Email invoices and credit notes (from SOP)

Note - information

This explains how to email invoices and credits notes created in the SOP module only. To email invoices and credit notes created from Invoicing, see Email invoices and credit notes (from Invoicing).

How to

Set up email layouts

Before you can email your invoices or credit notes, you need to choose the layout you want to use.

Sage 200 has a set of default layouts that you can use 'out of the box', which have the email settings already applied. If you want to use customised layouts, we recommend that you make changes to these defaults.

  • SOP Invoice (Email Plain Paper), SOP Credit Note (Email Plain Paper): With borders to define the sections.

  • SOP Invoice (Email), SOP Credit Note (Email): Without borders to define the sections.

  • SOP Invoice Payment Service Provider (E-mail), SOP Invoice Payment Service Provider (Email Plain Paper): Designed for use with both Opayo (formerly Sage Pay) and Sage Invoice Payments. A Pay Now button is added to each type of invoice layout.

    If you're using Sage 200 Professional versions up to 2020 R1, the layouts will have the old "Sage Pay" name.

    • SOP Invoice Sage Pay (Email), SOP Invoice Sage Pay (Email Plain Paper).

To choose an email layout:

Open: Tools > Choose Layouts.

  1. Choose one of the following from the Layout drop-down list:
    • SOPInvoiceEmail
    • SOPCreditNoteEmail
  2. Click the Browse button next to Filename and choose the layout you want to use.

    • Default layouts can be found here: default > layouts
    • Customised layouts can be found here: custom > layouts

Email invoices and credit notes

To email invoices and credit notes from SOP, you must print them first.

  1. Set the Output mode to Spooler or Preview.

  2. Make sure each customer account has a contact that is:
    1. Set as the Preferred contact for the Send Statement To Role.
    2. With a valid email address.
  3. Print your invoices: Choose Print from the Sales Orders list or Sales Order Processing > Document Printing > Print Invoices.
  4. Choose Email from the preview or the spooler.

Email reprinted invoices and credit notes

You can only use the Email option from the list to email invoices and credit notes for the first time. This is because this process also changes the invoice status to Printed.

If you need to resend a copy of the invoice, you'll need to reprint it first, then email it via the spooler or preview options. This will add COPY to the resent invoices and credit notes.

  1. Make sure you've set Sage 200 to send documents to the spooler or preview, rather than straight to the printer.

    Open: Tools > Choose Output Mode.

  2. Reprint the invoice or credit note.

    Open: Sales Order Processing > Sales Orders List, then select the invoice or credit note and select Print > Reprint.

    • From the spooler, select the invoice and click Email.
    • From the preview screen, click Email.

Save invoices or credit notes to cloud document storage

You can set up Sage 200 to save invoices and credit notes to cloud document storage when you print (or email) them, so that they can be viewed by everyone.

If the invoice or credit note has been printed (or emailed) and saved to your cloud document storage, you can view it in PDF format.

Open: Invoicing > Invoicing List, then select a single invoice or credit note and click View in Document Storage.

Open: Sales Ledger > Customers List, then select the customer and click View in Document Storage.

  • The customer's folder is displayed in cloud document storage. The Invoice and Credit Note folders contain the appropriate documents for the customer.

See Save printed documents to cloud document storage.

Useful Info

About emailing your invoices

  • To email your invoice and credit notes from sales orders, you must print them first.
  • The 'out of the box' email layouts are sent to the contact set as the Preferred Contact for the Send Statement to role. If you want to send to a different contact, you must amend the invoice or credit note layout. See Set up SOP invoices to send via email.
  • You can customise the 'out of the box' email layouts, e.g. add your company logo.
  • If you're emailing more than one invoice to the same customer, your invoices are combined into a single PDF.
  • If you're using Sage Invoice Payments or Opayo (formerly Sage Pay), you can include a Pay Now button to email invoices. To do this, just use one of the Pay Now email layouts. If you send more than one invoice to the same customer with a Pay Now button, each invoice is attached to the email separately.

    See Take payments using Invoice Payments or Opayo (formerly Sage Pay).

Using customised email layouts

Open: Tools > Run Sage Report Designer.

The default layouts we have provided have all the correct email options applied. If you want to use a customised layout with your own logo etc. we recommend that you make changes to one of the default layouts.

As long as you amend the default layout that you've set to use, and save it with the same name in the Custom folder, your custom layout will be used automatically.

  1. Enter the email address and password you use to log into Sage 200.

  1. Go to the File Explorer, and browse to default > layouts folder.

  2. Double-click on the document layout you want to customise.
  3. Make your changes to the layout.

  4. When you have finished go to the File menu and select Save As.

  5. Choose where to save the layout:
    1. If you want to use the new layout for all companies, save it in the custom > layouts folder.
    2. If the layout is specific to a single company, save it in the company > layouts folder.
  6. Click the Close button at the top of the document window.

Which email providers can I use?

If you use any of the following to send and receive emails, the invoice layouts will already have the correct settings:

  • Microsoft Outlook - to find out which versions of Microsoft Office you can use, check the supported software in the system requirements (opens in a new tab) for your version of for your version of Sage 200.

  • Windows Live Hotmail.

  • Yahoo Mail.

  • Yahoo Plus Mail.

If you're not using one of email providers listed above, you'll need to enter the SMTP settings for your provider.

Note - warning

Basic authentication will be retired for Outlook.com and Gmail in September 2024. This means if you use SMTP to send emails using Outlook.com or Gmail, you may need to re-configure your email service or Sage software.

To find out more about the authentication changes, see: