Give Sage feedback on every support case
February 27, 2009
Sage Support will automatically send out a survey form after every phone case. In some instances (such as if you’ve called within the last 30 days) you may not receive a survey to evaluate your satisfaction with the support you just received.
Don’t despair! Now there’s a way for you to provide feedback on any of the cases that you’ve opened at Sage. Best of all you only need the case # and a web browser to create feedback.
Simply visit the Sage Support Survey page where you’ll be prompted for your case number as well as some feedback on how the case was resolved.
Miva e-commerce Abandoned Cart Recovery Utility (ACRUe)
February 27, 2009
DSD Associates announce the release and general availability of their new Abandoned Cart Recovery Utility (ACRUe) for Miva e-commerce store owners.
Miva e-Commerce Abandoned Cart Recovery Now Available
This utility was created to address a serious outage this past week that affected all Miva Merchant e-commerce stores. During the outage, many thousands of e-commerce visitors’ shopping carts were abandoned when the system went down, and there is currently no way to recover abandoned carts. DSD jumped in, and created ACRUe, which recovers abandoned shopping carts, and reports their contents and who the carts belonged to (if the visitor had gotten that far).
After creating the utility for a large online e-commerce store whose website DSD had developed, the owner was able to use it to contact abandoned cart owners, to find out if they wanted to complete their purchase. They have more than paid for the utility in recovered sales.
Statistical Reporting for Miva E-Commerce
But this isn’t just a utility that’s used for outages or disasters. E-commerce store owners can use it to do statistical reporting on abandoned carts, giving them insight into the reasons that visitors are abandoning carts (i.e. not buying). ACRUe has an optional feature that automatically e-mails the e-commerce site manager when a cart is abandoned, allowing them to follow-up with their customer.
Abandoned Cart Recovery Utility (ACRUe) for Miva e-commerce store owners
If you’re interested in more information please call DSD Associates directly at 858-550-5900 or visit them on the web at the link below.
Link: DSD Associates
Sagetalk goes listen only 3-31-09
February 26, 2009
Sage introduced a new community forum in the fourth quarter of 2008, we’ve sensed that the writing was on the wall for their old beloved Sagetalk discussion forum.
In a posting made to their private online support area, Sage have announced that on March 31, 2009 the Sagetalk discussion forum will be turned to read only status. During this time no new messages or subscribers will be accepted. All the message areas continue to be available (subject to the same awkward password protected restrictions) for an undetermined period of time.
Sage Communities for MAS 90 and MAS 200 is where the action is
If you haven’t been online and participating in the Sagetalk forum for a while, then you might be surprised to learn that Sage have created a new (better) discussion forum based on the Lithium messaging software.
This new community is better in several ways:
- Messages support html, images and are easier to edit (editing a message no longer breaks the html as it used to on Sagetalk)
- You can read new Sage Community messages in RSS feeds through tools like Google Reader.
- Twitter users can even subscribe to one of the Sage Community Twitter feeds and be notified every time a new message is posted to the community.
via: 90Minds – Sagetalk becomes read only on 3/31/09
IRS updated withholding tax schedules released 2-21-09
February 26, 2009
The Internal Revenue Service today released new withholding tables that will result in more take-home pay this spring for millions of American workers.
The new tables incorporate the new Making Work Pay credit, one of the key tax provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that became law earlier this week.
UPDATE: 12/24/09 – The 2010 IRS Withholding Tax Tables have been released and we have a copy at this link.
“For most taxpayers, the additional credit will automatically start showing up in their paychecks this spring,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “Since employers and payroll companies will handle this change, people typically won’t need to take any additional action. The IRS will continue working to implement this and other provisions of the new law as quickly as possible.”
The new withholding tables, along with other instructions related to the new tax law, will be incorporated in new Publication 15-T. This publication will be posted to this Web site next week and mailed to more than 9 million employers in mid-March. The IRS asks that employers start using these new tables as soon as possible but not later than April 1. Most workers will see a boost in their take-home pay soon thereafter.
Eligible workers will get the benefit of this change without any action on their part. This means that workers don’t need to fill out a new W-4 withholding form to get the Making Work Pay credit reflected in their take-home pay. A Form W-4 will not need to be submitted for the automatic withholding change. Individuals and couples with multiple jobs may want to submit revised Form W-4 forms to ensure enough withholding is held to cover the tax for the combined income. Publication 919 provides additional guidance for tax withholding.
Available for tax years 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay credit is 6.2 percent of a taxpayer’s earned income with a maximum credit of $800 for a married couple filing a joint return and $400 for other taxpayers, but it is phased out for higher income taxpayers. Most workers will qualify for the maximum credit. Because the credit is refundable (people can get it even if they owe no tax), most low-income workers will also qualify for the full credit.
Though all eligible taxpayers will need to claim the credit when they file their 2009 income tax return next year, the benefit will generally be spread out over the paychecks they receive beginning this spring and continue until the end of the year.
Many higher-income taxpayers will see little or no change in their take-home pay. That’s because the Making Work Pay credit is phased out for a married couple filing a joint return whose modified adjusted gross income (AGI) is between $150,000 and $190,000 and other taxpayers whose modified AGI is between $75,000 and $95,000
Taxpayers will not get a separate, special check mailed to them from the IRS like last year’s economic stimulus payment.
New IRS Tax Tables February 2009
Publication 15-T tax tables for 02-2009 released by IRS [preliminary]
February 26, 2009
Tax table updates for Sage MAS90 and MAS200 have yet to be released by Sage. When they are released, those users who are active on a basic maintenance plan can download them from the Sage Online web site.
Payroll tax table updates will be available for MAS 90 and MAS 200 payroll from version 3.71 to 4.30.
