Integrated Document Management allows you to take your current processes and streamline them so that you can eliminate the paper and the unnecessary steps, while increasing visibility and control over the process. Once you eliminate the paper, you will have more time and resources that can be used to evolve your business.

To learn more about how to go paperless and streamline processes throughout your business, attend our educational webinar on Sage ERP Document Management on Thursday, June 6 at 11 am PT. Click Here to Register

Accounts Payable

√ Print on-demand checks directly from the Hold/Release Invoices function, saving steps and time.

√ (BBj only) Print checks on blank check form stock with MICR coding–to use this, you must order the appropriate check form stock and set the Check Form Type in Accounts Payable Options and Interfaces to Blank Form.

√ (BBj only) Choose the number of signature lines for plain paper checks in the Bank Account function of Resource Manager.

√ Sort and view AP transactions using the new Transaction Inquiry function.

√ Vendor Labels function of AP now contains an option to skip a specific number of labels at print time, enabling you to use up partially printed sheets of labels.

√ You can limit the vendor labels to include only vendors that use specific Distribution Codes.

√ Skip the print alignment process by unchecking the Print Alignment? Box.

√ You can now use 15 characters to enter invoice numbers in AP and Purchase Order.

√ OSAS V7.6 features a number of enhancements to prepayments in AP:

• The Distribution Codes maintenance function includes a specific deposit account in GL.
• Prepayments in Hold/Release Invoices are treated and processed as deposits.
• Use the new Deposit History Report function in the History Reports menu to view deposit history information.

The Sage 100 ERP 2013 release (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 5.0) will focus on providing compelling value to existing customers, generating interest in the marketplace with new connected services and add-on solutions, and continuing to offer more deployment and pricing options.  Substantial value will be provided to existing customers by addressing their top enhancement requests, Auto Updates for easy application of Sage 100 ERP Product Updates, and enhanced Credit Card Processing using Sage Exchange.

Enhancements will be across the product in Accounts Payable, Bank Reconciliation, Inventory Management, Paperless Office, Sage CRM, and enhanced Credit Card Processing though Sage Exchange.  We strongly encourage customers running older versions of Sage 100 ERP to schedule their 2013 upgrades shortly following the release, so they can begin utilizing the enhancements and the business benefits outlined in this document.

This is the first article in a series in which we will focus a few of the most important enhancements in the new Sage 100 ERP 2013.  Here is an overview of the new Accounts Payable features:

NEW FUNCTIONALITY IN ACCOUNTS PAYABLE

New Accounts Payable features in the 2013 release will provide customers with the ability to use the same invoice number as their vendor’s, inactivate vendors while retaining all their information in the system, and easily view cleared checks in Vendor Maintenance.

 EXPANDED INVOICE NUMBER

The Invoice Number field will be expanded in the 2013 release to accommodate up to 20 characters.  This allows the entire invoice number of a vendor to be entered, meaning the customer may use the same invoice number in the Sage100 ERP system as the vendor’s invoice number, minimizing errors.

In order to keep the portrait format of some reports and listings, such as Aged Invoice Report and Trial Balance, they will be slightly modified to display the full 20 character AP Vendor Invoice number. Journals and Journal Comments that contain references to the Vendor No, Invoice Number, and Comment Detail will use additional rows in order to accommodate the longer field length.

INACTIVE VENDOR

The 2013 release will allow Vendors to be inactivated, and to allow creation of “reason codes” to reference why that action was taken.  All historical transactions will be maintained until an authorized user chooses to permanently delete those records. Full details of the action taken will be in the audit log, and only authorized users can make a payment to a vendor with an inactive status to avoid payment mistakes. Also, Inactive Vendors will be able to be hidden from view, or to be excluded from listings and forms for faster lookups and data entry.

CLEARED CHECK INFORMATION CONVENIENTLY AVAILABLE

In response to Sage 100 ERP customer requests, the 2013 release will include the option to display and access all relevant bank information in convenient places, as well as the option to show the cleared check information in Bank Reconciliation, in Accounts Payable Vendor Maintenance, without having to access the Bank Reconciliation module.  Cleared checks will also be displayed in the Invoices, Transactions and Check Tabs in Vendor Maintenance.

