Product Overview
Sage Line 500 offers all the advantages of a tried and tested Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution with the outstanding performance and web capability that is essential for success in today's competitive business environment.
Whether you operate in manufacturing, production, distribution or business services, Sage Line 500 provides the enterprise-wide business information and firm management control you need to balance increased profitability with delivering consistently high service levels.
Sage Line 500 supports and consolidates activity across your expanding business. Available on a wide range of operating systems and compatible with a host of industry-leading databases, it gives mid-range and larger organisations the reliability, scalability, and international coverage they need to stay ahead of their global competitors.

Finance: Benefits at a glance

• Provides tight financial control with full visibility of costs committed before expenditure is incurred
• Includes powerful reporting tools and evaluation of market trends to assist informed strategic decisions
• Manages your cash flow through close budget control and efficient purchase requisitioning
• Supports international business with multi-language, multi-currency,
  multi-company features

Cut the cost of doing business
Sage Line 500 Financials automates routine tasks and supports your users with a system that is easy to use and can be customised to suit their working style. Employee productivity is increased, while your administrative costs are reduced.

A global solution for your expanding business
As an integrated financial management system, Sage Line 500 Financials gives you control over your local or international business, while fully accommodating domestic markets including legal, accounting and taxation requirements. Sage Line 500 carries out international reporting in both local and head-office reporting currencies and at any level in the company hierarchy.

Operational and strategic information readily available
Fast, accurate reporting and analysis are essential to responding rapidly to changes in the day to day business environment and for long-term sustained success.  Sage Line 500 Financials ensures that your critical decisions are firmly based on solid and concise information, consolidated across your enterprise. Managers and staff have access to comprehensive integrated information, including attachments such as spreadsheets and eMails, with drill-down to the required level of detail or history.

Core Finance Modules

General Ledger
The Sage Line 500 General Ledger is the central hub of financial information. It provides a repository for company wide transactions that can be enquired upon and reported on in any number of ways. By providing the complete financial picture for your organisation, the General Ledger is not only essential to the integrated accounting system, but also to the strategic decision making of the company. It is configurable to meet the multi-national requirements of key territories around the world. Security exists at all levels, ensuring information is only available to those users who have the clearance to see it.

Accounts Payable
Sage Line 500 provides a sophisticated tool for handling all of your organisation's accounts payable. It gives you full control over your company's cash flow and immediate access to outstanding creditor information. Accounts Payable provides flexible authorisation control to meet the requirements of your own business processes. This can either be utilised in conjunction with Purchase Order Processing with full invoice matching or on a stand-alone basis. Flexible and secure payment methods are supported with full integration to Cash Management for reconciliation purposes. The system can handle both simple and complex foreign transactions. For those organisations in or trading with Europe, Sage Line 500 supports the triangulation rules and other requirements of the EMU, needed during the transition phase.

Accounts Receivable
Accounts Receivable provides you with effective debt management, ensuring that cash flow is optimised and that your company's overall balance sheet remains healthy. It is simple to use, yet extremely flexible, having the ability to cope with a variety of customer requirements, whether a simple account or a complex hierarchy of accounts. Sage Line 500 gives your organisation complete control over your receivables and provides all the necessary information that is required to make accurate and timely decisions. It manages your sales and debtor activity, providing you with up-to-the-minute information regarding aged debtor analysis. With the use of automated credit control facilities and reports, it will enable you to reduce outstanding debts. Comprehensive enquiry and reporting facilities allow you to track and manage sales information in a way that is totally suitable to your business operation.

Cash Management
With Cash Management, it is possible to keep up to date with your ever-changing bank balances, monitor cash flow accurately and make informed decisions about immediate expenditure. Cash Management allows you to monitor your company's financial exposure and provides you with the ability to fully reconcile your system with information provided from your bank accounts, whether manual or electronic. It is fully integrated with all the other financial ledgers ensuring that information is updated automatically without the need for re-keying, saving both time and effort. Cash Management allows you to record comprehensive details for all types of bank account with the ability to specify how each one is integrated with the General Ledger. The module also has the ability to cope with multi-currency and provides currency revaluation facilities to ease exchange difference exposure.

