I wrote to Sage South Africa for comment and I am still waiting for a reply. I am now sharing my communication with them with you as fellow community members.
Hopefully someone from Sage will read this message and respond:
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Subject: Urgent Need for Improved Support from Sage for Persistent Technical Issues
Dear Sage Support and Community,
As a long-time customer of Sage, I am increasingly frustrated by the lack of effective support and communication from Sage. Despite paying for an annual subscription, I, like many others in this group, continue to face unresolved technical issues with Sage products, particularly with Sage Intelligence Reporting and Sage 50C.
Currently, I am dealing with two persistent errors:
I’ve shared these issues within this community and greatly appreciate the input from fellow users. However, despite these efforts, both problems remain unresolved. From what I’ve observed, many of you are encountering similar errors, yet Sage’s response has been minimal or entirely absent.
The user forums and platforms Sage has set up are helpful for peer-to-peer support, but they cannot replace the company’s responsibility to provide timely and effective technical assistance. It’s unacceptable that recurring issues like these persist without clear resolution or proactive engagement from Sage.
I urge Sage to take accountability, address these widespread technical problems, and improve their support system to meet the expectations of paying customers. We deserve better communication and reliable solutions, not just workarounds from fellow users.
I’d appreciate any further insights from the community, but more importantly, I call on Sage to step up and resolve these issues once and for all.
Thank you,
Dawie Swart
Hi Dawie, Just wanted to find out if you look at the below and see if it resolves the Error 1004 you are receiving:
1. Run the report within Report Manager to MS Excel.
2. Apply the required changes in the Excel report.
3. Keep the MS Excel file maximized. Don’t minimize it.
4. Back in the Report Manager (still without minimising the Excel file), link the Excel (template) file to the report layout. Do this by right-clicking on the report and selecting the Save Excel Template option.

5. Continue with the rest of the steps on linking the Excel template file to the report.
Hi Dawie, Just wanted to find out if you look at the below and see if it resolves the Error 1004 you are receiving:
1. Run the report within Report Manager to MS Excel.
2. Apply the required changes in the Excel report.
3. Keep the MS Excel file maximized. Don’t minimize it.
4. Back in the Report Manager (still without minimising the Excel file), link the Excel (template) file to the report layout. Do this by right-clicking on the report and selecting the Save Excel Template option.

5. Continue with the rest of the steps on linking the Excel template file to the report.
*Community Hub is the new name for Sage City