Sage LInkedIn Group Meeting: Irvine CA November 18, 2010
October 30, 2010
The popular Sage LinkedIN Group (over 3,000 members and growing) has scheduled a free meeting to be held Thursday November 18, 2010 at 4pm in the Sage Irvine California offices.
The formal speaker list has yet to be rolled out though typically Sage provides a speaker or two to answer questions from those in attendance. Bill Kizer, the group’s founder, is coordinating the sessions. Questions or suggestions for agenda items can be sent to him via email.
Sage LinkedIn Meeting – November 18, 2010
DSD Business Systems Office Location Map
October 27, 2010
Schulz Consulting is a Connecticut office location for DSD Business Systems. Combined our group represents the entire Sage Software catalog of products ranging from Sage MAS 90, MAS 200, Accpac, MAS 500, ABRA, FAS, MIP, Businessworks and more.
Having this nationwide partner network allows us to service many different states while maintaining our local office. We rely upon a skilled network of 26 individual office locations spread out through the following cities and states:
Fairfield, CA
Fresno, CA
Huntington Beach, CA
Long Beach, CA
San Diego, CA
San Jose, CA
Torrance, CA
Campbellville, Ontario
Markham, Ontario
Winnipeg, MB
Denver, CO
Glastonbury, CT
Watertown, CT
Washington, DC
Kennesaw, GA
Johnston, IO
Baltimore, MD
Duluth, MN
Springfield, MO
Omaha, NB
Lancaster, PA
Langhome, PA
Yakima, WA
How To Recover A Lost MAS90 PC Charge Password
October 27, 2010
Today I had a client who lost both the MANAGER and SYSTEM passwords for their Verifone PC Charge credit card processing. This is the server software that integrates to MAS 90 and MAS 200 and provides credit card processing.
OBSERVATION: In many cases a better credit card processing solution is Sage Payment Solutions. Clients have found the rates are competitive. But what many people don’t realize (and it’s a BIG bonus) is that if you use Sage’s Payment Solutions you can also implement the embedded credit card processing as opposed to having to load and maintain a separate PC Charge system (My contact at Sage Payment is Rob Ullman – rullmann@sagepayments.com).
However this post is about recovering a lost PC Charge password – so here’s how. Unfortunately it requires a call to Verifone ((877) 659-8981 ) and using one of your support cases.
TIP: I strongly recommend that you subscribe to the VERIFONE support plan (cost of $139 per year) or you must first call into Sage technical support (which unless your issue is a connection to MAS problem will be a complete waste of time in my experience). All that Sage will do is spend an hour troubleshooting followed by another hour trying to figure out who to call at Verifone. Skip this time wasting effort in frustration and just pay VERIFONE the $139 and then you can call direct and skip the cumbersome middleman. Obviously if you have a problem connecting Sage MAS to PC Charge then start with Sage first — however if your issue is with PC Charge (setup of new merchants, connectivity, cryptic PC Charge messages) then skip Sage and subscribe to VERIFONE.
Within PC Charge two main password types control functionality as follows:
SYSTEM – Allows you to add/change users (including password changes)
MANAGER – Provides access to cashier functions.
These are the two basic accounts. Naturally you may have other accounts that you’ve created on your PC Charge setup.
Here’s The Procedure For Retrieving a Lost PC Charge Password
Verifone sends you a security.pcc file with a special password. This file is tied to your PC Charge serial number so don’t get any ideas that you’ll be unlocking other PC Charge systems with it. If it’s running, shut down PC Charge. Copy and drop the file into the ACTIVE -CHARGE folder on your server.
Verifone emails you a password. Enter in the special password (it’s on the email header and in the email body) once to get access to the CASHIER area. From there you can unlock and change passwords (TIP: if you don’t know the password for the MANAGER — which you probably don’t — just double click the MANAGER name and PC Charge displays a dialog box that contains a blanked out password. It’s going to look filled in but type over it and give it a new password).
General PC Charge Password Rules:
At least 7 characters
One cap
One special
One number
You’ll be prompted every 90 days for a new password – have client write down…..
Sage BusinessWorks 2011 Guide
October 27, 2010
Hot off the presses it’s the Sage BusinessWorks 2011 Release Guide from Sage. This 8 page PDF provides a summary of the newest features in Sage’s small business accounting system.
The latest release can be downloaded by those customers active in a Sage Clientcare plan.
Notable new features include:
- Cash receipts simplified posting
- Less scrolling in Bank Reconciliation and Bank Deposits.
- Shortcut access even when the Welcome Screen is turned off.
- Print Pick Tickets right from the Maintain Sales Order screen.