The lack of updates from Sage (as of 2-26-09) doesn’t mean you cannot update your tax tables manually with information released by the IRS.
Important Disclaimer: The IRS site states that the table they’ve published are preliminary. Be sure to check back at irs.gov to see whether any updates are released. We strive to update our site with the latest news of interest to MAS90 and MAS200 users – however we cannot be responsible for use of an outdated tax table. Always check tax calculations closely after making any changes to your payroll tax tables.
To manually update your MAS90 payroll tax tables
Obtain the latest IRS tax tables from Irs.gov site (Publication 15-T)
Using the Table 7 ANNUAL Payroll Period table, navigate to MAS90/MAS200 – Payroll – Setup – Tax Table Maintenance and update the FED table for each filing status (single, married, head of household).
Important: It is crucial that you verify the accuracy of all tax computations on the first payroll runs. Be sure to verify that you are running the latest and most accurate tax tables by checking irs.gov for any future tax table updates.
Sage Insights 2009 Registration – My 10 Reasons Consultants Should Attend
February 25, 2009
Registration for the annual Sage Software 2009 Insights Reseller conference opens tomorrow, February 26, 2009 at 9am EST.
This annual conference is being held this year at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN and represents an opportunity for Sage consultants working with all the different products to gather and learn what is new with the software and interact with management to provide product suggestions.
This year there will be no awards gala or comedian, instead those in attendance will have additional business building trade show time. There remains an event night on Wednesday with Thursday bringing baseball legend Cal Ripken in (warning cliche ahead) — to bat cleanup.
Want to Meet Other Consultants To Share Ideas? Sign Up On The Sage Insights Facebook Event Page
Have you visited the Sage Insights Facebook event page? It’s a place where you can indicate whether you are attending Insights 2009. The benefit of using this page is you can become “friends” with other users who are also attending Insights.
Most of the value (for me) from the Insights reseller conference is from meeting other users and consultants just like yourself. Keep in touch with these people throughout the year and share ideas, technical information and gain lots more knowledge than you might otherwise be able to accumulate by yourself.
Navigate here to the Facebook event page for Insights 2009 where other consultants are indicating whether they are going to be traveling to Insights. Sign up today.
It’s not an officially sanctioned Sage page – so don’t scream at Sage if something doesn’t about the page does look just right.
But it is a great place to see who has confirmed that they are attending Insights 2009.
Remember – lots of value comes from networking with other consultants. Sharing ideas about things that you’ve implemented (or are thinking about implementing).
Sage have published a list of 10 reasons their consultants should attentd Insights 2009 (displayed below at the end of this article).
While the list is interesting – quite a bit of the items could happen anywhere (for example management could update us via phone or remote web sessions).
Here are my top 10 reasons you MUST attend Sage Insights 2009:
Ed Kless, Rob Johnson and their staff: If you haven’t been to the sessions with either of these guys – then this is the year to go. They are both refreshingly candid, open to new idea and thinking outside the box with their approach to new marketing and pricing ideas. All of their sessions are about business building, sales and pricing. If you want a fighting chance to make more money in 2009 – you have to be in these sessions.
Observation: You need ONE new idea to make your trip worthwhile. You don’t have to implement everything discussed in these sessions … just one good idea will pay for your trip.
The Economy: Yes, the economy is in a collapse. As a result you have two options. Sit in the office at your desk and complain – or learn new ways to deal with the changing landscape. Go ahead and sit in your office and dream up new ways to bill for your services. Then implement them and hope you are right — or — come on down to Insights and talk with consultants who have already tried the ideas you are considering and learn what worked and what did not.
Over the last week I’ve emailed well over a dozen people from the Sage VARS LinkedIn group. Most of them were asking for information on how they could better design their technical support plans. While I don’t claim to have all the answers – I do have relevant, real world experience that I share pretty openly. Insights is all about making those connections to share information with your peers. From experience I can say that real world information from peers is 10 times better than classroom theory.
Erika Jelovsek: Have you met Erika before. She’s been at Sage since forever. Do you have a question about the MAS 90 product that you just can’t get answered? Erika’s your top resource. She’ll probably do a couple sessions herself and participate in the traditional closing session where consultants are asked for product suggestions. She knows everything about the MAS product line and can give you an answer to most questions (even if it involves explaining why something hasn’t been incorporated as a feature).
90 Minds: A little over 4 years ago I formed a very informal group with 25+ top MAS90 consultants. We keep in close contact via email messages. On any given month we exchange close to 600(!) messages between ourselves. A lot of these messages are consultant to consultant technical support. Some of the consultants in our group act as subcontractors to others and perform services such as advanced Crystal Reports and data imports. My little group isn’t accepting new members – however you have a great chance to create your own group and keep in touch with top notch consultants who you see annually at Insights. This little group has paid for itself about 100 times over. Find me at Insights and I’ll explain to you how you can setup your own group for no money and keep in touch with your own network of consultants on any product line that you represent.
The Old Ways Of Billing and Doing Business Have Changed: If you’re still billing for product support by the hour – you probalby have becoming increasingly frustrated by the amount of time that suddenly becomes “no charge” because it involved a “quick question”. Wouldn’t both you and your client be better off with a fixed billing arrangement – where the annual support costs were known in advance. There’s lots to learn on how to do this and there are many consultants who have successfully implemented this fee structure. The easiest way to interact with them (and learn) is by visiting Insights, attending the sessions related to the topic, and then cornering the smart consultants in the hallway and asking more questions. Be proactive!
Location: This reason has nothing to do with busines. The Grand Ole Opry is located directly behind the conference center. There’s a mall (Bass Pro Shops) located just a little further. This is not one of those convention centers where you have to take a $50 taxi trip to get to a restaurant. There are lots of choices for entertainment and dining within easy walking distance of the hotel.
