Posting Transactions to Sage

GDS Workshop Manager can export records to Sage. It creates Comma-Separated Value (CSV) files which can be imported by Sage.

The facility is compatible with any versions of Sage so long as it has a file import facility. In practice this means Sage Line 50. There is another application called Sage Instant Accounts which only acquired the file import facility within the last couple of years. The following example uses Sage Instant Accounts.

Accounts Export

Workshop Manager can export three types of transactions:

•	Customer accounts

•	Supplier accounts

•	All transactions

These correspond to the following Sage items:

Workshop Manager	Filename	Sage
Customer accounts	SALES.CSV	Customer records
Supplier accounts	PURCHASE.CSV	Supplier records
All transactions	TRANS.CSV	Audit trail transactions

Only invoices which have been posted in the Workshop Manager will be posted to Sage. Normally you should only post a given transaction to Sage once. You can preview the transactions which are to be exported to Sage by opening 'Post Transactions to Sage Accounts' in the GDS menu and clicking the 'Transactions...' button. A report will be displayed which lists the record and transactions which will be exported.

The process of exporting records to Sage is a two-step one:

1. Exporting the records from Workshop Manager.

2. Importing the records into Sage.

Setting up Workshop Manager to export to the correct directory

Before you export to Sage for the first time you should ensure that Workshop Manager is configured to save the export files to the directory in which Sage looks for import files.

The setting can be found under GDS > Configuration Settings > System Settings > Accounts Settings. In the 'Accounts Settings' section is a field called 'Export Folder:' which Workshop Manager will use when saving export files. To find out which folder your version of Sage uses, open Sage and click on the 'Import...' option in the File menu. Select an Import Type (any will do) and click the Run button. The Windows file browser will open and the directory it opens in is the one you should add to Workshop

Exporting the records from Workshop Manager

To export records from the Workshop Manager:

1.	Ensure all invoices to be exported have been posted (see the help topic Posting an invoice for more details).

2.	In the GDS menu select 'Post Transactions to Sage Accounts'.

3.	Select the transaction and record types you want to export.

4.	Click the 'Generate Sage Import Files' button to create the file or files.

Workshop Manager will create the selected files. These are Comma-Separated Values (CSV) files and they can be opened in a number of applications included text editors and spreadsheet applications. However we recommend that you do not open and resave the CSV files using a spreadsheet application before importing them into Sage because some applications can subtly change the data causing Sage to reject the files. If you need to modify the files use a simple text editor such as Notepad.

You can preview the records to be exported by clicking the Transactions button. A report will be displayed that shows all the records which will be exported.

Importing the records into Sage

Files have to be imported into Sage individually.

1.	Open Sage.

2.	In the File menu, select Import...

3.	In the File Import window, select the Import Type.

4.	Click the Run button.

5.	In the File Browser locate and select the relevant file (see below).

6.	Click the Open button and the import will begin.

Sage File Import

The files you should select for each import type are:

Sage	Filename
Customer Records	SALES.CSV
Supplier Records	PURCHASE.CSV
Audit Trail Transactions	TRANS.CSV

Depending on how your Windows is set up, you may not see the file extension .CSV in which case the files will be called SALES, PURCHASE and TRANS.

You must ensure that the files you select for each import are correct. Sage will not necessarily indicate an error if you import the wrong one. You should also ensure that you do the Customer and Supplier records first and then the Audit trail transactions.

If the import is successful you will see a message indicating that. If the import is unsuccessful an error message will be displayed which indicates the reason for the failure along with the rows which have caused the failure. You can use this information to track down the particular rows in the export file and either correct them and run the import procedure again or manually enter the information directly into Sage.

Previous exports

In the Accounts Export screen there is a tab that enables you to see previous export batches. From these batches it is possible to recreate export files and export them to Sage. This might be useful if a previous export/import has failed or there has been some kind of data loss.

Previous Exports

To export a previous batch:

1.	Click on the Previous Exports tab in the Accounts Export screen.

2.	Select whether you want to export Sales Batches or Purchases Batches by clicking on the relevant tab.

3.	Select the batch you want to export by checking the box next to it (you can select more than one).

4.	Click the 'Create Sage import files from the selected batches' button to create the file or files.

From this point you can import the records into Sage using the procedure outlined previously.

Viewing previous posting batches

There are two reports which give a breakdown of invoices posted on a batch-by-batch basis. These reports are:

Reports > Accounts > Sales Postings to Sage

Reports > Accounts > Purchase Postings to Sage