Keeping Your Sage Data Secure and Up to Date

Part of the Sage 50 Accounts For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Keeping the data you have stored on Sage 50 Accounts secure and well maintained is important. Use this list of tips to help you achieve this:

Take regular backups – at least once a day. To do this, from the main toolbar, click File >Backup. You’re asked if you want to check your data beforehand. The backup window opens. Check that the location of the backup file is correct. If not, use your Browse button to find a suitable location. Modify your filename if required and then click OK.

If you backup twice in one day with the same filename, the second backup overwrites the first – so differentiate the filenames.
Regularly check your data, using File Maintenance. Access this tool from the main toolbar, by clicking File >Maintenance. Click Check Data, and Sage checks for any data problems.
Use passwords for security. If you’re signed on as the manager, you can use the Access Rights feature to set individual passwords and individual rights for each Sage user. For example, you may want to give someone access to the sales ledger or the purchase ledger but not the bank accounts.
If you have a single-user licence, the Access Rights facility is available only when you select the Access Rights check box on the Parameters tab of Company Preferences (from the main toolbar, click Settings >Company Preferences). After you tick this box, every time you start Sage, the Logon window appears. Type manager to log on; no password is needed, so just click OK.
To create a password, starting at the main toolbar, click Settings >Access Rights >New. You can enter a new user name and create a password. Click Save and then Close.
To change the access, highlight the individual user in the Access Rights window and click Details. The Access Details window opens, where you can set which modules that user has access to by clicking the Modules button and then editing each module by clicking the Full Access or No Access buttons.