Product Updates and Roadmaps: Clients expect you to be up to date on the latest news about what is planned for their software. If you can’t provide them with information on the latest releases the clients invariably may deem the upgrades not worthwhile and stop enlistng your upgrade services.
Social Media: I’m going to participate in a session on Social Media – that’s the timewasters like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Hopefully none of my competitors will come to see me because I have a few discoveries that I’ll share about gaining an unbelievable amount of web visitors with no money and no expensive (and worthless) Google Adwords.
Observation: Ignore almost everything you see other consultants doing online (buying Google adwords, exchanging links with irrelevant sites to build pagerank). I’ve got the best solutioni to gaining visibility on the web and I’m sharing with anyone who asks!
Jodi Uecker Rust: Sage just hired Jodi. Do you have any idea who she is? If so, you’ll want to listen to anything she has to say at sessions or keynotes. I have not yet spotted her on the speakers list — but when/if she appears I’m making a bee line for her session. In case you didn’t know – Jodi was Doug Burgum’s right hand during many years at Great Plains. And in the late 1980′s Great Plains was widely regarded as the most channel friendly organization on Earth (I still remember going to partner meetings where the regional representatives were able to tell me more about Sage than even I knew).
You Want To Grow and Not Tread Water: Finally I think anyone who is looking to grow needs multiple opinions. If you’re thinking of implementing a new service offering — why not ask another consultant what their experience with the service has been BEFORE you sink money into the product. If you’re contemplating a change in procedure (billing, support, etc) – ask someone who has already tried what you’re contemplating. The advice that you can obtain (all free) from consultants will save you many many hours and dollars of expensive learning!
Sage’s 10 Reasons To Attend Insights 2009
And finally, here’s the 10 reasons that Sage offers for attending their 2009 Insights conference in Nashville, TN.
Sage Insights Reasons to Attend
Hightower Associates launches penalty free stimulus plan
February 25, 2009
Hightower Associates have just announced a new stimulus plan that’s designed to assist users of their software who may have fallen off the maintenance bandwagon.
Under the plan, all prior year penalties (a 25% normal fee) are waived. All that a delinquent subscriber has to pay is the normal lapsed maintenance (up to two prior years’) plus the current year.
This offer is in effect until March 31, 2009. To take advantage of the stimulus, contact your Sage Business Partner or Patty Benitez (847-763-4754) at Hightower Inc.
All Hightower Enhancements Available in Version 4.3 are Now Officially Extended Enterprise Compatible
If you’re using the Sage Extended Enterprise Suite (EES) for MAS 90 or MAS 200, all of the enhancements that Hightower provides which are current at level 4.3 are now officially compatiable with EES.
Among the enhancements provided by Hightower Inc (not all of these are at the latest 4.3 level so check with Hightower Inc. prior to making purchasing decisions):
- Direct Deposit
- Food Distribution for MAS90 and MAS200
- Gift Card Expansion Pack (Point of Sale add-on)
- MASTransit (export to SQL)
- MICR Laser Checks
- Multi-Bin Advanded Distribution for MAS90 and MAS200
- Point of Sale Professional
- Professional Retainer Control
- Remote Salesperson (discontinued)
- RemoteXerver
- ScanBlaster
- Time and Billing Professional
- Timekeeper
For more information on any of these enhancements – give Patti Benitez a call at Hightower – 847-763-4754
Sage Abra Procedure Manuals
February 25, 2009
Sage Abra procedure manuals seem like a great idea to me. The guides document the steps your staff should be following in daily operations. They also serve as an Abra training guide for new employees in your human resources department who may start to use Abra.
End users are constantly asking for “best procedures”. There’s a natural curiosity with most of my customers to compare their current policies with those of similar companies. Using this type of material is a great way to introduce some standardization. Many auditors also request a list of frequently performed procedures as part of the year end audit and these guides can be a huge time saver in satisfying that audit requirement.
When I first started working with Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 back in 1986 at Cole, Frago, Cusick and Chestler we purchased several pre-written training guides and they served as great supplements to the Sage product manuals themselves.
These guides are only sold through your friendly Abra reseller - if you’re interested you’ll have to give them a call.
I’m in the process of asking for a few sample pages from the procedure guides. If I’m able to receive any I’ll be sure to post a copy so you can review them online.
Sage seeking MAS90 Bill of Materials feedback for tentative version 4.4 feature upgrade list
February 15, 2009
Do you use the Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 Bill of Materials module?
If so, Sage would like to invite you to participate in a discussion about the way potential new features are implemented to version 4.4 of Bill of Materials.
This input will be given during a web session. Specifically Sage is seeking people familiar with the MAS90 Bill of Materials Inquiry and Where-Used Inquiry screens.
If you’ve always wanted to be actively involved in developing the next generation of Sage accounting software – this is your opportunity.
For more information, including contact email of the responsible Sage employee, visit the Sage MAS90 Community Forums.
FRX Report Writer for MAS 90 Still Alive
February 15, 2009
FRX Financial Reporting for MAS 90 appears to have gained a new lease on life. According to Mark Chinsky of Client’s First Business Solutions – New Jersey, the FRX Report Writer is back under development (or at least is being promoted as a solution by Microsoft) after being slated for discontinuation in favor of PerformancePoint Server.
