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smartin


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Problems with Sage Instant Accounts and Nortons ?
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Hi

I am hoping this forum may offer more help than I am getting from Sage direct.
I am studying to do my computerised level 2 & 3 exams with the ICB and Ideal Schools sent me Sage Instant Accounts last month.
Since installing, I have had nothing but problems and have spent as much time on the phone to their help desk as I have doing the course !
Firstly I had problems getting reports - the program just crashed - they finally (to cut a very long story short) decided it was down to Nortons 360 anti virus - so I spent ages on line with Nortons for them to show me how to accept anything Sage wanted to do.
Today I cannot get to any help topics without the program telling me it "Cannot display the web page". So again I phoned Sage help who weren't very helpful but suggested I do a "repair install" which I have done but still have the same problem ! So I have emailed them and the response is due in 3 days !!!

Now that my rant is over !!! The question for the forum is this.....

Does any one else have any problems running Sage and also running it with Nortons - If it is this still causing my problems, is there a better anti virus I should use that will work ?  Although I am not convinced it is Nortons causing all my problems - perhaps it is Vista. I am starting to wonder if Sage is the way to go.

Your thoughts please I am feeling desperate !

Thanks  ... Shirleyfurious.gif

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Amanda


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Hi Shirley,

What Sage instants have they sent you, the only reason I ask if I am on Vista and I have just for 1 client only that I do once a year version 10, and it is not compatable with Vista. You can input all the correct entries etc, but the report button is missing at the end of the toolbar. What I do is input everything on my Vista machine then take a back up and print it from my sons machine (I installed sage in there as well), which is XP. I also have version 12 on my machine and thats fine.

I would say that only Version 12 upwards is compatable, thats what it seems on mine, I'm sure if I'm wrong someone will say on here. I have AVG FREE anti virus, you can down load it free and its fine. I had norton years ago and cause me nothing but trouble. Thats only a personal oppinion.

Try de-installing it and then turn off the Norton and install it again? Only a suggestion.

Hope that helps
A


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Amanda
smartin


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Hi Amanda

Thanks for your advice. I am using version 15 which apparantly is the newest. What sort of problems did you encounter with Nortons ?

Regards
Shirley

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BackOfficeGroup


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I think it is a compatability problem with Vista - this operating system is a nightmare and I would not recommend it on a business machine. XP would be more appropriate as you will spend more time trying to sort it out than actually use it!

P

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Shamus


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Hi Shirley.

Go offline, disable your firewall, antivirus etc.

Start Sage.

If problem persists then it's not Norton causing it.

If Norton is causing issues ensure that you have the right version of Norton for your operating system. I don't think that the affects are so dramatic nowadays but when windows moved from 3.1 to 95 norton recognised the operating system as a virus and quarantined the operating system!!!

Anyway, back to the 21st century. Assuming that the problem was in fact nothing to do with Norton and SAGE were just grabbing at straws re-enable your firewall and antivirus and come back online.

Is the problem with displaying the reports on screen or actually printing them? Is it all reports or just some of them? If the problem is with the printing the issue is more likely to be with your printer drivers. If it's with displaying the reports on screen then sage has got problems with your system.

If the problem is system based then the most likely cause is that the software is not completely compatible with your version of Vista. (Even if the version of Sage that you were sent stated that it was Vista compatible it may not be completely so as it's a lot cheaper printing vista compatible label than reissuing software!).

Best approach may be to open Sage Instant using XP mode.

I use XP but Vista will have something similar to this(#1). Right click on the Sage Instant Icon and in the properties dialogue box click the compatibility tab. Just tell it that you want to run in XP compatibility mode and see if that makes any difference.

No guarantee that any of this will work for your setup but I'm guessing that this is more guidance than you've had so far from Sage & Norton!

Hope this helps and good luck with the exams,

Shaun.

#1 : from the Microsoft Website for Vista :

1. Open the Program Compatibility Wizard by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Programs, and then clicking Use an older program with this version of Windows.
2. Follow the instructions in the wizard.

the page is : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Make-older-programs-run-in-this-version-of-Windows

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Shaun

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Shamus


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Hi there fellow vulture,

think that we've both come to the same conclusion.

Problem is that many people don't have the luxury of multiple machines and operating systems so have to make the best of a bad job.

The banks point blank refused to move to Vista and even the likes of Dell offered XP as an alternate operating system right up until Windows 7 was released (apparently not a bad operating system from all reports).

And don't get me onto office 2007....

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Shaun

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smartin


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Hi Shamus

You are a diamond !
I will work through your suggestions and see what I come up with.

My Son hates Windows operating systems and insists on using Linux ! He wants me to change to either XP or Windows 7 - you are making me think this might be a good bet.

Thanks

Shirley

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smartin


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I have now tried turning off Nortons and the Firewall and running Sage ...... and still can't get to the Help files.

Tried running in compatibity mode as well and still no good.
I will have to see what they come back to me with when they get to my email.

Perhaps its Vista - can you still buy XP ? or should I just go for 7 ?

Regards

Shirley

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Shamus


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Next step.

What web browser are you using? The message about not being to access help topics could be down to using a non compatible web browser.

