An AI agent for the keying around Sage 200
Someone still types the customer's purchase order, the supplier's invoice and the new account form into Sage 200. An AI agent can read, check and prepare those entries, and the people who run your ledgers approve them.
Customer purchase orders, price lists, purchase orders and goods received notes, and the aged debtors report in Sage 200.
Sales orders and supplier invoices prepared for the ledger clerk, draft supplier and customer accounts, and the reply and promised date on each chased invoice.
What Sage 200 is and who runs it
Sage 200 is accounting and business management software made by Sage, with sales orders, purchase orders and stock alongside the ledgers. This page covers the two versions for which Sage documents an API: Sage 200 Standard Online and Sage 200 Professional.
In Sage 200, sales administrators work on the order book, purchase ledger clerks on supplier invoices, a credit controller on the aged debtors, and a finance manager closes the period. An administrator looks after its users and their roles.
Keying an AI agent can do around Sage 200
Sales orders keyed into Sage 200
A customer's purchase order arrives as a PDF with their product codes, not yours. The agent translates the codes, checks prices against that customer's price list and prepares the sales order. A mismatch goes to the sales office.
Supplier invoices matched before posting
Each supplier invoice is checked against the purchase order and the goods received note in Sage 200. Those that match are prepared for the purchase ledger clerk; a price or quantity difference is set out for a person to decide.
New supplier and customer accounts
Opening an account in Sage 200 means collecting terms, VAT number and bank details first. The agent gathers and checks them and drafts the record. A person confirms bank details by phone and approves the account.
Statements and unpaid invoices chased
From the aged debtors report in Sage 200, the agent drafts the chasing email for each overdue account, records the reply and the promised date, and passes a queried invoice to your credit controller.
Roles that work in Sage 200
Purchase invoice processing
Reads supplier invoices, matches them to orders and receipts, and prepares them for the purchase ledger clerk.
Order processing
Turns emailed customer orders into sales orders, with your product codes and that customer's prices checked.
Supplier onboarding
Collects a new supplier's details and documents and drafts the account for purchase ledger approval.
Invoice and payment chasing
Chases the overdue accounts on your aged debtors report and passes a queried invoice to credit control.
How the connection is set up
Sage publishes the Sage 200 API for Sage 200 Standard Online and Sage 200 Professional. It issues the credentials on request, through a form, and each request runs under a Sage ID whose user roles decide what it may do. Your Sage 200 administrator approves that user, and the route is confirmed with you first.
Sage says the API is enabled by default in Sage 200 Standard Online. A Sage 200 Professional site is installed locally and has to be set up to allow outside connections first. The role's user is given only the access its work needs.
Questions owners ask
We run Sage 50, not Sage 200. Is this page for us?
Not as it stands. This page is about Sage 200, for which Sage documents an API. Sage lists no API for Sage 50 Accounts; its developer tools are only for members of Sage's UK developer programme, and Sage calls ODBC access read only and unsupported. Which Sage you run comes first.
Our Sage 200 is on our own server. Does that change things?
It changes the first step. Sage says a Sage 200 Professional site, being installed locally, must be set up to allow outside connections to its API, and describes two ways to do it. That set-up is done by whoever looks after your Sage server.
We could use Sage's own AI tools. Why have an agent as well?
Start by asking Sage whether your product has Sage Copilot, the assistant it sells, and use AutoEntry by Sage, which captures invoices, receipts and statements, where it fits. An Agent Resource works around Sage 200 as a member of staff would, in a role agreed with you and managed for you, and your people approve.
What can it see in Sage 200?
What its user is allowed to see. Sage says the Sage ID used to make a request determines the operations available to it, through the user roles and features set in Sage 200. The role is given a user with only the access its work needs.