Mark spotted an article in Network Computing that states in part:
Microsoft made a surprise announcement that presents good news and bad news for customers and partners who were developing on the PerformancePoint Server product. The good news is that the dashboarding, scorecarding and analytic capabilities of PerformancePoint are now being made available as free services to customers with an enterprise license of SharePoint Server. The bad news is that PerformancePoint and its planning functionality will no longer be offered as a separate product, though there will be a final “Service Pack3″ upgrade to the planning functionality released this summer. Translation? Microsoft’s BI team is backing away from deep financial and operational performance management, ceding those opportunities to the Microsoft Dynamics unit and stranding some customers and partners in the process.
Microsoft says it is bundling high-demand PerformancePoint functionality like dashboarding, scorecarding and advanced analytics with SharePoint to better fulfill its longstanding goal of spreading business intelligence to the broadest possible base of users.
“By putting this functionality into SharePoint, it makes it available to exponentially more users,” said Kristina Kerr, Lead Product Manager, Microsoft Business Intelligence, in an interview with Intelligent Enterprise. Share “As for the financial budgeting and planning piece, we found that it involves very different buying behaviors, different people and different deployment scenarios, so we’re very deliberately splitting those two areas.”
A final upgrade of PerformancePoint may buy planning-focused customers and partners some time, but nobody wants to make long-range plans around a product without a road map. Thus, one of two paths forward Microsoft points to exploits what Kerr describes as “broad planning capabilities” it can offer with the combination of SQL Server, SharePoint Server and Excel.
“For example, we have an Excel add-in that exposes the analytic capabilities of SQL Server Analysis Services,” Kerr explained. “Analysis Services offers a function called Forecast, which is really predictive analytics based on historical trends. [That's the kind of functionality] that’s suitable for scenarios that aren’t specific to the office of finance but that call for broad planning and forecasting capabilities.”
A second path forward for partners and customers interesting in planning is to work with the Microsoft Dynamics ERP and applications unit, which will continue to develop its Forecaster and FRX products for forecasting, budgeting and financial reporting.
via: 90Minds
Sage MAS 90 Extended Solution Doesn’t Finish Installing [Solved]
February 11, 2009
Ever have one of those experiences that leave you feeling like a complete moron?
I just had one – and I’m going to share my experience with you so that anyone who runs into the same (or similar problem) can learn from my 8 hours of hair pulling, cursing and confusion mis-fortune.
Background
One of my clients ordered the Sage AP-1063 Extended Solution that enables ACH processing for accounts payable. Think of it as anothe form of direct deposit – only instead of direct depositing employee checks you’ll be depositing vendor payments (aka – wire transfers).
Before I ordered I casually noted that the client was on version 4.05 (first mistake – they were on version 4.1). When Sage sent the Extended Solution I logged in at 7:15 AM remotely with the client and began the installation.
Unfortunately the version 4.05 install routine did not check to make sure it was actually installing to a version 4.05 system – -and dutifully installed itself over my version 4.10 system.
Luckily I caught this and quickly determined that version 4.10 of the Extended Solution was needed. Once I ordered the re-packaged part, Sage was quick to email it over to me.
Here’s where the fun began.
Extended Solutions Say’s “Now Installing Extended Solutions” – Forever
Technically the message did not stay there forever. After three hours the client wisely decided to end task and call.
From there I logged in and we engaged Sage to assist in looking at the issue. Neither of us were able to determine the cause due to the lack of any error messages.
As a final resolution Sage offered to look at the data (all 5 GB) if we would upload to them. Fearing the lengthy upload time (easily a day or two on the clients poky network) I declined to upload.
Luckily the client ran into another error — Error 88 SY_Report.PVC Line 203.
This error message was in the knowledgebase and the cure was very simple. Luckily the cure for the above error also resolved totally my “Now Installing Extended Solutions” hung installation problem.
The Resolution
The fix for both the error message and the hung Extended Solution install routine was to go into the \MAS90\SOA folder and delete any SY_*.PVC files (I suggest you move these somewhere as opposed to outright deleting – just in case).
Once those files were deleted, the Extended Solution installed just fine and all error messages vanished. My theory is that the v4.05 Extended Solution may have dumped those SY_*.PVC files into \MAS90\SOA which in turn caused all my subsequent error conditions.
Hope this is helpful to someone else in the future.
Facebook, Twitter and Blogging – business time wasters or money makers?
February 10, 2009
Have you heard about the newest Internet buzzword? It’s called Social Media and depending upon who you talk about it with you’ll get a differing definition that paints it as either the next big thing or the world’s greatest waste of time. I like to think of Social Media as nothing more than a means of connecting more regularly, inexpensively and efficiently to people or businesses you might not otherwise connect to.
Perhaps you’ve heard the cliche – “people like to do business with people just like them”. The use of these various Social Media tools allow you to interact with your customers and prospects on a more personal level than ever before.
There are dozens of ways to be active online with Social Media – some of the popular tools are MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn as well as the use of blogs to self publish content. The question I hear over repeatedly from people who haven’t yet joined the online Social Media scene is – “what can I do with Social Media tools like Facebook ,etc” and “will social media help my business or is it just for high school kids”.
Rather than argue that all Social Media tools are awesome and worth spending hours of work time to use – I’ll explain how I use Social Media and what I believe its long term benefits are.
Why Social Media? It All Starts With Search
The goal most businesses have in mind when they think of “going online” is to increase the likelihood that their customers and prospects can easily find them in an online search. As you may have found, obtaining a much coveted high Google ranking is increasingly tougher as competitors employ professional search optimization consultants to craft pages tailored for higher search engine rankings. There are also some experts who predict that Google search will eventually become less dominant and give way to searches through other types of Social Media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
What can your company do when you lack the budget to hire an expensive search engine consultant and you lack the skill to do this search optimization yourself?
