If you want to try to continue using your Crystal Report, you can try it in my BizMan Reports 2.0 program that essentially replaces the Crystal Viewer that used to be built into Sage 50. You can get it from my website www.ridings.on.ca and contact me from there or my email in my profile here if you have any questions. Depending on the report customisations and version of Sage 50 you using, I have had many forms continue to work without issues. Some need some reprogramming to work in the more updated Crystal print engine that I am using.

I am afraid the only part I can help you with for the internal forms is the business number. Remove it from the Sales Tax setup and you should not see it print anymore at the bottom of the columns. If you have left the field on the invoice at the top of the columns, then as long as you have the business number in the Company Information area, it will still print on the invoice per regulations.

Appreciate the reply and the tips, tried that, didn't work, I even removed the company number out of the System/Company Information section, as well as the Taxes part, it still prints the number on the bottom of our Picking Slip form? Where else is that number stored, looks like it is written into the memory of the program now or something? I can't find anymore locations where it might be ??. I created a text box and manually put in the GST/HST number so it will still show on our Order Confirmations and Invoice where I want it to and keeping with regulations as well, but would be nice to get rid of it off the other form for good!

Was on your site, you have noted there is an issue with 2017 Sage 50 reading the program? Don't think I want to invest anymore money in a program if it is not going to work? also, I feel considering we are paying $1.500.00 for Sage 50 now, they could at least come out with a proper forms program for the millions of people left high and dry since the Crystal Reports deletion from Sage!

To my knowledge (unless you have inserted it as text on the form itself like you did with the sales order), the Business number showing at the bottom of the columns comes only from the Sales Tax setup.  The number at the top of the columns on the invoice (a field called the Company Business Number) comes from the Company Information.  There is no other place in the database this information is stored.

Lars007 said:

Was on your site, you have noted there is an issue with 2017 Sage 50 reading the program? Don't think I want to invest anymore money in a program if it is not going to work?

Sorry I left you with the impression it would not work.  The issue is not Sage 50 reading the program (not sure what that means), the problem is that Sage altered the format of the csv files that Crystal Reports reads without also altering the specifications for the files.  As I said on the website, the problem can be fixed with a bit of reprogramming of the forms but it only affects users of forms that have upgraded to Sage 50 2017.  Users who run management reports are not affected.

I don't know if Sage left millions high and dry but I know there were more than Sage's surveys indicated.  They used the Product Enhancement Program results to determine who was using it and who was not.  Unfortunately, until I told them, they had no idea many consultants automatically turned that off when doing installs, let alone the end users who did that themselves.  So Sage was not getting a representative cohort of information.

I know many were using Crystal Reports since the 90's to customise and put logos on invoices and move the subtotal and taxes to the bottom near the total.  I have put many of these clients back to the internal forms designer because they said moving the taxes and subtotal to the bottom was not 100% critical and they were ultimately willing to part with it (with a lot of grumbling in some cases).

There are many who could not move back to the internal forms designer because of the customised groupings and calculations necessary for their documentation.  I even have one client still using my original 2005 version of BizMan Reports to print multiple documents from the same invoice simultaneously due to shipping document regulations.  Some need the inventory additional info fields showing as rows (not columns) and not showing if there is no data, some need really complex layouts, like this one (I just tested the original in my BizMan Reports 2.0 program to make sure it worked with 2017.1 - it needed the reprogramming to get around the bug but works now).  I've even had a client need to have some text on some lines bolded but not on others.

So basically if you can do without it, it is ultimately easier to work within the program, but some requirements mean going outside the Sage 50 program to get what is needed.  Crystal Reports has a 20 year old history of integration with Simply/Sage 50 and is an option that can still work for some if they need it.

Hi,

Yes that is the place where I tried it first, didn't work, still prints on the bottom of the form?
So I tried deleting it out of the System Setting tab, same thing. I have no idea why it is still printing on the bottom of that form, I have no text fields down there, just the bottom of the column. I move it up, it moves up with it ?? It is like it's ghosted in the form somehow! lol

Sorry, I must of misunderstood the text "(Forms like Invoices, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, etc. will show up blank)" since I use the Sales Order form extensively, this was a concern! Can you modify the description column fields in your program like you could in Crystal Reports, so I can get rid of those fields ?

I am just so annoyed with Sage, been with them since the beginning, DOS 2.0 actually and have put up with all their "improvements" over the years, some were awesome, some not so much, just wish they would do a real email market survey, instead of the "Product Enhancement Program" with us regular users that rely on some of that "redundant" tech before they go and just get rid of it and leave us high and dry. I am sure if we all had of gotten an email pertaining to a major change that would affect the operation of our businesses, they would have gotten a huge response!

Sage can do in-product surveys but they just choose not to for some reason.

Lars007 said:

Sorry, I must of misunderstood the text "(Forms like Invoices, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, etc. will show up blank)" since I use the Sales Order form extensively, this was a concern! Can you modify the description column fields in your program like you could in Crystal Reports, so I can get rid of those fields ?

