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Exporting Financial Transactions from Operate to Sage Line 50 v26-v30 using a file export
Exporting Financial Transactions from Operate to Sage Line 50 v26-v30 using a file export

Use Operate's financial integration to Sage Line 50 to export transactions such as invoices, credit notes, payments, journals, etc.

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Written by Stuart
Updated over a week ago

Operate allows you to export all transactions to Sage Line 50: invoices, credit notes, payments, journals, AR entries. This is done via two export apps which you can find under   Settings > Integrations. The 'Sage  Export' will export invoices and credit notes, while the 'Sage Payments Export' will export payments, journals and other Accounts Receivable Transactions. 

Install both applications in order to be able to run the export.

To export to Sage Line 50 Desktop, v26-v30, please select Sage Line 50 Desktop

The exports are available as a .csv (Comma Delimited) file.

Before You Export

1. Back up your Sage 

In the event that the export might fail or an error has been made the database can be restored from this back up.

2. Take note of your existing Sage balance 

Before exporting, check the debtors balance within your accounting software and take note of it. You should be able to see this balance easily or run a report for it - there are many such systems out there so if you have any issues obtaining this information, we recommend finding instructions from your provider.

When your export is completed, your balance should be the sum of your pre-export balance and the total that the exported transactions amount to.

3. Make sure that the following elements are identical in both Operate and Sage

The below elements need to be simultaneously maintained in both systems:

  • Account IDs/Customer Names -  Ensure that the Operate Account ID (found in Member > Accounts) matches the Account ID/customer name in Sage.

  • When you next run this export, please verify that any accounts created within the past month in Operate have also been created within Sage. You can see the new accounts by going to Member > Accounts, where you can create a list view that shows accounts created within the past month. You can then use this list to check every month. Here is how to filter your list view: 

  • Product Names - Your Products also need to be identical in both systems. To retrieve a list of Operate Products, you can go to Space > Products and export the 'All Products' list view. When you next run an export, you can create a new list for products created within the past month, as shown for Accounts.

  • Payment GL Codes - In Operate, you need to set up Payment GL Codes at the Organization level, under Settings > Organizations > Payment GL Codes. Ensure that these Payment GL Codes exist in Sage 50 as well.


  • Products GL Codes - Operate also has to have the GL Code field populated on all Products, to match the ones in Sage. When you run the export for the first time or you add new products to either system, please check Space > Products and edit any product that does not have a GL Code. You can use list views here as well to easily see which products don't have a GL code (you can add the GL Code column to the list - Please read the dedicated guide on Using List Views for more details).

  • Taxes - In Operate, go to: Settings > General > Organizations > Taxes and edit the Standard VAT / Tax Rate. Here is where the Tax Code field will need to be set to match the tax codes within Sage.  

  • You will then need to ensure that all products have the correct associated tax set within Operate (this can be done by bulk update using the update fields within product list views under Space > Products.) You can also use list views or the 'Filter' box to narrow down to the products you need to update.

4. Run the Un-booked Invoice Summary Report in Operate

This step allows you to check whether there are any unknown values on the export.

Go to Reports, in Operate, then look for the 'Un-Booked Invoice Summary' Report and open it.  

Run the report for invoices issued this month. 

This report will show you all the invoices available for export. Email to yourself and keep for reconciliation post export. Remember to record the Gross figure including VAT as this will be the total sum exported.

5. Prevent Invoices from Being Raised during Export

It is important to prevent invoices from being raised during your export otherwise this could make reconciliation very difficult as an invoice with the same date as any exported invoices could be raised but not exported.

To do this, go to the Operate Settings > Organizations > then select your organization. You can also search for 'Organizations' in the global search box next to the Operate logo to find your list of configured organizations.

Once you edit your organization, you will find a field called 'Disable Transactions on or Before', where you can set the current date. This will ensure that no invoice will be generated while you are working on the export and after it has been completed. When you are ready, save the change you made to the organization record. 

Exporting Invoices and Credit Notes

  • To start running your export, go to Invoicing > Sage Export.