My answer to search optimization has been to ignore the tricks and fine tuning of web pages. These tweaks to rank a web page highly seem to change almost daily and keeping up with the latest tricks of the search trade is almost impossible unless it is your full time job. In my use of the Internet I’ve found that one type of page never seems to go out of style. Web pages that contain useful content instead of a sales pitch are increasingly prized by those customers and prospects doing their own searches on the web.
Blogging Is An Easy Way To Publish Fresh Content Online And More Helpful Content Equals More Visitors To Your Site. When people hear of blogging they sometimes think of a lone writer ranting endlessly about the local government or some other esoteric topic of interest to a small minority. At it’s core blogging means nothing more than writing an article and publishing it on the Internet.
The key to blogging is that once you write and publish an article – the words in that article become indexed by Internet search engines and eventually (hopefully soon) are discoverable by potential clients who in turn may contact you.
To be sure there are those types of blog web sites. However the way you use blogging for your company can also attract significant traffic to your web site. (Remember – more traffic reading quality articles equals the chance to contact more qualified web searchers).
On my site – http://www.s-consult.com – I’ve installed a free blog software program called WordPress (http://www.wordpress.org).
Because WordPress allows you to publish articles quickly and easily from any Internet connected computer it’s significantly more convenient than the old method of publishing web pages through software such as Frontpage that had to be installed to a single computer. There are also a significant number of free WordPress designs that you can download and use to customize the look of your WordPress installation.
During the course of a day (depending upon my schedule and whether there is any relevant news) I may publish 1 to as many as 6 articles. Do the math and you can see that by the end of the week if I published only the minimum that I’d have 5 new web pages for the search engines to index and for customers and prospects to find. Multiply that by 52 weeks in the year – and in the first year I’d have over 260 different web pages that all would be indexed and searchable on the web. There’s a good chance that out of the 260+ pages there will be some that are indexed highly by search engines – especially when I’ve taken care to make sure that I always use relevant keywords and write about topics that deliver value to clients and prospective clients.
Perhaps the best thing about blogging is that it costs nothing to start. WordPress is completely free and has numerous third party enhancements that can tailor it for use on almost any web site. I like to use this solution because I can update my site from any web browser without the need for added software. Once written the content is all properly formatted with graphics and fonts. There’s a minimum of “geek” knowledge required to create this content.
Remember – the more helpful content you have on your site (emphasis on the word helpful) the more likely a web visitor is to read it and contact you. The cost of creating this helpful content is only the time you spend writing (on average it takes me about 30 minutes to generate a typical online article including proof-reading). Once created these articles on your site live on forever.
Facebook – It’s not just for High Schoolers (or maybe it is)
Facebook is becoming a hub of information for people of all ages. If you have teenagers you’re probably very familiar with this site as it’s the place most of them gravitate toward online. The site allows for creating a profile (picture, name, address, bio) as well as sharing messages via mail and instant messaging.
Over the holidays as I spoke with my teenage nieces and nephews they all told me that the way they communicate with each other is all via Facebook. None of them admitted to regularly using email. As businesses if we want to reach this next generation, we should understand the tools that they use. While most of us would head to the Google search engine to find information – increasingly we will may see clients and potential employees using sites like Facebook for search and communication.
There are several ways to market on Facebook — you can create events and have people register to attend (think user groups), you can create a fan page for your firm (this sounds geeky – but remember that users of Facebook may be the staff that you’re trying to recruit – and Facebook is increasingly the area that they live within to message and do research).
Think of Facebook as yet another marketing resource. Joining is free. Create a page for yourself and your firm which can help potential employees locate your company.
Example:
Wayne Schulz Facebook – http://www.profile.to/wayneschulz
LinkedIn – Facebook for business people
Another popular site is LinkedIn. Think of this as Facebook for business people. LinkedIn is largely free to use (there’s a small added fee if you want to make more than a few contacts each month).
With LinkedIn the object is purely business networking. There is a minimal amount of messaging or posting of photos. To get started you update your profile with past work history, school history and a more professional summary of your biography.
Other users can post recommendations about you (and you can post them about your contacts). Think of this as a high tech reference letter! Most of the users on LinkedIn are there to develop leads for jobs or search for employees.
When you form connections with other people on the service (this is where the LinkedIn name comes from) you can ask them to introduce you to their contacts should you need to make an inquiry for a job or for potential client.
What’s nice about LinkedIn is there’s considerably less effort you must make to stay active with the service. Most users log in only periodically to refresh their connections to other users. You can send emails internally from
Example:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mas90guru
Twitter – what is it and why would anyone care what I am doing?
The last social media tool that’s gathering some “buzz” is a very simple and basic service called Twitter.
There’s only one thing that Twitter does — it allows you to post brief (140 character maximum) messages that answer the question “what am I doing”.
Often these messages describe what you are doing at the moment though you often will see people posting open questions on a wide variety of topics. The appeal of Twitter is that it integrates to a huge number of different online services.
By sending a message to my Twitter account — I can also update my Facebook profile at the same time. So Twitter becomes an easy way to generate multiple sites with short content (also known as status messages or “what am I doing”). Twitter also accepts text messages sent from your phone (thus the limit of 140 characters which is generally the maximum size for text messages).
The question that I hope you are asking is — “Do people really care what I’m doing” followed by “This sounds weird and like a waste of time”.
At this point the main users of Twitter seem to be those who either work at home and are networking in a manner similar to the “office water cooler” or writers who use the service to gather information on things that are currently happening (which is easy because there are several tools that integrate to Twitter and display the hottest keywords being sent by users at any time).
There are several ways you can use Twitter for business.
First, there are tools (my favorite is a program called Twhirl – http://www.twhirl.org) that make it easier to not only post messages but to listen. Using this software tool I’ve setup my searches so that anytime someone mentions MAS90 or Sage Software (my specialties) that I’m able to see them right away. Often I will provide (free) answers to a question about these products. While it might seem foolish to provide a free answer, long term the hope is that your company builds a relationship with the user and perhaps a customer.
