Tips and Tricks | Schulz CONSULTING

posted on January 9, 2013 by Wayne Schulz

How To Reprint The Data From A Sage 100 ERP Accounts Payable Check Stub?

Have you ever printed an accounts payable check and for whatever reason the detail on the stub which shows the invoices paid is missing?

When printing accounts payable checks there is a field labeled “Stub Lines”

I have seen instances where setting this number TOO HIGH can cause a check to print with incomplete/partial invoice listings.

The resolution is generally to reduce the Stub Lines number to be the actual # of lines that can fit on that check. Also, remember that both stubs of the check may have different amounts of space for invoice listing depending upon whether customization’s have made to your check layout. In those cases select the # of lines which is the SMALLEST # which fits on either of the stub in order to prevent losing invoice details.

Unfortunately re-printing check stubs is not possible however you may wish to use the Payments History Report from the Accounts Payable – Reports menu or the Trial Balance report on the same menu. Both of these standard Sage 100 ERP (fka MAS90 or MAS200) reports will show the check invoice detail.

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting, slider, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: accounts payable, check printing, stubs

posted on January 2, 2013 by Wayne Schulz

63% of Pirated Software Contains Malware or Viruses

A Microsoft study performed in December 2012 indicated that 63% of sampled pirated software was being distributed with some type of malware or trojan virus. And the news gets even worse for those pirating Microsoft software where 77 percent of the Windows Update functionality had shown to be disabled or re-routed to third-party services.

The study also found that among computers with bootleg copies of Windows operating systems (OSes), 77 percent of the Windows Update functionality has been disabled or re-routed to third-party services. The software giant said these PCs with disabled Windows Update bypass genuine software checks and are denied critical security patches which causes them to be defenseless against malicious cyberattacks.

ZDNET: 3 in 5 pirated software in Southeast Asia malware-ridden

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks Tagged With: pirate software, Technology

posted on May 10, 2012 by Wayne Schulz

Parcel Is Located Already At Post Office: Warning USPS Delivery Scam Email

If you’ve received the following email alert about a package sent via express mail which is awaiting your pickup – be advised the US Postal Service is warning that this is a scam.

There is likely an attachment to that email which when clicked will infect your computer. Delete any such notifications unopened.

Here is a copy of one such bogus email:

From: USPS Customer Service
Date: Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:00 AM
Subject: Parcel is located already at the post office
To: sales@s-consult.com

Delivery information,

We couldn’t deliver your parcel at your address.
Reason deny\Postal code isn’t specified.

LOCATION OF YOUR ITEM:Amarillo
STATUS: not delivered
SERVICE: Express Mail
NUMBER OF YOUR ITEM:U756213378NU
FEATURES: No

Postal label is enclosed to the letter.
Print your label and show it at the post office.

An additional information
If the parcel isn’t received within 30 working days our company will have the right to claim compensation from you for it’s keeping in the amount of $5.13 for each day of keeping.

You can find the information about the procedure and conditions of parcels keeping in the nearest office.

Thank you for using our services.
USPS Services.

via: USPS (PDF Warning)

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks Tagged With: bogus, delivery, SCAM, USPS, Virus, warning

posted on May 6, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

MAS90 and MAS200 v4.4 Product Update 5: SVTRNA Bug Advisory

One of our most used hidden utilities within MAS90 and MAS200 is a program SVTRNA. What the program does is allow you to copy master data (no financial totals only names, descriptions, addresses) from the accounts payable, accounts receivable or inventory modules of an existing MAS90 or MAS200 company code into a brand new code.

This is super helpful when establishing a new company within MAS that is virtually a mirror image of an existing one and which will make use of all (or virtually all) of the same customers, vendors or inventory.

One of my 90 Minds Consulting Group colleagues just noticed that on version 4.4 product update 5 that when he copied over inventory data he was also receiving a little more than he bargained for. Normally only the master information for each inventory item would copy (description, product line, etc). It appears there may be a bug in v4.4 product update 5 which results in some totals (quantities on hand) also transferring if you use the SVTRNA utility.

This isn’t a huge issue – except according to my colleague there’s no way to fix the totals by using the Visual Integrator module. So if you’ve made a data transfer using SVTRNA into inventory and hadn’t thought to keep a backup – you could find yourself in a bit of a pickle.

Your best bet when making copies of data is to always make a complete backup of your MAS data BEFORE attempting the transfer (here’s one way that Sage recommends). We’ll update you with more information on this as we hear about it.

90Minds

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: 90minds, bugs, copy, svtrna

posted on April 4, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

Six Tips for a Smoother MAS90 or MAS200 Upgrade

After having performed many successful Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 upgrades that came in on budget (fixed fee) over the past few months – I’ve been somewhat surprised to see and hear of many mistakes made during upgrades.

Just last week two end users emailed to ask about finding another reseller. Their MAS90 upgrade had gone “off the rails” because the consultant showed up to do a same day upgrade.

No testing, no prior review of the hardware platform for compatibility, no review of the integrated third party solution vital to their business (and not surprisingly the updated 3rd party solution was buggy as all heck).

There are a lot of ways to safeguard your business from problems during your MAS90 upgrade. At Schulz Consulting we perform a four phase upgrade on any client system – no matter how big or small.

Schulz Consulting Four Phase Upgrade

Phase #1: Install and configure the system. Ensure that all the pieces are working (no startup errors) and ready for you to test .

Phase #2: Testing. Prior to going live with a major upgrade we recommend a test conversion. Since MAS90 and MAS200 allow for parallel migrations you can copy your existing data to the upgrade while users continue working in the old version. This is the best way for you to look at how your data converts and test the integration of third party add-ons – typically either custom programming or reporting tools.

Phase #3: Go Live. After you’re satisfied that the testing is successful – it’s time to re-migrate data and go live with your upgrade. Done properly – the go live phase is merely a formality with minimal downtime. Often we’ll start to convert the data remotely the prior night so that your staff can hit the ground running during the next morning without having to wait for time consuming conversions.

Phase 4: Post Upgrade Review. About three days after going live we’ll schedule a conference call. During this call we summarize any open upgrade issues and develop a plan with you to resolve them no later than 10 days after you’ve begun using the new version of your software.

What Goes Wrong With Upgrades That Aren’t Planned Well?

Here are some mistakes users and other consultants make which derailed their upgrade progress.

Probably the biggest mistake that non-savvy users make is not to involve a consultant with the upgrade. I receive calls on an almost daily basis from IT consultants scheduled to go visit a customer the next day wanting to know if there’s “anything special” they need to do to upgrade the customer to the latest version of MAS90 or MAS200.

Sometimes these consultants get lucky and the upgrade goes off without a hitch. More often we receive an emergency call that the accounting system is down and the consultant can’t understand why such a terrible system like MAS90 doesn’t upgrade in the same manner as (pick any of the consumer systems that the consultant is more familiar with).

Often IT consultants want to implement the latest cutting edge hardware. We’re all for using current hardware – except when that hardware (or operating system) is not compatible with Sage ERP MAS90 or MAS 900 (here’s the list of MAS90 compatible hardware and operating systems and virtual environments).

Top 6 Reasons MAS90 Upgrades Fail

Failure to test: Not running a test upgrade first is acceptable for someone upgrading a very small system from a recent version to a recent version. If your company is upgrading a 25 user system from MAS90 version 3.71 to 4.4 without a test upgrade then you’ll be greatly increasing your risk of computer downtime. Running a test upgrade helps (though does not guarantee) that pesky issues like bugs and form alignment are worked out BEFORE your staff is getting ready to send out the monthly billing.
Not checking the supported platforms matrix. Most hardware and operating platforms work well with current versions of MAS90 and MAS200. Failure to check before making an expensive network upgrade is foolish and can result in downtime if a specific operating system isn’t yet compatible with Sage ERP MAS.
Forgetting to upgrade third party enhancements. One of the more common problems to derail otherwise simple MAS90 upgrades is a buggy third party solution that was not tested before being installed. Often the user is forced to roll-back to the old version of MAS while the previously untested solution is sent back to the developer (who usually must take several days for additional debugging). Don’t let this happen to you. Test every bit of custom software in advance of the day which you plan to go live!
Assuming that every feature that existing in a version of MAS90 or MAS200 which was produced 10 years ago was carried unchanged into the new version. Sage publishes a what’s new in MAS90 which shows all the changes added to the program in each level. Testing the upgrade prior to going live is the only way you’ll catch subtle changes in procedures that have been made due to the software upgrade.
Allowing too little time for the upgrade and testing. The biggest problem that we’ve seen with users is failure to test or allocate proper time for testing. Often users delay any testing and instead feel that they’ll complete the testing during the “go live” phase. The reason that testing is called testing is that it’s done before the “go live”. Almost all of the problems we’ve seen users report with their upgrade could have been caught during a testing phase.
Upgrading a server at the same time as the MAS90 and MAS200 upgrade occurs. Another recipe for disaster is to simultaneously upgrade an entire computer network (migrating user rights, directory permissions, etc) at the same time as the MAS90 system is upgrade. Based on experience we’ve seen these types of simultaneous upgrade cause significant delays (even though at the outset it seemed like a great idea to upgrade everything at once) because of problems with network user rights, printers, file permissions, new versions of anti-virus, anti-malware, firewall settings, IP addresses, etc. We recommend you upgrade your computer network and workstations at a time independent of when you’ll upgrade your MAS90 or MAS200 accounting software. If the upgrade must be done at the same time then allow for time to work out issues that are related to the network upgrade.

Need assistance with an existing upgrade — or perhaps one that has “gone off the rails”?

Do you recognize any of the above mistakes that may have led to issues with your last upgrade?

