Duplicate Form Codes In Sage 100 ERP v4.50 (Formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200)
January 25, 2012
After installing Product Update 1 for Sage 100 ERP v4.50 (Formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200) you may notice that your form codes are suddenly duplicating when you perform a lookup.
This appears to be a known issue and Sage have a knowledgebase entry :
Multiple form codes appear in Form Code lookup in 4.50 after installing Product Update 1
According to the entry a fix is pending and hoped for a release prior to or within the next product update.
(FIXED) Daily Transaction Register doubles the amount of one or more invoices from Sales Order Invoice Journal [Sage 100 ERP]
January 23, 2012
Users of Sage 100 ERP (Formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200) should see a fix to a pesky version 4.50 program issue which might double general ledger postings on some transactions originating in the Sales Order Entry module. The only workaround for v4.50 users has been to preview the sales journals prior to updating (View Sage Knowledgebase Resolution).
Update 1-25-2012: Sage have issued a program patch to resolve this issue
In a post on the MAS90 LinkedIN Group over the weekend Sage have updated their status (click image to view full sized):
Via: 90 Minds Consulting Group
Sage Payments Renewal Email: It’s A Fake – Don’t Click That Link
January 20, 2012
Several partners have advised that at least some of their customers received an email claiming to be from Sage Payments which instructed the recipient to login online to renew their SPS account.
This was a bogus email and customers should be instructed to disregard it. It appears that Sage may have sent out a notice to at least some partners a few days ago advising them of the fake email.
Here’s a partial copy of the text within the email.
Subject: Annual Agreement Update – Sage Payments
Dear Sage Payments customer, you need to renew your annual agreement
with Sage. Failure to do so will result with your account status set to
-INACTIVE-, only test transactions will be possible. Download your
personal login page from this email and continue.
Sage VT Team 2012.
Copy of Bogus Login:
Via: Sage Payments
Knowledgesync Eliminates Free Version – No Change To Existing Customers
January 18, 2012
According to one of my 90 Minds members, Paul Ziliak of xkZero, Vineyardsoft – the publisher of Knowledgesync alerts software which integrates to Sage ERP 100 (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200) – have announced the retirement of their free version effective 1/31/2012.
This isn’t as big a change as it may seem since those already owning the software can continue using it. The impact will primarily be for new users who in the past could request a free license key for Knowledgesync simply by paying first year maintenance.
Reportedly these changes go into effect January 31, 2012
via: Sage KnowledgeSync Free Edition Retired
Sage Modifies Bronze Maintenance Effective 3/1/2012
January 16, 2012
Effective with maintenance plan renewals on or after March 1, 2012 Sage have indicated they will eliminate their Bronze maintenance plan option and move all Bronze users up to Silver plan.
The Bronze plan is the one used by most of our customers and, until Sage abruptly discontinued it, allowed for periodic software upgrades with no help desk access to Sage.
Under Sage’s Silver plan the additional percentage paid to Sage will be 3% (Bronze was 18% and Silver’s new price is 21% of product SLP). In additional to the benefits Bronze previously offered Sage adds very limited help desk access (5 contacts per year ).
This Sage access is best used for basic front line questions about things such as an error message or a request for a copy of your software unlocking codes. Do not expect them to advise you on best business practices, provide candid opinions on third party solutions or guide you with non-routine implementation questions. They are technicians working from a knowledgebase, not experienced field consultants with decades of business experience.
Schulz Consulting has a network of 90 fellow consultants working to provide feedback on:
- What is the real world experience with the latest MAS90 upgrade? Is it relatively bug free and ’safe’ to install (On December 14, 2011 three of our 90 Minds members caught a critical v4.50 error that was causing some daily transaction registers to double during Sales Order updates – and immediately notified our mutual customers to defer upgrades pending a Sage fix)
- Consultants with skills in scripting (our group has 4 of the best Sage scripting consultants in the country), reporting (we have a Crystal Reports export, a Sage MAS Intelligence expert and several BizNet consultants, custom programming (three of our members are authorized to modify Sage 100 ERP source code), manufacturing (we operate a full time 24 x 7 support area for Job Ops manufacturing software and have half a dozen experts), eBusiness
- Unpublished workarounds for issues not document anywhere in the knowledgebase
- Experiences with add-on software from various third party providers – EDI, Bar Coding, Sales Tax – often we provide references for these services that may or may not reinforce a decision to continue investigating them
In short, if you were previously on Bronze maintenance, you will see a 3% increase in the cost of your annual plan if it renews on or after 3/1/12.