Twitter is still very much in the early adopter stage. It is gathering press mentions because of the easy way that it allows news to spread quickly. When the airplane went down in the Hudson River, Twitter was one of the first services that carried messages and photos from people in New York City announcing that a plane had crash landed.
Example:
Wayne Schulz on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/mas90guru
Conclusion
Social Media is still not used by everyone. Just as the notion of web sites was foreign to most of us 20 years ago, the notion of Social Media seems foreign today.
Your firm should make some effort to become familiar with the various tools and establish a basic presence (Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog). By becoming familiar at the early stage of use, you’ll be better poised to increase the amount of time that you spend on various Social Media sites as they become used by more of our typical business customers.
The Next Generation Will Use Social Media as Easily As You Now Use Email
In 1986 I remember the CPA firm I worked at (Cole, Frago, Cusick & Chestler) bought their first fax machine. Actually at the time faxes were so expensive that they leased it! The technology of using a fax seems mysterious. Hardly anyone used the machine at first. Gradually as people grew accustomed to faxing it became an indispensable part of the business office.
As your older clients retire they’ll hand over the “keys to the business” to their children. These children have come through school learning how to use tools like Facebook as their primary communication method.
If companies want to form connections with this next generation of business owner, they must learn their language! Social Media is increasingly the language of this next generation. It’s time for you to learn this new language.
Welcome Jodi Uecker-Rust to Sage – why the Interim Leader title?
February 9, 2009
UPDATE 5-6-2009: As predicted in our original post shown below, Jodi Uecker-Rust was today appointed as President Sage Business Solutions. This is part of a sweeping re-organization that follows a 500 employee workforce reduction on 5-5-2009.
Well respected Great Plains (subsequently Microsoft) veteran Jodi Uecker-Rust has just been announced as the Interim Leader of the Sage North America Business Management Division. This spot was left vacant when Nina Smith departed Sage December 9, 2008.
Jodi is what could be termed a “heavy hitter” in the world of accounting software. She spent her career working first for Great Plains Software and ultimately Microsoft (who acquired Great Plains). For a period of time she was very widely considered to be the # 2 in command behind former Great Plains leader Doug Burgum. Jodi retired early from Microsoft in 2004 to devote time to some non-profit organizations that she was involved in.
Why the “Interim” leader label?
One thing I spotted right away is the label “Interim” in Jodi’s title. This seems to indicate that Jodi’s final position may not be leading the Business Management Division but could in fact be a far bigger position?
There’s no question Jodi has the experience to lead the Sage North America BMD, so the title of Interim seems to indicate that further reorganization might be in the cards.
Also the wording of press release indicates that Jodi “join(s) us in order to continue our transformation in Sage North America”.
If I were forced to make a guess I’d say that the different divisions at Sage may ultimately consolidate in some form. Perhaps Jodi’s task is to eventually lead them. She has enough experience in this area that her expertise and organizational opinion may have been wanted before any potential re-organization happens.
The structure of Sage changed to much more of a divisional setup immediately following the management shakeup in 2007 that saw CEO Ron Verni, CFO Jim Eckstaedt depart.
Another option could be an upcoming round of acquisitions with Jodi ultimately leading a new division or acquired company.
And finally, there could be absolutely nothing to the title.
In any event, welcome to Sage North America Jodi!
How to add new credit card merchant acct to Credit Cards by Sage
February 9, 2009
Did you ever have one of those days where you felt like a complete dunce? Today’s one for me and I’m going to share my “dunce-ness” so that perhaps it will help someone in a similar situation avoid the two hour exercise in frustration that it took me to figure out something as simple as adding a new type of credit card to the Credit Cards by Sage module in MAS 90.
My client was already using Mastercard and Visa. The setup worked beautifully through Credit Cards by Sage (which integrates with Sage Payment Solutions).
Now they wanted to add Discover and American Express. The client had received their new merchant account number for Discover and was inserting to the Payment Type Maintenance in Sage MAS 90 (as they should have).
Try as we might, the “valid processor connection ” was never displayed (this is a check box in the lower right corner of the payment type screen.
We checked and re-checked the new merchant ID — still no success at enabling the new Discover account.
Finally The A-Ha Moment
Want to know how we finally got it to work?
Well with the Sage Payment integration to Credit Card by Sage — you must use the SAME Merchant ID number for all your credit cards.
Apparenly Sage Payment sets up the flow of data on their end so that they know to process a Discover Card differently once the card is entered into MAS90.
My problem ? I had been trying to use the DISCOVER MERCHANT ID # — which was not right,.
Use the Sage Payment Services TERMINAL ID NUMBER for all credit cards being processed through Credit Cards By Sage.
A Suggestion To Sage
Although take full credit for missing this one — it would be helpful if in the future the field labeled “Merchant ID Number” was replaced with “Terminal ID Number” when you are using Sage Payment Services.
Sage MAS 90 and 200 v4.4 new feature slide deck
February 6, 2009
Hot off the presses are these slides that were used at the recent Friday Focus session. The topic was MAS 90 version 4.4 and the content covered all the expected new enhancements in this next release as well as approximate release dates.
For those of you not patient enough to read through all 21 pages:
- Controlled release / beta – begins summer 2009
- Final release target – late 2009
- Modules upgrade: Inventory, Purchase Order, Bill of Materials, Bar Coding
- Major new features: 20 character customer number, 30 character inventory item (special item too) numbers
Here’s the full slide deck that contains quite a few screen shots. Ignore the pithy comment or two in the margins typed by one of my reseller buddies. If you’re up to the challenge of being a beta tester – send email to marissa.sarreal and be sure to add in the @sage.com to the end.
