Search Tools
Sage 50 Accounting offers two ways to quickly find records and transactions that are stored in your company file, the Search window and Search reports.
If you are searching for a serial number, use the Advanced search tab to generate a Search report for the specific item.
Lookup Button
The Lookup button 
is available in most transaction windows, and enables you to search for transactions that have been processed.
The transactions you can look up include:
- Sales invoices
- Sales orders
- Purchase bills
- Purchase orders
- Payments to suppliers, credit-card companies, and other businesses
- Receipts
- Paycheques
Each time you look up a transaction, Sage 50 Accounting stores the results of the look up on your computer. You can clear this lookup data to make more room on your computer.
Search Window
The Search window is the primary tool used for looking up records and transactions. There are several ways to open the Search window, and each way affects what you can search for. If you open it from:
- The Home window, you can look for records or transactions by typing a search item in the Search Company field.
- A record's Icon window (for example, customers), your search is restricted to that particular type of record (in this case, customers).
- A transaction window (for example, Sales Invoices), your search is restricted to that particular type of transaction (in this case, sales invoices). You can only look up transaction details if you have not cleared them from your company file.
When the Search window is opened from the Home window, you can also take advantage of the options on the Basic and Advanced search tabs.
Bypass Search Field. Allows you to skip the Search box and go directly to the records listed at the bottom of the window to begin your search.
Bypass Category Field. Allows you to skip the Category box and go directly to the Search box to begin your search. This option is turned on by default.
Search Reports
Search reports provide a list of both records and transactions that match your search criteria. You can enter cheque numbers, dollar amounts, customer names or any other information for which you want to search. Once the report has been generated, you can drill down into the results list to look at specific items. You can generate Search reports two ways, by using the Search Companyfield in the Home window, or by entering your criteria on the Advanced tab in the Search window.
Search Company field in the Home Window
In the Home window toolbar, enter text in the search box, and then click the Search button to produce a report that lists records and transactions that match your search term. This search is case-sensitive, so be sure to capitalize your terms as necessary.
Advanced Search TabThe Advanced search tab produces the same report as the Search Company field, but it provides more control over your search results. You control the:
- Field. This list of options tells Sage 50 Accounting where to look for matches (for example, Name, Invoice number, or City).
- Matching Criteria. This list of options tells Sage 50 Accounting how to recognize when there is match with your Field selection (for example, Contains, Is greater than, or Starts with).
- Value. This where you provide the information that you are actually looking for (for example, a dollar amount).
There are two Additional Search Filters that you can use to further refine your search to reduce the number of matches and ensure that the results are relevant. These filters work the same way as the main Advanced search, except that the And and Or controls allow you to decide if matches are required for one (Or) or both (And) of the filtering criteria.
Note: If you are using the bilingual data entry feature, Sage 50 Accounting restricts your search results to information recorded in your preferred language.