posted on January 23, 2013 by

Sage ERP X3 Live In 6 Weeks For RM Foods

RM Foods is a nearly 50-year-old food and beverage manufacturer and distributor. They recently replaced their accounting system with Sage’s ERP X3. What’s amazing is the implementation time was only 6 weeks from start to finish.

Our old system made even routine tasks cumbersome, so it was easier to outsource them,” said Michael Siegmund, president of RM Foods. “We hired a consulting team to help us evaluate our options, and Sage ERP X3 came out the winner. Sage ERP X3 has a clean intuitive interface, a solid reputation in the process manufacturing industry and is backed by a strong and reputable company

 

YouTube Preview Image

 

Sage

Filed Under: ERP X3, Sage 100 ERP, slider Tagged With:
posted on January 22, 2013 by

Sage 300 ERP News, Tips & Insights – February 2013

sage 300 February2013

The latest issue of our newsletter for Sage 300 ERP (formerly Sage ERP Accpac) customers is now available for download.

In this issue you can learn about

  • Sage 300 ERP 2012 latest release features (over 30 new features)
  • Year-End Tips for closing the system and getting ready for the new year
  • Sage Payment Solutions

Link: Sage 300 ERP February 2013 Newsletter

Filed Under: Sage 300 ERP, Sage ERP, slider Tagged With:
posted on January 9, 2013 by

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

check

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: , ,
posted on December 6, 2012 by

Year End Closing Tips for Sage 100 ERP (formerly MAS 90) – Special Newsletter

Our special year end newsletter for Sage 100 ERP (formerly known as MAS90 or MAS200) users is now available. In this issue we explore tips and tricks for closing every module – including the order in which they should be closed.

Are you following best practices by creating year-end archive companies? If not – we will show you how to use the built-in features that allow Sage 100 ERP to quickly create backup copies of your live data. These copies of data are especially helpful for anyone using the payroll module since you can refer back to the archived companies throughout the year as your employees request copies of W2 and other forms which they may have lost.

This issue also has information on the payroll tax updates and provides information about when and how to apply them to your system to meet new IRS and state tax guidelines.

Sage 100 ERP Year In Review – 2012 Closing Tips (PDF)

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage 100 ERP Premium, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on October 1, 2012 by

Reminder – Sage 100 ERP v4.3 Last Tax Table Update is December 2012

Sage previously announced that as of December 31, 2012, they will no longer support updates, including the Tax Table Update (TTU), to version 4.3.

However, due to the new 2013 Medicare requirements, Sage will provide Medicare changes for 2013 in January and 941 updates in March 2013, so you can comply with the 2013-Q1 filing requirements. This will be particularly important to you, as TTUs will no longer be provided for this version.

 

 

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on August 16, 2012 by

Sage Summit Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, Diamond Rio, and Jake Owen Grand Ole Opry Pictures

Sage Summit 2012 Opry Event Night – best of the Twitter Pics

There were plenty of pictures sent out on Twitter last night under the hashtag #SageSummit. These photos were primarily of the Sage North America Grand Ole Opry Event featuring Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, Diamond Rio, and Jake Owen.

It’s not easy to get good pictures in a darkened theater. Here is a compilation of the clearest pictures publicly tweeted during Sage’s Grand Ole Opry event night 8/15/12.

 

Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, Diamond Rio, Jake Owen – Sage Summit 2012 Grand Ole Opry Photos

 

 

Filed Under: Sage software, sage summit Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
posted on May 29, 2012 by

When is cloud computing right – and wrong – for your business?

Cloud computing is the increasingly popular method of running applications remotely. Instead of hosting software internally on hardware owned by your company under the cloud computing model you have an outside firm manage both the application and hardware infrastructure – theoretically saving significant overhead costs in the process.

However cloud computing may not be for everyone. An article in PC Magazine outlines 5 key considerations to the use of the cloud:

1. Does the cost benefit justify the disruption — Aka – will you save enough for it to be worthwhile?

2. Do you applications require specific hardware or speed of delivery?

3. How much capacity will you use?

4. Are data regulations and security hurdles too high to overcome?

5. When SHOULDN’T you use cloud computing (Hint: When confidentiality and speed are overriding issues).

The article is a short read and may serve as a good primer for anyone considering a move to the cloud.

Cloud Computing: Is it right for you?

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: ,
posted on April 9, 2012 by

Sage Summit 2012 Nashville: Registration Begins April 19, 2012

There is no better reason to attend Sage’s annual Summit (customer and partner conference) than to meet your peers and network with some of the smartest minds.

Seven years ago during Sage’s conference I met people who I’ve kept in touch with over the years. Today our group has grown to 100+ members and we’re connected in real time 24 x 7 to help each other answer technical questions about Sage products.

None of this would have happened without the chance for us to meet in person at Sage’s conference.

If you’ve ever wished that you could compare notes about your use of Sage products with like mined users – here is your opportunity. Our 90 Minds group have even organized our own mini-conferences (the last conference, shown below,  was in February 2012 at the offices of DSD Business Systems).

 

This year’s Sage Summit event is being held August 17-21, 2012 in Nashville TN (directly behind the Grand Ole’ Opry).

I’ll be hosting a panel presentation on the ways people are making money using Social Media as their main marketing tactic.

Each morning at 6am I walk with a group of two or three people (attire is strictly bed head and shorts). We mull over the content from the prior day’s sessions, discuss the sessions that we’re going to attend – and make plans for the evening events. Here we are from last year’s conference in Washington DC. That’s me, Peter Wolf and Robert Wood. Last year we even recorded our thoughts about the conference during our morning walks (listen here).

Want to improve your use of Sage products? Are you a Sage partner wondering what other partners are doing to improve customer satisfaction? You can sit back in the office and keep wondering – or head out to the conference and find out for yourself. Below is a picture from the LinkedIn gathering sponsored during Summit 2011 by Sage .

 

See you at Sage Summit 2012.

 

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on December 1, 2011 by

New MAS500 Pricing Effective December 1, 2011

In the Sage ERP portfolio, Sage ERP MAS 500 is well positioned for companies too big for Sage
ERP MAS 90 and 200, but not ready for Sage ERP X3.

Feedback from Business Partners indicated that Sage ERP MAS 500 delivers the robust functionality required by mid-market distribution and manufacturing customers, but the current module based pricing is sometimes prohibitive in the 5-25 user range. As a result, Sage is pleased to announce the availability of new user based pricing bundles for Sage ERP MAS 500!

The new user based pricing bundles for Sage ERP MAS 500 are as follows:

 

Filed Under: Sage 500 ERP Tagged With: ,
posted on October 18, 2011 by

Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL Pricing Updated

Sage have just updated their pricing on Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL user licenses. Initially they had indicated that whether MAS 200 was used on a Providex or SQL database the per user pricing would be identical.

That pricing information is now updated to reflect that Sage EPR MAS 200 SQL user licenses will have an additional $350 per user price (plus maintenance) which goes into effect 12/1/11.

Also on December 1, 2011 to get the scalability, flexibility, integration, and reporting of SQL Server that Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL offers, installed base customers who wish to migrate to the SQL product will “pay the difference” of $350 per user. With 4.5, Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL customers will receive one free SageCRM 7.1 user and server license when they upgrade. And, customers who have not previously received a free Sage ERP MAS Intelligence Report Manager license will receive one compatible with Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL 4.5, which includes Reporting Tree capabilities and enhanced report distribution.

Sage ERP MAS200 SQL v4.5 Specifications

Sage ERP MAS200 SQL v4.5 Release Guide (October 2011)

 

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage 100 ERP Premium Tagged With:
posted on September 28, 2011 by

Sage One North America – Announced. Sorta.

Sage has just tipped their announced — but previously un-named — multi-tennant “true SaaS” offering for North America will include a product branded Sage One. This announcement comes in the form of a LinkedIn job announcement (click the image at left for a copy of the details) for a Sage VP of Research and Development.

This SaaS offering from Sage is likely the same as that currently offered online to their Ireland and UK customers. During the July 2011 keynote at Sage Summit, CEO Pascal Houillon quickly alluded to a “true SaaS” offering that would appear in North America during the second half of 2011.

There was no further information publicly announced and cursory discussion with coy Sage personnel only uncovered that the expected product would be on par with Peachtree in terms of capabilities.

At least one analyst had been briefed under non-disclosure. Other analysts report that Sage vaguely discussed the SaaS product but apparently had not started to publicly demonstrate the capabilities.

It remains to be seen whether Sage One North America is to be a completely new SaaS offering – or as is more likely – simply a re-work of the existing international Sage One online service.

The first public clue that Sage One’s arrival in North America is imminent comes in this job posting from September 26, 2011 on LinkedIn where Sage advertises for a VP of R&D for the Peachtree, Simply and Sage One North America offerings.

More information as the product becomes available in North America.

Filed Under: Sage One Tagged With: , ,
posted on June 23, 2011 by

Sage Summit Blog Now Live

Schulz Consulting has been asked to work with a group of other sites that blog actively about Sage Software and related Sage products.

We’ll be writing about the upcoming Sage Software partner and customer conference – Sage Summit. This conference is being held July 10 to 15 in Washington DC (official site) .

Our blog – summitdiary – is now live and you can read up on the latest conference news starting now and extending until the end of Summit 2011.

Sage Summit Blog

sage summit blog.jpg

Are You An Exhibitor At Summit 2011? Having An Event You Would Like To Publicize?
Use The Form Below

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting Tagged With: , ,
posted on June 13, 2011 by

Sage North America Support Resource Links: Knowledgebases, Communities, Direct Phone Numbers

sage support links.jpg

I just stumbled across this page on the Sage North America site. It lists all the direct technical support phone numbers for the various Sage products. It also shows direct links to the knowledgebase areas and the communities.

These links should be helpful for anyone using more than one Sage product. The page also gives you a nice “at a glance” view of the various Sage products.

Included are support links for the following products:
Sage Abra HRMS – 800-829-0170
Sage Abra Canada HRMS – 800-490-3711
Sage ACT! – 877-902-0597
Sage Active Planner – 800-457-5864
Sage BusinessVision Accounting – 800-215-5395
Sage BusinessWorks Accounting – 877-879-0455
SageCRM – 866-856-0703
Sage DacEasy – 800-322-3279
Sage ERP Accpac
Sage ERP MAS 90 / Sage ERP MAS 200 – 800-371-3602
Sage ERP MAS 500 – 800-944-5481
Sage FAS Fixed Assets – 800-331-8514
Sage Fund Accounting (Formerly MIP) – 800-945-3278
Sage Fundraising 50 – 800-945-3278
Sage Fundraising Online – 800-945-3278
Sage Grant Management – 800-945-3278
Sage Healthcare – 877-932-6301
Sage Master Builder – 800-866-8049
Sage Millenium – 800-945-3278
Sage Payment Solutions & Merchant Services – 800-261-0240
Sage Peachtree – 866-747-3888
Sage PFW ERP – 800-333-5242
Sage Pro ERP – 800-642-7693
Sage Project Lifecycle Management – 866-991-3360
Sage SalesLogix – 800-944-5709
Sage Simply Accounting – 888-522-2722
Sage Timberline Enterprise – 866-991-5606
Sage Timberline Office – 800-551-8307
Sage TimeSheet – 866-719-5198
Sage Timeslips – 800-555-2452

Notably missing from the list is Sage ERP X3 though we expect that at some point Sage will update their page for the support resource.

Sage Support Resources

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting, Service Updates, Technical Documents Tagged With: ,
posted on June 13, 2011 by

Sage Website Goes Back To 2008

It appears that Sage is working on their main www.sagesoftware.com site which I believe had been redirecting to sagenorthamerica.com

The sagesoftware.com site presently is presenting a 2008 copy of the Sage website (welcome back Nina Smith).

Others have reported issues using the MAS90 knowledgebase.

I was just able to log into the KB and make a query — but going farther does not display the results of the article.

I’m guessing this is something relatively simple that Sage will fix once their IT staff has a look.

 

If you find yourself scratching your head – you are not alone.

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on June 5, 2011 by

Sage ERP MAS 500 7.4: What’s New? (pdf)

mas500 7.4 enhancements.jpg

Sage have just posted a “What’s New” guide (PDF) for their MAS 500 version 7.4 release. Included in the new release are:

Sage ERP MAS Intelligence – A replacement for Microsoft FRX (which the company retired). Features a graphical interface, out-of-the box reporting, integration to data sources outside of Sage ERP MAS 500.

Business Insights Explorer – New capabilities include Landed Costs Transaction View, Units of Measure View, enhanced export option so you can export only the data displayed in the grid – or all data.

eBusiness Suite for Sage ERP MAS 500 – With version 7.4 Sage introduces replacement functionality for their retired eCustomer, eSalesforce and eOrder modules. The new functionality is eBusiness Suite for Sage ERP MAS 500 and is provides both B2B and B2C functionality within a browser based interface. Create an online storefront for customers, salespeople and customers service representatives. Includes full credit card compliance with latest security rules mandated by processing companies.

When functioning as a remote interface for Sage ERP MAS 500, users can view customer orders, shipments, invoices, payments and back-orders, making it the ideal solution for salespeople or customer service representatives who require a comprehensive overview of customer accounts to respond quickly to customer requests and follow up on orders or payments due.

Additional modules and features enhanced include Accounts Receivable, Sales Order, Landed Cost, Unit of Measure, Work Orders. Full details in the Sage ERP MAS 500 7.4 What’s New guide shown below.

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/57129813?access_key=key-2223urvdrqe4j8zkk9hi

Filed Under: Sage 500 ERP Tagged With: , ,
posted on May 11, 2011 by

Sage ERP X3 Conference May 26, 2011 – Register Now

Sage have just posted an event scheduled for May 26, 2011 at 9am EST.  This event will likely provide an update to the (re)launch of Sage’s ERP X3 V6 which happened last year and we summarized on our ERPLIFE site.

Scheduled to present:

Guy Berruyer – Sage CEO

Christope Letellier, Sage ERP X3 Worldwide General Manager

Laurie Schultz, Senior VP and General Manager Mid-Market ERP Solutions, Sage North America

Emmanuel Obadia, Senior VP Sage ERP X3

The conference will begin at 6am PDT, 9am EDT and will be followed by media and analyst Q&A.

Last year we attended the Sage ERP X3 re-launch of their version 6. The open Q&A was excellent with the company answering many questions specific to the product (in contrast to most other ERP vendors who primarily hand pick questions that deal with mundane financial aspects of product launches).

 

 

Sage ERP X3 Worldwide Conference

Filed Under: ERP X3, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on March 8, 2011 by

Reporting for Community Healthcare Organizations

Are you a Community Healthcare Organization with questions about improving your financial reporting?

Join our friends at JMT Consulting Group on March 17 for their free one hour session which answers these questions:

  • Are you a Federally Qualified Community Health Center or in the process of becoming one?
  • Do you rely heavily on manual processes such as spreadsheets for financial reporting?
  • Would you like to simplify the production of UDS Reports, Section 330 Grant
  • Reports, Medicaid and Medicare Cost Reports?
  • Do you have ARRA or stimulus funds that you must produce reports for?
  • Have you or will you soon complete EHR/EMR conversion and will want to integrate these systems with your General Ledger?
  • Have you outgrown Quickbooks or Peachtree and are looking for better grant
  • reporting and a higher degree of automation of allocations, cost categorization and reporting?
  • If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, please join us at our upcoming webinar:
  • Reporting Remedies for Community Healthcare Organizations.

During this webcast JMT Consulting will cover:

  • Identifying the right financial management system for your CHC.
  • Automating the production of FQHC-required financial reports.
  • Integrating your EHR/EMR systems with your General Ledger.

his free event is hosted by JMT Consulting Group, an independent nonprofit consultancy.
If you are the Finance Director, Executive Director, Controller or Audit Committee Board Member of a grant-funded healthcare organization, you are cordially invited to attend!

Register

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on March 4, 2011 by

Sage MAS Intelligence Quick Guides (PDF)

Sage yesterday provided our 90 Minds Consulting Group with three documents that explain a little more about the features, functionality and cost of their Sage MAS Intelligence reporting tool.

As you probably recall Sage was forced to retire the distribution of FRX Financial Reporting as of January 31, 2011. This occurred because Microsoft (the owner/publisher of FRX) discontinued distribution effectively bringing product sales of FRX to an end of life with support terminating at the end of 2012.

Though Sage have promised FRX compatibility through Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 v4.5 – they’re already rolling out Sage MAS Intelligence as their featured replacement for FRX. Since existing users of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 receive a free license of Sage MAS Intelligence (customers on plan receive a free Report Manager license and a Security Manager for Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 v4.4 — or EES 1.4).

There have been a number of questions (cost, functionality) that users and consultants have asked which I think are answered quite nicely in the PDF files below.

Sage MAS Intelligence Cheat Sheet

Getting Going With Sage ERP MAS Intelligence

What is Sage MAS Intelligence?

Filed Under: Sage MAS Intelligence, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on February 14, 2011 by

VTEchnologies Terminates Sage – Sage Terminates Starship Link

vtechnologies.jpg

You may have previously heard that Sage and V-Technologies would no longer have an OEM relationship where Sage resold the popular V-Technologies Starship software.

In an email blast sent out today, Caroline Walsh, the Direct or Sales and Marketing for V-Technologies shares that Sage will stop offering a Starship Link starting with version 4.5 of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200.

Instead it seems that V-Technologies will develop a link using Sage’s pseudo programming scripting language – Business Objects Interfact (BOI).

They also mention that they’re actively seeking out a developer to create a link between Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 and their Starship product.

What Does This All Mean?

Should you abandon ship and switch to another shipping package?

