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

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

© 2011, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

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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

© 2011, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

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Please if you do nothing else to improve your company’s service – train your employees to take ownership of problems.

Have you ever called in for a question about a customer service issue and the representatives, while helpful, seemed like they couldn’t transfer your phone call quick enough to another department.

I bet those experiences are mis-managed by companies who measure “success” by how quickly a representative can “fix” a problem (aka – get you off the phone or pass you to someone else). These customer service experiences are like one big game of hot potato.

A phone transfer or handoff of the problem to another employee is not a fix for a problem. In some cases it will cause you to lose customers – who leave based on not much more than the poor service that they just experienced.

This recently happened to me at T-Mobile.

I was looking to re-connect a line of service. This should have been a 5 minute slam-dunk for T-Mobile. They would have added another subscribers (since I was a former subscriber it’s even better and they term it a “win back”).

Instead what happened? I was passed from one representative to another — in a circular motion.

Customer service said “hold on you need to speak to activations”. Then when I was passed to activations they said “hold on you need to speak to customer service”.

After two rounds of this I was done.

There are, after all, other cell phone providers offering pretty much the same service using similar phones.

Are you losing customers based on similar poor customer service?

What could T-Mobile have done to improve their service?

1. Have the representative stay on the phone to make sure the transfer happens (it doesn’t hurt to get a callback number in case you’re disconnected).

2. Understand the problem. It shouldn’t be a race to see how quickly you can hit the “transfer” button.

3. Never measure customer satisfaction based on how many calls per day a representative handles. Measuring speed only provides incentive to pass the problem off to someone else regardless of the customer outcome.

Are any of these had to implement? Would they take hours and hours of re-training for your staff?

No.

Are your employees empowered to take ownership of a problem (from start to finish) as opposed to passing the problem to another employee?

If not, why not?

T-Mobile Poor Customer Service

© 2010, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

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.

© 2010, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

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

© 2010, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

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.

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).

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

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

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

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

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The last service update for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.3 was issued 6/29/09. According to several consultants who have contacted us – Sage has told them that service updates will be issued on a quarterly basis instead of monthly.

Service updates for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 are released for the most current version of the software only (currently 4.3) and contain a bundle of fixes which are self-installing and correct noted issues.

Users of older supported versions of MAS 90 (prior to the current level) will still need to load program fixes individually as the service update bundles will continue to only be released for the current levels.

Please consult with a competent Sage Business Partner prior to installing any service updates. These fixes contain program changes which could cause any enhancements (including Sage’s Extended Solutions) to stop working.

In general we recommend loading service updates for MAS 90 only if you (or your Sage Business Partner) are in the process of logging a support case with Sage or see that a program patch or service update fixes a specific issue that you are experiencing.

In all instances, we recommend you contact your Sage Business Partner for advise on when and how to load any service updates before trying to install them yourself.

Sage Service Updates – MAS 90 and MAS 200 Version 4.3

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

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There’s quite a bit of confusion around the definitions of cloud computing.

Some users and consultants use the term to mean any software program that isn’t stored and used directly on site.

Yet others have latched onto a whole laundry list of acronyms that more accurately describe different types of cloud computing.

For example:

SaaS – Software As A Service

Essentially based on the concept of renting application functionality from a service provider rather than buying, installing and running software yourself. Offerings within this range from services such as Salesforce.com at one end, delivering the equivalent of a complete application suite, to players like MessageLabs at the other, whose services are designed to complement your operational infrastructure.

PaaS – Platform As A Service

Platform as a service (PaaS), which is all about providing, a platform in the cloud, upon which applications can be developed and executed. Players like Google, again Salesforce.com (this time with Force.com), and Microsoft (with Azure) exist in this space. Facilities provided include things like database management, security, workflow management, application serving, and so on.

IaaS – Infrastructure As A Service

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). The proposition here is the offering of compute power and storage space on demand.

The difference between this and the other two categories of cloud is that the software that executes is essentially yours. In practical terms, the model is based on the same principles of virtualisation that we are all familiar with in the context of server partitioning or flexible storage. Rather than running a virtual image on a partition existing on a physical server in your data centre, you spin it up on a virtual machine that you have created in the cloud. Virtual disks can be created in a similar manner, to deal with the storage side of things.

For more details about cloud computing as well as to read an argument about whether this type of computing poses a danger to Internet Service Providers – read the full story at The Register.