We’ve streamlined our upgrade process. Each of our projects is tracked in 37 Signals Basecamp project management – which enables everyone on our team (and your staff) to view each phase of the project as it occurs.

What this means is we’re able to quote a fixed price for upgrade. We don’t work hourly on upgrades — and if you have a quote in hand that shows hours at best you have an estimate where the cost could be double or triple what you expect.

Anyone who is competent with MAS90 should be able to quote you the exact price (within the given scope of services – and obviously if there are additional services requested then those are changes that incur added cost).

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, upgrade

posted on January 23, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

What versions of Crystal Reports are supported by Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200?

What versions of Crystal Reports are supported?

1. MAS 4.40 – Crystal Report 11
2. MAS 4.30 – Crystal Report 10
3 MAS 4.20 – Crystal Report 10
4. MAS 4.10 – Crystal Report 10
5. MAS 4.05 – Crystal Report 8.5
6. MAS 4.00 – Crystal Report 8.5
7. MAS 3.71 – Crystal Report 8.5
8. MAS 3.70 – Crystal Report 8.5
9. MAS 3.61 – Crystal Report 8.5
10. MAS 3.60 – Crystal Report 8.5
11. MAS 3.51 – Crystal Report 8.0
12. MAS 3.50 – Crystal Report 8.0

Note: MAS versions below 3.71 are no longer supported by Sage.

Use of an incorrection version will render forms and reports that are used by the Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200 program (ie – Check Printing, Invoices, Custom Reports, Canned Reports) unusable though the report may appear to function properly outside of the MAS system when run straight through Crystal. There is no way we’ve yet seen to reverse changes made in a higher version of Crystal and save the form to a lower version.

Be sure you work with the proper version of Crystal Reports.

via: Sage KB Resolution ID 513325

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: Crystal Reports, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, supported, versions

posted on October 21, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

MAs90 Tip: How To Use The New Bank Reconciliation Posting To GL Feature

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.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: bank reconciliation, mas200, product update 3, Sage 100 ERP

posted on October 18, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

Moving MAS90 Paperless Office Files

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

via: 90Minds Consulting Group

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200, paperless office, Sage 100 ERP

posted on October 18, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

What’s New In The Latest MAS90 – MAS200 Upgrade or Product Update?

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.

MAS90 Enhancements

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks, upgrades Tagged With: features, mas200, product update, Sage 100 ERP, service update, upgrade

posted on October 13, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

MAS 90 Address Cleanup Utility: Convert Mixed Case To All Upper or Lower Case

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

Filed Under: Hidden Options, mas200, Sage 100 ERP Tagged With: address, capitalization, hidden utility, mas200, Sage 100 ERP

posted on August 30, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

What Operating Systems are MAS 90 or MAS 200 Compatible With?

One of the top questions that we receive about Sage ERP MAS 90 or MAS 200 is whether the programs are compatible with a certain operating system or not.

Sage North America publishes a series of guides that explicitly detail which operating systems and hardware configurations the supported versions of MAS 90 and MAS 200 will reliably operate with.

These handy guides are updated every few months and rather than post the document – which might be out of date by the time you are reading this post – below are the direct links to the relevant documents:

MAS90 SOFTWARE (See links below for MAS 200)

MAS 90 – Version 3.71 to 4.30

http://goo.gl/7xCB

MAS 90 – Version 4.4+

http://goo.gl/rkjR

MAS 200 SOFTWARE

MAS 200 – Version 3.71 to 4.30

http://goo.gl/hYj8

MAS 200 – Version 4.40+

http://goo.gl/5y0c

via: Wayne Schulz Google Buzz

Filed Under: Knowledgebase, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200, Sage 100 ERP

posted on August 24, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

How To Install Sage MAS Intelligence for MAS 90 or MAS 200

The training department at Sage North America have just posted another video regarding the new Sage MAS Intelligence reporting tool.

Sage MAS Intelligence is the replacement for FRX Financial Report Writer which Microsoft is terminating support for at the end of next year. FRX had been the recommended financial report writer. With the decision by Microsoft to eliminate their product – the new recommended reporting tool is Sage MAS Intelligence.

Each user of MAS 90 or MAS 200 will receive a free copy of this program along with one user license. Watch for a notification from Sage in the coming weeks that will alert you to the availability of Sage MAS Intelligence.

Filed Under: Add Ons, MAS 90 Add Ons, mas200, Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: alchemex, frx, mas intelligence, reporting, sage

posted on April 3, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

Tips for a successful upgrade to Sage MAS 90/200 v4.40

Below are the notes that I took with Robert Wood (DDFCGI) at the April 2, 2010 web session hosted by Sage.

The session topic was “tips for a successful MAS 90 / 200 upgrade to version 4.40″.

Keep in mind that these are tips – and are NOT an exhaustive “how to”. The concepts discussed here were current as of April 2, 2010 but probably will change as future releases fine tune the process.

If you are an end user – please work with a qualified Sage Business Partner to upgrade your MAS 90 or MAS 200 system.

View the notes either by viewing them below — or if you have trouble reading them online – follow this link to:

Tips for a Successful Upgrade to Sage MAS 90 / 200 Version 4.40

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, tips, tricks, upgrade, version 4.4

posted on September 16, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

How to export a long fixed length string in Crystal Reports

Have you ever tried to create a fixed length export file with Crystal Reports? These are typically files you create to send to some third party like a bank. They’ll give you a fixed length record layout and tell you where each field should go and how long it must be.

Everything works well so long as you don’t have a super long length of text.

Well today I had a client that wanted to export a fixed length line of text that was 200 characters long. Crystal Reports wouldn’t export to text without wrapping the line which would have been a problem for the bank to read.

Exporting to a text file via Crystal Reports appears to have a hard limit of a certain size width that’s keyed into how wide the paper is as defined by your printer..

Smaller fonts can combat this to some extent but in my experience not completely.

Some suggestions were to shrink fonts (works to the extent that the fonts can be made small enough) and try different printer drivers that may support larger paper widths (not all drivers support larger paper and it can be a pain to install and maintain a standard printer driver on every machine).

Here’s what ultimately worked for me to export a very wide Crystal Report to text:

Within Crystal Reports 10 – Instead of selecting txt as the export source I selected “record style columns no space” and checked off both “same number style as in report” and “same date formats as in report”

Have not fully tested against the bank yet but appears ok in the WordPad preview.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: Crystal Reports, mas200, Sage 100 ERP

posted on September 4, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Error 88 Sy_ReportEngine.pvc Line xxx [Solved]

I’ve run into this on only a couple of occasions – most of the time in Sales Order.

The symptoms are an Error 88 SY_ReportEngine followed by a line #.

Other sales order forms should print correctly — the problem is usually just one form code — typically a packing list or shipping label.

Check to see that the printer is valid and that you can print other Crystal Forms.

If both of the above check out then I’ve successfully used the fix below:

Listed below is a copy of what SY_ReportSetting.m4t should look like. Yours will be a little different but the field names should be roughly the same.

For the purposes of this error message you only care about the last 4 or 5 fields .

Note that after a user incorrectly accessed the report (not able to track down the exact steps) that fields 38-41 were changed by MAS to bad values.

The values in the field below are what should be used.

Key=[S /O0000000006SO_SHIPPINGLABELS_UI.STANDARD ]
“ModuleCode:CompanyKey:ReportID:ReportSetting”

01 ModuleCode$………… [S/O]
02 CompanyKey$………… [0000000006]
03 ReportID$………….. [SO_SHIPPINGLABELS_UI]
04 ReportSetting$……… [STANDARD]
05 DefaultReport$……… []
06 Description$……….. [1 Across Plain]
07 SettingOptionsType$…. []
08 PrintReportSettings$… []
09 PrinterName$……….. [\\ACCT-KG\UPS THERMAL 2844]
10 SortReportBy$………. []
11 PageBreak$…………. []
12 Collated$………….. [Y]
13 ThreeHolePunch$…….. []
14 DateCreated$……….. [20061020]
15 TimeCreated$……….. [12.34951]
16 UserCreatedKey$…….. [0000000003]
17 DateUpdated$……….. [20061020]
18 TimeUpdated$……….. [12.59368]
19 UserUpdatedKey$…….. [0000000006]
20 NumberOfCopies……… 1.00
21 MultiPart$…………. [N]
22 TemplateDesc$………. [1 Across Plain]
23 Line1Message$………. []
24 Line2Message$………. []
25 EnableFax$…………. []
26 FaxSubject$………… []
27 FaxUseCoverPageFile$… []
28 FaxCoverPageText$…… []
29 FaxCoverPageFile$…… []
30 FaxBillCode$……….. []
31 FaxKeywords$……….. []
32 FaxHold$…………… []
33 FaxUseCreditCard$…… []
34 FaxSendOffPeak$…….. []
35 FaxUseHighResolution$.. []
36 FaxPrinter$………… []
37 FaxPriority………… .00
38 PaperOrientation……. 1.00
39 PaperSize………….. 1.00
40 PaperSource………… 15.00
41 PrinterDuplex………. 1.00

To correct this issue (only after you’ve ruled out the usual suspects like a problem with Crystal or bad print or corrupt form) — I’ve changed field #39 (which may be labeled with a different number) to 1.

In a support case I just had the number 258 was in field #39 instead of 1.

Changing the 258 to a 1 made the problem go away.

Requires familiarity with Data File Display Maintenance as well as a backup of your SY_ReportSetting.

This file is located in the SY_SYSTEM folder.

If any of this sounds scary or unfamiliar – contact your Sage Business partner.

Always backup first.

Filed Under: Knowledgebase, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: error 88, mas200, sage, Sage 100 ERP

posted on July 30, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Fitzgerald Group advises Massachusetts MAS90 users of August 1 sales tax changes

Massachusetts Sales Tax Changes Take Affect August 1, 2009

Mike Fitzgerald of The Fitzgerald Group just sent me this information about an upcoming change in Massachusetts sales tax. According to his notice the state is increasing the sales tax rate effective August 1, 2009.