I don’t think solely based on this change in the relationship. V-Technologies has been doing a fine job for the last several years handling virtually all of their upgrades outside of Sage.

If you’re looking for a new shipping solution and you use multiple carriers – Starship is still the more mature choice for most users.

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on February 14, 2011 by

The Contact Us Page Your Web Site Must Have

JMT Consulting.jpg

This morning while browsing the web I happened upon what I consider to be the perfect design for a “contact us page” on the web site of JMT Consulting, a Sage Fund Accounting and Intacct Partner.

Admittedly the design is simple. All that’s displayed is a list of company personnel, a link to send them email and their phone numbers.

Does your site have this? How often do you browses a web site praying to come accross a contact’s email only to be presented with a very generic “contact us” button.

This is a contact page done right. It provides information for both clients and prospects to contact real people at real phone numbers or email addresses. You should visit (use the link below) and email whoever is maintaining your site and ask that they add the same type of page.

JMT Consulting

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on February 7, 2011 by

Sage Analyst Day 2011 Webcast

sage analyst day uk 2011.jpg

Sage have just posted the audio and video from their analyst event held February 2, 2011 in London. The half-day event covered:

- Introduction
- Foundations for Growth
- Leveraging the web
- Healthcare insights
- Upper mid-market
- Payments opportunity
- CFO perspectives

While the entire webcast is helpful — skip ahead to the Q&A (you can use the pull down menu to select the segments to view) and check out the questions that analysts ask. Key topics discussed: Sage’s North America profits, brand, SaaS as a channel of distribution.

via: Sage

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on February 3, 2011 by

Sage Mobile Payments Offers Mobile Credit Card Swipe For 400 Devices

YouTube Preview ImageSage Payment Solutions announces Sage Mobile Payments with integrated secure credit card reader. This service adds to the already announced Sage Mobile Payments by integrating secure credit card reader capabilities.

The reader works on over 400 different devices including iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

From Sage:

Sage Mobile Payments launches February 2011 and will offer small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) a low monthly fee, absolutely no incremental processing fees and an optional highly secure card reader that plugs into a mobile device’s audio jack. End-to-end encryption from the card reader device to the application is now a requirement in the business community, and Sage Mobile is leading the way in meeting that demand.

While other vendors are fighting it out over no monthly fees but very high processing fees, Sage Mobile is saying no to marking up processing fees, which is the right thing to do for SMB customers that process a lot of volume.

Sage is focused on a reasonable monthly fee and no additional markup on processing fees which is much more cost effective for the SMB customer. SMBs need to look at the total cost of ownership. For example, competing mobile payment solutions can add 1% plus an additional .15 to .37 cents to the processing fees, which is well over $130 in extra fees for every $10,000 in credit card volume.

Sage is also helping SMBs increase sales via mobile payments while providing efficiencies by connecting Sage Mobile Payments and other point-of-sale (POS) terminals to Sage Exchange, Sage’s new integrated payments platform that automatically posts payments data in Sage’s accounting and ERP solutions and other third party software partners that are connected to Sage Exchange.

Sage Mobile Payments via Sage

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on January 26, 2011 by

Google Custom Search for MAS 90 Information

google custom search.jpg

Are you tired of all the SPAM and self-serving information that appears when you search Google for technical information on MAS 90 or MAS 200? What if you could totally eliminate all but the most important Sage sites — and just search what Google has publicly indexed from Sage?

Well now you can. Here’s a quick and dirty Google Custom Search that reviews the public contents of your search results and limits the results only to those coming from Sage’s knowledgebase.

You won’t need to login or provide any other information – just search away!

Filed Under: Knowledgebase, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on January 23, 2011 by

MAS90 & MAS200 User Count Reduction Request Form

Are you licensed for 20 user of Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200 yet find that you’re only using 10 on a consistent basis? If so then you can complete the form linked below, return it to Sage and they will in turn reduce your licensed user count and subsequently reduce your associated annual maintenance costs (if any) for the user counts removed.


MAS90 & MAS 200 User Count Downgrade Request

User Downgrade Request Form – Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 (1/17/2011)

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Technical Documents Tagged With: , , ,
posted on January 18, 2011 by

Sage ERP MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500 Supported Versions [January 2011]

sage mas90 mas200 supported versions.jpg

Sage have indicated their intention to support the current version of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 – plus two prior versions.

This support policy will kick in on September 30, 2011 when the following Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 versions will no longer be supported by Sage Software:

Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 version 4.00
Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 version 4.05
Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 version 4.10

In addition the following Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL versions will retire on 9/30/11:

Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL version 3.72
Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL version 3.73
Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL version 3.74

The following MAS500 version will retire on 9/30/11:
Sage ERP MAS 500 7.05

Via: Current Sage ERP MAS 90, 200 and 500 Supported versions

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage 500 ERP Tagged With: , ,
posted on January 17, 2011 by

Sage Summit 2011 Social Media Sites

sage summit 2011.jpg

Thinking about attending Sage Summit 2011? This year’s conference hosted by Sage is geared toward both customers and consultants.

The game plan is for the consultants to roll in for the July 10-15, 2011 time period and the customers can arrive July 12-15. Once again a good time is promised to all (what’s not to love about a resort where it costs well under $5 to transfer from the airport to the front doorstep).

If you’re headed to Washington be sure you keep your ear to the ground to learn of everything that’s happening. All the usual suspects – Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube will be buzzing with activity as the date nears.

Where do you go to find the Social Media buzz around Summit 2011?

Here is a list of all the social media sites for Sage Summit 2011.

Promote away!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SageSummit

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sage_Summit

LinkedIn: http://events.linkedin.com/Sage-Summit-2011/pub/506615

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sage_summit/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SageSummitEvent

Lest we forget my favorite memories of Sage conferences of the past….

Skydiving in Orlando:

YouTube Preview Image

And a Eddie Money from the Orlando conference entertainment:

YouTube Preview Image

Sage Summit 2011 Social Media Sites

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage 500 ERP, Sage software, sage summit Tagged With: , , ,
posted on January 11, 2011 by

Sage ERP Accpac 6.0 Virtual Launch Event – February 10, 2011

Sage Software just announced a virtual launch event for their Sage ERP Accpac 6.0. This even promises to:

  • Hear directly from customers about how Sage ERP Accpac has impacted their business
  • View a panel discussion moderated by an analyst about Sage ERP Accpac Version 6.0 and the future roadmap
  • Chat live and network with your peers, Sage ERP executives, product specialists and Sage business partners
  • Visit virtual information centers staffed by Sage ERP product experts
  • Access downloadable resources to help your business

Sage ERP Accpac 6.0 is expected to eventually be one of Sage’s SaaS capable offerings (target for full SaaS is late 2012). The product is sold primarily in the USA and Canada and has received a renewed vote of confidence by being named one of the global products that Sage promotes worldwide.

To sign up for the web event you can visit the Sage ERP Accpac 6.0 virtual launch event registration site.

Sage ERP Accpac 6.0 Launch Event

More information via the Sage Community Accpac 6.0 FAQ

Accpac 6 FAQ

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all had a good holiday. Over the past year this blog has had quite a few postings to do with Sage ERP Accpac 6.0A and the new Web Based technology platform that it is based on. Sage ERP Accpac 6.0A has now been released. It has been available for download for a couple of weeks now. In this posting I wanted to address a number of questions I’ve been receiving as well as try to put to rest some misconceptions that seem to be out there (mostly to do with the transition from VB to Web).
Does Sage ERP Accpac 6.0A become a 100% full web based solution?

No – this is the first step in that journey. With this release we have the technology foundation, the new web based portal, the new dashboard, the new Inquiry tool along with the web based screens that make up Quote to Orders. All the other accounting screens are still the VB screens similar to 5.6A.

When Will Sage ERP Accpac be 100% fully web based?

Version 6.2 which is estimated for release at the end of calendar 2012. With this release the entire product will have a web based option, including all accounting modules and options products. However version 6.1 which is estimated to ship at the end of 2011 will have all the major modules Web based including GL, AP, AR, IC, OE and PO.

As Web Screens are released will the VB screens disappear?

No. You will still be able to run the VB screen from the original Accpac desktop. As Web Screens are completed they will take the place of the VB screens in the new Web Portal, but the original VB screens are still installed, supported and accessed from the original desktop.

How long will the VB screens be supported?

At least through 6.2A, beyond that it will depend on market demand. If everyone moves to the web quickly then that will be it. But if it takes time to move customizations and such, then you will have that time.

Is SageERP Accpac 6.0A SaaS?

No. This is an on-premise installed product. You can install it in the cloud, but this is still essentially on on-premise install, just with a remote server.

When will there be a true SaaS version of Accpac?

After we have a number of accounting modules Web based then we will look to do a SaaS deployment through AccpacOnline (ie after 6.1 or early 2012).

If I don’t deploy the web components, why should I upgrade to 6.0?

There is the lock fiscal periods by module feature that is used by both. Plus there are many bug fixes.

Why should I deploy the Web components?

You will get the new portal, dashboards and inquiry tool. Plus this will prepare you for 6.1A. If you get the web components going then installing 6.1A will be very easy since you will have the infrastructure all deployed.

If the product is web deployed why do I need workstation setup?

Until the VB accounting screens are moved to the Web in 6.1 or 6.2, we are running the current VB screens from the Portal. The only data entry screens in the new Web technology for 6.0A are the Quote to Order screens run from inside SageCRM.

Why is there an ActiveX control in the new Portal?

This is required to run the VB UI screens. This will be removed once all the VB screens are moved to the Web.

Can I run the Portal for remote users?

Only for the new Web parts. The VB screens will not run remotely with this technology, Workstation Setup is required. This will be more realistic starting with 6.1A.

Can I use browsers other than IE?

The only supported Browsers are Internet Explorer 7 and 8. You can use Firefox, Safari or Chrome but you can’t run the VB screens from these Browsers (since they don’t support ActiveX controls). The CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are optimized for IE and will have many rendering glitches with the other browsers (this will be fixed for 6.1A).

Does the new Web Portal use a Lanpak?

No. Logging on to the new Web Portal, seeing the dashboard, drilling down to reports from the dashboard, accessing help and using the Inquiry tool does not use a lanpak. However you will use a lanpak the first time you run an accounting screen. The idea is to promote the use of Accpac in the Enterprise outside of the accounting department.

Do the Quote to Order Screens use a Lanpak?

No. You just need the SageCRM User count to sign onto SageCRM, then no further Lanpaks are required.

Do I require a new server for the web parts?

Depends. Often people already have a good file server that is being under-utilized, you may be able to use this additionally as your web server. If you are already running SageCRM, then this server will probably be ideal as the Accpac Web server also. But if you are running local installs and Pervasive workgroup and have no server, then you will need to get one.

Full Sage ACCPAC 6.0 Post Continues On the Sage Community Forum

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on January 5, 2011 by

Sage Summit Facebook Page – Now Live

sage summit facebook page.jpg

Sage have just created a Facebook Page that will hold pictures and updated information about their July 10-15, 2011 conference.

This year’s event is in Washington DC at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center. For the first time both Sage Partners and Sage Customers will attend this conference with Partners welcomed July 10-12 and Customers July 12-15.

The Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center is convenient to public transportation and only about 25 minutes from the fantastic DC subway system which leads to almost any historic site you’d want to see.

Sage Summit on Facebook and also — sadly — Sage Summit 2011 Omitting Facebook, Twitter specific sessions?

Filed Under: Sage software, sage summit Tagged With:
posted on December 28, 2010 by

Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 Product Brochures (Download)

mas90 and mas200 brochures.jpg

Are you looking for brochures, what’s new guides, enhancement summaries, and other printed publications describing the Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 products?

Sage have compiled a nice listing of all their printed media — which now is available for download as PDF files for easier (and faster) viewing as well as the ability to share with friends (they make great Christmas gifts too!).

Visit Sage’s MAS 90 and MAS 200 Brochure and Whitepaper site

Filed Under: mas200, Pricing and Promotions, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: ,
posted on December 22, 2010 by

Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 Tax Table Download For 2011 – Available New

Sage have just released round one of their tax table updates for 2011. Due to late breaking tax changes you may need to download additional table updates if your local (or federal) government provides additional data on rates or changes after these tables have been downloaded.

UPDATE January 1, 2013: Click here for information on the latest Sage 100 ERP 2013 payroll tax updates

Here’s what the latest tables include (all information is per Sage’s online knowledgebase and subject to change – always verify rates and rules with your tax advisor or your states tax site. Schulz Consulting is NOT in the business of rendering tax or accounting advise and disclaims all results from use of the information below. THE INFORMATION CAN CHANGE FREQUENTLY – ALWAYS VERIFY THAT YOU HAVE THE LATEST CORRECT DATA).

Changes include:

Federal Withholding tables updated as of 12/23/2010 (Tip: Always check the first payroll run manually)
Federal Dependent Exemption – $ 3,700
Federal Non-Resident Alien Wage adjustment increase – $2,100
Federal EMPLOYEE FICA rate decrease to 4.2%
Federal EIC Advance payment of earned income credit (EIC) expries 12/31/10

STATES

Hawaii – Dependent exemption increase to $1,144
Maryland – Withholding tax tables changed per rules
Maine – Revised: Nonresident alien wage adjustment for married decreases – $5,800
North Dakota – Withholding tax tables changed per rules
North Dakota – Dependent exemption increase
Oklahoma – Withholding tax tables changed per rules

Changes Implemented 12/17/2010:

Alaska – Unemployment insurance wage base increase to $34,600
Alaska – Employee UI tax rate increase to .58%
Arizona – New filing status G – .8%
California – Withholding tax tables updated as of 12/17/2010
California – Standard deduction increase – $7,340 and $3,670
California – Personal exemption increase- 108.90
California – Low income exemption increase – 24,364 and 12,182
California SDI rate increase (taxable wage base remains $93,316 and 1.2%
Hawaii Temporary disability insurance wage base decrease Annual – 45,983.08 – Week – 884.29
Hawaii UI wage base decrease 34,200
Iowa UI wage base increase 24,700
Illinois UI wage base increase 12,740
Indiana UI wage base increase 9,500
Kentucky Standard exemption increase 2,240
Maine Withholding tax tables
Maine Filing Statuses added for Nonresident Alien – Single (NRS) and Nonresident Alien – Married (NRM)
Michigan Dependent exemption increase 3,700
Minnesota Withholding tax tables
Minnesota Withholding allowance increase 3,700
Mississippi UI wage base increase 14,000
Montana UI wage base increase 26,300
North Dakota UI wage base increase 25,500
New Hampshire UI wage base increase 12,000
New Jersey UI wage base decrease 29,600
New Jersey Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) wage decrease 29,600
New Jersey Family Leave Insurance (FLI) wage base decrease 29,600
New Jersey Family Leave Insurance (FLI) contribution rate decrease .06%
New Mexico UI wage base increase 21,900
Nevada UI wage base decrease 26,600
Oklahoma UI wage base increase 18,600
Oregon Withholding tax tables
Oregon Filling Statuses added for wages over $50,000:
M1 Married
S2 Single with less than 3 allowances
S3 Single with 3 or more allowances

Oregon Dependent exemption increase 179
Oregon Standard deduction increase Married 3,960
Single 1,980
Oregon UI wage base increase 32,300
Rhode Island Withholding tax tables
Rhode Island Dependent exemption decrease 1,000
Rhode Island Supplemental rate decrease 5.99%
Rhode Island Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) wage base increase 58,400
Rhode Island TDI rate increase 1.3%
South Carolina UI wage base increase 10,000
South Dakota UI wage base increase 11,000
Utah UI wage base increase 28,600
Vermont UI wage base increase 13,000
Washington UI wage base increase 37,300
Wisconsin UI wage base increase 13,000
Wyoming UI wage base decrease 22,300

LINKS:

Current list from Sage of all payroll tax table changes

Instructions on downloading the tax tables for MAS 90 and MAS 200 (These updates may be used for Library Master versions 4.x and 3.72, 3.73 and 3.74).

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Technical Documents Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on December 8, 2010 by

Avmor LTD Implements Sage ERP X3 On-Time, Cuts Inventory Count Time By 28 Days,

sage erp x3.jpg

Canadian based Avmor LTD, a global manufacturer and distributor of industrial cleaning products has selected and implemented a new Sage ERP X3 accounting system for tracking it’s worldwide operations.

Sage ERP X3 is the next step up accounting and ERP system for companies with more extensive technology needs (typically multiple countries, currencies, web based transactional needs). We covered the (re)launch of Sage ERP X3 v6 in Paris France noting that:

Sage ERP X3 was acquired by Sage in 2005. Prior to branding as Sage ERP X3 it was known as Adonix. They claim 2,700+ users — probably mostly overseas (As I’m in Glastonbury CT that would be non – USA customers – though I believe there are a several in the USA) and 150 partners. The US launch of V6 is scheduled for Q2 2010.

ERP X3 has been actively building a channel in the US from amongst larger Sage partners. The product is positioned to ensure that both new companies and those companies outgrowing any of the Sage products have a place to migrate.

Press release from Sage follows:

Dec 06, 2010 09:05 ET

Avmor Ltd. Selects Sage ERP X3 for Its Operations Management

IRVINE, CA–(Marketwire – December 6, 2010) – Sage North America announced today that Avmor Ltd., a global manufacturer and distributor of quality industry cleaning products, has selected and implemented Sage ERP X3 to manage its complex operations. As part of the Sage ERP portfolio, Sage ERP X3 is a full-service enterprise management software system for mid-market businesses aimed at meeting the most elaborate business processes, while remaining cost-effective, quick to implement and simple to use.

