vista

Please ensure that the latest Microsoft updates are installed.

Sage 50 Accounts 2009 is compatible with Microsoft Office 2000 and all later editions.

Performance is improved with higher specification PCs and networks.

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2. Information for customers in the Republic of Ireland

Before installing Sage 50 Accounts 2009, we recommend that you check your PC’s Regional
Options.

The Regional Options determine the default currency and tax codes that Sage 50 Accounts
uses. If you set your Regional Options to English (Ireland), Sage 50 Accounts automatically
uses the following settings:

n The default base currency is euro for all new companies you create, and for all new
customer, supplier and bank records within the company.

n The standard rate tax codes are T1 21% and T3 13.5%.

To check your PC’s Regional Options, open the Windows Start menu, choose Settings and /
or Control Panel. Open the appropriate Regional Option, and ensure that your settings display
English (Ireland) or Ireland:

n In Windows XP, the option is called Date, Time and Regional Options

n In Windows Vista the option is called Regional and Language Options

n In Windows Server 2003 the option is called Regional and Language Options

n In Windows 2000, the option is called Regional Options

For full details about changing your Regional Options, please refer to your Windows
documentation.

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3. First time installation

3.1 Sage 50 Accounts 2009 single user installation

This section describes how to install Sage 50 Accounts 2009 for the first time on a single PC.
If you are upgrading an existing Sage Accounts installation, please refer to section 4, Upgrade
installation. If you are installing a multi-user version of Sage 50 Accounts, please refer to
section 3.2, Sage 50 Accounts 2009 multi-user installation.

Note: If your CD drive is set up to run CDs automatically, when you insert your CD into the
drive, the installation menu appears, and you should proceed to step 3. If your drive does not
have an auto-run facility, please follow the instructions from step 1.

1. Insert your CD into the CD drive.

From your Windows desktop, open the Start menu.

2. From the Start menu, choose Run and in the Open box, type d:\start, then click OK.

Windows Vista – In the Start Search box type d:\start and press Enter.

Note: If your drive letter is different to that in the example, please ensure you use the
correct letter for your drive.

The Sage 50 Accounts 2009 window appears.

3. From the menu options, click Install.

The setup program prepares the installation and the Software Licence Agreement
appears.

4. When you have read the terms and conditions in the Software Licence Agreement, to
continue with the installation, click Accept.

The Select Installation Type window appears.

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5. To ensure that you install all of the Sage 50 Accounts components, click Standard Install.

The Start Copying Files window appears. The software installs into the default program
directory. This location is shown under Destination Folder. The Program Folder and
Setup Type are also confirmed in this window.

Note: We recommend that the default directory is used for all new installations.

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 6. To continue with the installation, click Next.

The installation begins, as indicated by a series of progress bars before the Installation
Complete window appears.

Note: If this is the first time you have installed .NET dependent software the installation
process may take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The installation of .NET must
not be interrupted and should be allowed to complete in full.

7. To complete the installation, click Finish.

Windows Vista / Windows XP – The Sage 50 Accounts 2009 window appears. To exit the
window, in the top right corner, click the Close button.

Windows 2000 / Windows Server 2003 – You are prompted to restart your PC. To restart
your PC now, select Yes, restart my computer, and click Finish.

Alternatively, to complete the installation and restart later, select No, I will restart my
computer later, and click Finish.

Note: You must restart your PC before you start to use Sage 50 Accounts.

You are now ready to use Sage 50 Accounts 2009. To open the software, double-click the
Sage option on your Windows desktop, or click Start, open the (All) Programs menu, choose
Sage 50 Accounts then choose Sage 50 Accounts 2009.

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3.2 Sage 50 Accounts 2009 multi user installation

Installing on the server

If you are installing a multi-user version of Sage 50 Accounts 2009, you should first install the
software on the server. To install the software on to the server, you may use the Standard or
Custom Install method. To complete the installation of Sage 50 Accounts 2009 on your server,
please follow steps 1-7 of section 3.1: Sage 50 Accounts 2009 single user installation.

When the server installation is complete, and you have used the ActiveSetup Wizard to set up
your company details, you should create a new user name for each person who will use Sage
50 Accounts. For further information about this, to open the Help system, press F1.

