The Sage 50 2016 Edition is now available to any company with a currently active Sage BusinessCare subscription. If you are not presently on a BusinessCare subscription, you will need to subscribe – for at least the first year – to obtain the upgrade.

The distribution method for the 2016 release changed this year, which caught all of us a bit by surprise. Where in the past Sage delivered an email to all active subscribers with the Activation Key and the download link (which many users never saw), for this year Sage has “bundled” the upgrade right into the product itself (called an “in-product upgrade”).

This approach has its pros and cons. It is much easier to obtain the upgrade (no download link required from an email) and enter the activation key (it reads your key directly into the new version, based on your current subscription). However, you are still required to first run the upgrade on your server, and then upgrade the workstations, which many unwary users will miss. Not a disaster, but annoying. Also, unless you know how to find the file at a later date (hint: it is stored in [drive]\Company\Updates), as soon as you complete the download it will commence with the installation, unless you say “no” to the “Ready to Install?” prompt. This can be inconvenient.

For those unused to checking for updates in Sage 50, here is where you can go to check:

You should see a window like this one, listing the 2016 upgrade, with the word “Entitled” listed at the far right, if your BusinessCare subscription is current. Clicking the Download button will commence the installation unless you decline to install once the download is complete (which we recommend).

We recommend declining because, in most instances, you will be downloading the upgrade from your workstation, and Sage requires that you install the upgrade on the server first, then on the workstation (a bit of a gotcha!). If you attempt to install on the workstation without first installing on the server, you will receive an error message of sorts, advising that you must first install on the server.

Or you can just call us to take care of all of this for you if you prefer to leave it in the hands of experts who have performed upgrades innumerably times in the past, and know all of the little tricks and tips that can hang up folks who don’t do this for a living.

Give us a call at 610-941-2116, or drop us a message at [email protected], if you would like to discuss your upgrade options.