New V28 business dashboards

I upgraded all our Sage software earlier this week and was initially delighted to see all the various dashboards.

I had a number of questions which I fired off via Online chat facility

But none of them can be answered!

For example, the VAT liability does not show VAT liability for a cash accounting basis, therefore hugely overstated.

The money in money out dash includes transfers between accounts, so it creates a totally wrong picture

The gross profit dash is okay, but the net profit (more important) is still only available as a separate log in with O365, and thus annoying

The sales graph is gross sales with VAT, nobody looks at sales numbers gross, always net of VAT, and it also picks up invoices that have not been updated to sales ledger, which again provides an over-stated picture.

The glitch that allows non-ledger updated invoices to appear as true sales is a worry

So overall, new V28 dashboards very pretty and partially useful, but a fair few glitches.

  • Hi Mark

    I'd be happy to discuss this with you in greater depth, so please let me know if you would like me to give you a call.

    In response to your observations, i would respond as follows:

    1. This widget is intended to show the difference between VAT on Sales and Purchases, and as such is really only useful for Standard VAT. This limitation is indicated by the widget description which is "Current difference between the balances on the Sale and Purchase VAT control accounts". 
    2. The intention of this widget is that it shows all movement in and out of the bank, including transfers. That gives us the ability in v28.1 to also include a balance line.
    3. In v28.1 we are enhancing the Profit & Loss widget, to give the choice to show either net or gross.
    4. The widget is called "Invoice summary", and is described as showing the "Monthly breakdown of invoices and credits for the last 12 months". When i was researching the requirements for this widget, the desire to see the Net value never came up. We will add this to our backlog for possible inclusion in a future version.
    5. This is intentional, again we can add to the backlog the ability to exclude non updated invoices, along with the ability to show Net values. 

    Many thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on this feature. As this is our first version of the Business dashboard feature we will be looking to continually make improvements based upon user feedback. 

    Jamie 

  • in reply to Jamie Saul

    Thank you Jamie

    Excellent speedy response, and it sounds like you have all or most of my queries all ready to go into V28.1!

    Excellent service

  • in reply to Mark Northwood

    Hi Mark

    Quick update for you.

    Based on your feedback we will be making the following additional enhancements to the dashboards in v28.1

    1. Top customers / supplier to show either net or gross

    2. Invoice summary to show either net or gross

    3. Invoice summary to have option to exclude invoices which have not been updated 

    I hope this will make the Business dashboard feature even more useful for you

    Jamie 

  • in reply to Jamie Saul

    Excellent speedy response Jamie

    Approx date of release?

    I think all that would leave is with money in/ out dashboard, the option to exclude internal transfers as showing as money out

    And maybe CASH accounting VAT summary (as used by most SME's)

    But excellent news

    Mark

  • in reply to Mark Northwood

    It'll be April 2022.

    How exactly would you calculate a cash accounting VAT summary?

    Regarding the money in / money out, that requirement is still on the list, we just felt the other improvements would add more value for a larger range of customers. It's not a "no", just a "not now" for the time being. 

    many thanks 

    Jamie 

  • in reply to Jamie Saul

    April excellent

    Cash accounting VAT is purely based on receipts from customers (not total invoice value, only invoices actually paid) and suppliers ONLY actually paid in that quarter, not based in invoices received. Thus CASH accounting only measure cash out to suppliers and cash in from customers.

    Regards

    Mark