Please consult with your tax advisor prior to making any changes.

Here are the instructions for those Massachusetts MAS 90 or MAS 200 users who need to update their sales tax rates for the upcoming changes.

Massachusetts sales tax is changing from 5% to 6.25% effective August 1, 2009. If you collect sales tax on Massachusetts sales (and do not use an add-on sales tax program) you must manually change the sales tax rate before starting August invoicing.

Follow these steps in order to update the MAS90 or MAS200 sales tax rate:

Before you begin:

* You’ll want to change the sales tax rate after all July invoicing is complete, and before printing August invoices.
* Make sure there are no users entering invoices or sales orders while you perform these steps.

Change the rate in the sales tax table:

* In Library Master/Setup/Sales Tax Code Maintenance, select your Massachusetts tax code.
* On the taxable line in the table, change the rate from 5.00 percent to 6.25 percent.
* Click Accept.

Update your in-process sales orders and/or invoices:

* In Accounts Receivable/Utilities, select Sales Tax Calculation.
* Make sure all the boxes are checked, and select “recalculate sales tax for all records.”
* Click Proceed.

If you track sales taxes in Accounts Payable/Purchase Order:

* In Accounts Payable/Utilities, select Sales Tax Calculation.
* Make sure all the boxes are checked, and select “recalculate sales tax for all records.”
* Click Proceed.

More information – The Fitzgerald Group – Sharon MA

Filed Under: Consultants, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: massachusetts, sales tax, The Fitzgerald Group, Wayne Schulz

posted on July 30, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

How to show country names on forms using older MAS 90 and MAS 200 versions

To create country code on MAS90 and MAS 200 forms:

Earlier versions of MAS 90 and MAS 200 (typically prior to version 4.10 or 4.20) did not allow for easy linking of the country code name to the code itself.

While the country code could be placed on forms (Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Checks) – the name of the country was not as easy to place for a few reasons –mainly that the data file required to pull the name from was not readily linkable.

Below is a workaround solution that you may find useful. It is primarily for MAS90 or MAS200 (it works on both) versions prior to 4.1 – so if you are using a later version you probably don’t need this procedure because Sage has wisely added country name to the tables that your forms are using.

All steps below require using Crystal Report Writer – which is included with your Sage MAS90 or MAS 200 product disks.

These are not beginner instructions – and assume some intermediate level comfort with Crystal Reports. Backup all your

For this example, assume that we are going to create a form for the ship to and bill to codes. The same logic here with slight modification can apply to any form with a bill/ship field.

Note: Technical information on creating a Crystal Sub report that shares variables is available from:

NOTE: Unfortunately links below to Crystal Reports technical documents appear to have been broken since Business Objects was acquired by SAP.

http://support.businessobjects.com/library/kbase/articles/c2007600.asp

1. Create a page header A that is above the main details (Note: It is important that this comes at the top of the page so that the shared variable calculates before the body of the report. If you do not put it at the top the whole thing doesn’t work). You will need to create a new header (Right click in the HEADER section area and select Insert Section Below. Once that section is created, right click on the section area again on the left side and select MOVE – then you can move it up).

2. Create a sub report for each Bill-To/Ship-To code. These will be placed into the page header created above.
a. Cty_ship
b. Cty_bill
c. Note: Link these back to the main table on the report. You’ll probably want to look in the Database – Visual Linking Expert to see what table is being used to hold your address information.

3. Within each of these subreports:

a. Create a formula as follows (Note: Vary the variable name depending on whether you are creating a bill to or ship to)

b. Place the above formula in the body of the subreport in the details section. Once on the report, right click the formula, select format field, then font, change the font to WHITE (or any shade that won’t show on the report)

c. Place the SY_Country.CountryName in the body of the subreport in the details section. Change the font to white so it doesn’t print on the final report.

d. Leave the Details section viewable – all other sections should be suppressed – ie headers/footers. (Note: If you suppress the details section this won’t work – so be sure to leave it viewable. The way to get around seeing the data on the report is to later change the font to white and make the field very tiny).

e. Make sure your subreport is linked from the SO1_SOEntryHeader.ShipToCountry to the SY_Country.CountryCode

f. When you’ve placed both sub reports into the header section you created above, right click on each subreport and de-select the “can grow” checkbox. (Note: If you do not remove the check you may get a “page size exceeded” message)

4. Within the main report create two variables
a. Country_bill
b. Country_ship

5. Now you can put this variable into your main report formula and the value from the subreport is carried over. The following is the example of it being worked into the @ship to address formula which is standard in the Sage SO Order and Invoice form.

6. Sample formula which has been modified with the new variable.

7. Important: Place the new variables onto the report in the main header section (NOT the sub report) – you can make the white fonts so they don’t print. You must make them viewable (Cannot suppress or this does not work).

BACKGROUND NOTES ON THIS ISSUE:

Q: Client wants to display the Country Code in the forms (SO Orders, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Checks).

A: (Prior to version 4.1 and 4.2) There is no simple way to do this in MAS90/MAS200 — though there are two standard approaches.

The first approach to adding MAS90 country names on forms

Use Alias Tables — this would allow for a table to be used in a report more than once. You give each table an “alias” and it would then allow you to link it to separate fields. This would be needed for the Country Code field because it is potentially a different result for either the Bill To or Ship To.

The problem in MAS90 4.x+ with the Alias Tables is that there is a bug of some sort preventing them from linking to the SY_Country field. This is documented in the Sage KB with the workaround to use a subreport (an ok solution but the country name is impossible to properly line up since it is a free floating field).

The better solution is to use shared variables within the report. Basically this involves creating a new section (header) at the top of the report (important because the variable has to be created before the rest of the report). Then you declare the variables as shared and they can be read from the header on down to the main body.

I did this through the SO and it seemed to work.

Here is the link to the Crystal KB article showing how to create shared variables:

http://support.businessobjects.com/library/kbase/articles/c2007600.asp

On the subreport, you have to create a main subreport, a formula (put this on the subreport) and a shared variable (reference this on the main report).

In the main report you have to create a formula, call up the shared variable (see the Crystal KB for syntax) and then use it in the address formula. Do not forget to put the formula itself onto the form or the value won’t compute.

You want to make the font be white on white. Do NOT suppress and printing or the calculation does not work. If you make it very small you can hide it on the form.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This information is being made available “AS-IS”. Prior to making any changes on your system be sure you have a backup of all forms being modified.

Subsequent upgrades to MAS 90 or MAS 200 table structures may render some (or all) of these instructions obsolete. Sage may also fix bugs that we’ve referred to above. These instructions are meant to serve as a starting point for your own use – and not as a detailed step by step guide to resolving any particular issue. We take no responsibility for updating these instructions. We are not able to provide support (except for our own MAS 90 support clients) on implementing these instructions.

Filed Under: Crystal Reports, Hidden Options, Knowledgebase, Sage 100 ERP, schulz consulting, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: country code, Crystal Reports, forms, how to, mas200, sage, Sage 100 ERP, schulz consulting, Wayne Schulz

posted on July 29, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

MAS 90 & MAS 200 Virtualization Guide Published

Virtualization allows you to allocate hardware resources among multiple virtual environments running on the same machine. Application virtualization is the use of software to allow multiple application images (such as Sage MAS) to run on the same hardware at the same time.

Sage has just issued their officially supported Virtualization configurations. This one page document (copy below for your convenience – be sure to check for updates as they become available) outlines the various virtualization platforms that may now be used to run both MAS 90 and MAS 200.

Benefits of Server Virtualization:

•Provision additional servers without investing in new hardware
•Run multiple operating systems and applications on the same physical server
•Increase the CPU utilization of an underutilized physical server by running multiple virtual environments
•Move virtual machines from one physical server to another without re-configuration
•Capture the entire state of a virtual machine and roll back to that configuration easily

Benefits of Workstation virtualization:

•Run multiple virtual machines on a single PC
•Quickly provision, deploy and reconfigure physical machines
•Run multiple operating systems and applications on a single PC
•Eliminate risk by creating isolated testing environment
•Built-in Snapshots and easy Restore capabilities

Filed Under: Hidden Options, Knowledgebase, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Technical Documents, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: ct mas90, hyper-v, mas200, sage, Sage 100 ERP, schulz consulting, terminal services, virtual pc 2007, virtualization, vmware, vmware server, Wayne Schulz, xenapp, xenserver

posted on July 20, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Installing Extended Solutions PDF Converter on Windows 2008 64 Bit

The information below is unverified (my client is still in the midst of testing the resolution). You should only perform the steps if you’re comfortable “messing around” with operating system level commands. Be sure you have a full backup prior to starting.

Update October 2011:

See this post for a nicely updated summary of current fixes for these types of issues

Update 1-23-2011:
Most of this post is superseded:

Fix for Paperless Office Printing to Windows 64 Bit – version 4.30
Fix for Paperless Office Printing to Windows 64 Bit – version 4.40

There’s unfortunately no official Sage support for having Paperless Office PDF printing work on 64 Bit operating systems with versions earlier than 4.30

One situation that a client encountered recently was an apparent inability to install the MAS 90 Paperless Office PDF Converter to Windows 2008 64 Bit edition. Each time we attempted to run the Extended Solution PDF setup (Library Master – Main – Company Maintenance – Email Tab – Advanced) – we would be greeted with “Unable to initialize PDF viewer”.

Upon closer inspection we could see that the install routine did not appear to place the PDF writer into the printers folder on the server. One theory is that we perhaps needed a 64 bit version of the Amyuni PDF drivers.