- Expanded direct deposit distributions.
Sign up for a sneak peak at the new release of Sage BusinessWorks 2011 on October 27, 2010 at 11am PT or December 16, 2010 at 1pm PT. ( Register )
Sage Common Payroll Announced For MAS200 SQL, MAS500, ABRA, ERP X3 and ACCPAC
October 22, 2010
Sage today made official that they’ll be rolling out a common payroll based on their SData communication protocol. This common payroll fills a hole in the Sage MAS 200 SQL release (due November 2010) where legacy (non 4.x standard modules which include payroll) cannot be used with the MAS 200 SQL release.
By creating a common payroll solution Sage hopes to cut down development costs that are soaring as the government continues to change employer tax laws. Each change in tax law requires Sage to update payroll (usually at the very end of the year when everyone is busiest), test the changes, and quickly distribute those upgrades to end users.
Under the Sage Common Payroll initiative the ACCPAC SQL Payroll will be used by at least four Sage products (ABRA SQL v10.1, MAS500 v7.3, ERP X3 v6.1, MAS200 SQL 4.45).
Integration levels will vary depending upon product with only Accpac and ABRA receiving level 3 or very robust integration.
Here’s Sage’s Official Announcement:
Common Payroll is the Sage ERP Accpac payroll module which has been enhanced to become a best-of-breed SQL Server-based payroll that can serve the needs of many of our Sage North America customers. With over 4000 payroll customers in the US and Canada, the Sage ERP Accpac payroll module has a strong track record of providing value to small and medium sized businesses.
Using Sage ERP Accpac payroll as the foundation and the new common sData communication protocol to facilitate connectivity, the new Common Payroll module will offer the tightest level of integration possible between payroll and all of our ERP solutions.
How will a Common Payroll support Sage’s strategy to maximize our assets and reduce redundancies? One example lies in the hundreds of new tax changes that are mandated each year. In 2009 there were more than 200 changes released and that number is expected to increase in 2010. To keep on top of these changes, Sage spends a great deal of money each year to maintain our 12 unique payroll modules, and in some cases, multiple versions for each product. Imagine how much we could accomplish by removing this redundancy of effort, provide the updates in a form that could be used by all our products, and instead leverage our resources to provide customers with greater value, such as new connected services. And because the payroll-related connected services such employee benefit services would only need to be developed once, it would mean they could be made available immediately to all our customers with little to no incremental effort required by individual product teams.
The Common Payroll initiative also supports our goal for providing an Extraordinary Customer Experience as we focus our efforts on developing a single best-of-breed solution that surpasses the functionality and ease of use found in our current payroll modules. This new, unified payroll module will not only scale as a business grows, but if a customer needs to upgrade to another Sage ERP (enterprise resource planning) product, the payroll data will seamlessly migrate.
Common Payroll integration will soon be on the roadmaps for many of our other products, so stay tuned for details. You can rest assured that the native payroll module will continue to be enhanced, sold and supported for those products where it doesn’t make sense to adopt a common payroll.
The Common Payroll integration is an important step toward achieving our objectives and providing your clients with greater value. Projects like Common Payroll not only generate substantial savings and leverage best practices, but enable us to deliver a common experience to our mutual clients.
Sage Summit Customer Virtual Event Registration Now Live
October 22, 2010
Sage Software North America has just opened registration for their online Sage Summit Virtual Event to be held on November 18, 2010 from 10am to 1pm ET. This three hour session features an update from Sue Swenson, CEO Sage North America. In addition those customers attending are being asked to review up to 40 different pitches for sessions that they’d like to see presented at the official Summit 2011 conference in Washington DC July 10-15, 2011.
According to the Sage Summit Virtual Event registration page customers will view brief presentations made by product managers and then vote (How voting works) on whether they’d like to see those presentations made into full sessions to be delivered in July at the Summit Conference.
Sage Summit is the conference for the Sage community – bringing customers and partners together for the first time ever. The conference will take place July 10-15, 2011, in Washington, DC. This gives you an unprecedented opportunity to interact with customers more closely than ever before.
The agenda listed by Sage appears to be subject to change as at least one executive listed, Jodi Uecker-Rust, has departed Sage and is not likely to be making an appearance.
Gathering customers together to vote on sessions for an upcoming conference is a new idea for Sage. This is the first time we’ve seen it done and clearly this looks to be a way for Sage to continue to test the virtual conferencing waters. Sage previously hosted a Connecting The Dots virtual exhibit on September 28 which seemed to use similar online conference technology.
