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Is your Sage 50 Accounts running slow?

28 March 2023

Sage 50 Accounts

Summary

Occasionally your Sage 50 Accounts software may not work as expected, for example it may be running slowly, or it may keep crashing.

There’s no quick and easy answer to this. There are a number of reasons why Sage 50 Accounts can appear to be running slow, and determining what is causing the problem could require the involvement of your IT support.

In this blog, we’ll look at what can typically cause speed and performance issues in Sage 50 Accounts.

What can cause speed issues?

There are several reasons why this happens, including:

  • Data Corruption or volume of data
  • Computer or network issues, or other environmental factors, such as antivirus
  • A known issue\bug

Checking for data corruption

Corruption occurs when your data has become damaged. This normally happens because of environmental influences outside of the software itself. For example, computer crashes, power failure, interference from other software, or hardware or network problems.

You can check for corruption by running the Check Data option via File > Maintenance.

File Maintenance in Sage 50 Accounts

If the Check Data reports errors, these will need to be resolved, before you continue processing.

Check the volume of data

There’s no limit to the number of transactions or records you can have in Sage 50 Accounts. The capacity is only limited by the amount of disk space and memory available.

Sage can’t give a specific limit, as it depends on several factors including data size, network speed, number of concurrent users etc.

As a rough guide, Sage recommend the following:

  • Fewer than 250,000 splits (transactions). This assumes transactions are reasonably spread across all records within a certain module. For example, it wouldn’t be recommended to have 250,000 transactions
  • Fewer than 50,000 invoices
  • Fewer than 50,000 sales orders
  • Fewer than 50,000 purchase orders
  • Fewer than 5,000 customer records
  • Fewer than 5,000 supplier records
  • Fewer than 20,000 product records
  • Fewer than 2,000 project records

To check these, click Help then click About. The number of records will then appear below the Data Information section.

Checking the volume of data in Sage 50

If you have more than the recommended number of transactions or records listed above, it’s recommended that you reduce the numbers, by deleting old records and using the Clear Audit Trail option to remove old transactions.

See our blog on how to use the Clear Audit Trail option.

Look at your Sage 50 setup

Your PC specifications and network setup play a large role in how well the program is going to perform.  Use the following links to check the minimum specifications to run Sage 50 Accounts software on a device and your Windows permissions. 

All PC’s with Sage 50 Accounts installed, will need to meet the minimum specifications:

If you are running across a network via a mapped network drive, try using a UNC path to connect to the data. You can check the data’s current path under Help > About > Program Details and note down the Data Directory.

Firstly, browse to the Company File:

  • In V28 – C:\ProgramData\Sage\Accounts\2022
  • In V27 – C:\ProgramData\Sage\Accounts\2021

Then double click the file called company and choose to Open with Notepad.

You’ll then need to change the path in the company file to point to the data location using your Server name and shared data folder, for example \\SageServer\Sagedata.

Close and save the company file.

Anti-virus software and scheduled tasks

If your network and device is running antivirus software, you may want to check and configure your anti-virus, so it doesn’t cause conflicts with Sage 50 Accounts.

You can access the guide on modifying your anti-virus software to work alongside Sage 50 Accounts here.

If you seem to have performance issues at specific times of the day, or on specific days of the week, check scheduled tasks and amend any that are scheduled when the performance issues occur.

  1. Click Start then click All Programs and click Accessories.
  2. Click System Tools then click Task Scheduler and change the time on all relevant scheduled tasks.

If, after checking all of the above, you’re still continuing to have problems, contact us and we can help to troubleshoot and resolve the issue. It may also be possible that you’ve outgrown Sage 50 and it’s time to start looking at alternatives.

Further Information

If you have any questions about this or need assistance, then please contact the GCC Group Support Team on 0345 260 1151 or servicedesk@gccgroup.co.uk

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Sage 50 Health Check

GCC are offering a free Sage 50 Accounts Health Check for Sage 50 users.

We are aware that a lot of things may have changed in your business, post-COVID – and we want to make sure that you are getting the most out of your Sage 50 Accounts.

 

This free 30-minute health check will be via Microsoft Teams, with our Sage consultant – Guy Lester.

 

This Sage 50 Health check will review:

  • the performance, management accounts, reporting, credit control & stock within your Sage 50.
Book your check

Sage 50

Sage 50 combines the power of desktop accounting with cloud computing, allowing you to access your critical information any time, from anywhere.

The automated data-capture, in-depth reporting, and built-in help & guidance offered by Sage 50cloud accounts makes it an accounting system for the digital age.

There are 2 variations of Sage 50cloud accounts available:

  • Sage 50cloud Standard
  • Sage 50loud Professional

Sage 50cloud Accounts gives you the ability to leverage & act upon accurate information. And this is at the core of all successful business operations.

Speak to a member of the GCC team and find out more about Sage 50cloud.