Posted by Plus Sales on Fri, Aug 27, 2010 @ 11:46 AM
by Mitch McNicol, mitch@plus.ca
Does your business use paper, of course it does, but does it use too much of it? Have you ever wished you could reduce the amount of paper that flows through your office, piles up on your desk, or gets lost at the water cooler?
Do you want to streamline your purchasing and payment approval process without having to print everything out, and wait for approval from your management team? Do you think you could reduce overhead costs in certain departments with a reduction in printing?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you might want to take a look at Altec Enterprise Document Management (Doc-Link).
What is Doc-Link?
- doc-link™ software is an integrated document management system (IDMS) that is interfaced with your business system to effectively eliminate paper from your office.
- doc-link enables you to archive, process through workflow, retrieve and research document transactions from the desktop. Increase company productivity while enhancing communication to customers, vendors and employees.
- doc-link connects you with remote locations and business partners by automating the exchange and processing of data.
- doc-link reduces data input and automates the processing of incoming documents.
- doc-link automatically captures, transforms and delivers your enterprise transactions to recipients in a variety of formats and distribution methods. Outgoing documents can be transformed and delivered to your recipients in a usable format along with secondary supporting documentation.
The overall impact of processing, handling and storing paper documents in the workplace is astounding from a financial, environmental and resource perspective. Not only can the inefficiencies attendant with paper-based bottlenecks be cumbersome on day-to-day operations, but the improper storage or loss of these documents can cripple or devastate a business.
Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery
- 90% of critical business information exists only on paper.
- 90% of documents that are consulted daily are handled without any appropriate management.
- 70% of today’s businesses would fail within three weeks if they suffered a catastrophic loss of paper-based records due to fire or flood.
* Coopers & Lybrand
- 1 in 4 businesses will suffer a catastrophic loss
* U.S. department of labor
Cost Savings/Productivity Enhancement
- Professionals spend 50 percent of their time searching for information, and take 18 minutes to locate each document on average.
* Gartner Research
- $14,000 worth of productivity is lost per worker per year due to their inability to find the data they require to do their job.
* IDC Canada
- 90% of typical office tasks still revolve around the gathering and distribution of paper documents.
- 15% of all papers are lost, 30% of our time is used trying to find these lost documents.
- Companies on average spend $25,000 to fill a typical four-drawer file cabinet, $2,000 to maintain it annually.
- Over its life-span, a single sheet of paper ends up costing an average of $30.
* Delphi Group
- US companies spend approximately $20 on labor costs in order to file a document, $120 on the labor required to find a misfiled document and $220 to reproduce a lost document.
- For companies that manage their own files, employees spend between 20-40% of their time searching for documents manually.
- For lost documents, companies pay a cost of searching, 6 times the value of the original document.
- Companies that need to redo documents pay 11 times more than the cost of the original document.
- Out of all documents generated, up to 7% are lost.
- The average document is copied 19 times.
* Coopers & Lybrand
- Companies typically misfile up to 20 percent of their records - thus losing them forever.
* ARMA International
- Each day one billion photocopies are made.
* AIIM, Forrester, Star Securities, US Department of Labor
Environmental/Social Responsibility – Go Green!
- The average American office worker is estimated to use a sheet of paper every 12 minutes, and is responsible for the disposal of 100-200 pounds of paper every year.
* Hawken, Lovins & Lovins. Natural Capitalism
- Paper files are doubling every 3.5 years..
* Coopers & Lybrand
- The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among United States manufacturing industries, and contributes 9% of the manufacturing sector’s carbon emissions.
- If the United States cut office paper use by just 10%, it would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases – the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road.
* Environmental Paper Network
Learn more at http://www.altec-inc.com/products/doc-link/doc_about.htm or contact our office for details at info@plus.ca
Posted by Bonnie Wittmeier on Fri, Jul 16, 2010 @ 11:06 AM
Sooner or later, it happens. You run your AP Aged Payables Report, and compare the total to the balance in your GL, (AP trade account), and they are not equal. What now?
A reconciliation will need to be done, there’s no getting away from that. You will need to do a comparison between all the transactions that have gone through AP and cross them off against all the entries in the GL Listing to find out which one(s) are different and/or missing. This can be a tedious process. However, there are a couple of tips and tricks that might help short-circuit the task.
- Ensure all your AP batches have been sent to the GL. (AP Periodic Processing / Create GL Batches). Then, POST all the AP batches in the GL. Re-run your reports to see if we are now in balance.