If you’re a Sage customer who is on the fence about attending Sage Summit 2011 in Washington DC – this is a good way for you to get a feel for and vote on some of the topics that would be covered at the full conference in July 2011.
More From The Sage Site:
To provide a robust education experience, Sage customers are invited to attend a complimentary virtual event on Thursday, November 18, where they can preview a sampling of the sessions, vote on the topics, and share their thoughts on how we can make Summit 2011 really work for them. Registration is now open, so be sure to spread the word about this one of a kind opportunity your customers won’t want to miss!
Sage Summit Virtual Event Registration – November 18, 2010
MAs90 Tip: How To Use The New Bank Reconciliation Posting To GL Feature
October 21, 2010
Since Sage have moved to using Product Updates for quarterly updates and fixes they’ve also doubled down on adding new features into the product.
Product Update 3 — aka PU3 — adds an ability to post Bank Reconciliation transactions from Bank Reconciliation module into the General Ledger. Amazingly up until no the Bank Reconciliation would not support posting of adjustments entered into that module back into the General Ledger.
That’s all changed and my friend Robert Wood at DDF Consulting in sunny Florida has all the details on how it works.
Post GL Bank Fees and Adjustments From Bank Rec in Sage MAS 90 / MAS 200 | DDF Consulting.
Sage Simply Accounting Users Are Smarter According To Survey
October 19, 2010
Sage Canada recently conducted a survey which was a followup to their 2009 Angus Reid-Sage survey on ‘financial literacy’.
The 27-question Small Business Survey, conducted in September and October 2010, was designed to examine the financial state of Canadian small businesses by focusing on their level of ‘financial literacy’ and assessed Sage Simply Accounting customers’ comfort level with financial management and how they manage their finances, obtain financial information and manage their businesses in compliance with government requirements.
Other highlights of the Sage Simply Accounting Small Business Survey include:
- Seventy per cent of respondents said they have been negatively
affected by the economic downturn, with 14 per cent calling the
negative impact ‘dramatic.’ - The activities that Sage Simply Accounting customers and business
owners are most comfortable with are dealing with clients (79%) and
suppliers (78%), while they were least comfortable with managing sales
and marketing (67%). - The majority of small business owners perform financial management
tasks in-house, with invoicing/billing (91%), payroll (75%) and
accounting (70%) being the most common tasks completed by themselves or someone else in their company. - Nearly half (46%) of Sage Simply Accounting customers promptly include
announced tax code changes into their financial plans for the coming
year in comparison to less than one-third of respondents in 2009. In
addition, only one-third of Sage Simply Accounting customers wait
until they file their tax return to see what effect tax code changes
had on their taxes versus 69 per cent of respondents in 2009.
Survey Indicates Sage Simply Accounting Customers Are Less Likely to Be Concerned With Government Compliance; More Financially Savvy Than the Average Small Business Owner.
Results of the survey will be further discussed October 20 2010 at Sage Simply Accounting’s Small Business Thought Leadership Panel and at the October 21, 2010 Simply Partnership 2010 conference for Sage Accountant’s Network members.
Sage MAS Community Forums Latest New Posts
October 19, 2010
Did you know that Sage has an online community where both consultants and end users can ask questions, share answers and mingle?
If you haven’t checked it out – you should register for a free login name. You do not have to be a Sage ERP MAS 90 or MAS 200 user to obtain a name. Some of the brightest minds — both users and consultants — regularly visit to ask and answer technical questions.
One link that I have saved on my toolbar is below.
When clicked it will take you directly to a list of new messages posted for the day – no login is required. It’s an easy way to keep an eye on what users are talking about with regards to a new Sage ERP MAS 90 or MAS 200 release.
If you use an RSS reader you can even connect to the site via this link (rss feed) so that can view new topics in your favorite RSS reader (I recommend Google Reader).
All Topics – Sage MAS Community Forums.or subscribe via RSS
Moving MAS90 Paperless Office Files
October 18, 2010
If you’re moving the location of your existing Sage MAS90 or MAS200 accounting system – don’t forget that you will also need to move any related paperless office PDF files.
And dragging and dropping those files won’t work. You have to make sure that MAS 90 or MAS 200 both knows the new location (updated in paperless maintenance) and that each paperless office document record is updated with new location data.
Luckily Sage provides a way to do this via the viewer menu (other methods seem to be hit or miss and the viewer move is what’s always worked best for me).
Here’s a document that one of my 90 Minds group members uncovered and it’s the procedure that I’ve had the most luck with on version 4.3+ of MAS90.
Paperless Office Move Directions
What’s New In The Latest MAS90 – MAS200 Upgrade or Product Update?