Just like Sage 50/Simply Accounting has never been able to edit the Description column on a Crystal Report template, neither can my program.  To edit the Crystal Reports rpt files, you still need the Crystal Reports designer.  If you are using the in-product print engine in Sage 50 2014.2 or earlier, you need to stay with the Crystal Reports 7-8.5 versions.  If you use my program, you can upgrade to current versions of the Crystal Designer.

I mentioned they will show up blank if they are not modified through the programming of Crystal Reports.  If they are edited, then they will show up as in my example I linked to earlier.

Now back to your sales tax business number showing up at the bottom of the columns.  I can't tell you how important it is to give us enough details to help.  Many people ask how to fix things but then don't tell us what they did or the error messages so we can help direct them.

In your case, you have not told me - version of Sage 50, whether you are really printing your Picking Slip as an Invoice, Sales Order or Sales Quote, did you go back and look up one that was already posted or are you testing the mockup of a new one or are you using a recurring transaction.

So my assumptions are:  Sage 50 2017, using an Invoice, looked up an old invoice that was posted before you blanked out the sales tax business number.  The results may be different if you pulled up an older order, quote, recurring entry, etc. as an invoice or order or quote.

If so, then the program is working as designed.  Any invoice posted in the past should be able to show you the sales taxes and information on the invoice as it was posted.  If you create a new one with the same tax code, you should see something different if you have now changed the sales tax setup.

Hope this helps

Yeah, that is Sage being Sage I guess! :(

Back to my tax number issue, here are the exact details of what I do;

Sage 50 Premium Accounting (Release 2017.1)

I have customized a "salorder.sfm" file in Sage 50 Forms Designer, to replace the one I had created in Crystal Reports, to use as a warehouse "Picking Slip" for the guys in the warehouse. (see above pic)

I go in through the "Customer Order screen - Creating an Order" and bring up a previously saved order in the system, then go into the "Reports and Forms" (CTRL+***+F) to get into the "Reports & Form Options" screen.
Hit "Browse" then select the modified file. "Picking Warehouse Slip.sfm", "Open" then "OK" to save and exit.

With that file now selected, I hit print and instead of getting a Sales Order form, I get my customized "Picking Slip", with no prices showing, or other non important information, except the issues with the fields I had mentioned above!

So I just tried it again, same as the tax line is still printing!
I also tried the 2 files that come as default, (salorder.sfm, salorder_disc.sfm) just to be sure it wasn't my file.
Didn't make any difference, tax line still prints?

I have no idea on this one.
See the pics of my settings menu screens.
Is there anywhere else that the tax number is registered in the program that I am missing somehow?



On your program, I have the file already created in Crystal Reports, as I was using it prior to 2015, just curious if your program would allow me to use it with Sage, or do I have to recreate the whole thing over again, if so, the fields in the description column you said, are not able to be deleted in your program, which means I would be no further ahead......correct?
Sorry for the confusion.

   

Lars007 said:

 
I go in through the "Customer Order screen - Creating an Order" and bring up a previously saved order in the system...
 
So I just tried it again, same as the tax line is still printing!
I also tried the 2 files that come as default, (salorder.sfm, salorder_disc.sfm) just to be sure it wasn't my file.
Didn't make any difference, tax line still prints?

I have no idea on this one.
See the pics of my settings menu screens.
Is there anywhere else that the tax number is registered in the program that I am missing somehow?

From what I am seeing, you are saying that when you "tried it again" you looked up an order that was saved prior to you deleting the business number from the sales tax area and you DID NOT try a new order.

Try a new order or delete the tax codes look at the preview and then put the tax codes back in and look at the preview again.

If you did as I described (and you indicated above) and looked up an order that was saved before you deleted the tax code business number, then the program is working as it should because there was a tax code business number when you recorded the sales order, so it must show it to you when you look it up again.  As I said, each revision of the tax code setup is saved and recalled so that you can get the same information and calculations on those past entries.

Creating a new one will show you the tax code business number should be gone.

If you move that order to an invoice, you will see there is no tax code business number at the bottom of the columns on the invoice as there used to be.

Regarding my program, if you want to see your Crystal Report printed from my program, click on my name on this website and you will find my email address.  Send it to me and I will send you a pdf of it from my sample file in Sage 50 2017.1.  To help you better understand how it works, I can give you a demo too later today if you like.

Hi,
Yes, when I processed a new order, the number has disappeared off the bottom of the form, finally. My new text box is showing it now where it should be. That is great from here on and for next year........although I will still have to white out the 407 orders I already have in the system for this year when I go to print the picking slips. I have created a text box for my custom invoice forms, so the registration number will print out on those, but that is just the tax number line anyways, not my main concern.


I will email you the file so I can see a sample .pdf to see if it will still blank out those fields or not.
Thanks for all your help.

You don't need a text box if the Company Business Number field is put on the form. It comes from the Company Information in the Setup, Settings, Company, Information dialog.

If you edit the orders, remove the tax codes from your sales orders and put them back before you print, the business number at the bottom of the columns should disappear. I didn't test conversion to an invoice to see if they would stay or not but again, if they did, then just remove the tax codes and put them back again and the business number will disappear.