Note: We are still testing this solution and still cannot report that this resolves every (or any) case of problems installing the Extended Solutions PDF writer to a 64 bit operating system. The instructions below are meant to only be used with a 64 Bit OS where all other normal installations have been unsuccessful.

We have had one report that downloading this driver and installing it will resolve issues with installing Paperless Office under Windows 7 64-bit.

Again, these solutions are all workarounds people have reported using and not supported by Sage or guaranteed to work in every situation.

Install MAS90 Extended Solutions PDF Writer Manually to Windows 2008 64 Bit

1. Right-click on your Desktop, and select New > Folder. Name the folder ‘Amyuni 64bit Driver’.
2. Click here to download and save the file to the ‘Amyuni 64bit Driver’ folder on your Desktop.
3. Unzip the contents of the zip file into the ‘Amyuni 64bit Driver’ folder.
4. Enter amyuni when prompted for a password.
5. Double-click the Install.exe file located in the ‘Amyuni 64bit Driver’ to begin the driver installation process. An Amyuni Document Converter will open, displaying the current progress.
6. Once the installation is complete, click the OK button in the Amyuni Document Converter window.
7. Verify that the PDF driver was installed correctly:
In Windows XP: Click on Start > Printers and Faxes. You should see a printer called ‘Amyuni Document Converter’.
In Windows Vista: Click the Windows button and select Printers.

8. Right click the ‘Amyuni Document Converter’, select Rename, and rename the printer to Extended Solutions PDF Converter.

If any of the above links do not work – try following the link below to the source of this post.

Note: Sage does not officially endorse or support this solution. Use at your own risk and do not expect that Sage will debug this unless they issue a future updated support position.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: 64-bit, paperless, PDF

posted on July 3, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Suggest a MAS90 feature goes live (Ideascope)

If you know the link – then as of today you’re able to submit new ideas and suggestions for Sage MAS 90/200/500 improvements directly to Sage using their new Sage Ideascope system that manages user feedback.

IdeaScope is a hosted feedback management solution for software product development that makes it easy for Sage to gain greater insight from customers about features (or problems) in their software.

By navigating to:

http://ideascopeanywhere.com/sagemas/frmSubmitIdea.aspx

You can submit your own product improvement ideas directly to Sage. How many times have you wondered aloud why a particular feature isn’t in your accounting software? Now instead of wondering to yourself you can suggest the feature directly to the publisher (Sage).

Prior to submitting suggestions, Ideascope allows you to review ideas that others may have submitted (which are similar to yours). This lets you eliminate any duplication and ensure that your submission is unique.

Curious about what you’ve sent to Sage? You’ll be happy to see that you now can review all the ideas you’ve submitted in the past

Watch for this feature to be accessible not only via the web link noted above but directly from within Sage MAS 90, Sage MAS 200 and Sage MAS 500 in the future.

While Sage have always had a suggestion box for new features and enhancements – this is the first time that the suggestion area has been easily accessible via the web and does not require a login behind the Sage product site itself. Hopefully this ease of use will increase the numbers of suggestions that are submitted and in return result in an even greater number of relevant new features to the Sage MAS 90 and 200 product lines.

via: Dawn Anastasi – C&G Consulting – Wisconsin Sage MAS90, MAS200 and MAS500 consultants and resellers

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: ideascope, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Wayne Schulz

posted on July 2, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

How to spot duplicate or test versions of Sage MAS 90 or 200

When installing upgrades to Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 it is not uncommon for duplicate or backup copies of the program to remain in place on your network hard drive while a new version is installed.

This is often done so that your company has a way to roll back to the earlier version of Sage MAS 90 or 200 should something go wrong during (or after) the upgrade.

Unfortunately what often happens is that old copies of MAS 90 are left behind and never erased. This can cause confusion down the road if someone attempts to setup a workstation connecting to your older (and now innacurate) MAS 90 or MAS 200 data.

How To Safely Remove Test Versions of MAS 90 or MAS 200

First, determine where your LIVE (good) Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 is installed. You can refer to the instructions in this post which outline how to find the proper folder.

Once you find the PROPER folder — take care NOT to delete that one as it is the location of your live active data.

Instead search your hard drive for any folders other than the one above which contain the \MAS90 structure.

Once you’ve located \MAS90 folders which you believe are older test versions, I strongly suggest that you:

A. Rename the suspected older folder to \MAS90OLDTOBEDELETED
B. Within the \MAS90OLDTOBEDELETED\HOME folder rename pvxwin32.exe to be pvxwin32.old

What you’ve just done in the above steps is disable your old version of Sage MAS 90 from starting up. I like to do this and let the system stay this way for several days so I can see if there are any people accessing the old MAS 90 program (usually not) – but more importantly renaming the folder will expose any third party applications which might be using data within the old MAS 90 folder structure.

If there are programs such as paperless or FRX or F9 that try to access the old MAS 90 folder (which you renamed to \MAS90OLDTOBEDELETED) then you will receive an error message which then lets you know that you have either the wrong folder or you need to contact your Sage business partner about moving data outside that folder.

I strongly recommend you make a backup of any files PRIOR to deleting them.

Once several days have passed and nobody has received error messages related to the old data folder – it is generally ok to first make a copy of that OLD folder and to delete it. IMPORTANT: BE SURE YOU ARE DELETING THE \MAS90TOBEDELETED FOLDER AND NOT YOUR LIVE DATA. MAKE A BACKUP FIRST.

Filed Under: Knowledgebase, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, schulz consulting, test version, Wayne Schulz

posted on July 2, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

How to backup MAS 90 or MAS 200

We’re frequently asked which Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 data files should be backed up to ensure that to ensure that there is a completely restorable set of program and data files.

While you can attempt to backup files in any number of ways (only those that change or incremental as well as full backup) the only method we recommend is a full backup of all data files.

All versions of Sage MAS 90 and 200 are installed to a folder \MAS90 (note that this folder name is NOT different for Sage MAS 200).

To Find Where MAS 90 Is Installed – All Levels:

To discover the exact path where your Sage MAS 90 is installed (note that this procedure is different for anyone using MAS 200) – start the MAS 90 program and select File and Run from the menu.

In the sample image above your Sage MAS 90 program and data is all stored within the network drive h:\acct\v4.2\mas90.

In order to backup you’d specify that all of the data in the \mas90 folder and all subfolders should be saved.

While you technically may be able to only back up files that have changed we recommend that you take the entire folder (and all subfolders).

This will back up the core MAS 90 program and data files.

If you are using third party programs such as FRX you also should be sure to backup the SYSDATA folder (locatable via the FRX – Administration panel).

Be sure to backup any paperless office files (PDF) – the location of which can be stored nearly anywhere on your network (review the Paperless Office setup menu for Journals and Registers, Period End, Report, and Form in order to see where you’ve specified the Paperless documents should be stored. These are NOT automatically inside the \MAS90 folder so you should take care to locate their custom location).

To Find Where MAS 200 Is Installed – All Levels:

The procedure for MAS 200 backup is essentially the same as above except you cannot normally use the *INFO solution to find where MAS 200 is installed because it provides the location of your local workstation configuration file — when what you want is the location of the network data.

One way to discover where MAS 200 is installed on the server is to work directly on the server and look under the Administrative options and check the MAS 200 service which should display the location that MAS 200 is installed on the server.

TIPS:

Have everyone out of Sage MAS 90 or 200 when you backup. If there is someone in the system you run the chance of a data file (or files) not transferring properly because they are in use.

Before finalizing a backup policy – double check that you have located the correct folder containing current Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 data. It is a good idea to check the data file dates to be sure they are current and display the date of the last time you performed data entry in the system. Your MAS 90 and MAS 200 data files are stored in the MAS90\MAS_xxx folder where xxx is your 3 character Sage MAS 90 or 200 company code.

Always test your backups to be sure that you can restore the data. After you’ve made a test restore – go into the data and be sure it is current and complete. Test your restore to a separate server so as not to over-write existing data.

Keep as many copies of your backups as you have space for. At a minimum we recommend two weeks of daily backups and 12 monthly and 1 yearly backup. Where backups are concerned – always err on the side of having too many.

Remember – proper backup procedures are one of your most important responsibilities to safeguard against loss of data. The information here is general in nature and cannot possibly cover every user situation. You are advised to test all backups by performing a full restore to a test location to verify that your procedure is working.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: backup, mas200, Sage 100 ERP

posted on July 1, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

How To Install Sage MAS 90 Paperless Office On Terminal Server and eliminate “unable to process lockfile” and “unable to initialize PDF viewer” errors

If you are setting up MAS 90 or MAS 200 under Terminal Server/Citrix and attempting to use Paperless Office for your forms/reports you may receive one of the following errors:

1. Unable to process lockfile
2. Unable to initialize PDF Viewer

UPDATE OCTOBER 2011: See this “Best article on solving Sage ERP MAS90 paperless office printing problems” which contains an updated and more complete list of resolutions for the typical problems encountered while using paperless office within MAS90 or MAS200.

While there may be other resolutions (One possible cure for which is described in the Schulz Consulting Knowledgebase and involves registry entry changes which you should be extremely careful with), we’ve seen the following steps work to eliminate both of the above error conditions:

Unable to initialize PDF Viewer by selecting “run as administrator” for the MAS200 installation. It appears that this only must be done once and that after the initial time of starting the MAS 200 workstation that the proper DLL (we think cdintf.dll) is then registered.

In order to overcome the “unable to process lockfile” try temporarily adding the user to the “power users” group on the Terminal Server. Re-run the setup of paperless office (this is in Company Maintenance – Email – Advanced).

It appears that both issues are user rights related.

Once the above is done you may be able to successfully test the PDF viewer with no errors.

