You are currently locked out of this company" in Sage 50
Sage 50 thinks another user, or a stale lock file left behind, still has the company open, so it refuses you access.
The message “You are currently locked out of this company” sounds like a security problem, but it almost never is. It means Sage 50 believes the company is already in use, either by another user or by a leftover lock file, and it is refusing to let you in to protect the data from two people writing at once.
Who is actually in the file?
The first check is the obvious one. On a networked setup, ask whether a colleague still has the company open, or has Sage running in the background without realizing it. Have everyone close Sage completely, wait a minute, and try again. If the message clears, a stale user session was the cause and nothing is wrong with your data.
Delete the leftover lock files
If nobody has the company open and the message persists, the usual culprit is a lock file that Sage 50 failed to clean up. This commonly happens after a crash, a power cut, a forced shutdown, or a workstation losing its network connection mid-session. Sage leaves small .lck files in the company data folder to record who is using the file, and if the program exits badly those files survive and keep reporting a user who is no longer there.
The fix is to delete them. Make certain every user has closed Sage 50 on every machine, including any session running minimized or as a background process. Then, in the folder that holds the company data, look for files with a .lck extension. There is typically one for the company plus one per user who was signed in. Delete them all. They contain no accounting data; they exist only to coordinate access, and Sage rebuilds them on the next open.
If you are on a network share, do this at the machine hosting the data, and check that the share itself is not holding a phantom open file. Restarting the host machine clears that reliably.
When the user name itself is the problem
The message can also appear when the sign-in name you are using does not match the user profile recorded in the company, for example after a workstation was renamed or a user was set up again. In that case the lock files are clean, but Sage still refuses the match. Signing in as the administrator user, if you have that credential, usually gets you in so you can sort out the other user’s access.
If the file still will not open
Occasionally the lockout points at real damage. A crash that leaves stale locks can also leave the underlying database inconsistent, and deleting the .lck files gets you past the message only to hit a different error, or a company that opens but misbehaves. In that situation, stop and restore your most recent backup rather than working in a suspect file.
If there is no usable backup, the file likely needs professional attention. Our engineers repair damaged Sage 50 and Simply Accounting databases directly, and we can tell you quickly what is recoverable. You can send us the file for a free evaluation of your damaged Sage 50 database, with no obligation, before deciding anything. If you have also been considering a move off Sage, we handle Sage 50 to QuickBooks conversions as well.