x Want to participate? Join the group to interact
Keith L
Related
Recommended

Sage 50 2014 – New Functionality (1): Efficient Updates and Installation

4 minute read time.

Hi Everyone,

Guess I show up one day earlier than I promised last week. 

With the new Sage 50 2014 officially launched today, most of you will be quite interested about what new functionalities are included in this release.   Listed below are the improvements that we implement in Sage 50 Accounting.

    • Efficient updates and installation
    • Faster download and installation
    • Changes to the Manitoba sales tax
    • Database upgrade
    • Sage Advisor

Let us talk about the first improvement in today’s blog post. We achieve efficient updating and installation through a new feature called auto-deployment.  

Starting from Sage 50 Accounting 2013.3, when an upgrade or update is released and your computer is connected to internet; Sage 50 Accounting automatically detects it and downloads it in the background to the default download location.

  • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\Sage Software\Simply Accounting\Download
  • Windows Vista/7/8: C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Sage Software\Simply Accounting\Download

If you shut down Sage 50 while the upgrade is being downloaded, it will continue in the background. If the computer gets shut down or the download is interrupted by whatever reasons, the download will start up again when Sage 50 is opened the next time.

Once the upgrade file is downloaded to the computer, when you close Sage 50, there will be a prompt asking you to either install the upgrade now or remind you later. You can go ahead to install the upgrade by clicking “Install Now” or close the software without installing it by clicking “Remind Me later”.

If you have Sage 50 opened for 2 days, there will be a prompt reminding you about the update. Again, you can click “Install Now” to run the upgrade installation or click “Remind Me later” to run it at a different time.

During the upgrade installation, you should not need to enter any 2014 software information. The Serial Number and Key Code will automatically be retrieved by the software if the computer is connected to the internet. In case you are asked to key in your software information, please do not use the Serial # and Key Code of your Sage 50 2013. Keep in mind that for Sage 50 2014, you will be given a new Serial # and Key Code. Give us a call to confirm your software information by 1-888-522-2722. We will also email you the information one week after the auto-download becomes available. This is intended to work as a backup method.

After the installer wizard starts, if your Windows User Account Control (UAC) is on, you may get a UAC prompt. Please click yes to continue the installation.

Before the installation starts, you will have to go through the End User License Agreement (EULA). Please read it through and check the box “I agree to accept the terms of the license agreement”. Then, click install to continue.

The next window will show you the progress of the installation. Depending on the speed of your computer, it may take a while.

Once the upgrade is successfully installed, you will see a new Sage 50 icon on your desktop. The new icon looks the same as your Sage 50 2013 icon. The only difference is the name of the icon. For the new Sage 50 2014, the name is Sage 50 (your version) with NO year behind. For Sage 50 2013, the name of the shortcut is Sage 50 (your version) 2013.

One friendly reminder is that after the installation of Sage 50 2014, if you click the Sage 50 2013 icon to open 2013 and then close it, the prompt to install the update now or later appears again. If you click install now, it will lead you to the modify wizard. Since the 2014 upgrade is already installed, please exit the modify wizard.

If you do not want to see the message popup again from Sage 50 2013, please open your 2013 software, then go to setup, user preference, options and uncheck the box for “Automatically Download Product Updates and Prompt User to Install Them”.

One last tips is that the installation of the Sage 50 2014 will not overwrite your Sage 50 2013.  The two software can live happily together in the same computer.

Hope this auto-deployment feature will bring you a better experience when you install upgrade or update. We will talk about other improvements next time.

 

  • Hi Cathy,

    1.  If your data file is located on the server or main computer, update the connecion mananger first to V3.0 on that computer.  You can run the 2014 installer package on the server.  During installation, select Advanced in Type of Installation and then select server - only.  It will install the connection manager only but not the full software in the server.  You can again download the installer of 2014 from the link below:

    na.sage.com/.../2014

    2. Our suggestion is to do the update on the computer where the data is located first.  The reason is that the connection manager is backward compatible.  If you update to connection manager V3.0 but for some reasons cannot update the workstation and still using 2013, you can still use Sage 50 2013 from the workstation to open the data in the main computer.

    3.  If you update individual workstation from 2013 to 2014, but do not update the connection manager to the server.  You will not be able to open the data file on the server.  You will get "The latest version of the Connection Manager not installed on this computer."

    Hope this helps

  • Keith:

    I have not been involved in many of the upgrades for Sage in our company. I have been following the great information that you provide so that I can assist my operations director if required. So, if you can help me help her, that would be great.

    We have three computers that run the SAGE 50 software. With in our Sage 50 Quantum, I checked the connection manager and we are running v2.5. We don't have a server per say, our "main" computer acts like a server. In your tip to RandyW you point out that for multi user environments we need to update the connection manager to v3.0 first.

    I am a pretty good software user but when it comes to this type of "stuff" I am not very good at it. So,

    Question 1: For our situation, do we need to update the connection manager?

    Question 2: I am assuming that if we do need to update then we should do it on our "main" computer first. Is this correct or does it matter which computer we bring in the connection manager update?

    Question 3: What would happen if we do not update the connection manager, if needed, and installed anyway?

    Thank you in advance for your help.

    Cathy

  • Hi Randy,

    You can turn off the auto download and update by going to setup, user preference, options and uncheck the box for “Automatically Download Product Updates and Prompt User to Install Them”.  You can look at the last screen shot in my blog post.  

    For your informaton, in a multi-user environment, please update the connection manager to the latest version, which is 3.0 first, then you can update the workstation.  The KB link below is for installing conneciton manager.  You can take a look if you are interested.

    http://bit.ly/16Z483d

    Hope this help.

  • This is a definite improvement from prior years' updates popping up before program startup.  However, I'm concerned about how this will work in a multi-user environment.  Is there a way to turn off the automatic updating, so that all the workstations can be manually updated at once, and everyone will be on the same version at the start of the next day?  The only way I can see would be to take away everyone's rights to install any software.  Picture 10 people at a site, some updating their workstations, others loading up the database so that it's in multi-user mode, the person with the sysadmin password is on vacation, etc.

Generic Content
Generic Content

*Community Hub is the new name for Sage City