If you were on Silver or Gold with Sage – there’s no change.
Schulz Access Agreements for your consulting and systems support remain unchanged.
50% off Select DSD Business Systems Enhancements Through January 31, 2012
January 11, 2012
Is one of your resolutions for 2012 to increase the functionality of your Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 accounting system? DSD Business Systems has a large catalog of pre-written customizations designed to save you time and money.
Now through January 31, 2012 you can select any of the enhancements from the list below and take 50% off the product price.
AP-1046 Division Number by Distribution Line
AP-1076 Retain Paid Invoices for 9,999 Days
AP-1085 Multiple Company Vendor Synchronization
AP-1102 Automatic Next Vendor Number
AP-1109 Budget Comparison for A/P and P/O
AP-1117 Auto A/R Invoice Creation from A/P Inv Entry
APLC Subcontractor License Expiration Checking
APMR Multi-Company Reporting
APMV Master Vendor
AR-1007 Ship To Addresses
AR-1032 Consolidated Statements
AR-1095 Retain Paid Invoices for 9999 Days
AR-1099 Import Into Cash Receipts
AR-1115 Enhanced Credit Checking
AR-1124 A/R Invoicing of Jobs to Multiple Customers
AR-1129 Sales Tax Automation System
AR-1173 Sales Order Deposits On Rec’vble Reports
AR-1205 G/L Segment Subst. by Custom Office UDF
AR-1227 Terms Code Disc. per Sales Code Qty Ordered
BM-1026 Parent Items as Components of Themselves
BM-1043 Alternate Component Order on Picking Sheets
GL-1043 Billion Dollar Support
GL-1060 Daily Amortization Utility for Service Contracts
IMUE Lot/Serial UDF Edit
IM-1042 Customer Specific Item Numbers
IM-1090 Exended Item Information Posting to Job Cost
IM-1099 User Defined Fields In Product Line Maintenance
IM-1137 Always Taxable Item Designation
IM-1203 Extended Description Display in I/M Inquiry
IM-1212 Item Pricing by Customer/Ship To/Warehouse
IM-1217 Additional Pricing Methods in Item Pricing
IM-1220 Apparel Matrix for Inventory and Sales Order
IM-1261 Alternate Calculation of Cost Markup %
IT-1000 Internet Sales
IT-1024 Purchase Control Integration with e-Business Mgr
JC-1000 Inventory Price Transfer
JC-1012 Enhanced Burden & Overhead Allocation Posting
JC-1157 Job Pay Rate Type
JC-1158 Cost and Price Summary Reports By Cost Code
JC-1159 Job Transaction Information Report
PO-1026 Special and Misc. Item Update to Job Cost
PO-1127 Multiple General Ledger Account Allocation
PO-1182 Consolidated Postings to Job Cost
PO-1196 Freight Posting to Job Cost
PR-1006 Washington State Unemployment Report
PR-1030 Employer Taxes (Actual) Posted to Job Cost
PR-1055 Deduction Calculation for Pension Plans
PR-1108 Half Time Due
PR-1131 Update Last Check Date to Employee UDF
PR-1136 Enhanced Payroll Check History
PR-1137 Payable Sick Benefit
PR-1138 Pension Enrollment Verification
PR-1139 Restrict Benefit Earnings to Available Hours
PR-1140 Employee Maint. Benefit Accrual Security
PR-1141 Employee Termination Utility
PR-1142 Reimbursement Earnings Type
SO-1010 Sales Order Data Entry Tracking By User ID
SO-1017 S/O Line Print Suppression
SO-1047 Commissions to use Alternate Cost/Price
SO-1056 Segment Substitution On The Fly
SO-1092 Bill Option Description & Price On SO Forms
SO-1123 Import Utility for Sales Order
SO-1250 Auto Next Order/Invoice Number by Division
SO-1274 Master Orders to Impact on Sales Order
SO-1288 Enhanced Auto Generate Invoice Function
SO-1394 Additional Order and Invoice Number Series
SO-1396 Negative Lot/Serial Distribution in Inv. Entry
SO-1477 Auto Create One P/O from S/O Entry
SO-1500 Enhanced Starship Link
SO-1533 Sales Order Ship Date Restrictions
SO-1547 Pricing by Product Line/Customer
SO-1549 Duplicate Item Checking in Sales Order Entry
SOCM Sales Order Enhanced Credit Memo
TB-1000 Time and Billing Interface with TimeCard and Payroll
TB-1022 Bill Rate By Client/Employee/Work Code
TC-1033 Enhanced TimeCard Options
TC-1036 TimeCard Integration with Union Payroll
TC-1047 Allowable Number of Days Between TC Entries
TC-1049 Duplicate Entry Prevention
TC-1050 TimeCard Entry for Subcontractors
TR-1000 Truck Management – Windows
WO-1000 Bar Code Import into Work Order
WO-1004 Operation Tckt Printing w Range of WO No.