Filed Under: Knowledgebase, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: citrix, paperless office, terminal server, Wayne Schulz

posted on June 10, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Payroll Data Entry Audit Reports overwritten in MAS 90 Paperless Office – Solved

Here’s a quick tip for anyone with an issue as follows:

- You’re using Paperless Office for MAS 90 or MAS 200
- You’re printing the Payroll Data Entry Report
- Only the LAST version of this report is saved

The solution?

Go into the Paperless Office – Paperless Office Options and UNCHECK “keep only last copy” check mark from the Journals / Registers – Keep only the last PDF Copy option.

You will now have all copies of your Payroll Data Entry Audit Report

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200, paperless office, Sage 100 ERP

posted on June 2, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

How to move Paperless Office PDF files for Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200

Have to transferred your Sage MAS 90 accounting system to another location on your network?

If so, and if you’re using Paperless Office, you probably found that moving Paperless Office for Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 is not as easy as dragging all the PDF files from one folder location to another.

If you’ve tried this then you already know there are several Sage MAS 90 and 200 data files which track the location of your PDFS. If you simply drag and drop the PDF files without moving them via the Sage MAS 90 menus then you’ll no longer be able to view the data through the standard Sage MAS 90 and 200 paperless office viewer menus.

For this reason there is a specific procedure you must follow to move all your PDF documents. The Paperless Office menus have this option available from within each viewer screen.

How to move .PDF documents for Paperless Office in Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.30

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu paperless office schulz consulting

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200 4.3, mas90 4.3, paperless office, Wayne Schulz

posted on June 2, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Paperless Office file list for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200

Here’s a great summary that shows the names of the system files which hold “behind the scenes” information about MAS 90 and MAS 200 Paperless Office.

This information can be useful in diagnosing system level problems or in restoring data files from a backup should you experience problems with Paperless Office.

WARNING: Do not make any changes to these files unless you know what you are doing. Consult a qualified Sage Business Partner for assistance. This information is believed accurate at the time of publication. Use at your own risk. Schulz Consulting takes no responsibility for damage that you may do to your data files.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu consulting wayne schulz

Filed Under: Add Ons, Productivity, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: "sage mas90", accounting software, paperless office, sage mas200, schulz consulting, Wayne Schulz

posted on May 26, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Sage insiders share secret to debugging pesky MAS 90 and MAS 200 system level errors

Over the last week New Jersey Sage MAS 90 and SAP Business One consultant Mark Chinsky forwarded a cool (free) utility that I’d like to share.

Mark’s original message stated that he uses FileMon for Windows by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell to see files that are being used by MAS 200. This real time utility is a powerful diagnostic tools for tracking down any number of issues including – hung files, system slowdowns, etc.

Using the program you can easily view precisely when each and ever file is opened, read, written or deleted.

Filters are available to keep the information reporting to a minimum and ensure you only see details that are relevant to your situation.

Former Sage Technical Support Wizard (that wasn’t his official title) Alnoor Cassim chimes in with the inside view of what he has used this handy utility for:

Right on! All the SysInternals tools from Mark Russinovich (all now part
of MS Technet) have been life savers when troubleshooting MAS 90/200.
I’m a major net promoter of these tools. I’d like to share a few ways
it’s helped me.

* Used Filemon to find ACCESS DENIED errors upon startup of MAS when the
Launcher was loading -> User didn’t have permission to rename some files
on their local machine upon startup

* Used Regmon to find ACCESS DENIED errors -> Led to positive proof of a
user registry permission problem for which IT guy of client insisted was
a MAS problem.

* Used Regmon to find ACCESS DENIED errors -> Led to discovery of a COM
failure bug in the MAS 4.0x Launcher, which was requiring Write access
to protected areas of the registry.

* Used psKill to kill orphaned pvxwin32.exe tasks on the MAS 200 server
that Task Manager could not terminate and so server didn’t have to be
rebooted

* Used Process Monitor to find bug in FAS 2008 uninstaller on an EES
implementation, that prevented FAS 2009 from being installed.

Today, Process Monitor is the tool that replaces Filemon and Regmon and
has a better UI.

I’ll stop there but I highly recommend these tools for the tech person
in the MAS consultant’s organization and of course to the clients’ IT
staff.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: alnoor cassim, clients first, mark chinsky, mas200, new jersey, Sage 100 ERP

posted on April 30, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Fixed! – Default printer may now be assigned to standard reports and standard form codes after applying MAS 90 service update 23

Users of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 may now correctly assign their default Windows printer to standard forms and reports.

This was always an option in the accounting software – however unfortunately it didn’t work (see Sage RES 490593).

As reported in the knowledgebase article (remember this applies only to version 4.2 as the issue was fixed with an upgrade to 4.3 or application of service update 23+ for v4.2
):

Reports should print to the Windows default printer when the standard report setting or form code is selected if the Use workstation default printer for standard report setting and Use Workstation Default Printer for Standard Form Code check boxes are selected.

Link: Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Service Update 23 for version 4.2

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting, Service Updates, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: default printer, Sage 100 ERP, service update, Wayne Schulz

posted on March 23, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Modify MAS90 and MAS200 menus with this cool hidden utility

Changing a MAS 90 or MAS 200 menu used to be – well – impossible.
At least that’s what I thought until half an hour ago when super consultant Dawn Anastasi of CG Consulting threw this little tip out.

To change your menus (hide, re-order, rename) in Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 version 4.x use the hidden SY_MENU_UI utility.

This works for any menu – including those pesky Custom Report menus that have a nasty tendency of dropping your reports in a random order.

Changing (move, rename, delete) Menu Selections in MAS90 or MAS200

The steps to change your MAS 90 or MAS 200 menu are so simple — once you know Dawn’s secret.

It relies upon being able to access the File – Run menu from within MAS (if you’re not able to do this you probably need to verify security rights and make sure you have access to this menu choice).

First start up MAS 90 or MAS 200. Select the File menu and then the Run option.

From the dialog box that appears, type in SY_MENU_UI and click OK.

You’ll be presented with the following dialog box.

From this dialog box you can drag a menu choice from one location to another:

Once you’ve found the spot where you want to the new item to reside – simply drop.

Rename MAS 90 Menu Items

If you double click on a menu selection you’ll have the ability to rename the item as illustrated below.

Reminders:

This tip works on version 4.x

You must have security rights to the File – Run menu in order to have be allowed acess to the utility (this is setup in Library Master – Main – Role Maintenance).

via: C&G Consulting -Waukesha, WI and 90Minds Consulting Group

Filed Under: Hidden Options, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: cg consulting, connecticut, Crystal Reports, custom reports, dawn anastasi, hidden utility, mas200, menu, new york, reports, sage, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, tips, Wayne Schulz

posted on March 16, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Paperless Office Reports for MAS 90 and MAS 200 Payroll Not Saving

If you’re using Paperless Office with Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Payroll module, you may want to take a read at what Sage MAS 90 Consultant Beth Bowers and Mike Fitzgerald have already uncovered.

Looks as if not all of the daily processing reports in Payroll are being saved when you are using Paperless Office.

While the payroll Register saves, there have been reports that the Payroll Data Entry Audit Report and Pre-Check Register are being over-written each time a new payroll is generated.

This issue has been reported to Sage and they are working on a fix. In the interim if you are using Paperless Office with Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 payroll you should make sure you have paper copies of all registers.

90Minds via Beth Bowers and Mike Fitzgerald – The Fitzgerald Group

Filed Under: Consultants, Knowledgebase, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: beth bowers, mas200, paperless office, payroll, Sage 100 ERP, The Fitzgerald Group

posted on February 26, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Sagetalk goes listen only 3-31-09

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

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200 support, mas90 support, sage community, sagetalk, schulz consulting

posted on February 26, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

IRS updated withholding tax schedules released 2-21-09

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

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business & Legal 2009 irs publication 15t

Filed Under: Technical Documents, Tips and Tricks, upgrades Tagged With: 15-t, irs, mas200, new tax table, payroll, payroll tax tables, publication 15-t, Sage 100 ERP, stimulus

posted on February 26, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Publication 15-T tax tables for 02-2009 released by IRS [preliminary]

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.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Service Updates, Technical Documents, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200, publication 15-t, Sage 100 ERP, tax tables

posted on February 11, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Sage MAS 90 Extended Solution Doesn’t Finish Installing [Solved]

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.

Filed Under: Knowledgebase, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: ACH for Accounts Payable, direct deposit, error 88, Glastonbury, hartford, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, schulz consulting, Wayne Schulz

posted on February 9, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

How to add new credit card merchant acct to Credit Cards by Sage

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.

Filed Under: MAS 90 Add Ons, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: american express, credit card by sage, discover card, mas200, mastercard, Sage 100 ERP, sage payment servicing, setup, visa

posted on February 6, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Want to beta MAS90 4.4?

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.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: beta, mas200 4.4, mas200 4.4 beta, mas90 4.4, mas90 4.4 beta

posted on February 5, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

5 assumptions I’ll make when debugging your MAS200 server

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.

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.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Technical Documents, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: lockups, mas200, mas200 error, mas200 freeze, mas200 lockup, mas200 server, Sage 100 ERP, Wayne Schulz

posted on January 28, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Batch number xxxx already exists in the direct deposit transaction file

Here’s a quick resolution to a very common error message that occurs with Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 Payroll Direct Deposit (Extended Solution PR-1017).

