Sage 50 does a good job as accounting software, but it isn’t built to tell you how much cash you’ll have in six weeks’ time across all your banks. That’s where the Orama connector comes in: it sends your Sage 50 invoices and remittances to Orama, which matches them against your bank transactions and builds your cash flow forecast, with nothing to export to Excel.
If your company keeps its books in Sage 50 and tracks cash in a spreadsheet, here’s what Sage 50 covers well, which part of cash management it leaves out, what data Orama receives, what you need to connect it and how it works for an example SME.
What Sage 50 does well and what it doesn’t cover on cash
Sage 50, ContaPlus’s successor, is the accounting and invoicing software of many freelancers and small businesses, installed on the office computer. It keeps the books and taxes up to date; to know how much cash you’ll have next month you still export data and build a spreadsheet.
| Topic | What Sage 50 does well | What cash management also needs |
|---|---|---|
| Installation | Runs on the office computer or server. | See the forecast on your phone or at home, even if Sage 50 is on a single computer. |
| Invoices | Records invoices with their due dates. | They reach the forecast on their own, with no exports. |
| Batches | Generates collection and payment batches. | See each batch broken down inside the cash flow. |
| Bank entries | Books them when they’re entered. | The balance of every bank without typing it, up to 4 times a day. |
| Horizon | Looks at the financial year. | Project cash at 12, 18 or 24 months, with scenarios. |
What Orama receives from Sage 50 and how it arrives
- Invoices from customers and suppliers with a due date: each outstanding invoice becomes an expected receipt or payment with its amount and date.
- Remittances of collections and payments, which are added to the forecast and broken down into their transactions.
Sage 50 doesn’t connect through an API. Invoices and remittances are sent to Orama over HTTPS by the Orama connector, which is installed on the same computer or server as Sage 50. Orama never accesses your server or your database: the connector is what sends the data.
Banks connect separately, via PSD2 and read-only; when a transaction comes in, Orama matches it to the invoice the connector sent and reconciles 80–95% without intervention.
Requirements
- Sage 50 installed on your computer or server.
- Install the Orama connector on that same computer or server, with help from the Orama support team.
How to connect Sage 50 to Orama
- Contact Orama support. The team walks you through installing the connector, step by step.
- Install the connector on the computer or server where your Sage 50 runs.
- Check your invoices. Once the connector starts sending data, you’ll see your invoices in Lists › Invoices and their forecasts in the cash flow table.
While you install the connector, you can import your invoices from Excel. How the connector is installed alongside Sage 50 is explained in Orama Academy (in Spanish): Connect Sage 50 to Orama (in Spanish).
Common issues with Sage 50 and how to fix them
| What happens | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| No invoices arrive | The connector must be on the same computer or server as Sage 50. If it is and nothing arrives, contact Orama support. |
| I haven’t installed the connector yet | In the meantime, you can upload your invoices from Excel. |
| Older invoices are missing | The first load brings recent ones; history is imported from Excel. |
| An invoice lands in the wrong line item | Reassign it from the invoice list and adjust the line item’s rule, for example with the tax ID as a required keyword. |
Example: a distributor with Sage 50 on the office computer
Suministros Tormes (anonymised name) is a company in Salamanca that distributes electrical supplies, with annual revenue of €1.8M. It keeps its books in Sage 50, installed on the office computer, works with three banks and has a €100,000 credit facility. Its manager only found out how cash was doing when the administrator updated the spreadsheet, once a week and only from the office.
With Orama, the company authorises its three banks and installs the connector with the support team. Outstanding Sage 50 invoices flow in automatically as expected receipts and payments, direct debit remittances are broken down, and the manager checks the forecast from their phone while visiting customers.
In September, the forecast shows that in mid-November the third-quarter VAT payment (€38,000), a large order from its main supplier (€60,000) and payroll (€45,000) all fall due together. Running the “what if they pay late?” scenario on its two construction customers, who usually pay a month late, cash for that week drops to −€25,000. With seven weeks’ notice, the manager splits the order into two deliveries and doesn’t need to touch the credit facility.
More on ERPs and cash management: all Orama integrations, Is your ERP falling short on cash management? and the Orama Academy article Connect Sage 50 to Orama (in Spanish).
Running Sage 50 in the office and want to see your cash from anywhere? Try it free for 7 days, no card required, or book a 30-minute demo and we’ll show you with your data.
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Frequently asked questions
Keep reading: you may also want to see what treasury software for an SME should include, when a spreadsheet is enough and when you need treasury software and what cash flow is and how to calculate it.