Complementary Finance Modules

General Ledger Consolidation
For all organisations with more than one legal entity, consolidation provides a fast and easy period end process by automatically mapping subsidiary Chart of Account structures to the holding company structure, which could well be different. It will also automatically translate from the subsidiaries local currencies to the holding company structure if different. Translation differences created in the process are automatically handled. For those organisations with very complex legal entity structures, multiple levels of consolidation can be configured.

Absorption Costing
The Absorption Costing module has been designed to allow organisations to maintain both budgetary and actual period-based statistics, which can then be used as part of an absorption costing process. Users are able to create an unlimited number of statistical sets such as headcount or floor space, which can be configured to cross-reference each other and create service-level recharges across internal departments. The statistical data can be used within the account balance cascade and journal process, as the basis of reallocating costs on a pro-rata basis, fixed-charge basis or even a user-defined rule set.

Inter Entity Accounting
General Ledger journal processing enables entry of Inter-Unit accounting information i.e. target and source entities and General Ledger account code mapping rules. Inter-Unit Audit files are used to generate ASCII format files, which are in turn used to transport Inter-Unit journals from one Inter-Unit company to another.

Credit Management
Sage Line 500 Credit Management provides a centralised credit control function with an integrated transaction enquiry and call logging process. Full diary management is supported with automated target call lists by credit controller. Call logging supports entry of free-format text, cheque promise dates, ad-hoc generation of statements and reminder letters, along with simple cash flow forecasting.

Fixed Assets
Sage Line 500 Fixed Assets provides you with control over your assets and their depreciation. It can be used individually or as part of the procurement process with full integration to the General Ledger. You can record comprehensive information for each asset, any associated attachments to assist the management and tracking of these assets. The system has flexible depreciation methods to meet the requirements of both the commercial and public sectors.

Job Costing
Sage Line 500 Job Costing provides you with an up-to-date picture of the expenditure and revenue associated with specific projects. When using Job Costing in conjunction with the ledgers, it is possible to record purchases, revenues, time-sheets and payroll items for each job. You are also able to analyse the expenses and revenues posted from Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Inventory Control.

Payroll
The Sage Line 500 Payroll module is fast, accurate and relieves you of the intricate and time-consuming task of calculating and checking each employee's pay. Built-in security ensures that confidential information is protected from unauthorised users. The payroll system supports key features such as multiple payrolls within a single company, the flexibility in building up each employee's pay whilst providing full compliance with all statutory requirements. One of the key benefits is that because it is fully integrated you can obtain comprehensive analysis of all payroll costs, throughout the solution.

Electronic Payments (BACS)
The BACS module integrates your system automatically with the external banking community. This saves time for both you and your payees. This module is fully integrated with the financial ledgers and supports multiple payment media. Full security is maintained including the support of passwords by BACSAFE or those issued by your bank.

International Payments
International Payments extends the BACS functionality to support flexible definition of output formats for multinational requirements, including the facility to split a single payment run into multiple output formats. For example, a customer in the Netherlands might want to pay suppliers in Belgium and France in a single remittance advice run.

Report Writer
Report Writer is designed to supplement the standard reports that are available. The data can be extracted from any aspect of the system and incorporated into a report. The layout of these reports can be tailored to meet your exact requirements with the reported output either printed or saved to a file.

Report Writer Language
Report Writer Language is the ideal accompaniment to Report Writer and allows the more advanced user to design complex reports using an easy-to-learn structured query language. You can extend the functionality of report definitions that have been created using the Report Writer and take advantage of the query you have created by simultaneously creating two or more reports from the same set of data; for example, a detailed report and a summary report.

Auditing & Security
This simple but powerful tool allows for specific events to be audited by recording related information whenever they occur. Generally, these events are database updates, additions, or deletions from a particular table. User-based security allows individual organisations to define the level of security they require over their database.