How Socialcast Helps 90 Minds Members Like Schulz Consulting Provide Exceptional Support
January 9, 2012
Seven years ago I was one of the founding members of a (then) small group of Sage partners. We initially met at the annual Sage Software conference and kept in touch throughout the year by email. We’d exchange a few messages each month when one of us ran into a touch technical issue regarding MAS90 or MAS200.
Over time our membership grew until 90 Minds Consulting, with membership approaching 90 people, is now perhaps the largest such Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 collaborative effort in the country.
Here are some thoughts about how we moved from a handful of people to several dozen – and in the process had to adapt our collaborative efforts to manage our growth.
Online software and technology makes it easier than ever to share ideas, technical inquiries and just socialize with colleagues across the state or even the world.
In 2005 a group of accounting software colleagues started sharing information via email groups.
We met at the annual Sage Software conferences, exchanged email addresses and kept in touch throughout the year.
We would exchange email when one of us encountered an unusual technology issue. This allowed for second opinion sharing.
Our first foray into this type of collaboration was simple email. From there we progressed to group email. And lastly (where we are today) is online collaboration software (Yammer or Socialcast are examples).
Here’s how we progressed:
1. Large email list that everyone had to hit “reply all” for
Pros: Available to everyone
Cons: Does not scale well for large groups, no ability to have different subgroups
Problem: You forget to hit reply all and start having private conversations. Soon half the group doesn’t benefit from the collective wisdom of everyone because email conversations become private (depending upon if someone forgot the reply-al).
This works well for small groups (under half dozen people). As the group grows you may become increasingly frustrated with simple email exchanges. Personally I always forget to hit “reply all” and my patience is short for this type of communication.
2. Graduated to Group Email (Yahoo Groups)
Pros: No need to “reply all”
Cons: Does not scale well for groups that have multiple types of members (interests) – such as technical, marketing, management
This is a free service from Yahoo. Google has one too. You can setup a group and obtain one email address. When members of the group send an email to that address everyone gets a copy of the email (yeah – no more ‘reply all’)…
This free group is nice because if members want to only read messages online (as opposed to having them sent to their inbox) they can go online and set their individual group options (one option is usually to read messages only online versus individual emails).
Problem: Too much email. Our group grew and grew to 1,500-ish email exchanges per month. That was WAY too many for us to have in our inboxes and still be noticing client emails, etc.
Problem: The group worked great for on-topic stuff but when discussions strayed (think politics) there would be some days I’d have 100+ emails about the latest candidate or celebrity gossip that someone in our group was hung up on.
Problem: Logging into Yahoo was too many clicks to get to the point where I could begin reading and replying to emails. We also couldn’t create special interest groups — all email replies were going to the entire group. For example our manufacturing experts were being hit with emails from our marketing experts. And our marketing exerts were reading technical information that wasn’t in their area of expertise.
3. Graduated to online collaboration using Socialcast (where we are today).
Pros: Scales well, can establish separate groups, can establish external groups so non-members can have limited participation, highly configurable for notifications, can still interact via email
Cons: Some platforms are free though only for company email domains, lock in of data
Early last year a small group of us (about three or four people) started using Socialcast which is an online collaboration platform somewhat similar to the old computer BBS (bulletin board system) of the early 1980′s.
This platform is operated on what’s often termed a “fermium” model. You may setup your own groups provided that everyone joining has the same company email address. If the company wants to take on administrative control or add features such as admitting non-company participants then there’s a fee involved.
