If a customer is working with a Sage Drive company and Sage 50 closes unexpectedly (computer crashes, network issue, etc.), will the user account be released after 1 hour? Will the process.pid file be deleted from the company’s .saj folder in Sage Drive?

There is a 60-second “heartbeat” connectivity check, so the maximum amount of time that the data will be unavailable or locked by the user who just crashed will expire within that timeframe.

The process.pid is being created by MySQL engine, it will be released when MySQL get restarted (closing connection manager, restarting the computer). It is not being directly used by Sage 50 (for example closing Sage 50 process in Task Manager doesn’t release process.pid, you need to restart MySQL).

Does the customer have to download the company every time?

No, the download is done only once, the first time a user wants to access the shared company data. The subsequent times, the user would open the Sage Drive company as any other Sage 50 company (recently opened companies, double click .sai file, or open company window).

If a remote user downloads a local copy then disconnects, how does he reconnect back? Does he have to re-download it or open a local copy manually to connect?

The Sage Drive company data has 1 owner (the person who initially shared the data). If this person stops sharing the data, the other users will not be able to open that Sage Drive company any more.

Other users are not able to ‘disconnect’ the data. If they want to keep a local copy of the data and not have it connected to Sage Drive, they would need to use the ‘Save as’ or the ‘Save a copy’ option. The new company data would not be connected to Sage Drive.

If the user used the ‘save as’ option, the initial company he downloaded is still connected to Sage Drive

If the client can open a local copy and manually connect, what happens if the client opens a very old version?

Sage Drive only keeps the latest version of the company data. The client would not have access of an older version of the company data through Sage Drive.

Can the sage ID be the same for Sage One and Sage Drive?

Yes, a customer can have one Sage ID for both products.

Note: The customer needs to activate the Sage ID for Sage Drive using the ‘Activate it now’ option in the Share Company wizard.

Does a customer need to be connected to the Internet to use Sage Drive?

Yes, customers need an active Internet connection when working with a Sage Drive company.

Sage Drive allows one user at a time, right?

Yes, only one person can work on the file at the same time.

Can the file be shared by more than one person?

The company data owner (or person who initially shared the data to Sage Drive) can invite up to 4 other users to share the company data. However, only 1 person can work on the file at a time.

How does the Sage Drive sharing work? What happens when I share my file?

When a Sage 50 company data is shared in Sage Drive, a copy of the .sai file and of the .saj folder is created in the Sage Drive servers.

The local copy of the Sage 50 data remains synchronized with the copy in Sage Drive.

When is the company data synchronized to Sage Drive?

The data is synchronized every time a transaction is posted.

How can I block a user from accessing the data?

The user’s access to a shared Sage Drive company can be removed in the Sage Drive Management Centre, in the Edit User screen.

Can the Sage 50 file be located on the network and shared to Sage Drive at the same time?

Yes, if the company file can be opened in Sage 50, it can be shared to Sage Drive. (Given that the customer has access to Sage Drive; purchased or as part of his Sage Business Care plan)

What are the possible user roles for Sage Drive?

There are 3 possible user roles in the Sage Drive Management Centre:

•             User: Able to download and post transactions to the company file

•             Owner & user: Able to download and post transactions to the company file. They can also manage access in the management centre.

•             Accountant: Intended for use by Sage accountants or bookkeepers.

Can I disconnect somebody from my file?

If a user is working on a shared Sage Drive company, it CANNOT be manually disconnected by somebody else. If the user is inactive for 1 hour, his access to Sage Drive will be released and another user will be able to open the Sage Drive company at that point.

What if I have a 3rd party program linked to the Sage 50 data? Does this affect EFT Direct?

If a Sage 50 company is shared to Sage Drive, access from 3rd party programs is changed to read-only.

If the 3rd party program is used by the customer only needs to read from the Sage 50 data, nothing changes. If the 3rd party program needs write access, it cannot be used while the company is shared to Sage Drive.