- Run your reports as of a future period, such as the end of the current fiscal year. Sometimes AP transactions get posted to prior periods. After they get sent to the GL, the period may be adjusted to a current period before posting. (So as not to affect an already published financial statement, for example, or because that period has already been closed). Therefore, the imbalance may only be due to a fiscal period discrepancy, and will even out at a later period. This is not normally a concern unless it crosses over a year end.
- Under GL Transaction History, select the AP trade account. Change the source code to different modules besides AP and check if there are any entries which originated from somewhere besides AP. These entries may be the cause of the variance.
If these 3 tricks don’t reveal the difference between your subledger and your GL, a full reconciliation will be required. Here’s how to make that process simpler:
- Locate the last fiscal period where the AP and the GL were in balance. Use that as a starting point to begin your reconciliation.
- Identify the variance amounts for each subsequent period since AP & GL were in balance.
- If several subsequent periods are out of balance by the same amount, locating and adjusting the first of those periods will bring the following ones into balance.
- If the periods are out of balance by different amounts, then there are variances in each period that need to be identified.
| Period |
AP |
GL |
Variance |
| 04 |
120,000 |
120,000 |
0 |
| 05 |
114,500 |
118,000 |
-3,500 |
| 06 |
95,000 |
98,500 |
-3,500 |
| 07 |
108,000 |
106,500 |
1,500 |
| 08 |
87,800 |
98,700 |
-10,900 |
In this example, period 4 is balanced, and there are discrepancies in periods 5, 7 and 8. The reconciliation process needs to begin at period 5. Depending on the adjustments required to bring period 5 into balance, (the AP may need to be increased, or the GL amount decreased, or some combination of these), the variance amounts of periods 7 and 8 may be changed, therefore it will be imperative to start the reconciliation at the earliest period that is out of balance.
- Print the GL Transaction Listing for the AP trade account for period 5. Then print either of the AP Transaction reports – Vendor Transactions, or GL Transactions – depending on which one works best for your particular set of data.
- Compare each of the entries in the GL to each transaction on the AP report. Once each line item has been compared and crossed off with its match, you should be left with the ‘orphan’ entries – your variance. You could also export each of these reports into excel and use some sorting and comparison formulas to assist with this task.
- Now that you have the source of your discrepancy, you will be able to correct the imbalance by making the appropriate adjustments.
This process is identical for the AR subledger as well.
There are some settings which can be optimized for reconciliation purposes.
- Ensure your AP trade account is set to be a ‘control account’ which allows only AP transactions to be posted into it. (GL Accounts / Accounts – select ‘control account’ and then add ‘AP’ to the ‘subledger’ tab)
- Check your AP Setup / GL Integration / Transactions. Set your Detail Transaction Types (invoice, credit note, payment, etc) to have easily recognizable fields sent to the GL Detail Reference and GL Detail Description columns (vendor number and document number for example). This will make identifying specific AP transactions easier in the GL Transactions Listing report.
Give us a call if you need assistance with this!
Posted by Glen Mund on Tue, Jul 13, 2010 @ 02:29 PM
When I speak to clients and prospects in the distribution sector, and ask about their inventory problems, the most common response is the lack of inventory accuracy. Most often this means the quantity of inventory on the warehouse floor does not match the records in the ERP or other system. Obviously this is very critical functionality that an ERP system can provide but the functionality requirements should not end here.
Other critical inventory accuracy functionality that should be expected from your ERP software are:
Inventory Value
- Obsolescence : What is the value of obsolete inventory? This reporting assists with the determination of how well an organization manages its inventory and how accurate the existing demand forecasts are. Perhaps product quality is poor. An ERP system should help make this type of assessment.
Check out the rest of my lastest article on the Sage ERP blog at; http://blog.sageerpsolutions.com/inventory-accuracy/
Posted by Alison Boons on Mon, Jul 05, 2010 @ 01:18 PM
As you are all aware, the HST arrived on July 01, 2010. Some of you may have noticed the difference on your purchases over the weekend, some may have not. Either way, it is here!
Have you not changed all your systems over, or are unsure what you should be charging HST on? The CRA still has HST sessions available & Plus is still offering our fixed fee services to help you implement the HST.
If you are still stuck, 5 days in to the new tax, give us a call today! We are here to help!