Data Import
This is a comprehensive, flexible tool that allows you to import data into Sage Line 500 from other software products, such as spreadsheets and databases. You can decide exactly how and when you want to import data thus ensuring that all of your data systems are fully integrated and that Sage Line 500 can accurately reflect external sources of information with minimal manual intervention.
Distribution: Benefits at a glance

• Cuts costs by minimising your investment in inventory, improving stock management and optimising transport resources
• Helps you develop and maintain market share by offering telesales support, enhancing service levels and providing flexible ordering/payment options
• Maximises the value of your supply chain and supports you in building strong partner networks
• Keeps your finger on the pulse with business alerts

Build market share through exceptional - and profitable - customer service Sage Line 500 Distribution supports you in the drive to deliver levels of service that exceed customers' expectations, while closely managing your costs. It provides the necessary integrated processes and information flows to help you supply total quality in terms of products, service and after-sales support.
The order processing options within Sage Line 500 Distribution give you maximum flexibility in fulfilling customers' individual requirements on ordering and payment methods, order size, delivery times and packaging and labelling.
At the same time, comprehensive reporting and evaluation of market trends, analysed by product, market sector and geography, give you a clear picture of where your best opportunities for profit lie.
Companies handling large volumes of orders over the telephone will be interested in the new telesales module, which can handle a multitude of requirements, including mail order and counter sales, in a variety of industries.

Focus your supply chain and your resources on customer satisfaction
Supplying excellence in service demands strong partner networks that are concentrated on continuous improvement in customer service. Sage Line 500 Distribution helps you manage a seamless flow of information and goods from supplier to end consumer. You will reduce inventory and manage stock to satisfy your customers in a cost-effective way.
Sage Line 500 Distribution keeps you fully in control, even in multiwarehouse environments, with real-time multisite views of current and expected stock and extensive inventory management features.

Create an effective purchasing strategy to reduce your financial commitment
An efficient purchasing strategy balances high customer service levels with minimal financial commitment. Through its extensive support for purchase requisitioning, Sage Line 500 Distribution helps you create a centrally managed, flexible purchasing operation that keeps you fully in control.

Be fully alert to significant events
Being able to react quickly to occurrences or conditions that could potentially affect - or harm - your profitability or service levels is vital for sustained success. Sage Line 500 'sounds the alarm' by alerting your nominated person to respond to predefined business events, by your choice of eMail, phone, SMS, pager, fax, or over the web when configured to work with business alerting software.

Core Distribution Modules

Inventory Control
Effective Inventory Control is the cornerstone of an Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) strategy, the premise of which is to deliver maximum customer service at an acceptable cost. For most companies a stock holding of some kind is a necessary evil if high service levels are to be maintained. The supply of goods, whether manufactured or purchased, has to track demand as closely as possible. Inventory Control provides all the necessary tools and information to enable you to minimise your investment in stock and depot resources whilst ensuring a high level of service.

Sales Order Entry
Sales Order Entry allows organisations to achieve high levels of customer service by enabling efficient entry of orders and timely delivery of goods. Sales Order Entry is fully integrated with the Contract Management, Financial and Manufacturing modules providing all of the necessary tools and information to allow companies to gain a competitive edge by delivering exceptional levels of customer service.

Sales Invoicing and Analysis
Comprehensive analysis of the sales activity, both by profitability and market trends, is key to ensuring business growth and customer service. Sales Invoicing and Analysis provides accurate cost of sales with full margin visibility. Integration with the General Ledger provides for sales revenue and cost of sales analysis by customer, warehouse and product.

Purchase Order Processing
Purchase Ordering Processing provides all of the necessary tools and information to allow you to develop cost-effective strategies geared towards delivering high levels of customer service. This is enabled by matching key purchasing decisions back to forecast and actual demand.

Complementary Distribution Modules

Telesales Order Entry & Utilities
The telesales system offers end-users the opportunity to capitalise on the contact they have with their customers. Whether their solution is proactive (outbound telemarketing) or reactive (inbound order processing), the combination of speed, flexibility and information improves the service to the customer and maximises sales. The Order Entry module offers a fast order capture facility particularly suited to a telesales environment. The Utilities module offers a wide range of reporting facilities including operator performance and sales trend analysis.

