How to upgrade to Sage Fixed Assets 2013.1

Sage Fixed Assets 2013.1 comes with many new and exciting features that are guaranteed to make managing fixed assets much easier. In addition to yearly tax updates that make sure that all tax rules and reports regarding depreciation are up to date, Sage Fixed Assets 2013.1 has additional components that increase productivity. In this post we cover how to upgrade to Sage Fixed Assets 2013.1 as there are steps that need to be completed in order to make the transition to 2013.1 quick and painless.
The first step is to make sure that the current version of Sage Fixed Assets installed is version 2012.1 or 2013.0. If the version currently installed is 2012.1, there will be a database conversion during the upgrade process, so it is important that the current Sage Fixed Assets database is on a version that can be converted. If the current installed version of Sage Fixed Assets is prior to 2012.1, it will need upgrading prior to proceeding with the 2013.1 install. The 2012.1 version of Sage Fixed assets and instructions for installing it can be downloaded by logging on to:http://customers.sagenorthamerica.com
Once the current running version of Sage Fixed Assets has been verified, the next step is to make sure that depreciation has been properly run and that there is a Depreciation Expense report that ties properly with the general ledger. A detailed Depreciation Expense report should either be printed or exported to a file. This allows a comparison between the two versions of the software after the upgrade, in case there are some perceived discrepancies. An optional step is to do a Period Close, a feature in Sage Fixed Assets that allows the freezing of the Current Year to Date and Current Accumulated Depreciation values as of the current depreciation through date.
As mentioned earlier, there may be a database conversion during the upgrade process, and it is strongly suggested that a backup of the companies in the databases is completed prior to upgrading. Sage Fixed Assets has a built-in backup feature that creates a file containing all the company data for the company or companies selected in the backup process. If necessary, the backup files can then be used to create an exact duplicate of the companies in a new database. This ensures the data is completely protected during the upgrade to 2013.1. If there are custom reports created through Sage Fixed Assets–Reporting then they will need to be backed up separately by making a copy of the reports elsewhere.
The system requirements for 2013.1 are mostly the same as those required for the previous version (2012.1). The one difference is within the support operating system section. Windows 2000 and Microsoft SQL 2000 are no longer supported with version 2013.1. If the current version of Sage Fixed Assets is running on either of the two, Sage Fixed Assets will need to be migrated to a supported environment before the upgrade to 2013.1.
Once the steps above are completed then upgrading to 2013.1 should be a smooth one. For additional information or questions that may arise, contact us via phone at 1-866-320-8922 or email us at [email protected]