Introduction to products and services

In Sage 50 Accounts, each item you sell can be set up as a product or service record. Product records update as you buy and sell your stock, helping you to manage your stock levels.

 

Before you start entering your stock transactions you should set up your product defaults, create the product records and get to know the stock transactions.

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Product defaults

When you create your product records, some information can apply to more than one record, for example the nominal code or tax code. To save time you can set up defaults that automatically appear when setting up your new records. You can still edit or amend these entries on a record by record basis.

To set up product defaults:

• On the menu bar click Settings then click Product Defaults and set up your defaults as required. Read more >

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Creating a product record

When creating a new record, you can choose from three types:

• Stock - use this for items you want to track stock levels for.
• Non-stock - use this for items you don't want to track stock levels for.
• Service - use this when the record relates to a service. - Only available in Sage 50 Accounts Professional

You can either create a product by using a blank record, using a wizard or by importing your records.

To set up product record:

• Click Products and services then click New and set up your record as required. Read more >

TIP: Don't worry, if you don't want to create records for one-off items, you can use the special product codes S1, S2 and S3.

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Understanding stock transactions

There are many different actions you can take in your software which affect the stock levels of your products. For example, fulfilling a sales order or using the transfer option. These different actions generate different stock transactions types in the product record activity window.

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Pricing and discount

If you want to use the standard sales and purchase prices set in the product records, you don't have to use the pricing and discount options. However, to give you more flexibility, you can use these options to set up different pricing structures or offer discounts for your products.

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Price lists

NOTE: Sage 50 Accounts Professional only.

You may have a product you sell or buy at different prices, depending on the customer or supplier. In Sage 50 Accounts Plus, you can set up customer price lists or supplier price lists to show a different product price on your invoice or order depending on which customer or supplier you choose.

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Discounts

NOTE: Sage 50 Accounts Professional only.

If you've customers who buy from you regularly, you can encourage them to buy more by offering them a discount for buying in bulk.

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Managing stock

In your business there may be several processes that affect your stock levels. For example, ordering stock from your suppliers, or building products form existing stock.

Sage Accounts has many stock control features to fit in with your business. Read more >

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Stock take

A good stock system relies on accurate stock levels. To ensure you're stock is accurate, you should regularly do stock takes.

It's easy to enter or import your stock quantities using the Stock take option:

• To enter your stock take - Click Products and services then click Stock take and enter the stock take information and click Save.
• To import your stock take - Click Products and services then click Stock take and click Import.

This posts adjustments to your stock record so they show the correct stock levels. Read more >

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Stock valuation

Understanding the value of your stock is important when producing accurate accounts at the end of each accounting period.

In Sage 50 Accounts Plus and above, there are several reports available to help you value your stock:

• Click Products and services then click Reports and click Product valuation. Read more >

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Opening and closing journals

What are opening and closing journals?

If you buy stock in January, then use the stock over the next few months, if you don't post your opening and closing journals, the cost of sales for all the stock only shows in January. No consideration is made for the unsold stock at the end of January.

Once you post the opening and closing journals, the cost of sales reflects the sales made for the relevant months.

Example:

Before						After
3000
						1000		1000		1000
Jan		Feb		Mar		Jan		Feb		Mar

In our example, you purchase £3,000 of stock in January, but only use £1,000 of that stock in that month. Without posting the journals, your cost of sales on your profit and loss report shows the purchase of £3,000 for January, rather than the actual cost of sales of £1,000.

Do I have to post opening and closing journals?

No, however, if you run monthly management reports, and often have a large amount of unsold stock at the end of the month, to make your cost of sales reflect your sales, we recommend you do. Read more >

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Profit analysis

When selling items, making a profit is key for any business. You can easily see what your profit margin is by using the:

Profit analysis

To quickly calculate the profitability of an invoice or order, you can use the profit analysis option.

This is available in the following modules:

• Quotations
• Invoices and credits
• Sales orders

To calculate the profit:

• Open the required module, for example Invoices and credits then open the required record and click Profit analysis. Read more >

Profit reports

The profit reports help you understand the profit made on your products individually, or as part of an invoice or order, or by customer. Read more >

Stock maintenance

Keeping your product list well maintained and accurate helps you to manage your stock efficiently. To help you with this, you can manually correct your stock transactions, clear unwanted stock activity and delete old product records. Read more >