Posted by Plus Consultants on Wed, Jun 23, 2010 @ 12:01 PM
by TK Haran (tk@plus.ca)
1. What is Accpac Intelligence?
Organizations are increasingly suffering from information frustration. Having to manage large volumes of data, and needing to report from several databases and using inflexible reporting tools. Information delivery and user empowerment is increasingly taking centre stage in all enterprises with a resulting growth in the end user query and reporting (EUQR) category of the business intelligence market.
Sage Accpac Intelligence is an innovative software reporting solution that offers users, in organizations of all sizes, a powerful and intuitive reporting tool to take control of their own reports. It introduces a revolutionary approach to leveraging the reporting power of Microsoft Excel and protects and extends organizations existing IT skills and investment.
2. What Components does it have?
- Report Viewer
- Security Manager
- Report Manager
- Connector
- Analysis
- License Manager
3. Description of above components
- Report Viewer-This is used to view or to run the standard/shipped reports.
- Security manager- The Security Manager is an Administration tool that lets you (as System Administrator) manage Roles (User Groups) and assign Users and Reports to each Role. When security is enabled the User will be required to login and then will only have access to the Reports selected for the Role that User belongs to.
- Report manager- The Report Manager Interface allows users to design and manage their own reports and to display results in Microsoft Excel.
- Connector- The Connector allows an organization's system administrator to make a connection to their database in order to access the relevant tables for reporting purposes. It also allows an organization's system administrator to configure the metadata to empower the users to create their own reports.
- Analysis- An OLAP (On Line Analytical Processing) database allows business decision makers to analyze data that has been sorted into hierarchical structures. The data is static, so all mathematical aggregations can be built into the database query, thereby providing a more efficient and resource friendly means of reporting. This data warehouse can then be pulled into a pivot table within Excel, where the user is able to drill down into the report, using the hierarchical dimensions built into the query.
- License Manager- The License Manager provides a snapshot of your Sage Accpac Intelligence licenses and module configuration.
4. What Components come with a standard Accpac 5.6 installation?
- Report Viewer (1 user license)
- Report manager (1 user license)
- Security manager
5. Benefits of "AI"
- Works with a standard Microsoft windows look and feel.
- Reduces the need for IT department intervention.
- Reduces the need for custom complicated report creation by hired consultants.
- Consistent format (MS Excel) for reporting across multiple data sources.
- Business intelligence can become a standard desktop tool.
- Avoids inefficiencies in the report development life cycle thereby improving productivity.
- Empowers the user, thereby improving overall productivity.
- Optimizes return on investment by leveraging your existing IT infrastructure.
- Extends MS Excel skills rather than requiring learning of a new set of software skills.
6. Is there standard report/s available?
Yes and the shipped reports are as follows,
- Financials- Financial Report S, Financial Report D, Financial Report SB,
- Dashboard Analysis, Financial Trend Analysis
- Sales Master, Purchase Master, Inventory Master
Posted by Alison Boons on Fri, Jun 18, 2010 @ 02:27 PM
HST, HST, HST...that is all we are hearing these days as July 01, 2010 is right around the corner. Besides dealing with the fact that the year is half over, we now have this looming new tax banging at our door with only 12 days to go.
For more information about the HST, check out the article that Glen Mund (President of Plus) recently posted on the Sage ERP Solutions blog.
Click here to visit;
http://blog.sageerpsolutions.com/the-hst-is-on-your-doorstep-are-you-ready-to-welcome-it-in/
Still concerned about how this change is going to affect you, don't delay any longer, contact our office NOW!
Posted by Scott Davies on Fri, Jun 11, 2010 @ 03:26 PM
Think way, way back to when you setup your first company in Sage Accpac ERP. (Ok, it may not be that far back for some of you.) If you recall, you actually created TWO databases – a Company and a System Database. A Company Database is fairly self explanatory, but a System Database? What is it and why do you need one?
A System Database contains information such as Currencies and Rates; Optional Field definitions; Schedules and Reminders; User Authorizations; and Customization information. Since there is a high likelihood that this information would be common across many, if not all, of your companies, they are grouped together into a common “System” Database that can be used over and over again.
So how does structuring the database in this fashion benefit you? Let’s say tomorrow you decide to create a new company in Accpac; you don’t have to re-enter all of your users*, currencies and rates, etc. Just link the new company’s database to your existing System Database. If you forgive the database-design terminology, the relationship between System and Company Databases in Accpac is one-to-many.
It is no mere coincidence, as you may have deduced, that much of the information in this common System Database is available in Accpac's System Manager under the “Common” Services area. Also tied to the System Database are the functions in the Administrative Services module. However, the functions in Common Services are slightly different – as they can not only be common across multiple companies, but also across the different modules within each company.
