Creating bespoke reports in Sage 50 Accounts?

[simplebeans]

Right so i'm a pretty technical person have studied computers and various programming languages all my life, so i think ill be best versed for this task. The only thing i haven't really used Sage many times in fact its probably the first few times i have. I have lots of data that i have recorded via excel and have just installed the excel toolbar for sage and got it connected and working. Only to realize that the toolbar only allows to import reports from sage.

What i am after is someone to help me understand how to import data entered into excel straight into Sage and then within Sage to be able to create some bespoke reports with the data, including layouts, additional sage fields if able to etc. I could be way off here but i am sure i am not as i consider Sage to be a powerful application that i am almost certain will offer this functionality. I have seen that the Sage Team offers services to build customized reports but at this present time i am in a better position with my technical abilities to perform the task myself if anyone can let me know briefly the process involved.

Thanks in advanced!

[leyburnsolutions]

What i am after is someone to help me understand how to import data entered into excel straight into Sage

There are two ways to get data in to Sage:

1. Use the built in File Import routine which takes data either from a CSV file or, on later versions, an Excel Spreadsheet although the data that can be imported is limited - full details can be found in the Help File.

2. Alternatively, the Sage Developers Kit can be used to post data directly from one application to another but this is only available to registered members of the Sage Developers Programme.

then within Sage to be able to create some bespoke reports with the data, including layouts, additional sage fields if able to etc. I could be way off here but i am sure i am not as i consider Sage to be a powerful application that i am almost certain will offer this functionality. I have seen that the Sage Team offers services to build customized reports but at this present time i am in a better position with my technical abilities to perform the task myself if anyone can let me know briefly the process involved.

To get data out, you have a couple of choices although both do rely on a knowledge of how the Sage database tables hang together for which there is no documentation although a lot of information can be gleaned by editing the standard reports in Sage.

1. The Report Designer in Sage is pretty comprehensive these days and it extracts the data from Sage via ODBC.

2. Use ODBC in an external application such as Access or Excel.

HTH

John

[simplebeans]

What i am after is someone to help me understand how to import data entered into excel straight into Sage

There are two ways to get data in to Sage:

1. Use the built in File Import routine which takes data either from a CSV file or, on later versions, an Excel Spreadsheet although the data that can be imported is limited - full details can be found in the Help File.

2. Alternatively, the Sage Developers Kit can be used to post data directly from one application to another but this is only available to registered members of the Sage Developers Programme.

then within Sage to be able to create some bespoke reports with the data, including layouts, additional sage fields if able to etc. I could be way off here but i am sure i am not as i consider Sage to be a powerful application that i am almost certain will offer this functionality. I have seen that the Sage Team offers services to build customized reports but at this present time i am in a better position with my technical abilities to perform the task myself if anyone can let me know briefly the process involved.

To get data out, you have a couple of choices although both do rely on a knowledge of how the Sage database tables hang together for which there is no documentation although a lot of information can be gleaned by editing the standard reports in Sage.

1. The Report Designer in Sage is pretty comprehensive these days and it extracts the data from Sage via ODBC.

2. Use ODBC in an external application such as Access or Excel.

HTH

John

Hi John,

That certainly DH (did help)

Ok so im thnking i can go down the Excel route i know you can save XML files via Excel. Basically i am looking at instead of entering data straight through Sage (item line message boxes) and then creating invoice reports. I can just fire up the spreadsheet (in a format thats easier for everyone to understand and input into), put in the required values where required and then use that data to then generate the invoice report im working with in Sage. Sounds simple enough and i think im almost 100% certain how to do it, i have looked at some XML files and the formats seems like the can be worked with, with excel so Sage can intrepet them through the import wizard. But you mentioned limitations, do you know what these are?

Alternatively when you suggested tranferring data directly from the Excel file is that more functional then the aforementioned?

Thanks

[brucedenney]

I think that you might need something like this

http://import.makingithappen.co.uk/cust ... ration.htm

[simplebeans]

I think that you might need something like this

http://import.makingithappen.co.uk/cust ... ration.htm

Thanks for that anyone else help me with this and wheres layburnsoluions got to.

[leyburnsolutions]

The limitations of the standard import routine are down to the type of data that can be imported.

For example, you can import sales invoices directly to the Audit Trail so they appear on the Customer Accounts but you can't import invoices into the Invoice List, this can only be achieved by a 3rd party application so it really does depend on exactly what you are wanting to import...

John