Socialcast allows us to create separate interest groups for our members (presently about 90 Sage consultants across the United States).
In the past using email or email groups we were sending email to everyone in the group — no matter what their level of expertise – now with Socialcast we allow our members to join groups based on their interest.
We have these groups available for our members:
- Business of consulting
- General discussion & chit-chat
- Job Ops
- MAS 90 & MAS 200 Routine
- MAS 90 & MAS 200 Urgent (Configured to send all 90 members an email for any new post)
- Sage CRM
- Sage news and discussion
Here’s The Payback of Collaboration
For a nominal annual fee which covers the cost of our collaboration platform each individual member is connected to a nearly real-time support system. Since our consulting members are often working weekends, holidays and late nights – this extra access to support is invaluable should an invariable issue be encountered during the consulting project.
Our group also regularly provides opinions about:
- Various third party add-ins for MAS 90 or MAS 200
- The readiness of various upgrades and product updates for customer use
- Second opinions on specific industry usage of MAS90 or MAS200
This group grew from one simple activity – collecting business cards at educational conferences and keeping in touch with those people who regularly attended the conference.
The next time you’re at a trade show, conference or even a seminar – consider whether starting your own version of a collaboration group might be beneficial. Start small and take advantage of the free or low cost resources that can connect your contacts and provide you with a great depth of resources that you have locally. In return you can offer your customers and exceptional customer experience that they won’t be able to obtain elsewhere.
Server Error 404 – File or Directory Not Found When Tracking Shipments Within MAS 90 or 200
January 5, 2012
When attempting to track shipments online from within Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200 the message “Server Error 404 – File or Directory Not Found” may appear. This seems to be an issue with the underlying web URL being changed so that when the link is clicked within MAS 90 or MAS 200 the Error 404 results.
Temporarily work around this by adding an “x” to the end of the url as shown below:
via: 90 Minds
Sage ERP MAS 90 & 200 Point of Sale Pre-Release Specials
January 4, 2012
February 2012 brings an update for the Hightower Point-Of-Sale, Time and Billing and Multi-Bin Advanced Distribution. These enhancements are re-written for the new Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 version 4.50 framework.
Special promotions offered by Hightower through 1/31/12:
New Point of Sale Professional Customer?
Buy (reserve) Point of Sale Professional v4.5 by 1/31/12, and get:
- 5 additional register licenses free! ($745 value)
- Our Gift Card Expansion Pack free! ($1995 value)
Point of Sale Customer w/Expired Maintenance?
UPGRADE / get back on plan by 1/31/12, and get
- 5 additional register licenses free ($745 value)
- Our Gift Card Expansion Pack free! ($1995 value)
Point of Sale Customer Current on Maintenance?
Renew early (by 1/31/12) and get
- 5 additional register licenses free ($745 value) AND
- Gift Card Expansion Pack, TimeKeeper, or the enhancement of YOUR CHOICE for FREE!
- (up to a $2995 value!)
CT Withholding Taxes May Be Zero if Period Ending Date in 2011 And Check/Quarter Date in 2012
January 3, 2012
I haven’t been able to figure this out totally because it’s not happening for every one of my test employees — however one customer on Sage ERP MAS 90 4.3.0.23 had it occur on all her employees and I can duplicate it on some employees in my test Sage ERP MAS 90 4.50 system (though only on existing employees and not newly created ones).
For employees with CT withholding codes:
If the period ending date in payroll data entry is in 2011 and the current payroll quarter is in 2012 — when you go to run the payroll tax calculation you may notice that some CT employees have no CT tax withheld unless they have an override amount in their employee maintenance screen.
I was able to resolve this by changing the period end date so it falls into 2012 and recomputing the payroll taxes.
How to configure MAS90 Sales Order entry so it will automatically backorder items that are not on hand
January 2, 2012
Several consultants in my 90 Minds Consulting Group were just comparing notes about a question that one of them had asked. The question was “Is there a way to configure MAS90 and MAS200 so that inventory items not in stock will automatically be back ordered on the order?”.
After some debate about potential ways to accomplish this task – Dawn Anastasi - of C&G Consulting offered up this best practice:
Yes that is possible, you want to turn off the quantity checking in S/O first of all. Second, you want to turn OFF the setting in Role Maintenance for “allow to exceed qty on hand” on tab #3.
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