Purchase Requisitions
Target customer service levels, economies of scale and overall financial commitment are all factors that need to be built in to an efficient purchasing strategy. Requisitioning provides comprehensive financial control over the purchasing process. Configurable requisition authorisation enables a hierarchical process that may involve requisition supervisors, buyers and budget controllers. Costs are minimised by consolidating multiple requisitions for the same supplier into a single purchase order, ensuring an efficiently managed centralised purchasing operation. Purchasing commitment is tracked through to the General Ledger with real-time budget consumption built into the requisition authorisation process.

Point of Sale
Sage Line 500 offers functionality for Point of Sale and Mail Order operations. It is particularly appropriate where you have a mixed requirement for counter sales and back office order processing from the same common stock holding.
The system allows the user to handle instant orders which may either be over the counter or mail order and include credit cards or other 'cash' payment methods. Credit cards can be validated on-line or as an overnight batch process using the latest validation and authorisation checks.

Post Code Search
Sage Line 500 includes a module which allows the operator to enter a Post Code to retrieve the basic customer address details at a number of different points in the Telesales Order Entry process. This can also be undertaken when using Telesales to enter details of new customers ( both on the Sales Ledger customer file or the Telesales Customer file). It can also be used when the user wishes to enter or amend the delivery address on a specific order, either via the Order Header screen or the Telesales Payment Types screen.

Repetitive Route Scheduling
Repetitive Route Scheduling allows the user to set up details of transport resources (drivers and vehicles) and standard routes (areas and days/dates). The system will then generate loads (routes/delivery dates) to which orders can be allocated. The user can then produce shipping documentation, i.e. picking list, despatch notes, by load.

Warehouse Management, Utilities and Bar Coding
The Warehouse Management system provides functionality which helps utilise warehouse space more efficiently. The main areas covered are: warehouse putaway, pick face replenishment, picking and despatching, all of which enable efficient control and visibility of stock within the warehouse. Users also have the option of selecting additional bar code facilities.

Returns and Repairs
Sage Line 500 Returns and Repairs system allows the user to record, track and progress items returned for credit, replacement or repair. The combination of speed of entry, flexibility and on-line information can help you to improve the service to the customer ensuring visibility of the returned product throughout the return/repair cycle.
The Returns Logging module offers the facility to record and track details of items returned by a customer for credit or replacement, interfacing directly to the Sage Line 500 Telesales Order Entry module. The Repairs module helps the user control and manage the repair process, including interfaces to the standard Sage Inventory and Bill of Material modules.

Branch Inventory Transfer Management
Branch Inventory Transfer Management allows the user to control the internal movement of stock from one location to another. This is achieved by using the Telesales System to handle transfer notes (internal sales orders). These are then processed in a similar way to normal sales orders, except that the 'customer' is in fact in an internal location, typically a warehouse as defined in the standard Sage Warehouse file.

The system is different from the standard Sage stock transfer facility in that it handles the concept of 'in transit', i.e. the potential time delay between the stock leaving one location and arriving at its destination.

Waste Management
This new module provides support for EU Waste Management regulations where two methodologies have been adopted - one for the UK and one for Germany. The majority of EU members are adopting the German approach and therefore this module has been designed to support both methods within one, generic, solution.

Waste Management provides a retrospective package build function which analyses packaging requirements based on historical transactions written to the Stock History file. These transactions can include sales despatches, receipts and, where applicable, imports. Flexible reporting and enquiry functions are provided over the split detail, which facilitate direct transfer of information onto packaging returns.

Extended Discounts
In some business environments there is a requirement for multiple discounts, recorded separately on a single order line. In these complex scenarios it is especially important to automate this to avoid errors and speed processing. Extended Discounts provides the functionality to manage a number of more complex discounts automatically. Multiple discounts may be calculated on an order line and also at order level. Percentage calculations may be based on list price or price so far.
Manufacturing: Benefits at a glance

• Supports configure-to-order, manufacture-to-order and batch engineering
• Controls associated material, inventory and processing costs
• Monitors and reports on issues and events on the shop floor to maintain maximum productivity
• Eases the complexity of managing your own resources and subcontractors
• Supports you in meeting the requirements of broad markets or individual customers

Powerful resource management
Whether you require support for an agile manufacturing organisation or for a batch engineering machine shop, Sage Line 500 Manufacturing gives you tight financial control of associated material and processing costs and real-time valuations of both completed operations and Work in Progress. You receive every assistance in managing the complexity of resources involved in manufacturing, encompassing both your own shop floor and subcontractors.