For more than 60 years, family-owned Avmor Ltd. has conducted business in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The company’s manufacturing facilities are housed in a 155,000 square-foot, ISO 9001-2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified plant that includes liquid and powder blending installations, a reactor for forming acrylic polymer emulsions, complete packaging facilities and on-site printing capabilities. Sophisticated tools are required to manage the company’s complex operations.

Edith Lauzon, director of finance and operations for Avmor, states that Avmor had previously relied on a legacy software system that was “heavily customized and lacked MRP capabilities, making it expensive to maintain and difficult for reporting.”

The company launched a comprehensive search for a fully integrated advanced manufacturing and distribution enterprise software solution and decided upon Sage. Sage also referred a local Sage Authorized Partner who collaborated with Avmor’s internal team to implement Sage ERP X3. “Our system went live as scheduled — to the day,” notes Lauzon. “Plus they saved us time by converting our bills-of-material, with our formulas, into the new system.”
Since the implementation, access to information across departments has dramatically improved, as has inventory management. “We can place key metrics right on our desktop to monitor them in real time,” says Lauzon. “Our ability to make informed business decisions is now enhanced, because we can deliver up-to-date information to our staff throughout the day. Sage ERP X3 has also improved our production planning capabilities. We’re now notified when we run low on the raw materials necessary to meet our real and projected demands.”

Prior to deploying Sage ERP X3, Avmor’s annual inventory costing activity took an entire month, but with Sage ERP X3′s efficiency and accuracy, the process now takes only two days. Additionally, lot tracking, a necessity when it comes to monitoring expiration dates of Avmor’s products, is easy with Sage ERP X3 because it automatically generates the coded lot number sequence for each item as each work order is completed. Lauzon says that this helps reduce waste and improves profitability.

Working with its business partner, the company plans to implement the software’s radio frequency (RF) data collection functionality. Item movement will then be efficiently tracked, from purchasing or production to final shipment, using hand-held devices and barcodes.

The web-based architecture of Sage ERP X3 allows Avmor’s sales staff to access the software anytime, anywhere. “We also plan to offer a similar benefit to our customers, which will help us to deliver a better experience for our customers,” explains Lauzon. “They will be able to log in to place orders, perform account inquiries and check stock of items.”
“We are already enjoying the benefits, efficiency and power the software provides — and we expect the benefits and resulting cost savings to continue to grow,” concludes Lauzon.

The extensive heritage and ecosystem of Sage ERP enables Sage to offer cost-effective, end-to-end solutions that are simple to use and span the diverse needs of midsize businesses across virtually every industry. As one of the largest selections of scalable, integrated ERP software solutions available, the Sage ERP portfolio includes Sage ERP Accpac, Sage ERP MAS, and Sage ERP X3. Sage ERP is designed to work the way each business needs it to, providing the necessary tools to help businesses select, plan, and implement their ideal mix of solutions. Together with over 5000 channel partners, Sage is committed to delivering an extraordinary experience to its more than 3.2 million customers in North America.

About Avmor Ltd.

Avmor is Canada’s leading manufacturer of professional cleaning chemicals aimed at the janitorial, sanitary and food service markets. Founded in 1948 by Avrum Morrow and Henry Chinks, Avmor employs over 100 industry professionals. For more information, please visit www.avmor.com.

About Sage North America

Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.2 million small and midsize business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,400 people and supports 6.3 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com.

Sage ERP X3

Filed Under: ERP X3, Sage software Tagged With: ,
posted on December 7, 2010 by

Free SpeedTax Sales Tax Annual Filing Through December 19, 2010

free sales tax return processing.jpg

If you hate filing sales tax returns as much as most people – check this offering from SpeedTax. They’re an outsourced sales tax processing service that integrates to MAS90 and MAS200 accounting software to provide accurate sales tax calculations.

If you think the federal government isn’t looking to recoup every penny of tax owed them to make up for budget shortfalls — then just keep preparing your sales tax manually.

If however you think increased tax compliance is part of the “new normal” you might leave sales tax computation and return preparation to the professionals.

Through December 19, 2010 Speed Tax has this special offer:

SpeedTax Will Prepare Your Annual Tax Filing at NO COST!

Sign up for SpeedTax Plus Returns and Remittance Service by 12/19/10 and We’ll Prepare Your Annual Filing at NO COST!

More businesses than ever before are choosing to outsource their sales and use tax returns and remittance burden to SpeedTax, because our service is easy to use, affordable, and technologically advanced, keeping your business up-to-date on nearly 17,000 jurisdictions nationwide, and allowing you to offload the most tedious, time-consuming, resource-intensive sales tax-related tasks to us. Now is the time to outsource your rapidly expanding sales tax burden and risk to SpeedTax.

For more info:

SpeedTax Sales Tax Preparation

Filed Under: Add Ons, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: ,
posted on December 1, 2010 by

Sue Swenson Leaving Sage in 2011

sage sue swenson.jpg

Sage have just announced that North American CEO Sue Swenson will leave the company (retire) in 2011 (exact date unspecified) to be replaced by Sage France’s Pascal Houillon.

If I were to bet I’d say that Sue’s last day will be on or about June 18, 2011. This just so happens to conveniently coincide with the day when Sue Swenson’s 260,815 stock options vest with Sage UK according to this company announcement of June 17, 2008.

Sue Swenson joined Sage in 2008 after a surprise 2007 management restructuring that saw a number of Sage executives ousted. In her almost three years at Sage she appeared to be largely batting cleanup and did not take a central visible role in communicating to Sage’s channel or in meeting with the VAR community. Other Sage VARS described Swenson as a slightly reclusive CEO who appeared focussed on the job at hand rather than mingling with the Sage channel.

As near as we could tell Swenson was brought in to create an organizational structure where the various business units could exist on their own if needed. Other than an annual appearance at the Sage Insights conference (now Summit) few consultants or VARS reported much interaction with Swenson. She was rarely spoken about by other Sage employees. Her lack of integration with Sage’s channel partners appeared unusual given that Sage repeatedly states their commitment to operating through the use of business partners.

During Sage events, most notably at 2009 Presidents Circle, Swenson did not play any role and was barely mentioned from the podium save for when employees were questioned about her absence.

Her departure announcement follows that of Jodi Uecker-Rust who left in October 2010 after spending about a year at Sage running their biggest North American division. Prior to Sage Jodi Uecker-Rust ran the Great Plains software company as a defacto #2 to company founder Doug Burgum and was also a key employee at Microsoft who architected much fo the Microsoft acquisition of Navision.  While a replacement has been named for Sue there’s not yet any indication of who will replace Jodi Uecker-Rust.

Update 12/3/2010: Seth Fineberg at WebCPA reports that Pascal Houillon will assume leadership of Sage Business Solutions in January 2011.

As for the rest of Sage’s earnings related news –  North America shrank 4% in total revenues (the most of any division) yet held the line at 15% EBITA. Nearly all of Sage hit the 15% mark.

I’m still reading the earnings release report now – you can review here:

http://www.investors.sage.com/news/press_releases/?id=79768

Relevant North America Narrative:

North America

Total revenues in North America contracted 4%* to £549.9m (2009: £575.8m*). Organic revenues contracted 3%* (2009: 8%* contraction) with an organic contraction of 2%* in the second half of the year. Organic subscription revenues declined 2%* (2009: 2%* contraction), while organic software and software-related services revenues fell 9%* (2009: 23%* contraction). In the second half of the year, organic software and software-related services revenues contracted by 4%*, against a contraction of 13%* for the first half of the year.

The business environment for SMEs in North America remains challenging, although we did see some improvement in confidence over the year. Within our North American business we have seen progress across a range of initiatives such as premium support and renewals, cross-sell of payments into our ERP base, the launch of several connected solutions, continued increase in our customer satisfaction and brand awareness scores, and the reinvigoration of our channel partners.

Sage Business Solutions, our largest US division, declined organically by 3%* in the year, and by 1%* in the second half of the year. However, we did see good growth in the second half of the year in certain key products such as Simply, ACCPAC and Sage ERP X3. Our mid-market ERP products are well positioned in the market, with a number of compelling releases planned for 2011. Whilst the US entry-level market remains cautious, we have had success in building our position in the Accountants channel, and Peachtree Business Care premium support contracts now account for almost 50% of Peachtree subscription revenue. Our CRM and construction vertical businesses continued to experience relatively weaker demand for new software, whilst our not for profit business grew strongly. We have launched a number of connected services targeting these markets, for example e-marketing (linked to our CRM solutions) and e-philanthropy for non-profit organisations, and these are showing early positive signs.

Sage Payment Solutions Division saw growth in the number of merchants and spend volumes, but a continued competitive pricing environment. Revenues were therefore flat* in the year. We have diversified our revenue mix by targeting mid-market businesses, which have a longer average customer life than small businesses. With a flexible platform for integration into other Sage products, cross-sell revenues into the Sage base increased by over 70%* to £7.8m, and this remains a substantial future opportunity.

Sage Healthcare Division has continued to see growth in the Intergy product, and a contraction of the Medical Manager product giving an overall contraction of 5%* on an organic basis. We have made significant progress on our customer service, and we continue to see good customer wins for Intergy, although the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“ARRA”) funding is not expected to have an effect until April 2011 onward. To benefit from ARRA, users have to demonstrate meaningful use of Healthcare IT, so we were pleased that in October 2010 Intergy was certified for meeting the requirements for meaningful use. We have launched a new version of Medical Manager in the year which has been very well received by our customers. Our focus remains on serving our Medical Manager customers better, building our brand in the market and positioning Intergy to benefit from ARRA. Sage Healthcare Division’s EBITA† margin showed continued improvement to 20% (2009: 17%*).

The EBITA† margin was 22% (2009: 18%*). The prior year margin excluding restructuring charges was 20%*.

Sue Swenson Out At Sage North America

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on November 16, 2010 by

Sage ERP MAS 90 & MAS 200: 2010 Year End FAQ – Payroll, 1099

sage mas90 year end FAQ.jpg

Sage Software have just published their 2010 year end frequently asked questions about payroll and 1099 processing. This 6 page guide contains answers to the following questions:

1. Do I need to download the 2010 Interim Release Download (IRD)?

2. Do I need to download the 2010 IRD if I’m using the Federal and State eFiliing and Reporting feature?

3. When will the year end Sage EPR MAS 90 and MAS 200 Federal and State eFiling and Reporting updates be available?

4. When will the year end Tax Table Update (TTU) and Interim Release Download (IRD) for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 be available?

5. Will I be required to print my W-3 on the red, preprinted form when using Federal and State eFiling and Reporting?

6. How will the year end Tax Table Update (TTU) and Interim Release Download (IRD) for Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 be made available to Customers, Business Partners or Sage Accountants Network members?

7. I do not have access to the Internet from my Sage ERP MAS 90 or MAS 200 server. How can I obtain the year end Interim Release Download program update and TTU to install them on my server?

8. How can I obtain the TTU or IRD if I do not own a current Subscription plan?

9. I’ve never been to Sage MAS Supprot, and I don’t know if anyone else from my company has either. What do I do to get a login and access the information I need?

10. After I downloaded the TTU and IRD, do I install it on my workstation or on my server?

11. We file Local Withholding Tax on our W-2s and we’re using Federal and State eFiling and Reporting, what extra steps do I need to take?

12. What changes were applied to the Electronic Reporting Module?

13. Previously, I’ve filed employees W-2′s via Magnetic Media. Are there any changes?

14. I’m supposed to electronically file my W-2s in the EFW2 format, so why does Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 show a MMREF-1 format?

15. For companies who must print 1099 forms, are changes required this year?

16. I was formerly required to file Form 1099′s via Magnetic Media, but now need to file 1099′s via Electronic Reporting using the Internet. What do I need to know?

17. Where can I find information on how to do year end processing for any module?

18. Where can I purchase W-2 and 1099 forms 100% compatible with my Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 software?

19. I have an Extended Solution enhancement. Will I need to update it after installing the 2010 Interim Release Download?

20. I am using Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL 4.45 and need to file 1099s. What do I need to do?

21. Does the IRD contain changes to Payroll to support the Qualified Employee Reporting as allowed by the HIRE Act?

22. What is new in eFiling and Reporting this year?

23. Will the IRD be included in a Product Update or Service Update?

Sage MAS 90 and 200 2010 Year End FAQs 11-15-10

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on November 3, 2010 by

Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL Overview and Available Modules

Last week I picked up on a Tweet from Alok Tyagi who is the VP of R&D for Sage North America and responsible for their mid-market enterprise products. He announced that MAS 200 4.5 RDB (aka MAS200 SQL) has been RTM.

RTM is not-so-secret code for “Release To Manufacturing” – aka being done and ready to ship.

mas200 sql rtm alok.jpg

In honor of the RTM of Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL v4.5 – Sage has issued a one page capabilities brochure that officially outlines the modules which will be available in the SQL release.

As expected the available modules include those from Sage which are already at the 4.x standards. The complete list is:

Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Bank Reconciliation
General Ledger
Crystal Reports
Custom Office
eBusiness Web Services
Paperless Office
Visual Integrator
Bar Code
Bill of Materials
Credit Card Processing
Inventory Management
Purchase Order
Return Merchandise Authorization
Sales Order
Sales Tax by Avalara
StarShip Freight
StarShip Parcel

The full brochure is availabe below:

Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL Overview and Available Modules

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on October 30, 2010 by

Sage LInkedIn Group Meeting: Irvine CA November 18, 2010

sage linkedin.jpg

The popular Sage LinkedIN Group (over 3,000 members and growing) has scheduled a free meeting to be held Thursday November 18, 2010 at 4pm  in the Sage Irvine California offices.

The formal speaker list has yet to be rolled out though typically Sage provides a speaker or two to answer questions from those in attendance. Bill Kizer, the group’s founder, is coordinating the sessions. Questions or suggestions for agenda items can be sent to him via email.

Sage LinkedIn Meeting – November 18, 2010

Filed Under: LinkedIn, Sage software Tagged With: ,
posted on October 27, 2010 by

DSD Business Systems Office Location Map

dsd business office locations sage.jpg

Schulz Consulting is a Connecticut office location for DSD Business Systems.  Combined our group represents the entire Sage Software catalog of products ranging from Sage MAS 90, MAS 200, Accpac, MAS 500, ABRA, FAS, MIP, Businessworks and more.

Having this nationwide partner network allows us to service many different states while maintaining our local office. We rely upon a skilled network of 26 individual office locations spread out through the following cities and states:

Fairfield, CA
Fresno, CA
Huntington Beach, CA
Long Beach, CA
San Diego, CA
San Jose, CA
Torrance, CA
Campbellville, Ontario
Markham, Ontario
Winnipeg, MB
Denver, CO
Glastonbury, CT
Watertown, CT
Washington, DC
Kennesaw, GA
Johnston, IO
Baltimore, MD
Duluth, MN
Springfield, MO
Omaha, NB
Lancaster, PA
Langhome, PA
Yakima, WA

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on October 27, 2010 by

Sage BusinessWorks 2011 Guide

sage businessworks 2011.jpg

Hot off the presses it’s the Sage BusinessWorks 2011 Release Guide from Sage. This 8 page PDF provides a summary of the newest features in Sage’s small business accounting system.

The latest release can be downloaded by those customers active in a Sage Clientcare plan.

Notable new features include:

- Cash receipts simplified posting
- Less scrolling in Bank Reconciliation and Bank Deposits.
- Shortcut access even when the Welcome Screen is turned off.
- Print Pick Tickets right from the Maintain Sales Order screen.
- Expanded direct deposit distributions.

Sign up for a sneak peak at the new release of Sage BusinessWorks 2011 on October 27, 2010 at 11am PT or December 16, 2010 at 1pm PT. ( Register )

Sage BusinessWorks 2011

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on October 22, 2010 by

Sage Common Payroll Announced For MAS200 SQL, MAS500, ABRA, ERP X3 and ACCPAC

sage common payroll .jpg

Sage today made official that they’ll be rolling out a common payroll based on their SData communication protocol. This common payroll fills a hole in the Sage MAS 200 SQL release (due November 2010) where legacy (non 4.x standard modules which include payroll) cannot be used with the MAS 200 SQL release.

By creating a common payroll solution Sage hopes to cut down development costs that are soaring as the government continues to change employer tax laws. Each change in tax law requires Sage to update payroll (usually at the very end of the year when everyone is busiest), test the changes, and quickly distribute those upgrades to end users.

Under the Sage Common Payroll initiative the ACCPAC SQL Payroll will be used by at least four Sage products (ABRA SQL v10.1, MAS500 v7.3, ERP X3 v6.1, MAS200 SQL 4.45).

Integration levels will vary depending upon product with only Accpac and ABRA receiving level 3 or very robust integration.

Here’s Sage’s Official Announcement:

Common Payroll is the Sage ERP Accpac payroll module which has been enhanced to become a best-of-breed SQL Server-based payroll that can serve the needs of many of our Sage North America customers. With over 4000 payroll customers in the US and Canada, the Sage ERP Accpac payroll module has a strong track record of providing value to small and medium sized businesses.

Using Sage ERP Accpac payroll as the foundation and the new common sData communication protocol to facilitate connectivity, the new Common Payroll module will offer the tightest level of integration possible between payroll and all of our ERP solutions.

How will a Common Payroll support Sage’s strategy to maximize our assets and reduce redundancies? One example lies in the hundreds of new tax changes that are mandated each year. In 2009 there were more than 200 changes released and that number is expected to increase in 2010. To keep on top of these changes, Sage spends a great deal of money each year to maintain our 12 unique payroll modules, and in some cases, multiple versions for each product. Imagine how much we could accomplish by removing this redundancy of effort, provide the updates in a form that could be used by all our products, and instead leverage our resources to provide customers with greater value, such as new connected services. And because the payroll-related connected services such employee benefit services would only need to be developed once, it would mean they could be made available immediately to all our customers with little to no incremental effort required by individual product teams.