Although firefox is by far the best browser it's not always compatible with every website.

Internet explorer 7 has no major problems but was replaced due mainly to security flaws.

Features of IE8 are not always compatible with all software and your issue could lie there. If your using Internet Explorer go to Help / About Internet Explorer and have a look at what version your using.

Try installing the latest updates for your web browser as this may be a known glitch that Microsoft have already fixed. (don't know what the option is in Vista but in XP it's Microsoft Updater from within the help & support center).

Sorry that it's all guess work. It's hard to fix a computer when your not actually sitting in front of it and even then sometimes it can still be a complete nightmare.

Oh well, by the time we've finished we'll have probably rebuilt your machine!

Shaun.



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Shaun

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Shamus


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ALSO.... Quick brainwave.

Have a look in Norton at the internet access that you are blocking.

That will be in your firewall where there will be a list of internet access rules. Go down the list and ensure that Sage isn't being blocked. If it is just unblock it.

Why didn't I think of that one first. Duh!

Shaun.



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Shaun

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smartin


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I have finally sorted it !!!!

My son came home from college and said to try uninstalling Sage and re-installing which I have done and it now works.

Phewwww

Thanks for all the advice though

Shirley

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Shamus


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Glad that it's all sorted. It's so much better when one can be there doing it rather than trying to fix things over the net.

When you've finished with Sage have a play with VT Transaction+. It's a free download and 60 day trial. Only did it today myself and compared to Sage I think that it's brilliant. You do need to have more of an idea about the manual side of bookkeeping than you do with sage. For example, depreciation has to be journaled as it's not automatically generated.

When you are using Sage, another hint I've found from past experience is that threats of physical violence to the computer still doesn't make it work.

Sometimes with Sage it really is a wonder that there's not a chair embedded in my screen!

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Shaun

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BackOfficeGroup


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wow, does Sage do the depreciation thing automatically, lol.

I'm too old skool to use those things :)

XP is good and apparently Windows 7 is also very good but Vista stay away!! The only thing with new op systems is their compatibility with all your software that you've managed to pick up along the way.....

Well done Shaun, saved the day.....again.....supercat to the rescue, hehe

P

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smartin


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I will try VT Transaction, once I have passed my exams (got the level 2 manual in Feb) I hope to get my practise licence shortly after.

What do you use for your business ?

I thought I needed to offer Sage but I think I am starting to develop an allergy to it !!!

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Shamus


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Hi Shirley,

Well, in my case for the most part it's Excel but that's because I'm not 100% bookkeeper (still a banker mostly as to date that's what's paid the mortgage). I do credit control on occasion as well and that seems to be mostly SAP FICO work.

For my own office I have got Sage line 50 financial controller as my main package but try to avoid using it if at all possible. As mentioned earlier I'm currently loving playing with VT Transaction+ but I don't think that it's for everyone. If you've done you Manual level 2 though you'll be absolutely fine with it.

I think that if you intend to temp as well as offer bookkeeping services then Sage is an important asset but for the bookkeeping alone, unless you've got a client that uses it then you could use another package.

You could of course say the same about whether the client uses quickbooks or TAS or PTP or any number of software packages for their business.

Remember that with Sage the amount you pay goes up the more clients that you have. For your own business if you're not careful you could find yourself working just to pay Sage!

When jobs advertise SAGE it's worth noting that it's always SAGE line 50, not instant. I've never used instant myself so don't know how similar the packages are.

Also as a part qualified accountant I'm only allowed to go up to trial balance until fully qualified so I don't have to have the latest version of sage. For that reason I stopped at version 10 as it does everything that I need it to (when I let it out that is).

Others on here such as Amanda swear by quickbooks which seems to be the the real contended for the Sage crown.

Overall conclusion would be that getting sage under your belt certainly won't do you any harm but it's not the be all and end all. What you learn in one package is generally transferable to others as you find yourself looking for the things that you know in one package in the others.

Hope that this helps although I suspect that I just created more questions than I answered.

Shaun.


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Shaun

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Shamus


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Hi Phillip,

ex banker so that's fatcat not supercat!... I wish. As I was in contract rather than working direct I got better basic pay but non of the bonuses (or redundancy packages).


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Shaun

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gerry


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Shirley

Interesting picture!

Gerry

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Amanda


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Hi Shirley,

As Shaun says I rave about Quickbooks, but to be honest getting trained in SAGE is really good, I did it quite some years ago and its a good background to have. If you can use SAGE then you will find quickbooks a doddle.
I recently got a new client, one of the parents at school just because I was familier with Quickbooks, he has an older version, and it meant that he didn't have to train me he just leaves me to get on with it.
Good luck with your studies.

A

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Amanda
Amanda


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Hi Shaun,

Glad to hear you are trying VT+, I might have a look at it soon, just to be nosey really.
I wonder if anyone who uses it can tell us how the accountants get on with it? And is it prodominately geared towards spreadsheets? What about reporting etc.

I know some accountants still prefer SAGE, but my new client who I got because of QB, all his accountant's clients use QB, apparently hes converted them all.

Interesting topic maybe time for another thread?

thanks
A


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Amanda
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