To allow the client PCs to access the Sage 50 Accounts data across the network, you must
share the Accounts folder, allowing Modify permissions to all sub-folders and files. By default,
the Accounts folder is located as follows:

n Windows Vista – C:\ProgramData\Sage\Accounts

n Windows 2000 / 2003 Server / XP – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application

Data\Sage\Accounts

Tip: The Application Data and ProgramData folders are hidden folders. To show hidden folders,
in Windows Explorer, open the Tools menu and choose Folder Options. Click the View tab,
select Show hidden files and folders, then click OK.

For further information about sharing folders, please refer to your Windows documentation.

Installing on client PCs

After installing Sage 50 Accounts 2009 on your server, and sharing the Accounts folder,
you must install Sage 50 Accounts 2009 on your client PCs. Your client PCs hold the
program files on their local hard drives whilst looking across the network to the server
for the data. This allows a centralised set of data that everyone can view and work with.

Note: Before installing Sage 50 Accounts 2009 on your client PCs, we recommend that you
map a network drive to the shared folder containing the Sage 50 Accounts data on the server.
Mapping a drive letter to the server ensures a permanent connection to the Accounts folder
every time you start a client PC. For further information about mapping network drives, please
refer to your Windows documentation.

To install Sage 50 Accounts 2009 on the client PCs, please follow steps 1-7 of section 3.1:
Sage 50 Accounts 2009 single user installation.

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 When you open the software for the first time on the client PC, the ActiveSetup Wizard
appears. The wizard allows you to use a company already created in another installation.
You must choose this option and browse to the drive that you mapped to the shared
Accounts folder on the server. For further information about the options in the ActiveSetup
Wizard, to open the Help system, please press F1.

You must repeat this procedure for each of your client PCs.

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4. Upgrade installation

4.1 Preparing to upgrade

This section contains information specific to your upgrade and also gives tips to help ensure
a smooth upgrade process.

We recommend that you read this section before upgrading.

If you are unsure which version of Sage Accounts you are currently using, from within your
Sage software, open the Help menu and choose About. The program version number
appears on the General tab of the About window.

n Check your program directory

From within Sage Accounts, open the Help menu and choose About. From the About
window, click System Information and then click Directories. The program directory
appears here.

n Check your data

To check the validity of your data, from the File menu, choose Maintenance then click
Check Data. If errors are reported, do not proceed with the installation. Correct any errors
before proceeding. For more information, to open the Help system, press F1.

n Back up your data

Before proceeding any further, take an All Files backup of your Sage Accounts data
from within your existing software. Label this backup clearly as ‘Full Data Backup Before
Upgrade’ and store it in a safe place. For more information, to open the Help system,
press F1.

n Bank Reconciliation
If you are part way through your bank reconciliation procedure, before upgrading your
software, complete your saved Bank Reconciliation in full. This is an added precaution
against the risk of losing your saved reconciliation data.

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 4.2 Upgrading Sage 50 Accounts 2009 single user installation

Note: Before proceeding with the upgrade, please read section 4.1: Preparing to upgrade.

Upgrade by overwriting your existing software

To overwrite your existing software and automatically convert your data, you must install
Sage 50 Accounts 2009 into the same directory as the previous version. To do this, please
refer to steps 1-7 of section 3.1: Sage 50 Accounts 2009 single user installation and follow
the instructions using the Custom Install option instead of Standard Install. The Custom Install
option allows you to choose the correct existing program directory.

Note: If this is the first time you have installed .NET dependent software the installation
process may take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The installation of .NET must not
be interrupted and should be allowed to complete in full.

When you open your upgraded software for the first time, Sage 50 Accounts 2009 converts
your data into the required format automatically.

When the data conversion is complete, you are ready to start using Sage 50 Accounts 2009.

Install in a new directory and convert your data

To install Sage 50 Accounts 2009 into a new directory, please refer to section 3.1, Sage 50
Accounts 2009 single user installation and follow the instructions using the Custom Install
option instead of Standard Install. The Custom Install option allows you to choose a new
directory.

Note: If this is the first time you have installed .NET dependent software the installation
process may take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The installation of .NET must not
be interrupted and should be allowed to complete in full.