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

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To create country code on MAS90 and MAS 200 forms:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Within each of these subreports:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BACKGROUND NOTES ON THIS ISSUE:

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

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

The first approach to adding MAS90 country names on forms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

Tango Marketing introduces Star Email Drip Marketing

If you are looking for a way to keep in close touch with your customers and prospects but find it difficult to constantly think up with new topics for email marketing you may want to talk with the folks at Tango Marketing.

Sometimes it seems almost impossible to come up with fresh interesting topics for newsletters. Surely the first few articles are easy to write. By the 5th or 6th article most people begin to struggle for fresh content.

Tango Marketing offers a series of professionally designed and informational email marketing templates that help you do away with writer’s block.

The bundles of templates are pre-formatted for Switftpage Drip Marketing (email service) as well as eligible for Sage Co-op (60-70% of cost reimbursed depending upon available funds).

A wide range of topics is available to select from. Once you’ve selected your topic you can send the information via email as well as post it to your web site for future reference by your customers and prospects.

For more information give Joan Ciamaga (shown below when she visited CT on a recent trip) a call at (425) 673-5300 ext. 116. Joan is a Sage alumni who now works for Tango Marketing. You can email her at joan@tango-marketing.com.

Star Email Program Sage 2009

Here’s a list of Tango Marketing topics available:

Link: Tango Marketing

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

Just heard about this issue on Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 and thought it may help someone in a similar situation.

MAS90 Purchases Clearing Won’t Foot

A client (version 4.3) reported to me that when the report did not tie to GL,
they manually added up the totals on the Purchases Clearing report. Their total
differs from the report total (and does balance to GL). I verified by exporting
the report to Excel and running a total. Sure enough, client is right.

Workaround

No KBA. Sage knows about it, but because it hasn’t verified by Engineering, it
is not available on the KnowledgeBase. Workaround is to run the Purchases
Clearing by Product Line report, which produces an accurate total.

via: Barbara Goldstein – Quanterasystems – San Jose California MAS 90 Reseller

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

Whether you’re receiving phone support from Schulz Consulting, another consultant or Sage – I believe the worst thing you can do is cancel your MAS90 or MAS 200 phone support contract and pray nothing goes wrong.

I’ll take our own support plan as an example.

Enrollment in an unlimited phone and remote support plan costs you $2,800 per year.

That’s about $250 per month.

We don’t offer pay as you go telephone/remote support (read below for the primary reason).

Shortly we believe you will also have trouble finding a competent consultant who provides support on a pay as you go plan (see below for reason).

The most common argument that we hear against paying for a support plan is the old standby:

We don’t call that much

Ok. I’ll buy that.

When you DO call – how fast do you want expect the response?

Is it helpful that the person can also log in immediately to control your desktop and make changes (with your permission)?

Is one, two or even three day response time acceptable? That’s our estimate of the average “pay as you go” response time.

That’s one, two or three days of your staff staring at blank computer screens. Your staff sitting idle not able to process any computer transactions.

Most consulting firms (Schulz included) reserve their fastest response times for those customers enrolled in a prepaid plan. The reasoning for this is simply – they reserve this time for the clients who’ve prepaid and have indicated a future need for services.

The other common argument we hear against support is:

That was a quick question – don’t bill me

I’m paraphrasing the above but when we used to offer hourly telephone support (which we don’t any longer because all of our clients are on prepaid fixed cost plans) a huge number of clients would call expecting that if their question could be answered quickly that they would not receive a bill.

How insane is that logic?

Let me rephrase the logic of the quick question from a consultant’s perspective:

“If you can get me back up and running extremely quickly I want to pay you nothing”

Just this morning I received a call from a former support customer. Their normal internal staff person who supports their MAS 90 is out sick. They have 5 people unable to process any transactions until a MAS 90 issue is corrected.

Guess why they had cancelled support?

Correct! — they hardly ever needed to call.

Now the owner’s in a situation where his entire staff has to stop working until they can get a MAS 90 error condition corrected.

We are increasingly seeing these types of support issues where a company has cancelled their support due to perceived lack of need.

Guess what they’re discovering?

It’s only a lack of need — until you need it.

At a future point – they suddenly have a need again. And they’re stuck waiting in line for a consultant who offers lower priority hourly support.