October 18, 2010
One of the frequent questions that users of MAS90 and MAS200 will have prior to upgrading is “what’s changed?”. It’s a pretty common — and smart — question that you’ll want the answer to prior to installing either a major upgrade (moving up a point or full version) or a product update.
Major upgrades are considered to be any that move you up a version of the software. For example moving from MAS90 3.71 to 4.40 would be a major upgrade since during the move you also have pretty significant changes to General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Sales Order, Inventory, RMA, Purchase Order and Bank Reconciliation.
Once you reach level 4.40 then the upgrades will start to be intermingled with what Sage terms Product Updates.
In theory these Product Updates are user installable collections of both product fixes and new features. Presently Sage have released three product updates for MAS90 4.4 (Product Update or PU 1,2,3).
Curious about what’s been added in each version of these upgrades or updates? Sage embeds a web link within the latest version of MAS90 4.4. However if you’ve not yet installed the upgrade then you may have some trouble locating the link to answer your “what’s new” questions.
Therefor you can use the link below to navigate directly to the web page chronicling every enhancement added to MAS 90 from version 3.50 to 4.40 Product Update 3.
Suggest A MAS90 or MAS200 Enhancement
October 13, 2010
Do you have an idea for an improvement that you’d like to make to Sage ERP MAS 90 or MAS 200 accounting software. If you have your MAS 90/200 system already opened then you can use the link that’s included in the Information Center – Tell Us What You Think.
Or if you’re like me and the ideas often come to you when you are not in front of your MAS 90 system then use the link below to travel to the Sage site that accepts enhancement requests.
Suggest a MAS90 enhancement to Sage
MAS 90 Address Cleanup Utility: Convert Mixed Case To All Upper or Lower Case
October 13, 2010
If you’ve ever had more than one person manage the entry of customers and vendor addresses then you may have run into an issue where the address block is partly capitalized.
For example you may notice that the name and street address are in lowercase while the city and state portion are in all uppercase. This might be because Sage performs an automatic lookup on the city/state based on the zip code you enter. When the city and state information is found it will be inserted to your system using either all uppercase or mixed (upper and lower) — depending upon the option you set.
The problem that can occur is when the person doing the data entry is entering a customer or vendor address in all capital letters while the zip code lookup is filling the city/state information in mixed case (or vice versa).
Luckily as Brett Zimmerman from my 90 Minds Consulting Group points out — there is a fix! Check the link below for the directions and utility (included free with MAS 90 and MAS 200) to correct the address capitalizations in MAS 90 or MAS 200.
MAS90 Address Capitalization Utility
Sage Summit Virtual Event – November 18
October 7, 2010
I’ve no idea how you sign up for this virtual event however I finally spotted a link to the information that Sage is emailing announcing a November 18 virtual gathering of customers. In case you’ve missed the news this year Sage customers and partners will come together in one united conference down in Washington DC. Looks as if this virtual gathering, which comes on the heels of Sage’s Connecting the Dots virtual trade show, is intended for customers and will provide a sneak peek at some content and an option to vote on which sessions should be featured at the conference.
Here’s part of the announcement:
Sage Summit is the conference for the Sage community—bringing customers and partners together for the first time ever. The conference will take place July 12 – 15, 2011 in Washington, DC. This gives you an unprecedented opportunity to interact with customers more closely than ever before.
In order to provide a robust education experience, Sage customers will be invited to attend a complimentary virtual event on November 18th where they can preview a sampling of the sessions, VOTE on the topics and share their thoughts on how we can make Summit 2011 really work for them. So be sure to spread the word about this one of a kind opportunity your customers won’t want to miss!
Sage Summit Virtual Event
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Via: Blytheco
Jodi Uecker-Rust Out At Sage
October 5, 2010
This morning we noticed a huge spike in search traffic centered around the name “Jodi Uecker-Rust”. Just as I was about to send out emails trying to see if there may be some personnel changes at Sage North America news broke that the President of Sage Business Solutions, Jodi Uecker-Rust has left the company for personal reasons.
So far as I can tell this news hadn’t leaked in advance of the announcement although we spotted search traffic picking up around Jodi’s name based on the post we’d done questioning why she was only an interim leader when she joined Sage back in February 2009.
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 was a key player in the acquisition of Navision by Microsoft and even moved her family overseas for a period of time to oversee the deal. She retired early from Microsoft in 2004 to devote time to some non-profit organizations that she was involved in.
In an email sent to the channel by Paul Johnson, EVP Sage Business Solutions and Tom Miller, VP Channel Management – the departure is stated as for “personal reasons”. Both Tom and Paul go on to say that a replacement is expected to be named for Jodi in the near future.
