age 50 Accounts is one of the most popularly used software accounting packages in the UK. It has been specially designed to meet the needs of small and medium businesses.  Businesses come in all shapes and sizes and each one has its own unique set of requirements. Sage 50 Accounts is used across a wide cross-section of professionals including bookkeepers, accountants and financial managers.

Learning the tools and functionalities incorporated in Sage 50 Accounts allows users to manage their businesses more efficiently and profitably. Read on to understand why learning Sage 50 Accounts can help you manage your business and advance career prospects at the same time.

Enhanced security:

Company data, including accounting data is often sensitive and confidential in nature. Sage 50 Accounts provides multi-level security features that allow you to restrict access across the organisation. This implies that you can control the level of access to company data and reduce the likelihood of theft and fraud of company resources.

Additional security features include the inability to make changes to the accounting data of a prior accounting period in the current period. Users are able to view data but cannot amend it in any way. This helps reduce the likelihood of accounting fraud.

Improved reporting function:

Sage 50 Accounts offers an improved reporting function that allows you to customise data and formats in financial statements. Company reports are generated for different user profiles including investors, shareholders and auditors. Sage 50 Accounts offers a range of reporting functions that facilitates simple, easy and convenient report generation.

For example, you can generate monthly, quarterly and annual reports as well as comparison reports for two different accounting periods. The user can also create customised reports from the Excel and Crystal function in the Sage 50 information section.

User-friendly software that can be used by non-accountants:

Although Sage 50 Accounts is an accounting solution at its core, it can be easily used by non-accountants too. For example, if you are a business owner who is not a qualified accountant by profession, you can still use Sage 50 to manage your business requirements. The features are explained in simple, non-technical jargon and moreover, the practice and demo data section helps non-accountants understand the different tools available (payroll and credit card processing are add-on modules to Sage 50 Accounts).

Scalable versions to match different business requirements:

Sage 50 Accounts is available in different versions and editions in order to meet the requirements of businesses with varying levels of complexity. A single edition of Sage 50 Accounts may consist of different versions. Furthermore, Sage 50 Accounts also offers payroll processing, inventory management and credit card processing features. The comprehensive set of features allows businesses to streamline customer management.

Sage 50 Accounts offers easy and error-free tax computation:

Computation of business taxes is often regarded as a daunting, stressful and overwhelming task. You will have to calculate VAT returns and other business taxes. Failure to submit accurate taxes can result in falling foul of the HMRC. Penalties and fines for faulty tax submissions are high and can hit your business hard. Every hard-earned pound is valuable when it comes to running a successful business. Thus, Sage 50 Accounts proves to be a valuable ally when it comes to HMRC tax submissions.

Sage 50 Accounts offers excellent tax computation tools that not only help calculate tax but also submit the taxes straight to HMRC without wasting valuable time. You can choose from a list of default tax codes or amend the tax codes for different products and services. Correct submission of taxes helps you claim legal tax benefits that your business may be entitled to. Accurate payment of taxes helps keep the company books clean and indicates that the business is transparent and honest in its dealings.

Improved inventory control and management:

One of the most beneficial tools in Sage 50 Accounts is the inventory function. One of the worst things that can happen to a business is being obliged to turn away customers and lose business due to non-availability of stocks (a stock-out). The disgruntled customers may never choose to buy from you again! Inventory management is often described as similar to walking a tightrope and with good reason.

On the other extreme, over-stocking is associated with its own set of disadvantages. The cash flow gets disrupted, important monetary resources get blocked and extra expenses may be incurred for storage purposes. Sage 50 Accounts allows users to closely monitor stocks and maintain an accurate forecast of stocks according to sales orders.

To summarise, Sage 50 Accounts is designed to help reduce the burden of day-to-day accounting while helping the user keep the larger picture in mind. While businesses may differ in their nature, they share common challenges, goals and problems. Every business seeks simple, effective and smart solutions that are successful in reducing complexity and risk. Learning the features of Sage 50 Accounts is enormously beneficial to accountants as well as non-accountants.