The Common Payroll initiative also supports our goal for providing an Extraordinary Customer Experience as we focus our efforts on developing a single best-of-breed solution that surpasses the functionality and ease of use found in our current payroll modules. This new, unified payroll module will not only scale as a business grows, but if a customer needs to upgrade to another Sage ERP (enterprise resource planning) product, the payroll data will seamlessly migrate.

Common Payroll integration will soon be on the roadmaps for many of our other products, so stay tuned for details. You can rest assured that the native payroll module will continue to be enhanced, sold and supported for those products where it doesn’t make sense to adopt a common payroll.

The Common Payroll integration is an important step toward achieving our objectives and providing your clients with greater value. Projects like Common Payroll not only generate substantial savings and leverage best practices, but enable us to deliver a common experience to our mutual clients.

Filed Under: Abra, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage 500 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting, Technology Tagged With: , , ,
posted on October 22, 2010 by

Sage Summit Customer Virtual Event Registration Now Live

sage summit virtual event.jpg

Sage Software North America has just opened registration for their online Sage Summit Virtual Event to be held on November 18, 2010 from 10am to 1pm ET. This three hour session features an update from Sue Swenson, CEO Sage North America. In addition those customers attending are being asked to review up to 40 different pitches for sessions that they’d like to see presented at the official Summit 2011 conference in Washington DC July 10-15, 2011.

According to the Sage Summit Virtual Event registration page customers will view brief presentations made by product managers and then vote (How voting works) on whether they’d like to see those presentations made into full sessions to be delivered in July at the Summit Conference.

sage summit virtual speakers.jpg

Sage Summit is the conference for the Sage community – bringing customers and partners together for the first time ever. The conference will take place July 10-15, 2011, in Washington, DC. This gives you an unprecedented opportunity to interact with customers more closely than ever before.

sage Summit Virtual Agenda.jpg

The agenda listed by Sage appears to be subject to change as at least one executive listed, Jodi Uecker-Rust, has departed Sage and is not likely to be making an appearance.

Gathering customers together to vote on sessions for an upcoming conference is a new idea for Sage. This is the first time we’ve seen it done and clearly this looks to be a way for Sage to continue to test the virtual conferencing waters.  Sage previously hosted a Connecting The Dots virtual exhibit on September 28 which seemed to use similar online conference technology.

If you’re a Sage customer who is on the fence about attending Sage Summit 2011 in Washington DC – this is a good way for you to get a feel for and vote on some of the topics that would be covered at the full conference in July 2011.

More From The Sage Site:

To provide a robust education experience, Sage customers are invited to attend a complimentary virtual event on Thursday, November 18, where they can preview a sampling of the sessions, vote on the topics, and share their thoughts on how we can make Summit 2011 really work for them. Registration is now open, so be sure to spread the word about this one of a kind opportunity your customers won’t want to miss!

Sage Summit Virtual Event Registration – November 18, 2010

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
posted on October 19, 2010 by

Sage Simply Accounting Users Are Smarter According To Survey

Sage Canada recently conducted a survey  which was a followup to their 2009 Angus Reid-Sage survey on ‘financial literacy’.

The 27-question Small Business Survey, conducted in September and October 2010, was designed to examine the financial state of Canadian small businesses by focusing on their level of ‘financial literacy’ and assessed Sage Simply Accounting customers’ comfort level with financial management and how they manage their finances, obtain financial information and manage their businesses in compliance with government requirements.

Other highlights of the Sage Simply Accounting Small Business Survey include:

  • Seventy per cent of respondents said they have been negatively
    affected by the economic downturn, with 14 per cent calling the
    negative impact ‘dramatic.’
  • The activities that Sage Simply Accounting customers and business
    owners are most comfortable with are dealing with clients (79%) and
    suppliers (78%), while they were least comfortable with managing sales
    and marketing (67%).
  • The majority of small business owners perform financial management
    tasks in-house, with invoicing/billing (91%), payroll (75%) and
    accounting (70%) being the most common tasks completed by themselves or someone else in their company.
  • Nearly half (46%) of Sage Simply Accounting customers promptly include
    announced tax code changes into their financial plans for the coming
    year in comparison to less than one-third of respondents in 2009. In
    addition, only one-third of Sage Simply Accounting customers wait
    until they file their tax return to see what effect tax code changes
    had on their taxes versus 69 per cent of respondents in 2009.

Survey Indicates Sage Simply Accounting Customers Are Less Likely to Be Concerned With Government Compliance; More Financially Savvy Than the Average Small Business Owner.

Results of the survey will be further discussed October 20 2010 at Sage Simply Accounting’s Small Business Thought Leadership Panel and at the October 21, 2010 Simply Partnership 2010 conference for Sage Accountant’s Network members.

via Not Surprisingly, More Than Half of Canadian Small Businesses Report That Their Business Success Hinges on Getting Paid in an Efficient Manner – MarketWatch.

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With:
posted on September 15, 2010 by

Sage Payment Services Receives Final PCI-DSS Certification Paperwork

Sage Payment Services had officially completed all their credit card compliance testing well in advance of the July 1, 2010 deadline for the software to be certified. However due to backlogs in processing paperwork the final certification documents had been pending.

Here is the latest certification – as of 9/4/2010 – showing Sage Payments as PCI-DSS compliance. If needed print the following and provide it to anyone requesting proof that your Sage Payment Services credit card processing is PCI-DSS compliant.

Note: If you have trouble viewing the PDF below use this link to download the VISA PCI-DSS document.

PCI Compliance FAQ

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage 500 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on September 13, 2010 by

Sage Saleslogix OnTheGo – Remote Access To SalesLogix 7.2

sage salelogix onthego.jpg

Sage partner Net@Work has released a new remote application for iPhone and Android smartphone users. This version 1 release initially allows for read only access to your SalesLogix 7.2 CRM data. Future versions will open up full read/write capabilities.

The first release of Sage SalesLogix OnTheGo is available for free in the iPhone App Store.

Sage SalesLogix OnTheGo – iPhone and Android Remote Access to SalesLogix 7.2

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on September 7, 2010 by

Sage eFiling FAQ – August 2010

An updated list of Sage’s Frequently Asked Questions about their eFiling service.

This convenience service is included in all versions of Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.3 and higher. It enables the printing of many tax forms to plain paper and for an added fee Sage will electronically file many of your payroll tax forms.

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on September 2, 2010 by

Sage Act! 2011 Ships! (video)

Here’s an interesting video from Sage that shows the final release version of Sage Act! 2011 Contact Manager being set for shipment. Larry Ritter, Senior VP and GM, Global Product Development and Marketing, Sage CRM Solutions kicks off the video with an introduction which then follows a surprisingly large number of Sage employees as they prepare Act! 2011 for shipment.

YouTube Preview Image

Full Press Release:

Sage ACT! 2011 Contact & Customer Manager Makes New Smart Tasks And List Building Services Available To Small And Midsized Business Users

Sage Business Info Services for ACT!, powered by Hoover’s™, is latest Sage Connected Service

09.01.2010 – Sage North America today announced the new Sage ACT! 2011 contact and customer manager featuring new smart task automation for frequent activities such as sales opportunity and contact follow up. Sage ACT! 2011 includes numerous ease of use improvements and full synchronization with Microsoft® Outlook® contacts and calendar items. Sage Business Info Services for ACT!, a list-building subscription service powered by Hoover’s, also debuts as the latest Sage Connected Services offering for small and midsized businesses.

“Sage ACT! 2011 builds on the momentum created with last year’s edition,” explains Brent Leary, small business technology analyst and principal of CRM Essentials. “Sage Business Info Services for ACT! is a great connected services addition to Sage E-marketing for ACT!. Importing prospect lists from Hoover’s database of 85 million contacts directly into Sage ACT! streamlines the lead gathering process and works nicely with new smart task capabilities so users can further automate common sales and marketing tasks.”

New Sage ACT! 2011 features and enhancements include:

• Smart Tasks to automate common marketing, sales and support activities with standard and customizable templates. Smart tasks integrate with the Sage E-marketing for ACT! subscription service so users can add prospects to automated drip marketing email campaigns, track open and click through rates and send welcome messages to new customers, among other capabilities.

• Sage Business Info Services for ACT!, a list-building subscription service, to import targeted prospect lists from Hoover’s into Sage ACT! and help users identify new selling opportunities. Sage ACT! users in the U.S. and Canada can access 65 million companies and 85 million contacts to build lists based on location, company size, title and industry among other criteria.

• Microsoft Outlook synchronization to sync Sage ACT! contacts and calendar items with those in Outlook. Data is updated in both locations regardless of where contacts were created or edited. Users control what data is synced back and forth.

• Additional enhancements include direct import from Excel®, a re-designed welcome page with instructional videos and compatibility with Microsoft® Office 2010 and Firefox®.
Sage Connected Services:

Sage is delivering web-based connected services that enhance the productivity of customers’ on-premise software experience. In addition to Sage Business Info Services for ACT!, other subscription-based Sage Connected Services available for use with Sage ACT! include Sage E-marketing for ACT! to help design, automate and track email campaigns, and ACT! Mobile Live for wirelessly synchronizing contact and calendar data with BlackBerry® and Windows Mobile® devices. iPhone® compatibility is planned for later this year.

Sage ACT! is the #1 selling contact and customer manager designed for small businesses and sales teams, and is used by over 2.8 million individuals and 56,000 companies worldwide. Sage ACT! is easy to use, priced for the cost-conscious and personalizable so users can organize all the details of their business relationships in one place including recent emails, meeting notes, task reminders and social networking profiles.

Sage ACT! helps users improve marketing effectiveness, attract new customers, and create more value from existing relationships. Complete sales pipeline visibility helps users identify and take action on the most qualified sales opportunities. Sage ACT! integrates with existing business solutions including Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and Lotus Notes®.

Pricing & Availability

Sage ACT! Pro 2011 is available for $229.99 MSRP (upgrade $169.95 MSRP). Sage ACT! Premium 2011 with Windows® and web client access options, additional security and administration features for teams sharing a central database is $459.99 MSRP (upgrade $299.95 MSRP).

Subscription-based Sage Connected Services include: Sage Business Info Services for ACT! with access levels ranging from free to $54.95 per user, per month; Sage E-marketing for ACT! beginning at $14.95 per user, per month; and ACT! Mobile Live for $10 per user, per month.

There are 70 ACT! Add-on solutions that further extend Sage ACT! 2011 with shipping, project planning, Voice-over-IP and other capabilities available at estore.act.com/.

Sage ACT! products and services are also available from Sage ACT! Certified Consultants listed at www.act.com/certifiedconsultants. For more information call 866-903-0006 or visit www.act.com, www.act.com/facebook, www.act.com/twitter, www.act.com/youtube or http://community.act.com.

About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.1 million small and midsized business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,100 people and supports 6.2 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com.

# # #

© 2010 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, the Sage logos, ACT!, and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Certified Consultants are third-party vendors. Sage and its affiliates are in no way liable or responsible for claims made related to the services provided by third-party vendors.

Important Note: Import functions for Sage Business Info Services for ACT! must be performed on the web server when using Sage ACT! Premium (access via web).

Important Note: Sage E-marketing for ACT! is powered by Swiftpage™.

Filed Under: Sage software
posted on August 31, 2010 by

Sage Accountants Network Membership – Free Through 9/30/2010

Sage Accountants Network Promotion.jpg

Through September 30, 2010 accountants and or bookkeepers providing professional accounting or bookkeeping services for multiple fee-paying clients can join the Sage Accountants Network (aka SAN) for free.

Included is a 5 user copy of Peachtree Quantum (Accountants’ Edition) as well as free online training. For the full run down of what’s included – as well as the coupon code you need to score the freebie – check the link below.

Sage Accountants Network

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on August 29, 2010 by

Sage eFiling FAQ 2010 for Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 [Updated]

Did you know that within all versions of Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 4.3 and higher there is a tool to print tax forms to plain paper – at no additional cost?

And for a small additional fee Sage will electronically file those forms with the federal government.

Sage posted an updated Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 Federal & State eFiling and ReportingFrequently Asked Questions document in their partner file center. The eFiling is a relatively new component of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 and was added in version 4.30 for all users of the product.

What’s unique (and great) about the eFiling is clients can use this to print forms on plain paper — at no additional cost. There’s only a cost if they want to also have Sage submit (aka eFile) the forms on their company’s behalf.

It appears that Sage have updated their question #7 on this FAQ to include more volume pricing options for those with large numbers of employees. There’s not yet any volume information for 1099 filing which may become more of an issue for our customers if the government lets stand a ruling which in 2012 will require many more 1099 transactions to be reported.

Sage MAS 90 Federal and State e-Filing 2010 FAQ

http://goo.gl/z4tD

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
posted on August 24, 2010 by

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.

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Filed Under: Add Ons, MAS 90 Add Ons, mas200, Sage software, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on August 9, 2010 by

Sage Timberline Enterprise Success Story: Hunter-Davisson

While the core job costing capabilities in Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 are enough for most smaller business users there are some who may outgrow the features.

As noted on this recent success video filmed by Sage North America – while most general contractors have a dozen jobs a year – specialty contractors could easily have 200-300 jobs a year. Given the economy and a competitive market it makes sense to become efficient.

Hunter-Davisson, a heating, air conditioning and refrigeration specialty firm describes their use of Timberline Office – migrating in 2003 from a DOS system to Sage Timberline Office and then to the newer Sage Timberline Enterprise using Pat Soper of Skyline Business Systems.

Watch the video which provides more testimonials and quite a few examples of how 80 person Hunter-Davisson uses Timberline Enterprise and some examples of how the construction package is different from Sage Timberline Office..

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More details on Sage Timberline Enterprise

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on August 5, 2010 by

Sage EasyPay Costs for MAS 90 5 User Wholesale Distribution

sage EasyPay MAS90.jpg

Sage has just introduced a new method of paying for new software licenses over time. Termed EasyPay it provides for either a 3 year or 5 year term of payment spread over quarter or months.

A typical Sage ERP MAS 90 5 User Wholesale Distribution new user would price as follows:

UPDATE: I’m looking at the below pricing because I’m not sure if the spreadsheet that is used is giving accurate information. Someone else pointed out that Sage EES might be a better fit financially for most users – to which I agree. Unfortunately the Sage EES pricing is not available as of the time of this posting.

Use the amounts below as a general guideline and certainly not one with which to make a purchase decision. As more information becomes available I’ll update the totals below.

Traditional lump sum pricing:

Library Master – $ 1,310
5 User License – $ 4,140
General Ledger – $ 2,320
Accounts Payable – $ 1,485
Accounts Receivable – $ 1,485
Bank Reconciliation – $ 535
Inventory Management – $ 1,460
Sales Order Processing – $ 1,650
Purchase Order Processing – $ 1,460
Visual Integrator – $ 1,665

Total – $ 17,510

Sage EasyPay New Monthly / Quarterly Costs

Same configuration as above.

3 Years, Paid Monthly – $ 641.39
5 Years, Paid Monthly – $ 384.83

3 Years, Paid Quarterly – $ 1,924
5 Years, Paid Quarterly – $ 1,154.50

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on August 4, 2010 by

Sage Introduces EasyPay Options for Sage ERP MAS 90, MAS 200 and ACCPAC

sage easypay mas90 mas200.jpg

Easy Payment Options for Sage ERP MAS 90, MAS 200 and Accpac!

Sage today released information on a new program that allows you to spread the purchase price of your new Sage ERP MAS 90, MAS 200 and Accpac over a 3 to 5 year term.

Both software product and accompanying maintenance can be included in the payments which can be made either quarterly or monthly by ACH draft or credit card.

No longer will you have to deal with bank or leasing company financing to purchase a new ERP system. Discuss these new payment options with your favorite Sage Business Partner.

Full details of the announcement:

Sage Erp Easypay Option – MAS90, MAS200, Accpac

Filed Under: mas200, Pricing and Promotions, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , , ,
posted on July 24, 2010 by

ACH Electronic Payment For MAS 90 Accounts Payable – New In V4.4

Sage just released a new Product Update #2 for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200. In my opinion one of the top features in this update is the ability to pay accounts payable invoices electronically.

Many times our clients have employee expense checks that are sent out weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or even a few times a week. The employees who receive those checks often are sometimes not in the office which requires the to be mailed.

This introduces delays, increased postage cost and extra administrative time spent stuffing envelopes. Sure this may not be a big issue for those with two or three employees. Ramp the number of employees up to 100 or more — and suddenly you have a potential administrative time sink.

The newest release of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 – which is available for download to those on the Basic Maintenance plan — adds ACH electronic processing. If you’ve used the Direct Deposit for Payroll – the ACH for accounts payable works nearly identically.

Unlike older versions of ACH for Accounts Payable – this updated feature allows you to create your own customized export of data so that if a bank needs a feed adjusted to fit their required layout you have the ability to do this yourself without hiring a programmer.

Sage has a nice 6 minute vide that showcases the ACH for Accounts Payable.

We can install and configure this during your upgrade – and help you manage the first few exports of data to your bank. Of course we have clients who have been doing this for years and we are happy to connect our clients to those already using the enhancement to get direct feedback on their experiences.

PS - I noticed after composing this article that I mistakenly pasted in the YouTube from last night’s Lou Gramm concert at Mohegan Sun. The video you want of the ACH for MAS 90 is here.

Enjoy Lou Gramm performing Jukebox Hero live at Mohegan Sun 7/23/2010 (former lead singer of Foreigner).