If you receive the message:

“Batch number xxx already exists in the direct deposit transacton file”

While trying to update your payroll register — take the following action:

Go to Payroll
Direct Deposit Menu
Generate Direct Deposit Interface
Select the second option on the menu – Purge Direct Deposit Interface Files
Select a beginning date that is early enough to remove the offending register number (Tip: In some instances I’ve had to go back as far as 1900 even though I was certain we weren’t using Sage MAS 90 payroll Direct Deposit then…;-) )

Link: Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Direct Deposit Manual (PR-1017)

Filed Under: Hidden Options, Knowledgebase, MAS 90 Add Ons, Sage 100 ERP, Technical Documents, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: direct deposit, extended solutions, mas200, mas90 tips and tricks, payroll, sage, Sage 100 ERP

posted on January 21, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Error 20 SY_MEMOHANDLER_BUS.PVC Line 469: When trying to delete AR Customer Memos in MAS90

If you’ve experienced an error 20 SY_MemoHandler_BUS.pvc while trying to delete a memo from your Sage MAS 90 customer master file (this error will also occur on MAS 200) then here’s something you should check.

Make sure that you don’t have any quotation marks in the memo code. We’ve found that as far back as Sage MAS 90 version 4.1 that having a quotation mark as part of your memo code will produce the above error condition and make it impossible to delete the memo code with the quote.

The only fix that we’ve found is to use Data File Display and Maintenance to manually remove the quotes.

Filed Under: Technical Documents, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: customer memo, error 20, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Wayne Schulz

posted on January 8, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

MAS90 and MAS200 Lockups, Freezes and Crashes – Solved (again)

Have you been fighting frequent lockups, freezes or other unexplained problems where Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 has stopped responding to your users?

Members of the 90Minds group have reported that one of the causes of many lockups for their clients appears to be the Symantec Endpoint system security software.

This suite of software includes antivirus, antispyware, firewall, intrusion prevention (protection against unauthorized access, theft, tampering, and attacks on network availability), and device control – to protect against known and unknown threats.

The traditional way to deal with anti-virus software suspected of causing system crashes or lock-ups is to exclude the data files within the MAS 90 folder from scanning.

In this instance several of my trusted consultants have reported that excluding files and directories does not seems to eliminate the crashing/lockups of MAS 90 or MAS 200 (this problem seems to occur with either product).

The only cure that seems to work is to completely remove Symantec Endpoint. Simply excluding files or turning off the scanning does not appear to be effective at stopping crashes.

IMPORTANT: System locks, crashes and freezing can be caused by MANY different problems including faulty hardware and data corruption. In most instances if all other things have remained unchanged you should look to the latest additions or changes to your system as the most likely culprit.

Removing Symantec Endpoint is never guaranteed to solve the problem. Rather, locking or random freezing of a MAS90 system is generally solved by a series of trial and error steps – of which one would be to replace the anti-virus software.

After making slight system changes you should allow for a period of time to observe whether the problem is cured (or reduced). If you have one user who seems to start the chain of events that lead to a system lockup – have that user move to another computer for the day and see if the problem goes away.

Curing MAS90 lockups is often a process of making small changes to your system and observing whether they work. My experience has been that the best place to start is with anti-virus software. Based on the feedback of my 20+ consultant network – it is looking increasingly like there may be some concerns that cause Symantec Endpoint to not play well with Sage MAS 90 or 200.

If you have found a way to make Symantec Endpoint work – please share in the comments below so the rest of our daily readers can learn from your suggestion.

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks Tagged With: antivirus, mas200 lockup, mas90 crash, mas90 freeze, mas90 lockup, symantec endpoint

posted on December 19, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Sage e-Filing help system wrong number

Use caution if you’re trying to contact the Aatrix folks with a number that you’ve located in the help file. It appears at least one of the number is out of service (wrong number). I did not exhaustively search all of the help files to see if there were issues in other areas.

The wrong number appeared once I had entered the W-2 edit screen and called up help for W-2 filing.

For the record, the correct Sage Aatrix support number (thanks Roberta) is 701-746-6814.

Here’s a quick video capture if you’re curious where I found this:

Sage Aatrix Help File from Wayne Schulz on Vimeo.

Link: Sage e-Filing Aatrix Portal

Link: Closing the Year In MAS 90 – 2008 Edition (video)

Link: Closing the Year in MAS 90 – 2008 Edition – notes

Link: Official Sage 2008 Year End Closing FAQ

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: efiling mas200, efiling mas90, Sage 100 ERP, w2 efiling mas200 support number, w2 efiling mas90, w2 efiling support number

posted on December 2, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Crystal Reports scheduler for Sage MAS 90 and 200

Perryman Software introduces availability of their Crystal Reports scheduler for Sage MAS 90 and 200. This solution

The Ps Report Scheduler allows you to define and schedule stored procedures and reports, executables, and batch process tasks to be run monthly, weekly, daily, or on-demand. One Crystal Report can be used multiple times with different parameters because unique, preset parameters can be passed for each instance of a scheduled report. Parameters are entered during scheduling, and SQL statements can be defined as needed. Once scheduled, the item automatically runs at the designated
time and can be output to an electronic file, printer, or automatically emailed to multiple addresses simultaneously. You only need one version of the report regardless of the output variations required, allowing you to build a comprehensive Crystal Reports library in a single location and edit one, not multiple, versions. Included with the Ps Report Scheduler is the Ps Library, which controls user access
and network connections based on group and individual privileges. Authorized users can define and schedule reports and executables or run them on demand without a local copy of the application or Crystal Reports on their client system.

While the initial product information does not specify how this solution is run, it appears that you need to dedicate a workstation to run the scheduler (as opposed to running this as a service as some Crystal Report schedulers do).

The price of $ 1,200 is steep for casual users but will be attractive to those 10+ user sites with lots of Crystal Reports that they’ve been generating manually during off peak hours.

PS Report Scheduler: $995 + $199 support

Link: Download PS Report Scheduler PDF

Filed Under: MAS 90 Add Ons, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: crystal report scheduler, mas200, mas90 reporting, perryman software, ps report scheduler, Sage 100 ERP

posted on November 17, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Sage MAS Community Forums (Tip): Browse all new messages with one click

Have you visited the Sage Software MAS Community forums? This free message board allows for open exchange of questions, suggestions, ideas and tips between fellow users of the MAS products (MAS90/200/500) and other user. Sage Software also has an active presence on the board with long time product manager Erika Jelosovek personally responding to messages.

After visiting the message area I had asked Sage if there was any way to view all of the newest messages on one page. Without this type of access searching for new messages was a tedious combination of clicking back and forth through the various board topics.

Happily I learned that you can view all new messags just by following one link which provides a summarized list of the messages with new activity. By using this you can easily view the newest messages (and those receiving new replies).

To view the latest active messages on the Sage MAS Community Board, follow this link:

http://community.sagemas.com/sagemas/newthreads

Filed Under: Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200 forum, mas200 support, mas90 forum, mas90 support, sage mas200 community forum, sage mas90 community forum, Sage software, Wayne Schulz

posted on October 29, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Sage Tip: Get alerts when new messages are posted to Sage MAS 90 message board

One of the most convenient ways to read content on the Internet is via the use of RSS feeds. With an RSS feed you can quickly skim the titles of different articles that have been published online. Most sites – including the new Sage Software Message Boards – support the use of RSS feeds.

For those of you who may be more casual users of the Internet or who don’t want to log onto an RSS reader to check messages – here’s an interesting solution that I’ve been using for the past three months.

The service is called Pingie. It’s presently free and in beta with a limitation of 5 different feeds that may be added to each individual account.

What Pingie does is watch your RSS feeds and send out an alert each time the feed is updated.

This is useful for times when you would like to know that a new message has been posted into a specific forum without having to constantly log into the site and view the list of new messages on your computer.

Here’s an example of how to setup the Core Financial Message Board in Pingie so that every time someone posts a new message (or reply) you will get a notification.

Note: These notifications can be sent to either your email address or to a cell phone via SMS.

Link: Pingie

Filed Under: Sage software, Technology, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200 forum, mas90 forum, mas90 message board, mas90 rss, Sage software

posted on October 28, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

How to read the new Sage MAS90 Discussion Forums via RSS

One of the best new features of the Sage MAS90 Discussion forum is the ability to read all of the messages in an abbreviated format known as RSS.

Click on the image to the left to see an example of my RSS feeds (as shown in Google Reader) that I use to keep up with technology. Notice that only the headlines of each article are shown.

RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication. In it’s most basic form what it means is that instead of reading the lengthy articles (message posts) you can use a special type of software to read the headlines. When you find a headline that is of interest you can click to read the entire article. (Read more about RSS at Wikipedia)

Fortunately you don’t even need to load any special software (although there are dedicated software RSS feed readers). Google has a free reader that is very popular both because it is simple to use and can be accessed via any web browser.

To setup your Google Reader account:

Log into the Google site via http://www.google.com/reader.
If you don’t already have a Google account, you’ll be prompted to create one.
Once you’ve created a Google account, click on any of the links below (I’d recommend adding them all) to have the RSS feeds from the new Sage Software MAS 90 Discussion Forum automatically added to your Google Reader.

A list of the Sage MAS 90 RSS feeds are as follows:

(After you’ve setup Google Reader – clicking any of the links below will add them to your feeds so they can be read at any time)

Core Financial Modules

Distribution, Manufacturing & Internet Modules

Customer Relationship Management

Unique Business Challenges and General Discussion

Personalization, Customization & Productivity Tools

Technical and Installation Discussions

Time Tracking & Job Costing Modules

Filed Under: Productivity, Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas90 forum rss feed, mas90 rss feed, sage community rss feed

posted on October 28, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Sage Software soft launches new message board community

Sage Software has soft launched a new messaging forum which appears designed to replace or substantially duplicate their existing SageTalk forums.

This area, powered by the Lithium online community software, has separate areas for each of the SAGEMAS products – Sage MAS 90 and 200, Sage MAS 500 and Extended Enterprise Suite.

One of the huge improvements to the discussion area is the ability to read the forum messages without logging in or registering for a user ID (previously the SageTalk messaging system required a login in order to view messages).