We urge you – think twice before giving up your support. If having MAS 90 or MAS 200 shut down in the middle of the day would be a hardship for your company – then you need to be on a support plan with a qualified consulting firm. It’s important to establish these relationships ahead of time because shortly as the market contracts you will see more consulting firms that do not accept “quick question” type support for which they ultimately won’t be compensated.

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

On July 24, 2009 the federal minimum wage rate is slated to rise from the present $6.55 per hour to $7.25 per hour.

The rate is established by the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) which establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008; and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Overtime pay at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a workweek.

Many states also have minimum wage laws. In cases where an employee is subject to both state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is generally entitled to the higher minimum wage. In all instances you are advised to consult with a business advisor prior to determine what rules apply to your company.

US Department of Labor via Karen Smart at Smart e-Solutions

Update for Connecticut Employers

This just appeared in my email inbox from my friend Corrine Nadolny who represents Paychex in Connecticut:

Good Morning

Of course Connecticut’s minimum wage is higher $8.00 , waitress minimum wage is $5.52 and $7.12 for bartenders.

Hope all is well!

Corrine

Corrine Nadolny
Paychex
55 Capital Blvd., Suite 302
Rocky Hill, Ct 06067
Office (860)257-0677 Ext. 25012
Fax (866)784-5725
cnadolny@paychex.com

As always – consult your tax or accounting professional prior to taking any action. We are not in the business of providing tax advice and any information given is for general knowledge only and not with the intent of having any person rely on the information for making tax decisions. Tax rates and rules change often – be sure to check with your tax advisor prior to implementing any information you find on the Internet.

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

It also means that when we’re out of the office we can access our documents from ANY Internet connected computer.

We also use GMAIL for all of our email. It’s much less hassle to maintain than a separate Exchange Server (which we’ve done in the past and found to be a huge waste of time and resources for very little benefit).

This morning I received an autoresponder email from one of our email subscribers who is apparently without access to any email for several days due to an internal server problem…. And I am again reminded of exactly why I love GMAIL. It’s the lack of these types of problems that keep me convinced that outsourcing email is the wisest move we’ve ever made.

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

Outgrown MAS 90, but Microsoft can’t really say why.

Below is a review from Paul Ziliak of the Microsoft Web Seminar titled “Outgrowing MAS 90/200 and What to Do About It”.

Paul is a Sage Business Partner and has agreed to allow us to re-post his review of the above seminar. Obviously neither Paul or myself are independent with respect to these opinions as we both represent Sage Software as Business Partners. Therefore use the below feedback in combination with your own research to draw the appropriate conclusion that is right for your company situation. We recommend consulting with a competent business advisor prior to making any decisions on accounting software purchase or implementation.

Paul’s posting is below:

I thought his insights were interesting because I’d received several reports that Microsoft is sponsoring “independent” web seminar that claim to give information on what to do when you outgrow MAS 90 or MAS 200.

I attended a webcast today called “How to Know Your Customers Have Outgrown MAS 90/200 and What to Do About It” presented by The CPA Technology Advisor.

I didn’t see anything in this presentation to suggest that Microsoft GP offers any more than MAS 90 / 200 in terms of functionality, reporting, or technology unless your IT department will accept Microsoft and only Microsoft, or if your system needs to scale to hundreds of users.

Almost nothing was offered telling me ‘How to Know’ and the primary thing I learned about ‘What to do’ is that Microsoft is planning an aggressive pricing promotion in the next 90 to 120 days geared toward moving MAS 90 users. Fair enough. But a lot can be gained by offering a substantial list of identifiers as to whether you’ve outgrown MAS 90. I’ll suggest a few:

* Others in your industry have advantages over you because of technology
* Your users have more technology sophistication than the software can deliver.
* Specifically identifiable functionality does not exist in your system. This gap should be verified inside and outside your organization. The cost of the gap should be measurable.

The webcast’s main presenter was Darren Root of Root & Associates, LLC. He was accompanied by Randy Johnston of K2 Enterprises. The premise of the presentation (which qualified for CPE credit) was that the venerable Sage MAS 90/MAS 200 product lines may have fallen behind Microsoft GP in areas of Functionality, Reporting and BI, Scalability, Limited Ability to Integrate, Low Employee Productivity, and Outdated Technology Due to Limited Research and Development.

I did not record the webcast, but I do not recall any mention of ‘Low Employee Productivity’ beyond its appearance in an early slide. Interestingly, for most of the general examples of software capabilities Mr. Root described the Sage and Microsoft offerings as being comparable.