It is important to note that when backing up your Accpac ERP database (be it Pervasive or MS-SQL) you need to back up BOTH your Company and System Databases. A Company Database will not load without a System Database.
If you have any questions about your System Database, backup routine, or any other Accpac ERP related questions, please don’t hesitate to call our offices. We’re here to help!
* The master users list is not actually stored in the System Database but, rather, in a directory under your Accpac Shared Data folder.
Posted by Plus Sales on Fri, Jun 04, 2010 @ 01:00 PM
The economy is slowly recovering. So, will everything just go back to "business as usual"?
You've managed to stay afloat through one of toughest economies ever. Now signs are pointing toward a recovery. But will everything just go back to the way it was before the recession? Not likely. The post-downturn economy will redefine how businesses operate and compete.
Welcome to the "New Normal"
The current downturn is not simply part of a regular business cycle; it's part of a "new normal."
Recovery will happen-albeit slowly-but business has fundamentally changed.
Customers have adjusted their attitudes and shifted their expectations-and these changes are becoming entrenched. Doing more with less-cost-cutting, downsizing, improving efficiencies-is here to stay. The competitive landscape has also dramatically shifted. The recession caused a competitive shakeout, and only the strongest have survived. Your competition is leaner, hungrier, and wiser than before.
But uncertain times can be an ideal time for bold companies smart enough to take advantage of opportunity. While others are waiting the recession out, you can get a head start on the competition and watch your sales soar and your costs decrease.
To thrive, not just survive-you need to get ahead of the curve.
Read More...
Posted by Plus Consultants on Mon, May 31, 2010 @ 11:34 AM
by Leon Colton, Consultant
Accpac users probably won't be overly excited if asked about their experience with Bank Reconciliation.
Remember those children games when you need to match one thing with another? And the sense of delight when you find that fragment of the puzzle and plug it in its proper place to complete the picture? That is the sense Accpac users deserve on first-Friday-of-month afternoons, when reconciling last month's Bank statement. But instead of "arts & crafts of bookkeeping" they probably toiled for hours to crunch their numbers on uncomfortable and cumbersome reconciliation forms, till the bottom line finally turns to ZERO! First withdrawals, then deposits, finally Bank entries. And what about more complicated transactions, or NSF cheques handling, or those interest charges included in a customer's cheque, or searching for that bank entry posted a few months ago. Does all of that sound familiar?
Well, here is the good news - Bank Reconciliation has changed for good, it was overhauled and greatly improved in the new Accpac 5.6 version! This time it seems Sage really listened to end-users and designed new functionalities and rebuffed existing ones. Simple to use and readable, designed with users' convenience in mind, a monthly reconciliation can be a breeze. Take a look at some of the changes made:
Streamlined & Simplified Reconciliation Form:
Four tabs (Withdrawals, Deposits, Returns & Bank Entries) united in one Reconciliation tab, and with sort option selected by date you can view transactions as they appear on the bank statement. For those who prefer "out of sight - out of mind" methods - new filters by reconciliation status and transaction type are just what you need! Filter those already reconciled transactions from the screen, view only outstanding cheques or deposits. And feel comfortable sorting by date or document number for easy matching.
Too many dates in the summary screen? No worries! Now it's only Statement date and Reconciliation date. You want to speed up the process - no problem, just double click on the line to change status from ‘Outstanding' to ‘Clear'. Now that's real fun!
New Bank Entry Button
Did you ever say - "hey, why can't we use Distribution Codes and Distribution Sets when entering bank transactions? Now you can, pretty much like in Receivables and Payables modules.
The Bank Entry button on the Reconciliation tab opens a new Bank Entry form, where you can enter any kind of reconciling transaction- from simple service charges to compound entries that use Distribution Codes and Distribution Sets or just G/L Accounts:
NOTE: When the bank entry gets posted it appears on the Reconciliation Tab, just make sure ‘All' transactions are selected in Display field.
Handling more Complex Transactions
Since the new Bank Entry form can handle any number of G/L Accounts, there's no need to scramble everything into one amount, or use A/P and A/R for interest charges or taxes.
More Efficient Transaction Reversal
Instead of Returned cheques and Reversed Payments, you can now do all transaction reversal on one screen.
It is also possible to select the Reversed reconciliation status right in the Reconciliation tab to reverse a payment or other withdrawal, including Bank Entry. However, you must use the Reverse Transactions form to reverse a receipt (deposit). Reversed deposits will appear as outstanding withdrawals on your current Bank Reconciliation when the reversal is posted.