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Filed Under: Add Ons, Sage 100 ERP, Sage 500 ERP Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on July 8, 2010 by

Former Sage Channel Chief Taylor Macdonald Joins SaaS Provider Intacct

In what has to be a coup for SaaS (software as a service) provider Intacct, industry veteran Taylor Macdonald today is announced as their new VP of Channels.

Taylor spent 9 years managing and building the reseller channel for Sage North America.

Taylor Macdonald Joins ERP SaaS Provider Intacct As VP Channels

Filed Under: ERP Vendors, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on June 24, 2010 by

What’s New In MAS 90 4.4 Product Update 2

In an email to the consultant channel Sage posted a concise two page list of what new features can be expected in product update 2 for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.4.

As you may already know Sage is now issuing more frequent updates through the year as opposed to relying only on annual releases. They believe this will deliver more value for the maintenance that customers pay each year for their Sage MAS 90 and 200.

Here’s a copy of the PDF which shows the new features slated for product update 2 which Sage indicates will arrive in late July (that’s code for August).

Whats New in MAS90 Product Update 2

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on June 14, 2010 by

Sage Software Google News Searches Made Easier

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Google has started to allow for customized news sections that contains a series of search terms to tailor news articles to your specific interests.

sage custom google news section.jpg

Over the weekend I created one for Sage Software and added in some of the North American products. When clicking this link you’ll be taken to a concise summary of articles (as found in Google News). This can help keep up-to-date on the latest press releases concerning Sage or their products.

Sage Software Google News

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on June 10, 2010 by

Sage MAS Intelligence Slated To Ship To Partners In July 2010 and Customers in August 2010

In a posting last night Sage’s product manager for reporting Jacqueline Li tells us that the expected shipping date for the new reporting tool (aka FRX replacement) for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 will ship to business partners in July with customer shipments following a month later in August.

Sage MAS Intelligence is a Sage branded version of a program from Alchemex. The product is positioned to replace the FRX reporting tool which Sage will stop selling in 2010 pursuant to Microsoft’s decision to discontinue support.

Below is the announcement from Jacqueline. If you’re interested in more we have a recorded Sage MAS Intelligence Demo.

via LinkedIn:

Sage MAS Intelligence will be released to Partners in July of this year. We will also start our training in July on Sage University. You can go to http://sageu.com/ns_acs/bp/mas90200.html to get more details.

We would like to give our Partners some time to train and get familiar with the product before we ship to customers, so the product will be available for customers in August.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions.

Regards,
Jacqueline Li
Product Manager
Sage

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on May 26, 2010 by

Sage Survey March 2010: The End To Economic Downturn Is Near(er)

sage survey.jpg

Sage North America has just released a March 2010 survey of 1,481 customers taken during February and March 2010. The results indicate that 29% of the people they spoke with think that within 6 months the economy will take an uptick (could it have gotten worse?). This is an increase from their prior survey in May 2009 when only 24% were thinking that the economic future might be rosier.

sage survey march 2010 trends.jpg

One of the more interesting results of the survey show that only 62% of those responding say that the economy has negatively impacted their business in the past 6 months. While that may look ominous – the rate is down 10% from the 72% who told Sage in May 2009 that the economy was sucking the life out of their business.

Read the full Sage March 2010 Economic Survey

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on May 24, 2010 by

Sage Insights 2010 Highlight Video

The Abra Guy, otherwise known to his family as Shawn Parsons, has posted a nice 5 minute video that highlights some of the happenings at the recently held Sage Software Insights 2010 conference.

This four day event was held in Denver Colorado from May 17 to 20, 2010 and brought together 1,000 Sage business partners from across the country.

This video nicely captures the atmosphere of Sage Insights and provides a glimpse of what attending the conference is like.

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Via: The Abra Guy and CMS – Cost Management Services

Filed Under: Abra Tagged With:
posted on May 18, 2010 by

Sue Swenson Sage North America Keynote – Google Wave

Sue Swenson yesterday afternoon delivered her keynote to about 1,000 Sage partners in attendance at the Sage Insights 2010 conference being held May 17-20, 2010.

The main message of the keynote (and perhaps the conference) is that Sage has three goals:

Increase install base sales (now 71% of Sage NA revenue)
Connected services – such as Sage Payment Services for payment processing
Selective new investments in new products

The full Google Wave is below:


Filed Under: mas200, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
posted on May 18, 2010 by

Sage Insights 2010 Business Opportunity Ahead Keynote Live In Google Wave

Even if you’re not actively using Wave at Sage Insights 2010 (and if you’re interested here’s how) we’ve embedded the live Google Wave of Jodi Uecker-Rust, Himanshu Palsule and Tom Miller.

They’ll talk today about the opportunities ahead for the Sage channel partners and the end user as well.

You can read the live notes taken by those in the audience — or if you have a Wave account and are attending (or just want to ask those in attendance a question) – log in an join us


Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on May 12, 2010 by

Search your MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, SalesLogix and Accpac Database With z.Find

vfind for mas90 mas500 saleslogix accpac.jpg

Ever wish there was a way to quickly search your Sage ERP and CRM database without having to go through multiple lookup screens?

z.Find from Escape Velocity Systems uses a Google-type search to quickly locate data within your ERP or CRM database without the need to hunt from report to report or inquiry to inquiry.

You can search multiple databases as well as link in mulitiple non-ERP/CRM sources.

The product works with:

Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 (pricing TBD)

Sage MAS 500 ($6,000 plus $2,000 recurring maintenance)

Sage Accpac

Sage SalesLogix

Third Party Applications and Customizations

z.find search for MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, Accpac, SalesLogix

More information – and a recorded demonstration – can be found on the Escape Velocity web site linked below.

Press Release:

EVS Launches z.Find for Sage MAS 500 ERP, Sage SalesLogix, Sage MAS 90 ERP and Sage AccPac ERP

Boulder, CO– Escape Velocity Systems, Inc. (EVS), a Boulder, Colorado based ERP innovation group announced today the launch of the z.Find now publicly available for Sage MAS 500 ERPand Sage SalesLogix. EVS also announced today the beginning of the z.Find beta program for Sage MAS 90 ERP. Development work is in progress on z.Find for Sage Accpac as well.

The z.Find is a search application that brings the first ever Google-type search capabilities to Sage ERP products. From a single interface, z.Find can return information that resides in multiple databases, third party add-ons or customized tables. “z.Find breaks away from the traditional, structured way of finding data in an ERP by tearing down the walls between modules and systems,” states Evan Garber, President of EVS.

EVS also announces that the z.Find application can be purchased, downloaded, deployed, and updated directly from the z.AppStore. “The experience of adding functionality to your existing ERP solution should be fast and easy; delivery through our z.AppStore makes that possible,” comments Garber.
EVS was formed in 2001 to combine specific industry knowledge and expertise with industry changing innovation and technology. The company’s focus is to create tools that enable mid-market enterprises to have a better, more effective experience with their ERP.

For more information, visit www.evs-sw.com or contact sales@evs-sw.com.

z.Find – Escape Velocity Systems

Filed Under: MAS 90 Add Ons, mas200, Sage 500 ERP Tagged With: , ,
posted on May 5, 2010 by

Thankfully the Sage Insights 2010 Conference Is NOT At This Gaylord Property

Thankfully the Sage Insights 2010 conference is not at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convcention Center which as you can see from the photo below is presently undergoing some flooding issues.

gaylord opryland.jpg

Sage’s annual reseller conference is at the Colorado Convention Center May 17-20, 2010 before combining with the customer conference to become Summit 2011 in Washington DC the following year.

via: Twitpic

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on April 27, 2010 by

Sage Desktop Check Deposit

sage desktop deposit.jpg

Sage Payment Services introduces a new service that just might save you a few trips to the bank.

While you are always able to use ACH to electronically transmit or receive payments – the Sage Desktop Deposit offers the ability to process all types of checks drawn on U.S. banks – Personal, Business, Government, Traveler’s, Cashier’s, Certified, Equity Lines of Credit checks and Money Orders.

The primary hardware requirement is a 2-sided document scanner (list of compatible devices).

The Sage Desktop Deposit meets all the standards established by Check 21 which is the 2004 legislation passed by Congress allowing for scanned check images to substitute for actual paper based checks.

Sage Desktop Deposit

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on April 23, 2010 by

Hot! – What’s New in Sage’s Product Update 1 for MAS90 & MAS200 v4.4

Jeff Schwenk of Bottomline Software has taken a few minutes to produce a great 26 page document that shows exactly what’s new in Sage Software’s new Product Update 1 which has just been released for MAS 90 & MAS 200 v4.4.

Unfortunately the what’s new guide that Sage supplied did not go into enough detail about the exact features – and where to find them.

Never fear because Jeff’s on the job and here’s his guide that he is allowing me to share with you:

Whats New in MAS90 + MAS200 Product Update 4.4.01

via: Bottomline Software

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, upgrades Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on April 7, 2010 by

What’s New in MAS90 Product Update 1?

Sage Software is now issuing Product Updates on a regular basis for their latest MAS90 and MAS200 version 4.4 accounting software.

While in the past these were called service updates and primarily included bug fixes and patches – the new Product Updates will also include new functionality.

Product Update 1 for Sage MAS 90 & MAS 200 has just been released March 29, 2010 and here’s the complete listing of what’s new.

MAS90 4 4 Product Update 1 – What’s New March ’10

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage 500 ERP Tagged With: , , ,
posted on April 5, 2010 by

Sage ERP X3 VAR Helps Version 6 to Arrive in North America

New Jersey based ERP firm SWK Technologies, Inc today reported their first sale of Sage’s ERP X3 v6 accounting software.

Sage ERP X3 was acquired by Sage in 2005. Prior to branding as Sage ERP X3 it was known as Adonix. There are 2,700+ global users and 150 partners. The US launch of V6 is scheduled for Q2 2010. Sage is in the process of adding channel partners in North America which will supplement and ultimately replace their direct sales efforts.

Sage positions ERP X3 has a software choice for more data intensive users. With claimed support for up to 2,000 simultaneous users the product will run on Oracle or Microsoft SQL and provides for integrated web services, batch server and out of the box business intelligence the product is marketed to growing companies requiring a system that installs with less effort than comparable packages.

Sage ERP X3 is one of two ERP accounting products Sage has designated as a global offering. That means it’s intended to be used in all regions where Sage operates. The other global ERP is Sage Accpac.

Sage ERP X3 is offered 50% direct and 50% through VARS. Sage ERP X3 will run on Oracle or Microsoft SQL databases. Typical users of ERP X3 are companies with 100 to 2,000 employees.

Sage ERP X3 V6.jpg

From today’s press release:

LIVINGSTON, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SWK Technologies, Inc. (SWK), a Sage Software certified gold development and business partner for more than 20 years, just signed its first Sage ERP X3 client, RFI Ingredients (RFI). The announcement made by Jeffrey D. Roth, CEO of SWK, builds on the strategy he announced in February 2010 to increase SWK’s presence throughout the Northeast by selling Sage ERP X3 and providing related services to clients. SWK is one of a handful of nationwide Sage business partners to recently adopt Sage ERP X3.

“Sage ERP X3 adapts to a company regardless of size or organization style.”
Based in Blauvelt, NY, RFI is a manufacturer of innovative natural ingredients for the food, functional food and dietary supplement industries. The company has decided to upgrade its systems to Sage ERP X3 based on recent and projected growth, compliance with Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP), the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), a new location, and to better manage its inventory.

“Sage ERP X3’s focus on collaborative technology and its customizable interface is a great solution for RFI because the system will simplify processes and increase efficiency,” said Andrew M. Nunez, SWK’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales, who was formerly with NexTec’s New Jersey office. “Sage ERP X3 adapts to a company regardless of size or organization style.”

“I am not surprised that we’ve already signed our first Sage ERP X3 client,” said Roth. “Not only have we seen great demand in the marketplace, but our sales and consulting teams have been meeting with prospects and current clients to spread the word about Sage ERP X3.”

“RFI is another example of SWK’s full-service approach to working with clients; ERP X3 broadens the strong relationship we already have with them,” said Matthew Hahn, Vice President of Network Services. “Initially, we provided RFI with SWK’s Network and Managed Services offering. Now, we can build on this success to bring similar solutions to even more clients.”

“SWK’s approach in helping us meet regulatory and compliance requirements, as well as ensuring our systems are efficient, are key to our short- and long-term goals,” said Jeff Wuagneux, President and CEO of RFI Ingredients. “Our own customers expect excellence, so working with a system that exceeds our expectations improves our own delivery of services and increases our trust with SWK ten-fold.”

For more information on Sage ERP X3 and other Sage products, as well as SWK’s MAPADOC integrated EDI, visit www.swktech.com, call (877) 979-5462, or contact Alex Nastashkin at alex.nastashkin@swktech.com or (973) 758-6126.

About SWK Technologies, Inc.

SWK Technologies, Inc. is a business application and consulting company providing strategies and solutions to meet its clients’ information and business management needs. As a Sage Software Authorized Business Partner, Sage certified Gold Development Partner and Authorized Training Center, SWK offers best-of-breed solutions for accounting and business management, financial reporting, ERP, CRM, job costing systems and warehouse management. Specializing in collaborative commerce – the communication and cooperation between suppliers and customers – SWK developed MAPADOC EDI, a robust EDI solution that integrates seamlessly with the business management solutions it sells and supports. SWK also provides managed network services to its clients and has offices in Livingston, NJ; in Long Island, Syracuse, and Buffalo, NY; and in Greenwich, CT.

Filed Under: ERP X3 Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on April 3, 2010 by

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: , , , , ,
posted on March 31, 2010 by

Sage Insights Conference Twitter List – 2010

Are you attending the Sage Software Insights Conference in Denver May 17-20, 2010?

Insights is Sage’s annual conference for resellers and consultants (Accountants can attend Sage Insights 2010 too) , This three day event features technical sessions, keynote addresses and plenty of time for networking.

Because upwards of 2,000 are expected at Insights it can be tough to find people in the midst of all the sessions and keynotes.

This year I’ve created a Twitter list for anyone who is attending Insights. This list will make it simple to quickly review Twitter messages from those people attending the conference. These messages could be short summaries of sessions they’ve attended or vendors that they’ve just met.

It will include Sage employees, consultants, vars, etc

This list is  small – but growing – and if you’re going I’d like to add your name – to make it even easier for other people to listen to what you have to say during the conference.

The benefit of Twitter lists is that when you log into Twitter (or use many third party Twitter clients) you can click on a specific list and view only the “tweets” from those people on the list.

Insights 2010 will be a busy time. People attending will be sending Twitter messages – which can be a great way to find out about good sessions, special activities and even hear opinions about keynotes, etc.

It can be challenging to zero in on just those specific messages without something like a Twitter list.

Think of Twitter lists as a way to filter out the noise on Twitter and temporarily zero in on specific information — in this case Twitter messages from people attending the Insights conference.

I already have a list of Sage related Twitterers:

http://twitter.com/mas90guru/sage

I’ve created an Insights 2010 list so everyone at the conference can quickly view the Twitter activity of people who are there.

Interested in joining the list? All you need do is Tweet out the following message (just copy and paste it into your Twitter stream – be sure you include the “#insights10″ hash).

I’ll keep looking for messages that include this text — and as I find them I’ll add your Twitter ID to the list.

Then when you get to Insights 2010 you’ll be able to easily view the Twitter messages of those who are also attending Insights.

Here’s the message to copy/paste into your Twitter feed:

I’m attending Sage Software’s Insights 2010 Conference in Denver – http://bit.ly/insights2010 #insights10

Sage Insights 2010 Twitter List (Unofficial – Not Affiliated With Sage)

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on March 23, 2010 by

MAS 500 7.3 Gets Native Avalara Sales Tax Processing Code – Eases Upgrade Process

sage mas500 avalara.jpg

Avalara announced yesterday that their Sales Tax for MAS 500 (aka Sage Sales Tax) now has the code embedded into the MAS 500 version 7.3 release.

Sales tax processing embedded in MAS 500 allows for the user to receive accurate tax computations on each order that’s processed through the system. The monthly or quarterly sales tax returns can also be processed for any state – with resulting forms transmitted to the appropriate state.

Sales tax processing is the type of procedure that most companies take for granted — until challenged on an audit. With states increasingly under pressure to raise revenues it’s increasingly likely that more audit resources will be deployed to verify that companies are charging and collecting proper amounts of sales tax.

According to Sage,

Sage MAS 500 and Sage Sales Tax developers worked together and added code (hooks) specifically for Sage Sales Tax in the base MAS 500 code for 7.3. This was done so users who installed Sage Sales Tax for MAS 500 7.3 would not have to obtain updates from Avalara each time MAS 500 released a Monthly Update.

Avalara (www.avalara.com), the leading provider of Web-based sales tax automation and compliance solutions, announced today that Sage Sales Tax, Powered by AvaTax™, is now embedded within the code base of Sage MAS 500, beginning with version 7.3. Sage’s award winning research and development team led the integration effort to address significant customer demand and to enhance customer experience.

“This is a major endorsement from one of the industry’s most highly regarded providers of ERP and other business applications”

“Sage Sales Tax, Powered by AvaTax, is a great example of how Sage is executing on our strategy to deliver hosted services that make the most sense for our customers,” said Alan Bryant, Sage senior vice president. “Integrating key hosted, SaaS, and other cloud-based service offerings into Sage’s on-premise business applications gives our customers the best of both worlds.”

via: Avalara Press Release

Filed Under: Sage 500 ERP Tagged With: , ,
posted on March 22, 2010 by

Sage Insights 2010 Conference Mini Brochure (PDF)

Sage just tweeted out a link to their Insights 2010 conference brochure.