MAS90 Version 4.4 Preview
Want to beta MAS90 4.4?
February 6, 2009
Sage is officially opening up their beta program for customers who would like to volunteer for the initial controlled release of MAS 90 version 4.4.
Target for beta/controlled release to begin: Summer 2009
Requirements to participate in the controlled release/beta:
- No enhancements
- Need for large customer and inventory item numbers
- Desire to implement new features
- Any Sage Partners looking to participate in the beta must have a customer in the program as well
Target Final Release Date: Late 2009
Interested in serving as a beta site?
Send email to marissa.sarreal and be sure to add in the @sage.com to the end.
Sage Payment Solutions integration to MAS90 Recorded Demo
February 6, 2009
Does your business accept credit cards? Are you using Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200? Did you know that Sage offers a free solution that will allow your accounting software (Accounts Receivable and Sales Order) to accept credit cards right within the module.
You can maintain customers credit card data (fully encrypted) and use their card for future purchases. All data entered via credit card is automatically validated with pre-approvals obtained directly from the Sage Payment Services processing bureau.
Interested in how this works? Here’s a quick 5 to 10 minute overview that demonstrates the entire process of accepting credit cards into MAS 90. The video is a little scripted but I think covers all the major points and serves as a good example of how this works within Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200.
Sage FAS 50 and Sage FAS 100 Fixed Asset Pricing
February 5, 2009
Here’s the pricing for Sage FAS 50 and Sage FAS 100 as of February 4, 2009. These are list prices and you should add both the product list price and the maintenance list price to determine a total price.
We recommend Sage FAS 100 single user NETWORK with Report Writer as the basic package to begin with first. If you select the single user FAS 100 be advised that this only works standalone and loading the data onto a network (even if used by only one person) is not supported.
Sage FAS 50 has an asset limit of 1,000, does not support report writing and can only be run standalone.
Sage FAS 50, Sage FAS 100 and Sage FAS 500 Compared
February 5, 2009
Just this morning my friend Brett Zimmerman at The Fitzgerald Group in Boston sent me over this nice comparison chart that shows the different versions of Sage’s Fixed Asset Software programs – FAS 50, FAS 100 and FAS 500.
The chart lays out the key differences between the three versions and clearly shows the limitations (FAS 50 is limited to only 1,000 assets and won’t run on a network or support custom reporting).
Observation: Sage FAS 100 has single user versions which are a good deal less expensive than the network version. Sage however will not support your system if you set them up so that the data is stored on a network. They will instead recommend an extra cost upgrade to the single user Sage FAS 100 network version)
Sage FAS 50 vs 100 vs 500 Fixed Asset Software Comparison
5 assumptions I’ll make when debugging your MAS200 server
February 5, 2009
One of the toughest things to diagnose are sporadic Sage MAS 200 errors. Typically these manifest themselves as Error 12 conditions or cryptic lockups that bring the MAS200 server to a grinding halt (usually mid-day or in the midst of a heavy processing day).
The first thing I’ll usually try with a MAS 200 server problem is running the server app as a program instead of a service. This seems to be especially helpful for larger sites (for sake of argument lets label a site with over 10 users as large).
If you’re seeing error messages like “Connection failure to host:[tcp]Servername;####;NODELAY;STREAM” when starting tasks – these can often be resolved with the tweaks from our site.
I’ve diagnosed more than a few of these in my career. While they’re highly annoying – they generally can be resolved with careful and systematic checking of configurations and settings.
My observation is that many sites however fail in diagnosing the error conditions. Below is my list of the top 5 reasons that problems go un-resolved (or in some instances such as failing to have a backup – get worse).
Top 5 Reasons Your MAS 200 Server Keeps Having Errors
- The IT person didn’t do what I asked because they typically don’t know how and are too embarrassed to admit to you or the boss. If you’ve asked to have Anti-Virus exclude certain folders – check that it has been done. Similarly watch them make any changes (again). Yes, you’ll have to put up with some heavy breathing and sighs. This is something all IT people learn to do in school.
- Even though staff will say “It couldn’t be this” – check it anyway. Insist on it. Watch them do it. That goes for any of the Sage KB suggestions as well as instructions on excluding folders, files, etc on antivirus scans. Probably 40% of the problems go away when users actually try the fixes (as opposed to saying they tried them). (Tip: Always backup first – and be sure to read my #5 below).
- The fact that Word and Excel run are totally irrelevant to any diagnosis of why MAS 200 won’t run — but the IT folks will hold that out as Prima Facie evidence that MAS 200 sucks, Sage sucks, Providex is a shitty language, SQL rocks, their MAS 200 consultant sucks, The Boss Sucks and their network is air-tight and better than any other on Planet Earth. You just have to develop a tough skin and keep running down the checklist.
- Roughly 40% of IT folks have no idea what administrative rights are. In general I test for this right off by right clicking on the Start button and noticing whether “explore ALL” is an option. When that’s not present I assume the user doesn’t have administrative rights. Quite a few times after I do this and announce the results the IT folks disappear for a half hour or so. I’m pretty sure they’re going in the back to look up “administrative rights” in their “Server Administration for Dummies” book.
- The IT staff don’t have a proper backup. Drag the entire \MAS90 folder (and all subfolders) to a separate location locally before starting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8_Kfjo3VjU
Our site contains information on the different ways that you can correct many MAS 200 errors. The key is to systematically try them all one by one and observe whether small changes to your setup are correcting the issues you exist with MAS200 lockups.