Maintain maximum productivity, with efficient shop-floor management
Sage Line 500 Manufacturing monitors and reports in real time on issues and events on the shop floor that could affect your productivity. You benefit from readily available detailed, focused information on work in progress and on predefined events such as the frequency of machine breakdowns or absenteeism.

Core Manufacturing Modules
Bill of Materials
Bill of Materials gives you total flexibility through its ability to handle both component listings and formulae. Bill of Materials has planning option percentages to simulate high level strategies and product families that can reflect the composition of complex relationships within a family of products, allowing planners to concentrate on the forecast model.

Works Order Processing
Works Order Processing provides the business with a comprehensive, dynamic, costing and control repository. It uses the detail supplied from the Bill of Materials and Routing modules and automatically creates works orders after Material Requirements Planning has optimised the timing and quantity. The moment anything happens, it is routed and controlled on a Works Order. Works Orders provide a reflection of actual build, mirroring what has happened on the factory floor. A Sage Line 500 Works Order is also truly 'live' until it has been completed, allowing alterations and amendments to dynamically record the actual materials and resources used to create the end product.

Material Requirements Planning
Material Requirements Planning provides a Direct Supply Response to meet customer demand. It may be driven from source demand elements e.g. sales orders, forecasts or works orders ensuring that all material requirements are supplied directly to meet consumer needs or by using the traditional Master Production Schedule to generate the best volume/mix per period. Whether the requirement is for a responsive, agile manufacturing company or for the batch engineering machine shop, the appropriate techniques are provided within Sage Line 500.

Complementary Manufacturing Modules
Job Scheduler (AutoQ)
The Auto-Q module is a system that allows you to queue batch type functions for later processing at user specified times, instead of online. These programmes are typically reports and batch processing facilities such as file reorganisations that would normally be run manually at period end.

Product Configuration
Product Configuration allows for the controlled creation of complex products to be achieved through a simple rule based question and answer session. The result is the automatic generation of Bill of Materials, Routes, Works Orders and Sales Orders. One question list produces a single source of all configured data which you can retain and fast-searched for future duplication. Product Configuration provides a complex quality product that is derived from a simple procedure.

Rough Cut Capacity Planning
Rough Cut Capacity Planning provides a rapid view of the capability of a business to build products within specified customer service levels. It is possible to identify certain bottlenecks and highlight areas where resources are being under-utilised. This prioritisation, whether by capital plant or by labour, provides a high level, fast first cut view of the resources needed, enabling management to adjust efficiently to consumer demand.

Routing
Routing provides a comprehensive suite designed to ease the management of the many other resources required to produce manufactured product economically and effectively. The complex shape and combination of resources associated with the modern shop floor can be easily maintained using the Routing module.

Sub Contract Control
Sub Contract Control allows for the enhanced management, documentation and visibility of routing operations that are to be actioned by third parties. Creation of purchase orders, control of material flow, transfer documentation, status and chasing facilities, costing to general and project ledgers, sub contractor timesheet entry, sub contractor self billing from timesheets are all included.

Work in Progress
Work in Progress contains real time links that show the status of any Works Order by cost, progress and customer. Event management is a quality enabler that codifies issues into groups set up by the user. The frequency of any event can then be reported, allowing improvements to be continuously applied and monitored. For example, identifying a machine that needs to be replaced rather than repaired or highlighting absenteeism by department.

Services: Benefits at a glance

• Helps you manage and bill for after-sales service
• Provides sophisticated project accounting and project management
• Delivers sophisticated control in managing and accounting on a project basis
• Supports a range of billing scenarios including cost plus and staged payments

Keep on top of multiple projects
Sage Line 500 delivers sophisticated control in managing and accounting on a project basis, for both internal and external projects. You have full visibility of costs committed before expenditure is incurred, validation of expense against budgets and close tracking of costs. In the same way, you have the flexibility to bill by staged invoices or cost plus.