Insights is Sage’s annual conference for resellers and consultants. This year it’s happening May 17-20, 2010 in Denver Colorado. They’ve expanded the guest list to include accountants from their Sage Accountants Network (first time SAN attendees can score a fantastic registration cost of only $495) – Request your Insights discount code from Sage here.

There’s not a whole lot new in here though it does give some added information about the keynote addresses.

For example, on Tuesday May 18, 2010 the Business Opportunity Ahead will feature a trifecta of speakers:

Jodi Uecker-Rust, President Sage Business Solutions gives a talk titled “How We Will Win”, followed by Himanshu Palsule, EVP Product Strategy & Marketing speaking about “The Right Business Model for Sage Business Solutions” and finally Tom Miller, VP Channel Management, speaking about “How Our Partners Will Thrive”.

There’s no word on who the entertainment is (I keep voting for Journey but Sage looks at me as if I’m crazy) so I’m guessing that it’s a no namer.

Here’s a copy of the Insights 2010 brochure:

Insights 2010 Sage Conference Guide

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on March 20, 2010 by

Sage Insights 2010 Collaboration via Google Wave

sage insights 2010 google wave.jpg

The Sage North America Insights 2010 Conference takes place May 17 to 20, 2010 in Denver Colorado. As usual the three days of sessions and networking promise to provide lots of value for Sage partners, CPAs and Vendors.

We’ll be there in the audience for all the major keynotes as well as the all new 1.5 hour Insights 2010 Sage Executive Question and Answer session.

Each year though it’s nearly impossible to sit in on all the major sessions, so this year we’re going to collaborate on note taking – sharing our notes with any others who care to join us. This will help ensure that nothing is missed during product sessions – and also allows those collaborating to make comments or share their own opinions on the happenings.

This year we’ll be using Google Wave which is a free collaborative tool from Google that you access via the Internet and your web browser. It will allow for anyone to update our notes at sessions — as well as to catch up on notes for sessions that they may have missed or want to know more about.

If you’ve never used Google Wave (or if you’ve tried it and given up) it’s a free collaboration tool in open preview from Google. Most of the use of Wave seems to be to jointly take notes or share bits of information — something that we think makes it an ideal tool to use for Sage Insights 2010.

Here’s a short video that explains and demonstrates Google Wave

YouTube Preview Image

During the keynotes and other sessions you’ll be able to search for and participate in the live creation of notes – provided that you’re a member of our conference Google Group (which is the only way Google Wave allows for easy sharing with a group of users).

If you’re not attending Insights you can still join the Google Group and participate in viewing the group Waves as well as providing feedback or asking questions. Google Wave’s are updated in real time so you’ll see people creating notes as the sessions are happening.

Here’s how we’ll use Google Wave for Insights 2010 – and you’re invited to join us

First, if you don’t have a Google Wave account — apply for one right now. You won’t be able to read or reply to any of our conference Waves without an account. The approval process for those appying with their Gmail accounts appears to be 3 to 5 days — so you’ll need to apply well in advance of stepping off the plane in Denver.

Apply for Google Wave Account

google wave invite screen.jpg

Secondly, after you’ve applied for the Google Wave invitation – join our Google Group. By being a member in the group you’ll be able to view and edit any of the Wave’s we create at Sage Insights.

Because of the way that Google implements group sharing – these Waves will only be visible and shared with the group.

When you join the Google Group – be sure you join with the same email address you used to sign up for Wave (Do NOT join with your @googlewave.com address).

Google Groups
Subscribe to Insightful
Email:
Visit this group

A few things to keep in mind:

This group has nothing to do with Sage.

They’re not sponsoring it – though they’re welcome to participate if they wish.

Once you are active with both Google Wave and a member of our Sage Insights Conference Google Group you’ll be able to search for Wave’s that are directed to anyone in the group.

It’s important to note that until you’re a member of our Google Group that any Google Wave search for Insights Conference notes won’t work.

Within Google Wave – simply search for:

group:insightsconference@googlegroups.com

If you’re already on Wave and have questions – contact us at wayne.schulz@googlewave.com or email wayne@s-consult.com.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
posted on February 23, 2010 by

Sage Extended Solutions For MAS90 & MAS200 Sales Policy – Updated 2/23/10

I’ve just learned that Sage will now sell “kept” Extended Solutions for installation to MAS90/200 at level 4.3 AND EARLIER.

Update March 19, 2009:

Now you see it — now you don’t…

Sage initially told us that they would make their 56 kept solutions available on any supported version of MAS 90 or MAS 200 until the solution was incorporated to the next level of MAS 90/200.

Policy change by Sage.

Long story short — Sage won’t sell any of  the 56 kept Extended Solutions at any version prior to 4.3.

They’re no longer making them available at earlier levels.

The information above supersedes the post that we wrote below based on lengthy conversations with multiple Sage personnel – who ultimately reversed policy on us while we were mid-stream proposing their solution (with information they provided) to a customer.

Update March 29. 2010: We continue to have issues both ordering and obtaining the most basic of pre-sales support on any Sage Extended Solution sales. We recommend that you not purchase any of the 56 kept solutions and instead wait for them to be incorporated into a future version of MAS 90 and MAS 200.

As you probably know, starting with the release of MAS 90/200 v4.4 Sage announced in 2009 that they’d be doing away with their Extended Solutions catalog of what appeared to be 500 or more custom enhancements while keeping 56 of the most popular Extended Solutions for incorporation to versions 4.4+ of Sage MAS90 and 200.

Sage Extended Solutions in many instances replaced the need for custom MAS90 and MAS 200 programming.

Starting with release 4.4 of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Sage  will incorporate  (add into the MAS product) 56 of their most popular enhancements on a two or three year rollout schedule.

Discontinued solutions are being provided under an open source license to Sage Preferred Development Partners (view the list here) who can upgrade them (possibly for a fee) and resell them.

In the interim there was considerable confusion about whether a licensed user of MAS 90 or MAS 200 could purchase any of those “kept” Extended Solutions at a level other than 4.3.

If you view the Sage Extended Solution web site you’ll see the issue is not entirely clear as the site states that the 56 kept Extended Solutions ” can be added to your Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.3 system“.

What about those customers on a version earlier than 4.3 who needed one of the 56 “kept” enhancements?

Until this policy shift they were being told by Sage that they must upgrade to version 4.3 before they could purchase any enhancements.

Before you suggest to me that I’m crazy – and that Sage was selling the 56 kept solutions for any version – read on.

The prior policy of the sales desk appeared to have been that kept Extended Solutions would only be sold at 4.3.

Sage Refused to Sell Extended Solutions at Versions Prior to 4.3

Here’s the email that I’d received as recently as last Thursday telling me that Extended Solutions that Sage was keeping for incorporation wouldn’t (then) be sold at any version other than 4.3.

From: xxxxx
Date: Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 6:02 PM
Subject: FW: Selling older Extended Solutions to existing customers
To: Wayne Schulz

Hi Wayne

Please see the email below.

xxxx

title

Sage Business Solutions Division
(800)-854-3415 xxx
www.sagenorthamerica.com
Sage. Your business in mind.

From: xxxx
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 2:59 PM
To: yyyyy
Subject: FW: Selling older Extended Solutions to existing customers

We can sell this to them since it’s one of the 56 extended solutions that will be eventually embedded into the product but it has to be for MAS90/200 version 4.3 only!!

Thanks,

yyy

Sage Changes Policy – Will Sell Kept Extended Solutions At Older Version Until Incorporated

Late last night I was told there is a policy shift.

Sage will now sell any of the 56 Extended Solutions that they are keeping (does not appear to apply to the Extended Solutions that they’ve open sourced to developers) at levels earlier than 4.3 – up into when those solutions are actually incorporated to 4.4.

This means if you are on version 4.1 and need a “kept” solution such as AP-1095 Paperless Office AP Checks & Direct Deposit Stubs that you can continue to buy it up until the time it’s rolled into V4.4+.

This is extremely good news for those existing customers on maintenance with  a supported version of Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 prior to 4.3. It means that if their business conditions require them to adopt one of  the 56 kept solutions that they can purchase that solution today rather than upgrade to 4.3 solely to qualify for the purchase of an Extended Solution.

There are a myriad of valid reasons that customers don’t upgrade immediately to the latest versions. Some customers have extensive enhancements to MAS90/200 that require testing and custom programming prior to any upgrade. Other customers may be subject to stricter compliance regulations (lending institutions, auditors, Sarbanes Oxley, governmental regulation) that don’t allow for a hasty upgrade.

Here is the link to the list of Extended Solutions to which the policy applies:

http://www.sagemas.com/products/sagemas90_mas200/extended_solutions/

Filed Under: Extended Solutions, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on February 7, 2010 by

Sage ERP X3 Paris Launch – Recorded Presentation 1/20/2010

Sage have posted a recording of their worldwide launch event for ERP X3 held on January 20, 2010 in Paris France. This event unveiled ERP X3 V6 which is being re-launched in all countries where Sage operates (North America launch occurs in Q2 2010).

We attended this launch and our thoughts you can visit our ERP blog (ERPLIFE) and read our Sage ERP X3 Launch Event Thoughts.

Formerly known as Adonix, Sage is positioning the ERP X3 as one of their global ERP systems (Accpac is the other).

sage erp x3 launch video paris.jpg

Speaking at the event:

Paul Walker – Chief Executive The Sage Group, PLC

Christoper Leteiller, Sage ERP X3 Worldwide

Himanshu Palsule, Executive VP North America

Emmanuel Obadia, Senior VP, Sage ERP X3

Francois Sancho, Managing Director Logica

Paula Paravechio, EMEA Managing Director, Distribution & Services Industry Microsoft

Pascal Dumontet, GM Oracle France

Freddy Mini, CEO Netvibes
Sage ERP X3 Videocast Recording from 1/20/2010 Paris Launch

Filed Under: ERP X3, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on February 4, 2010 by

Free SQL Server Training for Sage Partners: Irvine CA (2/17,18) and New York (2/23, 24)

A little birdie just alerted me to a free two day Microsoft SQL training course available to Sage Business Partners free of charge.

The course is being held February 17 & 18, 2010 in Irvine California or February 23 & 24, 2010 in New York City. Registration is completely free though as of February 4, 2010 at 3pm EST there were only 16 free seats remaining in California and 20 in New York.

The deadline to register for the Irvine classes is 2/14/10 and for New York it’s 2/18/10.

From what we know this training is a requirement for certification on MAS 200 SQL (expected to be re-released in Q4 2010) and certainly handy for any consultants working with Sage MAS 200 EES which uses SQL for the SageCRM portion of the product.

How can you go wrong with two days of free hands-on technical training?

Here’s the course description:

Sage and Microsoft’s SQL Server Team are joining forces together to offer Sage most valued partners, a unique opportunity to take their SQL Server skills to the next level and grow their business.

Understanding the SQL Server administration and management is critical for successful implementations of Sage products in a SQL Server environment. In this course, the most important aspects of working with SQL Server will be covered during a two day workshop that includes practical experience via hands-on-labs. The course covers installing, configuring and managing SQL Server, explains how SQL Server indexes work, shows how to read execution plans, describes how to perform basic performance tuning and diagnostics and provides guidance on planning for high availability options such as clustering, mirroring and log-shipping.

Here’s how Sage Business Partners can sign up  (login is required)

First, login to Sage Partner University here.

Next, I was only able to locate the course through a search – but you may be able to follow this link to go direct to the SQL registration page. (Update: It looks as if sometimes this direct link brings you to a search page instead of the course – simply search for the keyword SQL and product line Sage MAS90/ MAS200. The second result – course # MS90611 Sage SQL Server Training should appear for $ 0).

If the link above doesn’t work, simply search for the class using the steps below:

Open the search box (click the image below to enlarge):

Then use the resulting search box to find the course with SQL:

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on February 3, 2010 by

Sage MAS500 Product Roadmap – 2010

Sage have just released their MAS 500 roadmap which contains the next few years’ product direction as compiled in January 2010.

Included in the document are version release schedules through 2012 (expect one per year) as well as product update cycles (minor releases) which should occur 4 to 5 per cycle and include both program fixes and new enhancements. These updates are planned for release about every 3 to 4 months.

There’s also a version retirement schedule to provide updates on when versions 6.3 through 7.2 will be retired.

Sage MAS 500 Roadmap – January 2010

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on February 3, 2010 by

Sage Accpac Roadmap – 2010

Sage have just released their 2010 Product Roadmap for their Accpac line of software. This map outlines version releases through 2011, provides information on new Business Intelligence options and contains a screen shot of the new web client data entry screen.

Sage Accpac Roadmap – Jan 2010

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on February 2, 2010 by

MAS 90 & MAS 200 Roadmap – 2/1/2010

Sage have just released their public roadmap for their MAS90 and MAS200 product line. The map displays planned enhancements through 2012 – as well as some new information such as an apparent plan to bring forward a SQL compatible payroll module.

As with all technology plans these are tentative and subject to change as noted in Sage’s footnotes.

Sage MAS 90 and 200 Roadmap – PUBLIC 2-1-10

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on January 25, 2010 by

Former Microsoft VP, Robert Deshaies To Lead Sage Construction and Specialized Business

Sage North America  just announced that Robert Deshaies, a former  VP who helped developed the partner strategy for Microsoft and also worked on their SaaS strategies as well as managing field operations for MS Dynamics.

Robert Deshaies is the second Microsoft executive to join Sage in the last year. Tom Miller joined Sage in June 2009 as their Vice President – North American Channel Management after having spent a combined 17 years at Great Plains and Microsoft.

In February 2009 Sage made permanent the appointment of Jodi Uecker-Rust as the President of Sage Business Solutions. Jodi herself was widely known as Doug Burgum’s second in command for many years at Great Plans and subsequently Microsoft when they acquired Great plains.

Deshaies appears to replace Himanshu Palsule who is still very much at Sage (I can vouch for that personally as he’s here at President’s Circle in Arizona as is Robert Deshaies).

While there’s no title given for Himanshu’s new position, he was recently the only Sage North America executive featured on the Sage ERP X3 webcast live from Paris France.  Perhaps an announcement is pending on his new role and title.

The move to hire talent from the Great Plains / Microsoft pool is certainly a positive one for Sage. Great Plains had long been respected for their strong commitment to their sales channel as well as unrelenting focus on customer support.

The full press release follows:

Sage Organizational Announcement

Introducing Robert Deshaies, EVP SBS

Dear Sage Business Partner,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Robert Deshaies as executive vice president, Sage Business Solutions. Robert will lead our Construction and Real Estate Business as well as our group of Specialized Solutions businesses (Sage FAS Fixed Assets, Employer Solutions, and the Value product families). He will also assume the interim day-to-day general manager’s responsibilities for our Construction and Real Estate (CRE) business until a new leader is hired, after which he will continue to provide oversight.

Robert brings more than 20 years of industry experience to Sage. Most recently, he was with Microsoft as vice president of the U.S. Partner Group, accountable for partner strategy, group management, business development, marketing, and sales. He has also led sales, marketing, and services for Microsoft’s eastern region, including all products and partner channels. Before working at Microsoft, Robert gained extensive experience and knowledge in business software with State of the Art, Solomon, and Great Plains in product management, sales, marketing, consulting services, and general management. As such he brings a very strong understanding of the industry and business to Sage.

Please join me, too, in thanking Himanshu Palsule, who has been providing executive leadership to the Specialized Solutions team, while also leading our divisional business strategy. This change will enable Himanshu to focus 100 percent on our business strategy to insure we have industry-competitive solutions today and into the future. With more than 12 years at Sage and over 20 years in our industry, we are fortunate to have Himanshu’s focused leadership in this critically important area of product and marketing strategy.

We have a great opportunity before us and I believe these announcements will accelerate our position in the industry.

Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment,

Jodi Uecker-Rust
President, Sage Business Solutions
Sage North America

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on January 21, 2010 by

Sage Offers Free One Day Consulting Skills Workshops In Locations Nationwide

Sage Consulting Skills Workshop.jpg

Sage has just unleashed a free gift on their partner community that may be one of the most valuable sessions you ever attend.

Ed Kless, Sage’s Senior Director of Partner Development, is bringing a one day consulting skills workshop to seven locations near you between now and April 20.

Hopefully by now you’ve attended one of Ed’s classes. If not – take a peek at some video from IT Alliance where he teaches as well.

YouTube Preview Image

Why Should You Attend Ed’s Class?

  • Because you disagree with his stance on pricing
  • Because you agree with his stance on pricing
  • Because you want to network with other proactive consultants and learn
  • Because you hate boring canned presentations (No two of Ed’s classes are alike – but they’re all tremendously helpful)
  • You enjoy classes where nearly the entire group participates
  • You enjoy learning from other consultants and implementing their best practices – while sharing your own
YouTube Preview Image

Who Should Avoid Ed’s Classes

  • Anyone planning on leaving the consulting business soon
  • Anyone who thinks that what they’ve been doing the last 20 years is going to last into the next 5
  • Any of my competitors in Connecticut

To register:

Login (create an account if needed) at http://www.sageu.com

Click “Academies and Boot Camps” on the left
Click “Mid Market ERP”
The list of Consulting Skills Workshops should appear (PDC103)

I’ll be attending the New York City session (Affinia Manhattan)  on April 6, 2010.

See you there!

via: Bill Kizer Sage Software LinkedIn Group

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on January 20, 2010 by

Sage ERP X3 V6 Launch Streaming Live from Paris

sage ERP X4 launch.jpg

The Sage Software ERP X3 v6 launch is happening live starting today January 20, 2010 at 9:30 EST.

Sage ERP X3, formerly Adonix, is a product Sage acquired in 2005. It’s being positioned as a global ERP system with a centralized product management team. Today’s webcast is the launch of version 6 and features explanation of Sage’s plans for the product.

