Sage Taxation: Installing the software for the first time

Before you begin

• Make sure all your servers and workstations have the latest Windows service packs and updates installed. If you've installed updates, you may need to reboot your machine before installing. This will make the Sage Taxation installation quicker and more straightforward.
• Log on as a user with local administrator access rights. If you are installing on a network server, you will need to log on to the server with administrative rights.
• Temporarily disable both your firewall and anti-virus software for the installation
• If you have already installed SQL make sure it is correctly configured. You can install Microsoft SQL Server Express during the Sage Taxation installation. This is more common on dedicated servers rather than small networks or standalone (single computer) installations

To install on a server or standalone:

If this is a terminal services installation, please use a remote desktop (RDP) connection from a workstation to the server to carry out the installation. For all other installs, you'll need to log directly onto the machine you want to hold your data.

1. Double click the Sage Taxation download to run it.
2. Your computer will be checked to see if any prerequisite software is required before Sage Taxation can be installed. Typically this will be installation of Microsoft .NET Framework if it's not already installed.
   If you're prompted to restart your machine at this stage, you should do so before proceeding.
3. Click Next on the welcome page and the Licence Agreement is shown. Please read the agreement and, if you agree, select I accept the terms of the licence agreement and click Next.
4. Your Microsoft SQL Server status is reported.
   • If you have Microsoft SQL Server already installed , the installation will detect this. A message will tell you the name of the SQL server that it will use to host the Sage Taxation database.
   • If SQL is not installed, the pre-install checks will detect this and Find SQL servers to host data will report a warning in the results section. You can install Microsoft SQL Server Express later in the installation.
5. When the checks have completed successfully click Next.
6. As this is a new installation, no Sage Taxation database will be found. Choose to install a new version of Sage Taxation and which drive you want to install the Sage Taxation program files to.
7. Click Next and the SQL instance page appears. If SQL is already installed, the installation will detect the available SQL instances. Select the SQL instance you'd like to use from the drop-down list and skip to step 9.</ul
8. If an existing SQL Server cannot be found, or you want to install a new instance of SQL Server Express, choose the second option.
   From the drop-down box, select the drive on which you want to install SQL Server Express.
9. Click Next and review the settings for the installation.
10. Click Install to begin the installation.

If your computer needs to be rebooted to complete the installation a page appears telling you that the computer needs to be restarted. Once you have rebooted, run the installation again (it will not start automatically)

If you disabled your firewall and antivirus prior to the installation, you should re-enable them both now.

Troubleshooting steps

• If you've selected to install a new Microsoft SQL instance, and the install has failed at this stage, please reboot your machine before running the installation again.
• A lot of installation issues can be resolved by temporarily disabling your antivirus and firewall. If you haven't already done so, please disable these and run the installer again. If this didn't work for you, you can find further troubleshooting steps. Read more

Next steps

• If you are performing a network install and now wish to add some workstations on to your network, read more.
• To start setting up Sage Taxation, you'll need to set up your practice client and dataset before registering your software. Read more

You should set up your dataset and practice details before contacting us to set your client counts.

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