Former Best Software COO Dave Butler named president of Ticketmaster North America
February 3, 2009
The former COO of Best Softare, Dave Butler, has just been named President of Ticketmaster North America reporting to Sean Moriarty, CEO of Ticketmaster and President of Ticketmaster Entertainment, effective immediately.
In this role, Mr. Butler is responsible for the company’s primary ticketing business in the United States and Canada and will oversee Ticketmaster’s six North American regions. Previously, Mr. Butler was CEO of Ticketmaster Irvine, formerly Paciolan.
About Dave Butler
Dave Butler was an exceptionally popular leader of State of the Art Software which became Best Software and ultimately Sage Software. He joined State of The Art Software in April 1996. From 1993 to 1996, he was with Lawson Software, where he managed offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle and San Francisco producing $21 million in product sales and $10 million in services. From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Butler was the regional manager for Bachman Information Services, selling and implementing CASE software tools targeted to the IBM AD/Cycle marketplace.
Prior to his promotion to North American President, Mr. Butler previously served as CEO of Paciolan, a venue ticketing software provider acquired by Ticketmaster in 2008, and prior to that was the Chief Operating Officer of Sage Software. In 2000, he was named one of Accounting Today magazine’s “Most Influential People.” Mr. Butler is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton.
About Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment consists of Ticketmaster and Front Line Management Group. As the world’s leading live entertainment ticketing and marketing company, Ticketmaster connects the world to live entertainment. Ticketmaster operates in 20 global markets, providing ticket sales, ticket resale services, marketing and distribution through www.ticketmaster.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites on the Internet; approximately 6,700 retail outlets; and 19 worldwide call centers. Established in 1976, Ticketmaster serves more than 10,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for leading arenas, stadiums, professional sports franchises and leagues, college sports teams, performing arts venues, museums, and theaters. In 2007, the company sold more than 141 million tickets valued at over $8.3 billion on behalf of its clients. Ticketmaster Entertainment acquired a controlling interest in Front Line Management Group in October 2008. Founded by Irving Azoff and Howard Kaufman in 2004, Front Line is the world’s leading artist management company, with nearly 200 clients and more than 80 executive managers. Front Line represents a wide range of major artists, including the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Neil Diamond, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Christina Aguilera, Stevie Nicks, Aerosmith, Steely Dan, Chicago, Journey, and Guns N’ Roses. Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is headquartered in West Hollywood, California
Free Denny’s Grand Slam – today only (6am to 2pm)
February 3, 2009
Between 6am and 2pm today only enjoy a free 795 calorie Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast. Featuring 50 grams of fat (that’s from two pancakes, two eggs, two strips of bacon, and two sausage).
Amazingly even though there’s no such thing as a free lunch, this appears to be a completely free breakfast. Plan on arriving early because there are bound to be crowds.
Dine-in only. Offer limited to Tuesday, 2/3/09, 6 am to 2 pm in all Denny’s restaurants in the United States*, Canada and Puerto Rico while supplies last. The only exception(s) are 350 Baker Blvd., Baker, CA and 740 S. Main St., Las Cruces, NM.
Free Breakfast – No Strings Attached
Denny’s is providing a free Grand Slam breakfast (no strings attached) to anyone who visits between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. Denny’s announced the promotion in an ad during the Super Bowl. Denny’s expects to serve up to 2 million free Grand Slam breakfasts today.
“This free offer is our way of re-acquainting America with Denny’s real breakfast and with the Denny’s brand,” says Nelson Marchioli, CEO, Denny’s.
Everyone who take advantage of the Denny’s offer gets a coupon book with future deals, including offers for additional free menu items with purchases.
Find add-ons for Sage MAS 90 and 200 [How To]
February 2, 2009
Have you ever found yourself in a position where you wish Sage MAS 90 or 200 could be “tweaked” just a little bit more to fit the specific needs of your industry?
Finding a qualified developer can be a challenge. You can hire someone who claims to “know” your software and can custom write an enhancement for your company.
The problem with hiring a lone developer is you have no way to know what type of experience they possess. Luckily Sage has solved this problem by creating certification levels.
Sage Certification for Developers
Sage has a stable of development partners who have been certified as either Endorsed, Gold or Silver.
Endorsed Partner: Sage invitation only. These partners are required to meet rigorous strategic, technologic, and integration criteria. Their solutions are handpicked by Sage and marketed aggressively alongside their core solutions.
Gold: The Gold level is a select tier for established development partners who have a closer relationship with Sage. These partners agree to adhere to Sage Best Practices and have one of their solutions certified through an independent testing company.
Sliver: Entry level tier for developers who are new to a particular Sage suite of products.
Solutions are either Endorsed or Certified
Sage has a certification process for differentiating the solutions available for their product line. This certification process includes basic qualify and integration tests with the Sage product line. The different certifications are either Endorsed or Certified.
Endorsed: A Sage Endorsed solution means Sage has put the product through additional paces and QA testing. These solutions carrying the Endorsed label have been classified as strategic to the product they integrate with. These solutions may also sometimes be an integrated component of a Sage solution.
Certified: A solution marked as Certified tells you that it is reliable and developed to the highest standards. Vendors must submit their application to Sage for testing prior to achieving this status.
Sage Partner Solutions
The Sage Partner Solution Source is a web site that lists third party enhancements for a wide variety of Sage products. There are over 12 separate Sage product lines represented on the site:
- Act! by Sage
- Peachtree by Sage
- Sage Accpac ERP
- Sage BusinessVision Accounting
- Sage BusinessWorks Accounting
- Sage MAS 500 ERP
- Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 ERP
- Sage PFW
- Sage PRO ERP
- Sage SalesLogix
- SageCRM
- Simply Accounting by Sage
Link: Sage Partner Solution Source via Bill Kizer, Sage Software Consultant
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