Simulcast live on the web from Paris, the event features speakers from Sage discussing the new features and marketing of their latest version of Sage ERP X3.

Speaking at the event:

Paul Walker – Chief Executive The Sage Group, PLC

Christoper Leteiller, Sage ERP X3 Worldwide

Himanshu Palsule, Executive VP North America

Emmanuel Obadia, Senior VP, Sage ERP X3

Francois Sancho, Managing Director Logica

Paula Paravechio, EMEA Managing Director, Distribution & Services Industry Microsoft

Pascal Dumontet, GM Oracle France

Freddy Mini, CEO Netvibes

Link: Sage ERP X3 V6 Launch (Live Streaming Video) and My Sage ERP X3 V6 Launch Notes

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on January 3, 2010 by

Schulz Consulting MAS90 Newsletter Signup

Interested in tips, tricks and news about Sage MAS90 and MAS200 accounting software?

Sign up here for our twice monthly (first and fifteenth) MAS90 email newsletter. Each edition contains the latest MAS 90 and MAS 200 news as well as technology tips and tricks of interest to MAS90 users. There’s no advertising and you can unsubscribe from the email list yourself at any time.

The cost is free and we presently have over 2,000 members receiving the newsletter every month.

MAS 90 Newsletter Topics Include (but aren’t limited to):

  • Instructions on closing the year in MAS 90 and MAS 200
  • News of critical software patches
  • Links to whitepapers describing new features
  • Information about free web seminars
  • Reviews of different add-on solutions for MAS 90 and MAS 200
  • Technology tips – mobile phones, social media, web site links
schulz consulting MAS90 Newsletter Signup.jpg

Schulz Consulting MAS90 Newsletter Signup

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting Tagged With: , , , , , ,
posted on January 3, 2010 by

MAS200 Supported Hardware, Networking and Operating System Platforms – 12/31/09

The supported hardware and software platforms for Sage MAS 90 have been updated as of 12/31/09. The list below shows exactly what configurations Sage support.

Note that Windows 7 is stated as not supported with versions prior to 4.3.

Tip: While we do not recommend running MAS 90 on un-supported platforms we’ve found that you may be able to run it on Windows 7 32-bit (avoid 64-bit) by using the MAS 90 CD to run workstation setup on each of your stations. If you don’t use the CD you’ll likely receive some type of error (under Windows 7) about the workstation not being able to map to the server.

FRX does not appear like it will be supported under Windows 7 64-bit.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on December 26, 2009 by

Sue Swenson CEO of Sage To Keynote UC Irvine Distinguished Speaker Series January 21, 2010

Sue Swenson, CEO of Sage North America, will keynote a session at The Paul Merage School of Business – University of California Irvine on January 21, 2010 at 6:30 pm.

Sue Swenson is President and CEO of Sage North America, part of the Sage Group plc.

She has over 20 years’ experience in both the fixed line and wireless telecommunications industry and almost 10 years in start-up companies where she managed periods of rapid growth and industry change. She spent part of her career with Pacific Telesis (Pacific Bell) where she held a number of senior management positions in all parts of the business and was the President and Chief Operating Officer of PacTel Cellular (which became AirTouch Communications). She subsequently became President & CEO of Cellular One, the mobile telephone joint venture with Vodafone AirTouch and AT&T Wireless, followed by positions as Chief Operating Officer with Leap Wireless International and T-Mobile (Deutsche Telecom). She was most recently Chief Operating Officer of New Motion, Inc. (now Atrinsic, Inc.), one of the largest digital media entertainment content providers.
Ms Swenson previously sat on the Board of T–Mobile International and currently serves on the Board of Wells Fargo. Ms Swenson is a member of Sage’s Executive Management Committee.

The Distinguished Speaker Series brings together executives from different industries to share leadership perspectives, ethical frameworks, decision making processes and insights.

The event draws approximately 350 corporate professionals, community leaders, MBA students, faculty members and campus staff.

Tickets are $50 per event. UCI Students and Employees are free (proper identification and secret University handshake knowledge required).

Business attire is required. For more information call Shaheen Husain at 949-824-7311.

UC Irvine Distinguished Speakers 2009 – 2010

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on December 18, 2009 by

Wayne Schulz Named 2009 Sage Spirit Award Winner

wayne schulz sage conference

When Paul Johnson (Executive Vice President – Sage Business Solutions) called me late last night my first instinct was to check the Schulz Consulting web site.

Usually when I get calls from executives at odd hours of the day (or weekend) it’s to “point out” something on the site that I’ve written earlier in the week. The conversation starts out with admiration for “that little blog you run” and the “support for those who blog”.

And oh, by the way, could you remove that item about __.

This happens about once per quarter, and truthfully except for that little mis-understanding about Sage MAS 200 SQL, Sage doesn’t call that much. It’s usually other publishers or consultants who catch their name in a Google Keyword Alert and confuse the term blog with free advertisement.

I quickly scanned for potential issues on the web site. Except for an innocent announcement about MAS90 payroll tax tables there didn’t seem to be anything that would warrant a late night call.

sage spirit award schulz consulting

So I call Paul Johnson back.

I’m braced for questions about something on the site – though I’m unsure exactly what questions there could be.

Surprisingly I learned that I’d been awarded one of the two Sage Spirit Awards. This is a new award category that Sage created this year. It’s meant to honor those who don’t sell bazillions of dollars worth of Sage product  but who perhaps still should be recognized at the annual Sage President Circle.

Paul was calling to tell me I was one of the winners. (I guess  that stuff on TV where people show up with a big check on your doorstep and a bouquet of balloons isn’t how it all happens in real life).

sage spirit award

Out of 140 people nominated (I did not nominate myself -honest), the Sage team narrowed the selection  to two  Sage Spirit Award Winners.

twitter schulz consulting spirit award

While admittedly stunned I’m thankful and grateful for the award.

The presentation is January 25-27 in Arizona where I’ll presumably take the stage wedged between the men and women who’ve sold millions and millions of dollars of Sage Software and I’ll gladly accept the Sage Spirit Award.

I can’t wait to give my acceptance speech.

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Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting Tagged With: , , ,
posted on December 16, 2009 by

ISM and 7 Others Named Sage Preferred Development Partners

Angela Goldsmith from Information Systems Management (ISM) just emailed to let me know that their consulting firm, ISM, has been named a Sage Preferred Development Partner. These are partners that Sage is recommending for upgrading Extended Solutions that have not been incorporated to versions 4.4+ of their MAS 90 or MAS 200 software.

A Preferred Development Partner is a firm that has gone through the application process and have 15 positive references on their Providex programming work. They must have 5 partner and 10 client references that Sage checks. If the development partner is already a Gold or Endorsed Partner they get to skip the reference check and are considered a preferred development partner.

The idea behind Preferred Development Partners was that some ISVs might want to help their own customers upgrade their solutions but might not want to be in the general business of supporting & upgrading the ES titles for the Business Partners in general.

ISM is a developer for Sage and one of the leaders in the community with respect to the eBusiness Module. Based in Oregon they work with Sage MAS90, MAS200, MAS500, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft CRM.

Newly added Sage Preferred Developers:

Exeplex – http://www.exeplex.com
ISM – http://www.goism.com
Steward Consulting – http://www.stewardconsulting.com
Accounting Systems – http://www.asifocus.com
xKZero – http://www.xkzero.com
Midwest Commerce – http://www.mcsresults.com
TAIRAQ Systems – http://www.tairaq.com
Innovative Consulting Systems – http://www.innovativeconsultingservices.net

Via: ISM – Information Systems Management- Portland Oregon

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on December 16, 2009 by

MAS90 & MAS200 2009 IRD Available – Updates Electronic Reporting

Sage have just issued their MAS90 & MAS200 2009 IRD (Interim Release Disk) which updates their software for:

1099 layout changes for Electronic Reporting (formerly Magnetic Media)
Enables printing of W2s for New Jersey Family Leave Insurance Disability Insurance Private Plan Number

Read the full MAS 90 Year End FAQ below:

Download the 2009 MAS90 IRD

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on December 16, 2009 by

MAS90 & MAS200 Tax Table Update for 2010 Available Now

The Sage MAS90 & MAS200 Tax Table Update is now available for download.

The update can be used on the following MAS 90 and MAS 200 accounting software versions: 3.71, 3.72, 3.73, 3.74, 4.00, 4.05, 4.10, 4.20, 4.30 and Sage Extended Enterprise Suite for MAS90 and MAS200 Versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3.

This initial tax table update (always check to be sure you’re using the latest version since Sage will issue new tables as the state or federal government issues updates) presents the changes for federal withholding tax tables as well as the following states:

Alaska
California
Delaware
Florida
Hawaii
Iowa
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Maryland
Maine
Minnesota
Missouri
Montana
North Carolina
North Dakota
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Nevada
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Utah
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Tax tables must be downloaded from the Sage Software Site (none are sent on CD or Disk) and only those customers current on a Sage Basic Maintenance plan have access to the download area.

If you are not active on a Sage plan and need to update tables this can still be done manually since Sage does not lock down the access to the table maintenance.

Here is a detailed list of what’s been updated in the latest tax table dated 12/11/2009:

Link: MAS90 & MAS200 Payroll Tax Table Update – 2010

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on December 15, 2009 by

Sage Holiday Card Game

sage holiday game.jpg

Sage has come out with a pretty interesting holiday card. Rather than the boring static “Happy Holidays” their card is an online game that allows you to waste a few hours catch snowflakes and stars to earn points.

No prizes – just good fun. Next year maybe we can convince them to issue a competitive game where score is kept and prizes awarded.

Sage Holiday Card 2009 (Catch The Falling Snowflake Game)

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on December 10, 2009 by

Sage Summit and Insights Conferences Combined Starting 2011

sage summit insights conference.jpg

Sage North America have just announced that their annual business partner conference (Insights) will occur just before their annual customer conference (Summit) beginning with the combining of the two conferences in July 2011  at the Gaylord Convention Center in Washington DC.

As both conferences merge, the new name going forward will be Sage Summit.

Sage Summit 2011 will be held July 10 – 15, 2011 at the Gaylord National in Washington, D.C. Partner focused tracks will be held July 10 – 13, and customer tracks will be conducted July 13 – 15.

The final Sage Insights conference will be held this May in Denver, CO.

sage summit insights

Full Press Release From Sage:

Sage Summit, our annual North America customer conference, wrapped up a month ago in Atlanta and was a hit with customers. For the first time all parts of our business participated: Sage Business Solutions, Sage Payment Solutions, and our healthcare customers.

Many customers and partners have been asking what our plan is for the next Sage Summit. I’m happy to tell you that planning for the next Summit is already well underway, and we’re making changes to add even more value to our customers. We’re also shifting the event to July, which customers tell us works better for their business cycles. For the first time, we’re also linking Insights, our business partner conference, to Summit to create even more opportunity for our entire business community to work together.

To support those changes, our final standalone Insights partner conference will occur in May 2010 in Denver. Our first combined Sage Summit will be held July 10-15, 2011, at the Gaylord National in Washington, D.C., with partner-focused tracks July 10-13, and customer tracks July 13-15.

Between now and the first combined Summit, Sage will continue to help our customers learn and network through our support of customer communities, our participation in local customer events, and our emphasis on learning through Sage University. Summit, and all of these other opportunities we’re building to support our customers, continues our commitment to delivering a great customer experience.

Thanks again for all you do to deliver a great experience for our customers. I look forward to your support in making our next Summit a tremendous success.

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on December 2, 2009 by

Sage Announces 2009 Earnings

sage december 2009.jpg

The numbers are just arriving overnight from UK and it’s really tough to tell whether they mean a heck of a lot given this crappy economy.

The US had a 10% revenue decline (net earnings seem ok and have been kept afloat via cost cuts) with a 20% EBITA.

Most interesting is the commentary in Sage’s regulatory filing which indicates they’ll be going after the support area with renewed vigor. This is something VARS who’d been paying attention already figured out in August when Sage appeared to outsource  nearly their entire maintenance and support area.

The company taking over the North America support and renewal effort, ServiceSource, appears by their web site to be largely a commission based  services (support/maintenance) renewal company raising speculation from multiple partners that Sage’s renewal efforts could become increasingly aggressive.

Since most VARS make the lions share of their money from service and support, any move by a vendor to cut off this revenue stream would likely not be greeted with open arms by the VAR consulting channel.

My read on this (between the lines) is that we will see Sage re-doubling their efforts almost immediately to sign users to added telephone support agreements in addition to software maintenance agreements.

Personally I think that’s a tougher road for Sage US to travel as their marketing of support puts them directly into competition with their channel.

I LOVE the part about re-invigorating the channel….selling support against them certainly would do that!

Here’s the wording from the Sage UK site:

http://www.investors.sage.com/news/regulatory_announcements/?id=55685

North America

Total revenues in North America contracted 10%* to £576.4m (2008: £637.3m*), reflecting the difficult economic conditions. Organic revenue contracted 8%*. Organic subscription revenues declined 2%*, while organic software and software-related services revenues declined 23%*.

Phase 1 of the changes to our North American business has been successfully completed with the new management team in place and an appropriate reduction of the cost base. Operational improvements planned in Phase 2 are underway including reinvigoration of the channel, growth in premium support offers and several product launches. We are making good progress in these areas and have seen increases in customer satisfaction scores across our product lines.

Sage North America is organised into 3 divisions, Sage Business Solutions Division (“SBS”), Sage Payment Solutions Division and Sage Healthcare Division. SBS declined organically 11%*, the downturn particularly impacting our mid-market accounting products, CRM products and Sage Timberline Office which serves the construction industry. Our entry-level accounting products (Peachtree and Simply) delivered resilient performances with continued growth of Peachtree Quantum. Non-Profit Solutions performed well in the challenging market conditions and grew modestly. Sage Payment Solutions Division saw a 15% increase in the number of merchants served but lower volume per merchant leading to a fall in revenue of 4%*. Payments revenue from cross-sell to our existing customers grew, from a small base, by over 100%* in the year and we regard this as a substantial future opportunity for Sage.

Sage Healthcare Division has improved its EBITA† margin in the year to 17% (2008: 8%*). We have improved customer service levels and so reduced customer losses in our Medical Manager base. Although Healthcare revenues declined overall by 5%*, revenue from the Intergy product line, including Electronic Health Records (“EHR”) capability, grew by 13%* to £71.2m. Intergy, with its accredited, market-leading EHR solution, is well positioned to benefit from incentives within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the adoption of EHR.

The EBITA† margin of Sage North America, including restructuring charges of £10.7m incurred in the year, was 18% (2008:18%*). Excluding restructuring charges, it was 20%.

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Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: ,
posted on November 19, 2009 by

Sage Extended Solutions Absorbed Into MAS90 & MAS200

Sage North America appears to be formalizing their plans for including some of their popular catalog of Extended Solutions for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 into the core product beginning with release 4.4.

If you’re not familiar with Extended Solutions they were pre-written customizations (sold separately) that once installed work seamlessly within MAS 90 and MAS 200.

For years Extended Solutions were the “secret sauce” that Sage consultants used when they implemented new systems for customers.

During any ERP software implementation there’s usually a tiny bit of missing functionality that’s needed. For example finding a fixed cost Extended Solution that for example performed ACH Payments for Accounts Payable (not a core MAS 90 feature) was significantly cheaper and easier than hiring a programmer to modify the software to perform that task.

Sage Extended Solutions No Longer Sold

Beginning with version 4.4 of MAS 90 and MAS 200 Extended Solutions will not be sold separately. Instead Sage have taken the list of available solutions and intends to cull out the most popular ones for inclusion in future releases of MAS 90 and MAS 200.

Extended Solutions not selected for inclusion will have their source code made available to a number of select programmers (Master Developers) so that customers can have their enhancements upgraded.

Although some solutions with few users may not make it into Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 we understand that Sage will continue to provide support (without upgrades past version 4.3) for a period of time yet to be officially announced.

Note: As of this writing the site for Extended Solutions catalogs and pricing is down.

Exact Timetable For Inclusion Uncertain

We’ve yet to hear anything official on when these enhancements (shown below) will be included in the next release(s) of Sage MAS 90 and 200.

One source who attended a Sage meeting indicated that out of and estimated 700 titles (active & inactive) there will be approximately 56 preserved and rolled into MAS 90 and MAS 200 over the next 12-24 months in various quarterly updates.

Another approximate two dozen enhancements were listed as being un-needed due to functionality that was in the new version 4.4 release of MAS 90 and MAS 200.

An unofficial partial list (we think this list is close to what will be added in the first three rounds of updates in 2010 is almost certainly shy a few enhancements and probably subject to change – so take it with a grain of salt) of Extended Solution parts that may be rolled into the first release is:

March 2010: SO1096, PR1018, JC1046, AR1200, SO1271, AR1027, SO1035

June 2010: BR1005, BR1004

September 2010: SO1173, AP1043, AP1101, SO1354

According to consultants who’ve attended the briefings, Sage is selecting the enhancements to include based on the numbers of installed base users and the ease of embedding them in the future release.

Recommendations

While the exact timetable of when certain Extended Solutions will be included in the future releases of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 is uncertain we recommend reviewing the official Sage document below to see which of your enhancements is being incorporated in a future MAS 90 or MAS 200 list.

If your enhancement is not on the list you may be able to enlist the aid of a qualified Sage Master Developer to assist you in the upgrade process or to purchase a similar enhancement from another developer.

Filed Under: Add Ons, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Service Updates Tagged With: , , ,
posted on November 10, 2009 by

Sage Customer Awards Announced At Summit 2009

Sage North America Announced the following customer award winners during their annual Summit Customer Conference November 9 to 12, 2009 in Atlanta Georgia.