The webcast offered almost not one specific functional shortfall of MAS 90/MAS 200. And one technology-specific deficiency – the lack of a MAS 90/200 SQL version – was refuted by the presenter himself who acknowledged the forthcoming release (presumed with version 4.40).

Nearly 50% of the audience responded as having zero MAS customers (the webcast was geared toward CPAs with MAS customers), so the audience was perfect for Microsoft to have a webcast dismissing MAS 90/200 without objection.

I note that despite being billed as an educational event there was no Q&A before, during or after the event in spite of the presence of a ‘Type Questions for Moderator’ box during the entire hour long event.

The event offered early access to a white paper at http://www.accountingsoftwareworld.com/whitepaperGP.pdf but my attempts to obtain the whitepaper bombed out Adobe, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.

While extolling the power of SQL server technology as one of the identifiable differentiators between MAS 90/ 200 and Microsoft GP, Mr. Root did not mention the perhaps the best path that Sage users could take – to Sage MAS 500. This is especially notable considering Mr. Root’s 5 star (out of 5 possible) review of Sage MAS 500 in the December 2007 article in none other than the CPA Technology Advisor. You can find that review here.
http://www.cpatechnologyadvisor.com/print/The-CPA-Technology-Advisor/2007-Review-of-High-End-Accounting-Systems/1$1821

No one is buying systems just to have the technology. Companies are making changes to support strategic initiatives within their organizations. Sage MAS 90 / 200 users who have identified new system needs SHOULD consider what Microsoft has to offer, but don’t overlook what your Sage partner may be able to do to enhance your MAS 90 / 200 solution, or migrate you to MAS 500.

The above post is courtesy Paul Ziliak President, Chicago Office of MicroAccounting Solutions.

Paul is responsible for the Chicago operations. A CPA, Paul has been helping Chicago companies maximize their MAS 90, MAS 200 and MAS 500 systems since 1992. Paul spent a number of years directing the IT consulting practice for BDO Seidman, LP.Paul’s firm represents the Sage product line. Reprinted here by permission of the author.

Corrections, clarifications or any additional information should be left in the comments section.

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

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On Tuesday June 9, 2009 Microsoft is planning to release a big set of security patches for Windows. There will be ten updates – six of which will address critical system flaws either in the operating system or a Microsoft application.

The patch count is as follows:

Internet Explorer and various Windows components – Five
Microsoft Office Components – Three
Windows – Two

Expect your systems to need a reboot after the patches are applied. More information on what’s not in the pack can be read from Microsoft’s site here.

via Register

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

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

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

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

Looking for a Point of Sale solution that integrates to your Sage MAS90 or MAS200 accounting software?

Join the newest Endorsed Partner for Sage MAS 90, AccuPOS Point of Sale, and learn about the opportunity available for you to reach into the Point of Sale market without traditional challenges many partners face in the retail sector. Focused on cash and carry retailers and on restaurants, this award winning front end software uses the inventory of Sage MAS 90 allowing you to remain the expert in the product with which you are already familiar. AccuPOS has provided and supported Point of Sale for Sage financial management solution users for over ten years and we are excited to present them as our newest Endorsed Partner.

Accupos Demo

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.

There is now a LinkedIn group for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 users and consultants to network and exchange ideas.

This unofficial group (it is neither sponsored by Sage or affiliated/endorsed by them) serves as a place for users of MAS 90 and MAS 200 to gather and get connected.

LinkedIn allows you to connect to other members across the country and exchange ideas as well as post your own thoughts to the discussion board. There is also an area to post jobs related items (either looking for a job or seeking someone for a position).

If you’re new to the concept of Social Media and perhaps a little unsure of its benefits, then LinkedIn is a great way to get started. LinkedIn is largely accepted as a business version of Facebook where companies encourage employees to create new contacts and network.

There is no charge to join LinkedIn and just about any topic is open for discussion.

DISCLAIMER: Just in case you missed it in the article above, this MAS90 LinkedIn group is not affiliated, endorsed, sponsored, or monitored by Sage in any way. The group is an independent use of the LinkedIn site to facilitate ease of MAS 90 or MAS 200 user/consultant communication.

Naturally we strongly recommend that any issues first be discussed with your Sage Business Partner.

Link: MAS 90 and MAS 200 Users and Consultants – LinkedIn

Link: Sage MAS Community Forums – Most Recent Messages

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

We publish an email newsletter each Tuesday at 3pm – join here.