I remember reading a comment once that said "Accountants aren't boring people, they're just regular people who happen to get excited about really boring things." The truth of this statement was really driven home for me one time when I was chatting with a plumber as he was working to unclog my sewer line. He asked what I did for a living and I explained that I'm an accounting software consultant and gave a brief description of what that entails. His reply was "No offense, but that sounds so boring. I'd go crazy if I had to do your job." How's that for a commentary on the accounting software business? Clearing sewer blockages is more interesting!

If you focus on debits and credits, this is a pretty boring business. But despite what non-accountants think, accounting has never been about debits and credits; it's never been an end in itself. Accounting is about solving problems and helping business people succeed. And that's why I enjoy my job.

That's also what I like about Sage City. People come together here to share ideas and help each other solve problems. I’ve been active on Sage City, answering questions in the Sage 50 US community since its inception. And for the last three years I’ve been honored to lead some of the Sage 50 discussion groups in the live version of Sage City at Sage's annual conference, Sage Summit. Now I’m excited to have been invited to contribute to the Sage 50 U.S. Support and Insights blog.

My goal is to cover Sage 50 topics that need more space than is practical in the usual Q&A forums, such as explaining new features, answering common questions, or highlighting often-overlooked features. If you have ideas for topics please send me a private message, leave a comment below, or even email me at [email protected]. I can't promise I'll use every suggestion, but I would love to hear what you want to read about.

To give you some background on me, I’m a degreed accountant but now I specialize in helping businesses use their accounting software effectively. In the mid 90's I was a DacEasy user and in 1997 that led to a job with a consulting company here in Tulsa, OK that supported both DacEasy and Peachtree Accounting (now Sage 50 US Edition). Ironically, I ended up working primarily with Peachtree. During my time, there I worked with several excellent Sage products. But by 2008 when I made the leap into self-employment and started IQ Accounting Solutions, I knew that I wanted to focus on Sage 50 (well, actually it was still Peachtree then). Not only was it the software I liked the best but I found that, in this segment of the market, you're really able to get to know your clients and build good relationships with them.

It's getting close to 10 years since I started IQ Accounting Solutions and I still enjoy working with Sage 50 and Sage 50 users. 

Since we've already established that listening to an accountant talk is often not very interesting, but finding solutions to problems is, here are five time saving tips from a tips & tricks session I led at Sage Summit in May. You can download the PDF Top 20 Sage 50 Tips & Tricks from my website.

1. Entering Dates: Use the + or – keys to increase or decrease any date field. Or enter just the day of the month (such as 31) and Sage 50 will assume the current month & year. For dates outside of the current month, enter just the 6-digit date with no slashes (051017).
2. Jump to “Apply to Sales” When Entering Invoices: After entering the date on a sales invoice, you may want to skip directly to entering the detail lines. Alt+A selects the Apply to Sales tab. Press the Tab key once to advance to the quantity field. (Note: this shortcut won't work if the Track-It panel is open.)
3. Automatic Field Completion: To have Sage 50 automatically search lists (such as Customer or Item ID) as you type, go to the Options menu > Global. On the General tab check the box next to Automatic Field Completion. Most people also want to check Drop Down List Displays Automatically, but that may be slow with exceptionally long lists.
4. Double click lookup fields to jump to related maintenance screen: When entering a transaction, you can double click on any lookup field to jump to the related maintenance window. Need to edit an item when entering an invoice? Enter the item ID then double- click it to open that item in Item Maintenance, or double-click the Item ID field while it's blank set up a new item.
5. Hide Inactive Records: If you don't want to see customers, vendors, etc. that are marked inactive, go to the Options menu > Global and check the box next to Inactive Records. Now inactives will be hidden from all drop down lists. If you need to look at an inactive record you can still access it by typing its complete ID or by turning the option off.

  Steve Collins (aka StephenC)
  Sage 50 U.S. Certified Consultant
  IQ Accounting Solutions LLC
 

Check out my blog and YouTube channel for additional Sage 50 and Excel Tips.