Posted by Plus Consultants on Thu, Sep 09, 2010 @ 12:32 PM
by Leon Colton, leon@plus.ca
So what is Sage Accpac Intelligence (SAI), everybody asks these days, and do I have the intelligence to work with it? Well, to help you decide for yourself and instead of giving another definition of this great product I decided to build a simple consolidation report, over the course of the next few blog articles, which will provide you a trail on how to build your own more complex reports, using the power of SAI. So what is hiding behind the SAI Connector icon?
Let’s consider the following scenario, a company runs two Company databases for two separate locations, but uses the same suppliers and runs monthly Aged payable reports in each company. The management of the company would like to consolidate these two reports, but exporting them into Excel and then analyzing the data involves too much of ‘spreadsheet acrobatics’, besides how would you know which company which invoice belongs to, without adding more columns to the report? It is all possible, of course, but too time-consuming. Well, you can do it in Crystal Reports (CR), somebody says..that’s true, but CR can only work with one database at hand.
And here is the point – SAI has CR capabilities of working directly with data tables, but goes beyond it, in that it can consolidate various databases, and in a few different ways, depending on what you want to do.
Some people would like to compare SAI with other familiar products, in order to pin it down on their maps, and here is another comparison – Financial Reporter (FR) can produce G/L based reports, and even drilldown to details, but SAI can withdraw data from subledgers, where FR has no access. Similar to FR, SAI maintains formulas for specific financial data (such as Account Name "GLAMF"."ACCTDESC", or Fiscal Period - "GLPOST"."FISCALPERD"). More than that, SAI has its own set of canned Financial Statement templates, and I encourage you to explore them at your own time. In regards to drilldown, you can decide what level of details you want to drilldown summary figures (to be covered in future articles on SAI series).
Another great feature of SAI - having it’s own Launcher it can be accessed directly outside of Accpac and save you a Lanpak. In other words, a manager wishing to look up specific operations figures or review financial information doesn’t have to kick a clerk out of Accpac to access the reports.
Stay tuned for more detailed information about Sage Accpac Intelligence in the weeks to come and how you can better use this to get the information you need from your Sage ERP Accpac system.
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 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 Alison Boons on Fri, May 14, 2010 @ 04:47 PM
We found this great article on Stephen Smith's blog & would like to share it with you.
by Stephen Smith (http://smist08.wordpress.com)
Sage ERP Accpac uses Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as its macro language. This is the same macro language used by Microsoft office & many other Windows desktop applications. With VBA Macros you can access the Accpac Business Logic laryer & enter documents, perform processing like posting batches or print reports. Since every screen in Accpac is an ActiveX control, you can embed any screen in a VBA macro & then manipulate/customize it in a standard uniform manner. Writing VBA macros is a huge topic; there are many books available on the topic along with courses at Sage University on VBA specifically for Accpac. This blog posting just lists a few useful tips & tricks that people find helpful when programming Accpac macros. These assume a general knowledge of writing basic Accpac macros. These aren't in any particular order & tend to jump all over the place.
To read Stephen's ideas, check out the full article her
Posted by Wendy Gorrie on Thu, Apr 01, 2010 @ 01:26 PM
It is that time of year again, when we all have to get out our gardening duds, break out the swiffer and dust the cobwebs off.
While you are doing this, why don't you include maintenance of your Sage Accpac ERP system?
Your Sage Accpac system would love it if you gave it a little care and attention, you may consider reviewing things such as:
- Reviewing your backup plan including ensuring you actually have DATA on that backup.
- Reviewing your Data Integrity plan, are you regularly performing a data integrity check?
- What is the size of the available disk space on your server?
- Is your server performing at capacity?
- Have you checked in with your users lately? Perhaps they are having issues that they have developed "work arounds" for that is costing your organization time and effort needlessly.
- When did you last inventory your hardware?
- Are your Product Updates "up-to-date"?
If these tasks seem too time consuming or technical, call us, we can help!
Clients of Plus Computer Solutions who are current on their Gold and Silver Telephone Support contracts will be hearing from me soon to ensure that we work with you to include your Sage Accpac ERP review in your Spring cleaning plans.
Happy Spring!
Posted by Scott Davies on Fri, Mar 19, 2010 @ 09:06 AM
Have you ever said, "I wish I could print labels easily and have them formatted properly the first time"?
Stonefield Query allows you to print labels and supports the popular Avery Labels. Now you can print labels for Vendors, Invoices, Targeted Marketing Campaigns, and even Holiday Cards in a snap.
See for yourself in this 2 minute video: http://www.stonefieldquery.com/Videos/Generic/Creating_Labels_With_Stonefield_Query.wmv
(Courtesy of our friends at Stonefield Query.)
To learn more about Stonefield Query, or other products that work with your Accpac ERP software, contact our office today.