When you use Sage 50 Accounts and exit the software you are always asked “Would you like to check your data before you back up? Do you always say yet to this? If you don’t then you really should.
If you want to find out more information about what to do if you have data errors, then take a look at my previous post Argh my sage has errors. What shall I do? and my post Good Housekeeping in Sage Accounts. explains how to do a Sage Data check.
Beware of Comments
My client had data corruption earlier this week which we were lucky to catch – Sage Data Check brought up 0 errors, but the problem was in the comments section of the data check.
In the past I have found data check comments are usually to do with how you use the software so they don’t raise alarm bells Things like budgets being negative or transactions posted in the future. – but I tell my clients to be aware of them in case it flags up a data entry issue.
In this case however the comment was “Account [code] has invalid currency” which when you look it up in the Sage knowledge base articles it could not be fixed within the software and the data needed to be sent off for repair. My client doesn’t even have the foreign currency part of the software turned on.
Luckily we have a close working relationship with an ex Sage developer who fixes data in a fraction of the time Sage take, and at a fraction of the cost – and I can talk to the person actually fixing the data – so all is good for our client – but we could have easily missed this problem and the corrupted currency file which caused the problem could have caused further issues down the line.
Do you check your comments?
So do you do a regular data check, and do you pay attention to the comments and warnings as well as the errors which pop up? First port of call for any new warnings or comments which do appear is to look them up on the Sage Data Repair Help Page – you can look up your particular problem on that page, and this will then guide you to the procedure you can follow to fix the issue, or suggest you send your data in to be repaired.
If your problem is a fixable one, and you do need a repair, or a 2nd opinion if a repair is actually necessary, then do get in touch with Alison or Paul at Silicon Bullet and we will do our best to advise you. We have a close working relationship with a sage data repair specialist who does the repairs in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost of using the Sage service or taking out Sage Cover.
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