  • Select the Organization that you want to export for. 

  • Click Export

  • Select what you would like to export: Choosing Unbooked Transactions will export transactions that would not have been exported before. Booked Transactions may already be exported. Exporting booked transactions may lead to duplicates in your financial accounts - please use this option cautiously and only if you need to correct any errors within the export (e.g. if you need to make changes to any record after having exported).

  • Select what range of transactions you would like to export: All Transactions, Last Month's, This Month's or a custom transaction list. If you decide to Choose Transactions, you will be asked to select a Location then the specific year, month and transaction you want to export. Choosing custom transactions is a great way to re-export the booked ones when there are errors in Sage and you make changes to Operate before re-exporting. This way you are only exporting the failed transaction(s), not everything else.

  • Your export is now ready - simply click the Export link to download a .csv file containing your data. 

  • All selected transactions will be marked as booked. 

  • to import them into sage, you will need to import them as Audit Trail Transactions

This is what the export looks like: 

The file includes the following columns: 

  • Column A - Type - SI - Invoice, SC - Credit Note

  • Column B - Account - Accounts Id from the Account Record

  • Column C - GL Code

  • Column D - Department No (the organization generating the revenue)

  • Column E - Transaction Date

  • Column F - Invoice/Credit Note Number

  • Column G - Reference Text

  • Column H - Net Amount

  • Column I - Tax Code

  • Column J - Tax Amount

  • Column K - Organization Id

Please note: Operate calculates tax on invoice totals, not on invoice lines - you can see this in the above example (the VAT Posting lines). There are instances when discrepancies may occur between the sum of taxes per line and the total tax; which is why it is more accurate to calculate it on the total invoiced amount.

Exporting Payments

  • Go to Operate's Settings > Integrations and find the Sage Payment Export, then open it.

  • Select the Organization that you want to export for. 

  • Click Export

  • Select what you would like to export: Choosing Unbooked Transactions will export transactions that would not have been exported before. Booked Transactions may already be exported. Exporting booked transactions may lead to duplicates in your financial accounts - please use this option cautiously and only if you need to correct any errors within the export (e.g. if you need to make changes to any record after having exported).

  • Select what range of transactions you would like to export: All Transactions, Last Month's, This Month's or a custom transaction list. If you decide to Choose Transactions, you will be asked to select a Location then the specific year, month and transaction you want to export. Choosing custom transactions is a great way to re-export the booked ones when there are errors in Sage and you make changes to Operate before re-exporting. This way you are only exporting the failed transaction(s), not everything else.

  • Your export is now ready - simply click the Export link to download a .csv file containing your data (payments, journals, AR entries).

  • All selected transactions will be marked as booked. 

Reconciling Balances

After the export, the debtor account balance should now be the sum of the starting balance and the Unbooked Invoice Summary Report total.

If it is not, investigate any failures to see which transaction is causing the difference and repeat the export.

Correcting Failed Items and Re-exporting

Since Operate is only providing the downloadable file containing your data, it is not possible to know whether any of the transactions will fail to import into Sage. Therefore, you will need to know how this system shows import failures. 

If a transaction has failed, correct the data in Operate and then re-export it.

Failures are likely to be caused by any element listed above under "Before You Export", #3 that is not identical in both systems.

To re-export, follow the same steps above, but select to export booked transactions, then choose custom transactions, where you should find and select the one that has failed. 

To export to Sage Line 50 Desktop, please read The essensys Financial Connector - Financial Exports to Sage 50

Exporting Product Reference Text

If you would like to export the Reference Text on product records, you can enable this option by following these steps: 

  • Ensure that the Sage Line 50  Desktop export is installed under Settings > Integrations

  • Go to Settings > General > System > Operate Settings > General Settings.

  • On this page, you can find the Sage Line 50 File Export section, where you can enable the option to "Export references on Sage Line 50 File export". This is disabled by default.

  • Once this option is enabled, it will change column G in the export, from the product description to be the "Item Description + Reference Text" - e.g “Office 22 01/08/2019 to 31/08/2019”. 

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