Best Use of Customization

The Best Use of Customization award recognizes a Sage customer who has customized their Sage solution to solve a specific business objective and achieve a sustained competitive advantage.

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The 2009 winner is Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), Rockville, MD. In 2006, MRIS upgraded its legacy accounting systems to Sage MAS 500 ERP and worked with Blytheco LLC to develop and implement automated processes that simplified the entire customer invoicing and payment cycle. In 2009, MRIS launched an online payment service for its customers that integrated with Sage MAS 500 ERP. Since then, over 32,000 customers have used the system to pay their MRIS bills. As MRIS continues to automate its processes, they expect Sage will continue to provide the stability and scalability to make this possible.

Community Stewardship

The Community Stewardship Award recognizes a Sage customer for their outstanding commitment to better the lives of the people and the communities they serve.

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The 2009 winner is Teach For America, New York, NY. Prior to their Sage SalesLogix implementation, the organization did not have a centralized system to track prospective candidates in the field. They have now standardized their recruitment processes resulting in a stronger applicant pool through and more targeted and effective recruiting. Teach for America worked with Infinity Info Systems on their implementation.

Best End-to-End Deployment

The Best End-to-End Deployment Award recognizes a Sage customer who has achieved outstanding business results through the implementation of two or more Sage applications.

d8v0412.jpg

The 2009 winner is Power Curbers, Inc., Salisbury, NC. Prior to their Sage implementation of MAS 500 ERP, Sage FAS Fixed Assets and Sage SalesLogix, the company was using a difficult ERP system and was spending more time managing the system than using the information. As a result of this end-to-end implementation, the company has transitioned to a pull inventory system using just-in-time manufacturing processes and doubled their inventory turns in just 12 months. Power Curbers, Inc. worked with Practical Software Solutions on their implementation.

Best Innovation Award

The Best Innovation Award recognizes a Sage customer who has developed a unique solution to a challenge within their industry and demonstrated significant business benefits as a result.

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The 2009 winner is Entertainment Lighting Services, Inc., Sun Valley, CA. Prior to their implementation of Sage MAS 500 ERP, the company was searching for a completely integrated system that could handle their unique industry requirements in accounting for rental and sales inventories as well as labor scheduling. They now have a comprehensive system that helped reduce their inventory shrinkage by 50% while the month-end close process was reduced from 4 weeks to 5 days. Entertainment Lighting Services, Inc. worked with Information Integration Group, Inc. on their implementation.

Rookie of the Year

The Rookie of the Year Award recognizes a new Sage customer who has demonstrated immediate business results and positive impact from their Sage implementation.

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The 2009 winner is Coilhose Pneumatics, East Brunswick, NJ. Prior to Sage, they were looking for a new ERP system that could unify their two separate companies and they found it with Sage MAS 500 ERP. Product costing is now automated and booking inter-company transactions is a snap. Coilhose Pneumatics worked with Net@Work on their implementation.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an exceptional customer who has used a Sage solution for over 10 years, and who has survived difficult economic environments, shifting technology trends and demonstrated continuous business improvements and results over this time period.

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The 2009 winner is Amix Salvage & Sales Ltd., Surrey, BC. The company has been using Sage solutions for over 17 years. Since their initial DOS implementation, they have now grown to use Sage Accpac ERP, which has helped automate or eliminate many of their old manual processes such as the manual time entry for payroll, which saved 15 hours each week. In addition, real time perpetual inventory has saved 10 hours per month by eliminating the need for retail store workers to research inventory levels. Amix Salvage & Sales Ltd. worked with Plus Computer Solutions on their implementation.

Images and information via: Sage

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , ,
posted on November 10, 2009 by

5 Ways To Make Your Sage Summit Conference A Home Run

summit registrationWe’ve all been to conferences before. Taken pages and pages of notes. Collected stacks of business cards and garbage bags full of free giveaways from vendors.

Then we come home and what happens?

After we’ve distributed the pens and pads to the kids – typically nothing happens. At least nothing until the day six months later when we run across that bag of junk from the conference and decide to throw it away.

If you’re like most conference participants  you’ll return to the office to face the urgency of  all the business you ignored while  at the conference takes over. Suddenly all those great ideas that you shared with people that you met become distant memories.

I’ve got five suggestions on how you can make the most of your Sage Summit Conference. I’ve implemented these after attending conferences in the past and the return on the time invested has been triple what it otherwise would have been.

Five Ways To Maximize Your Sage Summit Conference Experience

#1 Start A Free Google Group – Invite Everyone You Met To Participate

You’ve just obtained a few dozen business cards. Don’t let them go to waste. Instead setup a free Google Group where you can enter in everyone’s name and then invite them to participate with exchanging ideas all year round (not just during the conference).

mas90 google groupWhat do you talk about in a Google Group? The group that I am involved in (sageresellers) exchanges over 500 email messages monthly about technical topics that range from experiences with new MAS90 versions to experiences with add-on modules.

We started the group by realizing that a dozen or so Sage consultants typically gathered each and every year at conferences to exchange war stories and technical tips. You can create the same type of group with other users of Sage Software who you’ve met at conferences.

Use the power of group collaboration to bounce ideas off your peers or get second opinions about technology you’re considering. Best of all this advice is both trustworthy and free — because nobody in the group is trying to sell you anything.

mas90 google groupsGoogle Groups are completely free and automate the task of sending out one email to a group of people. With Google Groups the people in the group don’t have to remember to “reply all” so that each person gets an individual email. The group feature automatically delivers the emails and allows people to reply via email or they can log into the Google web site and read messages online.

This is a great way to keep in touch and share technical tips with other users throughout the year.

Google Groups

#2 Twitter and Social Media Are The “In” Thing – But You Still Don’t Get It

The next big thing is Twitter and Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn)  – at least according to the conference speakers. Yet you feel way behind because you’ve yet to start up a Twitter account – or know what to talk about if you had one.

twitter sage group mas90Use the power of Twitter Lists to view groups of people connected to Sage (consultants, end users, vendors) and observe what they’re chatting about. This isn’t an official Twitter stream and names are always being added each day. It’s a perfect way to start.

Access our Twitter list of Sage related accounts (vendors, Sage employees, consultants) – here.

It’s ok to lurk (read only) until you get the hang of this Twitter thing. Once you do become active you’ll see that Twitter is really not anything more than another way to stay in touch with friends and business acquaintances.

What are you waiting for? Create your Twitter account here. Then add http://www.twitter.com/mas90guru and some of the folks in the Sage Twitter List.

Sage Twitter List

#3 Join LinkedIn

Most of the people you meet at the conference are probably active online with LinkedIN.

Think of LinkedIN as Facebook for business. Here you establish online contacts and can participate in groups of people with similar interests. Two great groups are the Sage Partners, Employees and Alumni LinkedIN group and the MAS90 and MAS 200 Group.

linked in sageAlthough group discussions can vary in frequency and topic – the Sage groups tend to be very business focused and stay on the topic of Sage. Don’t let your experience with other LinkedIN groups that aren’t well managed deter you from joining a Sage group.

The key to getting the most from your online groups is participation. Don’t be afraid to ask questions because chances are there will be half a dozen other people who wonder the same thing.

When you can, step up and provide answers or assistance to other users. Share your candid experiences (both good and bad) with users who may be in the same industry or considering the same type of software setup. LinkedIN is a great structured site to make business contacts that can provide assistance to your company and to you personally.

MAS 90 & MAS 200 Users & Consultants Group – LinkedIN

Sage Partners, Employees and Alumni

#4 – Join the Sage Communities

Did you know that Sage has various communities (discussion forums) where users meet to ask technical questions about products that they use? These communities are free and open to everyone.  Once you’re a member you can ask questions and participate in discussions about the products that you use.

sage communityOne of my favorite uses of communities is to find unbiased references for software that I’m considering purchasing.

The sales fliers always make software appear like it can do absolutely anything. The real story often is told when you find someone who has been using the software for a period of time and can give real world examples of both pros and cons of the program.

Although many Sage staffers frequent the communities, you’ll find most of the support is member to member. One way to extend the benefits of communities is to keep in closer contact with the more active members – typically via email.

Sage Communities

#5 – Regularly Attend The Free Sage Online Seminars

Did you know that Sage has regularly scheduled technical sessions. Some of these are free. And many have a nominal fee.  You can look at the list here.

sage software universityThere’s also self-study and other types of guides that you can purchase and use as your reference materials for the various Sage products that you use daily.

These sessions are easily justified as I’ve found attending a seminar can save your company countless hours of consulting time both now and in the future.

Sage University

Keep The Momentum After The Conference

Don’t let the knowledge and friendships die down once you’ve left the shelter of the Sage Summit conference and returned home.

All of the suggested activities above are available for free (or extremely low cost) and are great ways to keep the Sage Summit experience going after you’ve left the conference. Peer to peer networking  is one of the best ways to learn and share important information from other users of the software just like you.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on November 9, 2009 by

Sage Summit 2009 Conference Blog Now Live

sage summit blog

Attending Sage Summit this week in Atlanta Georgia?

The official Sage Summit conference blog is now live with periodic updates from the 2009 customer conference.

The blog contains a few guest posts that are centered around CRM. Also available is alive tweet stream that seems to capture the official Sage Summit Twitter feed – http://www.twitter.com/sage_summit.

Contributors to the Sage Summit Blog:

The Sage Summit Blog editors are from the Sage North America public relations team:

John Schoutsen – Sage North America Corporate

Aimee Ertley – Small Business Accounting Solutions

Lynne Durham – Healthcare Solutions

Cynthia Sutton – Nonprofit Solutions, Payment Solutions/Merchant Services

Monisha Khanna – Construction and Real Estate Solutions, Small Business Accounting Solutions

Stephen Moore – Mid-Market Accounting/ERP and Employer Solutions

Ryan Zuk – Industry Analyst Relations, CRM and Contact Management Solutions

sage summit text feedback

You can also save some time and follow most of the interesting Sage Twitter conversations using our Sage Twitter List which contains the Twitter feeds of 85 tops Sage employees, consultants and industry analysts.

Sage Summit 2009 Blog

and How To Get The Most From The Sage Summit Conference

via: Towner Blackstock - CIS Consulting Group

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on October 31, 2009 by

Sage Twitter List Live – easily follow MAS90, MAS200 and other Sage product discussions

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Looking to keep up with what other Sage employees, consultants, end users and vendors are saying on Twitter?

Use our new free Twitter list that provides a concise timeline showing only mostly tweets that are relevant to people involved with Sage products.

This is not sponsored by, endorsed or affiliated with Sage.

Rather twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

One of the frustrating things about Twitter is that it can be difficult to find people to “follow”. Unless you’ve been using the service for a while you can easily become frustrated at trying to find people like:

Himanshu Palsule (twitter) –
Executive VP, Product Strategy/Marketing, Sage Business Solutions, and GM, Specialized Solutions

himanshu palsule sage twitter.jpg

Bill Kizer (twitter) who worked in sales for years at Blytheco and is instrumental in starting and running the Sage LinkedIn Group.

bill kizer twitter.jpg

Alok Tyagi (twitter) – VP of R&D for Sage Software North America

alok tyagi sage twitter.jpg

There are many more Sage related twitter feeds on our list. As of now the number of followed accounts is 83 and growing.

To easily follow and read the Twitter feeds of people most likely to be discussing Sage related topics, follow the link below.

Disclaimer About Twitter

Be aware- Twitter is an unfiltered stream of messages. While many of the users are affiliated with different companies – it’s a good idea to assume that their comments reflect their own personal thoughts and not necessarily those of their employer.

This is also not an official Sage feed. They do not endorse, recommend, follow, participate or provide any other approval of the messages or content.

If we’ve missed adding your name to the Sage Twitter list – leave a comment with your Twitter ID and affiliation and we will add your name to the Twitter list.

Sage Twitter List

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,
posted on October 30, 2009 by

Sage Summit 2009 Registration – 50% off through October 30, 2009

Screen shot 2009-10-30 at 10.20.53 AMSage Summit is testing how small and medium size business software users react to Twitter offers; we are pleased to offer the following exclusive promotion to the Summit Twitter community.
$495 registration rate valid only on October 30, 2009, until midnight ET

Special registration rate is available to first-time Sage Summit 2009 registrants only (not applicable to previous registrations)
* To register visit http://registration.experient-inc.com/ShowSAG091/Default.aspx, choose your registration type and enter the special promotional code TWEET in the Start New Registration section of the page before registering.

sage summit tweet.jpg

Remember, this offer expires at midnight ET tonight, October 30, 2009.

Link

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on September 26, 2009 by

Timberline Consultants CIS Consulting Group Expand Construction Offerings to Denver Colorado

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Timberline Software services are now offered in Denver Colorado by CIS Consulting Group out of their newly established local office.

Timberline is software for the construction industry and includes modules for accounting, estimating, procurement, production management, project management, real estate management and service management.

A blog post on Friday announced that Sage North America awarded the territory to CIS Consulting Group who also offers Sage Masterbuilder, Sage MAS 500,

According to Richard Rudolph, Vice President Sales & Services, ”We are pleased to announce that CIS Consulting Group will be expanding their geographic presence to include Denver. Chuck Elyea and Jim Campbell have successfully recruited Robin Harris to head the office of CIS Consulting Group in Denver, Colorado.

We are confident the expertise CIS brings combined with Robin’s local knowledge will provide solid support to the MIS customers located there and ultimately lead to significant new customer acquisition. This will be effective October 1, 2009.”

CIS Consulting Group was formed in 1987 by Chuck Elyea with the mission to provide accounting software systems and value-added services to the construction industry. Chuck had been chief financial officer for a construction company for several years.

CIS became a Sage Timberline Office authorized partner in 1993 and subsequently joined the Sage Timberline Office president’s club in 1995 as one of the top resellers in the country. In 1997, CIS obtained the Sage Timberline Office summit club level, placing CIS in the top 5% of authorized partners nationwide. In 2001, CIS became the #1 Sage Timberline Office authorized partner in the world and has consistently been a top Sage Timberline Office authorized partner ever since. In 2005, Jim Campbell left his post as Vice President of Sales and Consulting at Timberline to become the President of CIS.

CIS has grown beyond its roots in construction accounting to offer accounting, operations, technology and HR solutions for contractors, commercial and residential builders, specialty and subcontractors, real estate developers and managers.

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , ,
posted on September 18, 2009 by

Paula Mikkelson joins Tango Marketing as National Account Manager

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Tango Marketing, a Sage Preferred Vendor of Star-Info Newsletters, Star-Email, press releases, success stories and Web site development announced today that Paula Mikkelson has joined them as their National Account Manager.

Formerly Paula solved all of my concerns with Extended Solutions when she worked at Sage as their Senior Manager of Extended Solutions Development and Professional Services.

Paula was one of the people at Sage that I could always count on for a call back or assistance with a problem. That’s not to say we always resolved issues but Paula explained the circumstances around why I may have been experiencing an issue.

Sage’s loss is Tango’s gain. contact Paula at 800-781-1377 extension 111 or you can email her paula and then slide in the at tango-marketing.com.

Tango Marketing

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: , , , ,
posted on September 17, 2009 by

MAS 90 Trivia – just for fun

linked in mas90 trivia
Anyone for some Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 trivia?

Jeffory M. Urquhart who is an ERP Implementation Specialist at Microliance in Florida has started an interesting trivia game over on LinkedIn that asks some tough but fascinating questions about MAS 90.

You’ll need to go way back with the product because Jeff’s questions are not for the beginner.

Jeff’s list of questions appear on the MAS 90 group on LinkedIn (click here to join first). This is not an official Sage forum, rather it’s a spot that fellow users and consultants can gather to exchange information, network — and even play the occasional game of MAS 90 trivia.

Here’s the list of MAS 90 trivia questions.

  1. What does M.A.S stand for?
  2. What did SOTA stand for?
  3. What was 09SAM?
  4. What  operating system platform was MAS 90 originally written for?
  5. When initially marketed, what was the application language that MAS 90 was written in?
  6. In the original versions, how were terminal IDs set?
  7. What year was MAS 90 introduced?
  8. What was the first version of MAS 90 for Windows?

What’s interesting is several long time Sage employees have added questions like the one Erika Jelovsek poses:

Ahhh, but if you really want to call yourself a historian of all things MAS 90 , you need to be able to define the acryonyms for these release names. And Craig, no jumping in right away…..let the non-Sage folks take a trip in the wayback machine to come up with these answers! ERBY, MERBY, LEFTY, IMSOPO, and, my personal favorite, TAMAN.

For the answers to these questions – and to read several more interesting tidbits of MAS 90 trivia – head over to the MAS 90 LinkedIn group. You’ll have to join the group but membership is free and you can leave anytime.

Link:

MAS 90 -  Trivia Just For Fun

Filed Under: Knowledgebase, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
posted on September 8, 2009 by

What’s new in MAS 90 3.50 through 4.2?

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One question that we’ve heard time and time again as MAS 90 upgrades are released is “what’s new?”.

Often this can be a difficult list to remember – especially if the person asking is several release levels back on the software. It’s easy to remember what has been added from version 4.1 to 4.2 — but how about from 3.50 to 4.2?

If you’re curious about all the enhancements that Sage has made to MAS 90 and MAS 200 since version 3.5 then you may wish to review this handy list on their site.

A detailed list of every change is available on a release by release basis. The chronology starts at version 3.5 and extends to 4.2. There is no login required – simply click away at the link below.

What’s New in MAS 90 – Version 3.5 to 4.2

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP, Sage software, schulz consulting, Technical Documents Tagged With: , , ,
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