When you open Sage 50 Accounts 2009 for the first time, the ActiveSetup Wizard appears.
Using the wizard, to convert your existing data, choose from the following options:

n To restore a backup of existing Sage Accounts data, select the Restore data from a back-
up file option.

n If you know the location of your existing data, select the Use a company already set-up in
another installation option. You can then enter the path to the directory containing the data
you want to upgrade.

When you restore data or select data to convert, Sage 50 Accounts 2009 detects that the
data is from an earlier version of the software and converts it into the new format.

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4.3 Upgrading to Sage 50 Accounts 2009 multi user installation

If you are unsure which PC is the designated server, holding the centralised data, to locate the
server, please refer to the following steps:

1. For each PC in turn, from the Sage Accounts menu bar, choose Help then choose About.

2. Click the System Information tab, and from the left-hand pane, select Directories.

The Program Directory and Data Directory appear in the right-hand pane.

3. Make a note of the Data Directory.

4. To return to the Sage Accounts desktop, click Close.

The PC showing a local drive letter, for example C:\, is the PC holding the centralised data and
is referred to as the server in this guide. Any PCs showing networked data paths are referred
to as clients.

When upgrading an existing version of Sage Accounts multi-user, the installation can be
separated into two stages.

1. You must upgrade to Sage 50 Accounts 2009 on the server and convert the existing data
so that it is in the correct format. For details about how to do this, please refer to section
4.2, Upgrading Sage 50 Accounts 2009 single-user installation.

Note: You must make sure that no users are using Sage Accounts or are connected
to the server’s installation of Sage Accounts before proceeding with the upgrade on
the server.

2. You need to install Sage 50 Accounts 2009 onto each of the client PCs. These PCs hold
the program files on their own hard disk, but use the shared data on the server, giving a
centralised set of information that all Sage 50 Accounts 2009 users can view and work
with simultaneously.

Note: If this is the first time you have installed .NET dependent software the installation
process may take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The installation of .NET must not
be interrupted and should be allowed to complete in full.

To complete the upgrade process on the server, and convert your existing data into the new
data format, open Sage 50 Accounts 2009. All client PCs access the same set of data, so
no conversion messages appear when you upgrade the software on the remaining PCs.

Do not open Sage 50 Accounts 2009 on any of the client PCs until the installation routine
is complete.

For details about how to do this, please refer to section 4.2, Upgrading Sage 50 Accounts
2009 single user installation.
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 5. How to get help

If you require further help and assistance there are several information sources available
to you:

In-software support – A context sensitive Help system is available within Sage 50 Accounts
2009. To access the Help system at any time, press F1 on your keyboard. On opening your
software, the Welcome to Sage Accounts 2009 window appears offering links to a range of
support materials.

Online support –

n UK: Ask Sage is a searchable database of the questions most commonly asked of
Sage Technical Support. Ask Sage is available to all SageCover members 24 hours
a day seven days a week and can be accessed at http://ask.sage.co.uk or by
selecting Ask Sage from the Welcome window in Sage 50 Accounts 2009.

n Republic of Ireland: Online support is available in the following location:

www.sage.ie/supportnew/home.htm

Email support – Our Technical Support Team can be contacted by emailing your query to:

n UK: support@sage.com

n Republic of Ireland: line50.support@sage.ie

To ensure that you receive a prompt reply, please remember to include your account or serial
number in all correspondence.

Telephone support – Sage Technical Support is available to SageCover customers by calling:

n UK: 0845 111 5555

n Republic of Ireland: 1890 946 771

User guide – A PDF copy of the Sage 50 Accounts 2009 User Guide is included on your
software CD. To access the User Guide, browse the CD contents.

Updates – It is important to keep your software up to date at all times. Sage 50 Accounts
2009 introduces an Automatic Updates facility that notifies you of update availability and
assists with their download and installation.

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Notes

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 Sage Customer Support 0845 111 5555

For more information please visit

www.sage.co.uk/welcome/home.aspx

Sage’s policy is one of constant development and improvement.

We reserve the right to alter, modify, correct and upgrade our software
programs and publications without notice and without incurring liability.

Sage (UK) Limited

North Park
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE13 9AA

Telephone 0191 294 3000

Facsimile 0845 245 0297
Website www.sage.co.uk

© Sage (UK) Limited 2008 08/08 4063M