It is now possible to quickly reverse a whole range of transactions in one shot, using the ‘Quick Clearing' button. And restore it back just as quickly, if it was done accidentally!
Zoom to Actual Book Balance
This one is my favourite! I remember the feeling of disbelief when first coming across the discrepancy between the G/L Bank Account balance and Book balance stated in the Bank Reconciliation- it was like my ground was shaking and I thought the entire company data got corrupted?! Little did I know about Bank Services and GL being out-of-sync, when some Bank related transactions are posted straight in G/L, bypassing subledgers. To be honest, I always considered that being a ‘bug' of the system. That is now fixed - these two amounts are separately stated in the zoom-in window, with the book balance breakdown.
You'll also notice the Go button beside "Bank Entries Not Posted" amount, which allows you to post entries on the fly.
Unification of Terminology
‘In Transit' status for deposits is now called ‘Outstanding', just as withdrawals.
All funds moving into Bank Account are now called ‘Deposit', such as Withdrawal Bank errors cleared with lesser amount.
All funds moving out of Bank Account are now called ‘Withdrawal':
- Withdrawals.
- Payments.
- Reversed receipts.
- Deposit bank errors where the Cleared Amount is greater than the deposit amount.
Other Improvements;
- Drilldown to original transaction, such as payment to Vendor.
- New Totals tab with breakdown of reconciled transaction by status (Cleared with write-off, Cleared with bank error etc.)
- Improved Bank G/L Integration, to include Bank Entry Detail and more fields to flow through to G/L batch, such as: Bank code, Bank Entry Type, Distribution Code, Entry Number and Entry Description
- New Reports: Bank entries Posting Journal, sorted by posting sequence
- Transaction History Inquiry with ability to make selection by Source Application (A/R, A/P, Payroll, Bank Services, Other) or by Reconciliation Status, or even to search for specific payment by amount.
In conclusion the new Bank Reconciliation is definitely worth trying!
Posted by Dee Dutton on Wed, May 19, 2010 @ 11:34 AM
The BC HST is imminent! Are you prepared? Do you know the supply and transition rules for your business? Do you know the reporting requirements, especially in relation to the transition period?
I participated in an HST Webinar presented by the CRA today. There was a lot of valuable information and they covered many of these important topics. The CRA also provided a slide show document as well as a reference document that links to specific documents on their website. All the pertinent information can be found on CRA's website at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/hrmnztn/menu-eng.html but I have mentioned some of the topics covered during the webinar below;
Key Dates
- May 1, 2010
- Date that HST would generally apply to amounts that become due or are paid, without having become due for property and services, supplied on or after July 1, 2010
- July 1, 2010-Implementation Date
- Date that HST would generally begin to apply
- November 1, 2010
- Date relevant to exchanges, returns and self-assessment
Changes to Place of Supply
- There is now less reliance on the suppliers' location and a greater reliance on where the consumer of the intangible personal property or service is located
Transitional Rules
- HST would apply when goods are delivered and ownership is transferred on or after July 1, 2010 and consideration becomes due or is paid without having become due on or after May 1, 2010.
- HST would not apply when ownership is transferred or the good is delivered before July 1, 2010 regardless of when consideration becomes due or is paid without having become due.
Exchanges & Returns of Goods
- Special rules apply to exchanges made on or after July 1, 2010 and before November 1, 2010 for goods purchased before July 1, 2010.
- Exchanged good exceeds what was paid for the original good, then the HST would apply to the difference; and
- Exchanged good is less than or equal to that paid for the original good, then the HST would not apply.
- HST would apply to all exchanges on or after November 1, 2010.
Services - General Rule
- HST would apply to any consideration due or paid on or after May 1, 2010, for a supply of a service, when the consideration relates to the portion of the service performed on or after July 1, 2010.
- For Example: A landscaping service for June and July 2010. 40% of the service is performed in June 2010. It was invoiced in August 2010.
- HST would apply to 60% -the July portion
- GST would apply to 40% -the June portion
- If 90% or more of the service is performed before July 2010, no HST would be payable on the amount for the service.
Other topics covered include:
- Intangible Personal Property
- Sales to Government
- Indian/Indian Bands
- Leases & Licenses
- Services - Special Rules
- Reporting
You can sign up for these webinars (there are 3 left) yourself or view webcasts at: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/hrmnztn/menu-eng.html