End-to-end contract management
Sage Line 500 provides an effective maintenance and revenue billing solution for all aspects of after-sales service. It delivers a framework for managing complex, high-value equipment with structured billing requirements for recurring charges such as rental, lease, service, maintenance or support. You have the flexibility to bill in advance, in arrears, and/or with consolidated invoicing.

Service Modules
Project Ledger
The Project Ledger is a user-defined cost repository mechanism designed specifically for project-based business. The module offers a complete slice-and-dice approach where data can be analysed from all angles and across any part of the organisation. It enables you to follow a project from its embryonic stages right through to full maturity.

Project Billing
The Project Billing module provides for the specific requirements of project-related billing and accounts postings. Fully integrated with the Project Ledger and Resource Ledger, this module allows you to define the services you provide to customers and subsequent rules for when and what to invoice.

Resource Ledger
The Sage Line 500 Resource Ledger offers comprehensive timesheet input facilities with the ability to determine default values for different locations, projects, sub-projects, rates and status allowing flexible costing whilst minimising the data entry burden. Definition of expense, resource and project types provides you with complete flexibility for reporting and enquiring on activity and for productivity analysis.

Contract Management
Contract Management involves both contract maintenance and revenue billing. It effectively handles all the financial elements involved in after-sales service requirements. Typically covering long term contracts due to the nature of setting up the contract in the first place, Contract Management provides the framework to handle complex, high value equipment with a structured billing requirement for recurring charges such as rental, lease, service/maintenance or support charges.

e-Business: Benefits at a glance

• Trade with your customers 24 hours a day, from anywhere in the world
• Offer direct and easy remote access to business information from anywhere in the world
• Provide your customers with unrivalled service with the latest product pricing, descriptions and stock information the moment it is updated
• Provide employees with a tailored desktop solution for easy access to business information, applications and resources

Improve internal efficiency
Using a complete business management system like Sage Line 500 allows businesses to monitor and report in real time on issues and events on the shop floor that could affect productivity such as the frequency of machine breakdowns or absenteeism. Web integration means that this level of control can also be extended to mobile employees or partners who can have secure remote access to corporate resources.

Maximise customer service
A company's eBusiness cannot operate in isolation from the established business. Integrating the customer-facing website with back-office functions enables customers to browse online for product information, gain access to their account details, access their product inventory information as well as creating and tracking their own orders. When a customer places an order via the web the back-office system is immediately updated so the website accurately reflects the current inventory status. This cuts the cost of doing business and duplication of effort is minimised by customers entering their own orders.

e-Business Modules
Web Sales
Web Sales is a packaged set of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) which can be used to build an eCommerce solution to enable nominated customers to select products and place sales orders themselves. It also manages online stock enquiries and has the ability to enquire upon the status of their own outstanding sales orders.

Web Client
Web Client provides a low cost, remote access solution for Sage Line 200 and Sage Line 500 users. Business information can be accessed using an Internet browser through a central resource, thereby lowering administration costs. Web Client is easy to manage which lowers IT administration costs and its suitable for both office-based and off-site employees. Web Client supports SSL encryption techniques so you can use it for remote access to your Sage system over public networks.

Web Portal
Web Portal provides a centralised access or portal to your business bringing information and resources together, making them all easily to hand. The great advantage of Web Portal is that users can customise it to match their priorities, responsibilities and span of control. When users log on, their ID or password can act as a filter to configure the portal and determine which pages they can view. The system is very easy to set up and because you can configure what each user has access to, it is easy to prevent unauthorised access to commercially sensitive data. This centralised single interface brings together all the information that managers need to run their business. Web Portal also allows you to run Sage Line 500 and other software applications centrally and directly.

EDI Interfaces
The EDI modules offer an organisation a total package covering all of the components needed for a truly integrated system. These include connections to the most common EDI networks handling the various messaging standards and processing transactions to and from Sage Line 500. EDI gives your customer advance notice of goods despatched to allow them to plan the goods in process. It also allows you to record despatch confirmations from customers or third party systems, updating order status, stock and sales despatch history.