The new message board also includes RSS feeds so that you can preview messages in your favorite RSS reader (I strongly recommend Google Reader).

A list of the Sage MAS 90 RSS feeds is as follows:

Core Financial Modules

Distribution, Manufacturing & Internet Modules

Customer Relationship Management

Unique Business Challenges and General Discussion

Personalization, Customization & Productivity Tools

Technical and Installation Discussions

Time Tracking & Job Costing Modules

At present there is at least one private community that is also hosted, the Sage MAS 90 and 200 Developer Community. Access to this area appears to be by special request only.

Sage corporate blogs will also be housed within this community. Interestingly it appears that most (if not all) of the communication will take place behind a password protected entrance – meaning the general public won’t be able to read the information without a login and password and what goes on in the forums and blogs will likely not be indexed by Internet search engines such as Google. Update: It appears that you can indeed access this site to read messages and blogs without logging in.

For this initial soft launch there was no requirement to enter a Sage Software customer or reseller ID (as was the case with SageTalk). There’s also no confirmation on what may happen to the SageTalk discussion forum which largely duplicates the mission of the new Sage MAS community.

The mission of this community is to enable all Sage MAS ERP customers to share, learn, and support each other on a broad spectrum of issues and interests. While Sage’s intent is for customers to network, form connections and share useful information, our North American Support team does monitor the site and may periodically respond to unanswered technical posts. Should you require an immediate response to technical issues, we have a variety of support options.

The MAS 90 and MAS 200 community are:

Sage MAS 90 and 200 Discussion Forum

Core Financial Modules
Distribution, Manufacturing and Internet Modules
Customer Relationship Management
Unique Business Challenges and General Discussion
Personalization, Customization and Productivity Tools
Technical and Installation Discussions
Time Tracking and Job Cost Modules

Extended Enterprise Suite Discussion Forum

General Discussion

Sage MAS 90 and 200 Blogs

Alok Tyagi (VP of R&D)
Mike Morper (Sr Director of Product Management – Sage MAS product lines)

News and Fast Tips

News
Fast Tips

For now registration for the community is free and access is instant. It is not known whether in the future this forum will require entry of your Sage Software customer or reseller number to further authenticate you and issue a user login.

Link: Visit Sage MAS Community

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas90 message board, sage community message board

posted on October 17, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

How to remove custom reports from Sage MAS 90 and 200 menus

One thing that has left me (and my clients) scratching our heads over is removing custom reports from the MAS 90 and MAS 200 menu structure. Like bad house guests, these user created reports are easy to add (Library Master – Setup – Report Manager) — but nearly impossible to get them to leave when you want.

Unless someone has discovered a better way, here’s the solution that I’ve used in the past to remove custom reports that have been added to the Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 menus (these are the reports that show on the Custom menu choice).

UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: These instructions are meant for situations where you cannot remove a Custom Report via the Report Manager menu. Normally you can go into the Report Manager menu and click the “X” when you have a custom report selected. In many situations (that I’ve seen) this red “X” either is not present for selection or once clicked does not work. That is what the instructions below are meant to cover.

Important: Backup your entire \MAS_SYSTEM and \SOA folder before making any changes. I take no responsibility for any damage that may occur on your system. This was tested on version 4.2 and may (or may not) work similarly on earlier and later versions.

Step One – MAKE A BACKUP FIRST

Go to Library Master – Utililities – Data File Display and Maintenance

For the filename, browse to your MAS_SYSTEM folder and find the file SY_MENU

Browse to the record which is showing your report and click delete.

Step Two

For the filename, browse to the \SOA folder and find the SY1RPM file

Browse to the record which is showing your report and click delete.

Step Three – Recompile your menus

Recompile the menus. You can do this by going into MAS 90 and selecting FILE / RUN.

Type SYZCON and click OK

At the prompt, enter the following and press ENTER after each line.

menus=new(“sy_menu_svc”,%sys_ss)
? menus’compilemenu()
drop object menus
bye

You’ll see either a 1 if the procedure succeeds or 0 if it fails.

Found a better way out of this situation? Let me know in the comments below.

Filed Under: Hidden Options, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200, mas90 secrets, mas90 support, mas90 tips, remove reports mas90 menu, Sage 100 ERP, schulz consulting, Wayne Schulz

posted on October 14, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Top 10 lies resellers tell (and how to avoid them)

Have you recently purchase Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 accounting software? Are you in the process of selecting software? Then read on because I have 10 specific tips for you to keep in mind as you lumber through the exciting process of interviewing potential consultants and talking to salespeople.

Although I’ve labeled these topics as “lies”, they’re more like “sales puffing”. During the sales cycle you’ll often deal with many of these 10 issues and I’ve tried to explain briefly how to work your way around the traps.

The biggest key to avoiding an issue? Get references. And check them.

Someone claiming that they’ve worked in your industry or have done work exactly like what you’re asking about should have no hesitation to provide you with a list of references (I consider 5 references to be a minimum – especially with niche software).

Top Ten Lies Resellers Tell (and how to avoid them)

#1 – We’ll do that in phase 2 (or later)

Here’s the biggest warning that whatever is being proposed is going to be tougher and more expensive than you are initially led to believe. If it were an easy feature or procedure to implement – then it would be done before phase 2.

Consultants leave stuff for phase two when they really don’t know how to make it work.

By the time they reach phase two they hope you’ll either forget about the feature or they’ll have stumbled upon a method to produce the functionality they’ve promised.

# 2 – Sure we can integrate to your [pick a custom program your company uses]

Integrate is the most mis-understood word in the software world.

To the person selling the program that they promise “will integrate” — the word means that they support exporting to Excel or CSV and then having you do a ton of data manipulation and pulling the data into your software.

To the company making a software purchase the word integrate means “one button seamless” pulling in of detailed data from an external program.

Unfortunately the reality is almost always closer to the first option and you’ll be performing time consuming tasks to massage your data and get it ready for a manual import. To get around falling into this trap – insist on a paid walk through of the way the import would work (yes, I said paid. Not many consultants will dedicate hours to a custom import with no guarantee that you’ll want to purchase).

# 3 – We’ll make a special custom Crystal Report

If the consultant promises a custom report – be sure it is going to be no charge – or have them design and show you the report prior to buying the software.

I’ve seen situations where custom reports run 20 to 40 hours to design. In real dollars that can be an extra $5,000 or more depending upon how complex that report is.

# 4 – Here’s what our training will cost

Wake up call.

Whatever the consultant quotes – when they reach their time budget – they’ll either (a) ask for more or (b) leave.

Moral of the story? Get a realistic quote and if it’s not fixed – expect to pay hourly. To alleviate cost overruns dedicate internal staff to assisting with as much implementation as possible.

# 5 – You won’t need much training

Sometimes this statement may be true. For very experienced companies there might not be much training.

For the remaining companies count on 10 to 12 hours of training per module.

A consulting firm promising less than this is planning to cut corners somewhere. Good luck.

# 6 – Once you buy the software we’ll design a procedure to accommodate [insert non-standard workflow]

Tip: Here’s problem #1 in disguise. Have them design it (for a fee) before you buy. The only time you should make an exception to this is if the functionality is not that important to you.

# 7 – If you have over 5 users you must use MAS 200

We hear this fib all the time. It’s mostly told by resellers who want to increase their sales volume with Sage Software.

In nearly every instance MAS 90 over Citrix or Terminal Server will work just as well.

# 8 – We have a client in [pick the industry that your company is in]

Talk to the reference. When you talk to the reference, make sure that they’re using the exact same modules and procedures that you are considering. It will be surprising how many companies in your industry aren’t using Sage MAS 90 or 200 to its fullest capacity.

# 9 – We can import all of your detailed history during our conversion

During data import you should bring in master file information and detailed (invoice level) totals for AP and AR.

If you try to import detail (down to invoice line items or general ledger transaction lines) you’re only asking for a lot of trouble (and expense).

The problem?

During the conversion process you will be working under such a tight deadline that nobody will be able to stop and tie out the detail. The end result will likely be a huge data conversion bill for data that someone discovers (months after the conversion) doesn’t reconcile.

#10 – We can sell you the [pick niche software add-on] and you’ll be trained by the company that makes the niche software

We see companies all the time who have bought software add-ons for their MAS 90 or 200 that the consultant didn’t know how to install. So the company is left searching for another consultant who knows the software package that they’re struggling to implement.

Either find a consultant who has more than 5 references on the add-on or contract with the add-on supplier to manage all your installation and training from the start.

Tip: Get references for both circumstances. Be sure those references are using the exact setup (modules) that you are contemplating.

Conclusion

Use some extra due dilligence when you are interviewing consultants. My recommendation to everyone is to obtain and check references. Do not be afraid to pay for a test implementation of the solution you are considering. If you can pay $5,000 and discover that a proposed solution doesn’t work – then you’ve probably saved $100,000 (and years of internal labor) by rejecting that solution.

Most good consultants will openly discuss the pros and cons of solutions that they are offering. We strive to position the solution with as many minusses as plusses. This allows prospective users to make better informed decisions.

Filed Under: Pricing and Promotions, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: mas200 purchasing tips, mas90 purchasing tips

posted on October 13, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Support FAQ: Error message #105 keyed file error

Frequently Asked MAS 90 Support Question:

Hi Wayne,

I am getting an error message while I am doing a deposit and try to run the cash receipts report. Error message #105 keyed file error ( short key block). Is this something you can fix?

Please advise

Suggested Resolution:
This is an indication of a data corruption issue in your Cash Receipts data entry file.

If possible, delete the cash receipt and begin again.

Another alternative is to use Library Master – Utilities – Analyze & Relink Line files on your A/R Cash Receipts Data Entry (valid for version 4.05 and lower). On version 4.1+ you’ll need to use the rebuild key files.