Strangely the notice of such a key departure doesn’t come from Sue Swenson, CEO but rather from executives who reported to Jodi. I have an email into the folks at Sage Public Relations and will update this post as more information is available.
Update from Sage PR -
To get directly to your question, the message came from Paul and Tom because they have been the principal senior-level communication links to the business partner community so we felt that they were the appropriate ones to inform the partners in this case, too. I hope that helps to clarify.
Text of Jodi Uecker-Rust Departure Letter As President Sage Business Solutions – 10-5-2010:
Thank you for being a valued business partner and for your commitment to Sage.
I joined Sage for numerous reasons that were important to me…the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, the exposure to new learning, and the challenge to grow both personally and professionally. Yet at the core of that decision was my knowledge that you, our dedicated partners, were indeed the cornerstone of our past and future success, and that Sage is fully committed to that partnership.
Over the past 20 years I have always believed and passionately supported the fact that you are the key to ensuring customer success. This week I will be departing Sage continuing to believe in you and your entrepreneurial spirit. Please know it is a bittersweet decision for me to leave Sage at this time when the momentum is clearly positive; but for personal reasons, it is the right time.
We are fortunate at Sage that we have “partners” in our blood, and I am confident in the knowledge that the Sage leadership team will continue to partner with you for long term success.
Thank you again for your commitment to Sage, congratulations on a successful year, and best wishes for an even brighter year ahead.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Applianz and ScionASP for MAS 90 and MAS 200
October 5, 2010
For some users the thought of purchasing, configuring, maintaining their own in-house servers is a nightmare. Smaller companies without IT departments and divisions of large companies often look to outsource or host their server infrastructure – engaging a third party to either rent them a server off-sit or to provide them with an all-in-one box that promises low or no maintenance.
Applianze and ScionASP are two solutions available for remote hosting of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200. This nice update was shared by Brett Zimmerman of my 90Minds group. While the data is a few years old Brett has many helpf comments from his reasearch that he’s shared.
Use the information from these notes as your starting point in doing your research. Remember the pricing is from a year or so ago and some of the answers to Brett’s questions may have changed however the notes will serve as a nice starting point for anyone researching a hosted MAS 90 solution.
MAS 90 Hot Fixes Now Log Their Status
October 5, 2010
When you install product updates to your Sage ERP MAS 90 or MAS 200 the system automatically keeps track of which update you’ve installed. To view this information simply select “Help” and “About” from your menu.
Up until now tracking the status of minor patches, aka hot fixes, has been problematic. There’s not been an easy way to know if someone has loaded a certain fix to your system.
While you could compare program file dates between systems and track down changes that way – most people find that procedure too cumbersome.
Now Sage will create a folder — \mas90\home\hot fix into which it will insert separate text files for each hot fix that someone has installed. The file will have the HFT extension and be named with the reference ID of the hotfix itself. In each text file you can view the exact program that was replaced/modified enabling you to verify exactly which fixes have been loaded along with the product update.
via: 90 Minds consulting Group
What’s New In Sage MAS 90 V4.4 Product Update (PU) 3?
October 1, 2010
Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 Product Update 3 has arrived. It was first made available on September 27 in Sage’s online support area. At the time there was no “what’s new” documentation to accompany it so it wasn’t readily apparently what — if anything — was in fact new to this product update.
Here are the highlights of this new MAS90 product update:
- Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 now compatible with Microsoft Office 2010
- Enhancements to Bank Reconciliation enable users to enter adjustments in Bank Reconciliation and have them flow to the General Ledger directly from the Check, Deposit and Adjustment Entry screens and from the Reconcile Bank screen.
- Security events for Bank Reconciliation – In Role Maintenance – “Allow Updating of Registers From Preview” has been added for the Bank Reconciliation Transaction Register. Also an option “Allow Access to the Select for G/L Posting Settings for Deposit and Adjustment Entries” have also been added as options for the Bank Reconciliation module.
- Paperless Office Options for Bank Reconciliation – Choose to print Bank Reconciliation Report and Bank Reconciliation Transaction Register by specific bank codes or by all bank codes. These reports can now use Paperless Office (print to PDF).
For a full list of the what’s new – check out the PDF below or visit Sage
If you are using Sales Order Entry and comment lines – then be sure to read about the bug that my 90 Minds Consulting Group discovered. Sage say’s they’re working on a fix. Users of Sales Order should consult their Sage Business Partner prior to installing PU 4 — and if their partner has no clue that there’s a bug – send ‘em here.
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