If you attempt to repair, be sure to check the resulting data file because corrupt records (if found) may be removed.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: error 105, mas90 error 105, Wayne Schulz

posted on October 9, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

IMFX utility rebuilds your MAS 90 & 200 Inventory, Sales Order and Customer sales history files

dsd IMFX Customer Sales History Rebuild.jpg

Has a data problem caused you to doubt the accuracy of the totals in your Inventory Item Sales History file (IM9)? If you’ve recently experienced a data glitch of perhaps you’ve changed your fiscal basis for tracking inventory from a calendar to a new fiscal period. IMFX from DSD Associates will rebuild and correct your totals.

Rebuilding detailed customer sales history is not covered by any of the utilities included with Sage MAS 90 or 200. In the past some consultants have taken to extreme measures to rebuild these files manually for clients.

IMFX rebuilds the following files in all versions of Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200:

IM9 – I/M Inventory Item Sales History
IM_13 – I/M Customer Item Sales History
SO_SalesHistory – S/O Item Sales History
AR_CustomerSalesHistory – A/R Customer Sales History

IMFX is a rebuild utility designed to rebuild the Inventory Item Sales History and Customer Item Sales History files.

The Warehouse Item Sales History, Customer Item Sales History, SO SalesHistory, and Customer Sales History tables are rebuilt from data in the AR Invoice History Header and AR Invoice History Detail files.

What Are Your Alternatives To This Utility?

You may think that rebuilding your Sage MAS 90 or 200 sort files will resolve situations such like this? It won’t. The sort file rebuild contained within Sage MAS 90 and 200 will rebuild a limited number of totals including items like quantity on Sales Order. It won’t rebuild the detailed history that many people rely upon for their sales reports.

If you’re thinking that you could re-key the data directly into the above data tables or use Visual Integrator – you might be right. But think about the time you’d spend extracting the data, accumulating the totals, checking the math, designing the Visual Integrator import job and suddenly this utility has the potential to be a huge timesaver.

If you’re in a situation where you need to rebuild sales history in any of the above data files then this is the utility for you. DSD Associates is a Master Developer for Sage Software and they’ve been around since before I started working with Sage MAS 90 (1986). Their catalog of enhancements is pretty popular with users – especially their magnetic media.

Contact person at DSD for sales questions :
Sedal Legesse – 858-550-5900 x133

Cost of enhancement:
$ 708.33 (includes first year maintenance of $208.33)

Introductory Promotion – 15% off through 10/31/08

Links:
IMFX program manual (PDF)

IMFX Rebuild MAS90 & MAS 200 Inventory History Utility

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: dsd associates sales rebuild, imfx, mas90 history rebuild

posted on October 7, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

One Utility Every MAS90 User Must Have: Customer / Vendor History Re-Calculation

Beginning with version 4.1 of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 the customer master file holds detailed monthly sales totals. In prior versions this data was only retained for one period using a PTD designation. This new level of detail is helpful to companies who are asking “what sales volume did my customer have last year during the month of February”.

This new feature works exceptionally well except that when MAS90 converts data it will lump most of the totals together in prior years to the last fiscal period. Instead of separating out the historical detail it creates lump sums for conversions. Moving forward the details are tracked apprpriately.

Thankfully Randy Marion at Martin and Associates came up with what must be the worlds most helpful utility. His software does one thing. It recalculates prior history for both customers and vendors and places those totals into the correct monthly column on the respective master file.

As with any recalc process, it is advisable to create a backup prior to execution of this utility. Additionally, it is advisable, but not mandatory, to rebuild the keys of the following list of files for EACH company prior to execution. An exception to this rebuild recommendation is if this data is freshly or recently converted from any version with legacy (.SOA) file structure.

The utility is simple to install and use. Move on program file into the SOA folder, execute it by logging into MAS 90, running Syzcon and run
“arapfxv2”. It’s that easy. I’ve done this dozens of times with clients. Never an error message. The utility runs smoothly each and every time.

This utility is must have that can be used by resellers during an upgrade to correctly display various sales and purchase history for data acquired prior to version 4.10 or 4.2 in Sage MAS 90 or 200 ERP. This tool recalculates data in Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable to correctly reflect Sales and Purchase istory. This is accomplished by scanning all the appropriate history files and accumulating the various totals in the proper fiscal periods and years.

Price: $ 795 with no maintenance

Summary: Nice to see software that is bulletproof, runs fast, works as designed and saves a company hours of manual labor.

Link: Customer Sales – Vendor Purchase History — Product Manual

What I Like:

It just works – no error messages or un-needed complexity
Fast
Accurate
Saves hours of manually computing totals
Can be run on multiple companies
No ongoing maintenance

What Could Be Improved:

I’ve already asked Randy to build one that recalculates 1099 payment totals

Need More Information? Use Our Contact Form Below:

[contact-form 1 "Contact form 1"]

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: customer sales history recalc, martin and associates, vendor history recalc

posted on August 26, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

MAS90 Positive Pay Enhancement Keeps Bank Happy – Check Scammers At Bay – Cash in Your Account

mas90 positive pay bank reconciliation.jpg

With color laser and inkjet printers so cheap – it’s amazing that we don’t see more check fraud.

Hopefully your company never has to wrestle with check fraud. The way the scam works is simple — one of the company employees (could also be a vendor who received a check and is therefore privy to account information) prints their own checks on a color laser/inkjet printer (using the company routing numbers, etc). Very easy to do as the software for this capability is widely available – and fully legal. Very convincing because you cannot tell a fake check from a real one. You usually see this type of fraud at companies with lots of employees and higher turnover (think employment agencies, construction companies, landscapers).

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: check fraud, mas200, positive pay, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software

posted on May 1, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

MAS90 and MAS200 Data Dictionary Online

Have you ever wondered what the file structure was for a certain MAS90 or MAS200 table? You can alway view this from within the Resources tab of your Sage MAS90 or MAS200 system. However there is another way to see this information when you aren’t in front of your accounting system.

Sage Software publishes two data dictionaries which are free and available online with no login.

Access the dictionaries at:

Link: Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Version 4.30 Data Dictionary

Link: Sage MAS90 and MAS200 Version 4.20 Data Dictionary

Link: Sage MAS 90 and MAS200 Version 4.10 Data Dictionary
Tip: Data dictionaries for versions 4.4+ are only within the MAS90 program itself

Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.40 or later:

From the View menu, click View Tasks.
From the Tasks panel, click Resources.
In the Resources window, click File Layouts and Program Information.
From the Contents tab, double-click any of the help topics, which are listed below.
File Layouts
Program Listings
File and Table Listings
Data Class Definitions Listing
File Names and Key Information
Cross Reference Information. This topic also includes Old File Names to New File Names Mapping and Old Field Names to New Field Names Mapping.

Filed Under: Hidden Options, Sage 100 ERP, Tips and Tricks

posted on May 1, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Possible Solution to Pesky MAS90 Server Lockups

Have you ever been plagued by persistent unexplained lockups on your Sage MAS90 file server? One client recently had some rather consistent issues with their server locking and refusing to budge further without a re-boot. One call to Sage technical support uncovered a very interesting solution that you may want to try on your server (but only if you’re having problems).
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Hidden Options, Sage 100 ERP, Technical Documents Tagged With: mas 200 server crash, mas 200 server lockup, mas90 server, mas90 server lockup, Sage 100 ERP, Wayne Schulz

posted on April 11, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Making one sided journal entries in Sage MAS90 or MAS 200

Whether it is data corruption or a full moon, occasionally you may find your General Ledger out of balance. Seems to happen at the most inopportune time too, doesn’t it? Here’s how you fix it in Sage MAS 90 or 200.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks

Schulz Consulting Four Phase Upgrade

What Goes Wrong With Upgrades That Aren’t Planned Well?

Top 6 Reasons MAS90 Upgrades Fail

We also post MAS 90 news items from our web site automatically to:

Massachusetts Sales Tax Changes Take Affect August 1, 2009

Follow these steps in order to update the MAS90 or MAS200 sales tax rate:

Change the rate in the sales tax table:

Update your in-process sales orders and/or invoices:

To create country code on MAS90 and MAS 200 forms:

For this example, assume that we are going to create a form for the ship to and bill to codes. The same logic here with slight modification can apply to any form with a bill/ship field.

BACKGROUND NOTES ON THIS ISSUE:

The first approach to adding MAS90 country names on forms

Install MAS90 Extended Solutions PDF Writer Manually to Windows 2008 64 Bit

How to move .PDF documents for Paperless Office in Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.30

Changing (move, rename, delete) Menu Selections in MAS90 or MAS200

Rename MAS 90 Menu Items

Reminders:

Sage Communities for MAS 90 and MAS 200 is where the action is

To manually update your MAS90 payroll tax tables

Background

Extended Solutions Say’s “Now Installing Extended Solutions” – Forever

The Resolution

Finally The A-Ha Moment

A Suggestion To Sage

Top 5 Reasons Your MAS 200 Server Keeps Having Errors

“Batch number xxx already exists in the direct deposit transacton file”

To setup your Google Reader account:

A list of the Sage MAS 90 RSS feeds are as follows:

A list of the Sage MAS 90 RSS feeds is as follows:

The MAS 90 and MAS 200 community are:

Step One – MAKE A BACKUP FIRST

Step Two

Step Three – Recompile your menus

Top Ten Lies Resellers Tell (and how to avoid them)

Conclusion

IMFX rebuilds the following files in all versions of Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200:

What Are Your Alternatives To This Utility?

Need More Information? Use Our Contact Form Below:

EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Search Our Site

Recent Posts

About Schulz Consulting

Recent Posts

CONTACT US