Sage Software is constantly listening to what our clients want. Our clients are saying that they want to be able to access their accounting software any time and from any place. Whether that be from the office connected to their local networks or remotely using tablets, smart phones and other devices, they want access. Sage has heard the message and over the next few months you will be seeing them add more and more capability to do just that.

Across all their product lines Sage Software is developing a new communications structure called the Sage Argos SDK that will allow remote, any time access to your accounting information. As technology continues to evolve, Sage Software will continue to offer the technology that their clients request without adding technology just for technology’s sake.

With OSAS Version 7.6, you can ‘lock’ periods so that nothing will post to that particular period?

In Resource Manager, Company Setup, Accounting Periods you select the year that you want to work with and under each application tag it YES in the period that you wish to close. Again, you can select periods in the past and periods in the future and only leave open a single period or two periods.

When someone tries to post in an application and the period for that application was closed they will get a message telling them that they cannot post to a closed period.

You do not have to close all the applications. You can leave General Ledger open if you are still working in it but close all the other applications to prevent employees from posting to the wrong period.

Closing all applications in all periods in last year is recommended so that no one could accidently post back to a past year

In both TRAVERSE and OSAS you must set up BANK ACCOUNTS to direct incoming and outgoing funds to a particular account. All this function does is direct transactions to the proper General Ledger Account and allow processing to the proper Bank Account and GL number.

While this steam lines the process of Cash Receipts, Payroll, and Invoice Payments it does not keep up with the checks or deposits that have passed through the bank account, thereby you must go to either the AR history, the AP history, the PA history, or the General Ledger in order to reconcile your bank accounts.

With the Bank Reconciliation application all deposits and checks that are processed in AP, AR, PA, flow into bank reconciliation. They remain there so that at month end you can ‘tag’ each deposit or check that has cleared the bank and check your totals to know that your bank account is in balance with your General Ledger.

With Bank Reconciliation you can also enter transactions directly into Bank Reconciliation. These can be monthly fees electronically taken from your bank account or transfers of fund between bank accounts, or any adjustments that need to be made.

If these same adjustments occur each month you can set them up as ‘recurring adjustments’ and automatically bring them into transactions each month when you reconcile your bank account.

When you void a check out of Payroll or Accounts Payable this ‘voided’ check will also be reflected in the Bank Reconciliation balance. You can also void checks from right within Bank ReconciliationIf .

If you’d like a demonstration of Bank Reconciliation and how it can speed up your processing? Give us a call or send us an email!

• Accounts Payable Checks:

Use the Void Checks Function found in Pay Invoices to void these checks back to the wrong year that you posted them to. Then go into Hold/Release and Pre-Pay these invoices with the check numbers that you originally paid them with and assign the correct day, month and year to them. Process now to the correct year.

• Accounts Payable Transactions:

To completely reverse invoices posted to the wrong year you should issue Miscellaneous Debits to each one in the incorrect year. Post these. Now enter the proper year and process these as invoices again. You can take the short cut of just adjusting your general ledger but this does NOT make any adjustments to your Transaction History in Accounts Payable, now will it correct any inventory that may have been purchased.

• General Ledger Transactions:

If you have already written these transactions but not posted to the master you can enter edit transactions in the wrong year and zero out the amounts or you can just make reversing entries in the wrong year. Then switch years and re-enter into the correct year.

• Inventory:

Because of valuation reports and physical inventories any wrong year entries you make should be reversed out of the wrong year and entered into the correct year.

• Bank Reconciliation:

Reverse as a negative in wrong year, then re-enter into the correct year

• Accounts Payable Checks:

Use the Void Checks Function found in Pay Invoices to void these checks back to the wrong year that you posted them to. Then go into Hold/Release and Pre-Pay these invoices with the check numbers that you originally paid them with and assign the correct day, month and year to them. Process now to the correct year.

• Accounts Payable Transaction:

To completely reverse invoices posted to the wrong year you should issue Miscellaneous Debits to each one in the incorrect year. Post these. Now enter the proper year and process these as invoices again. You can take the short cut of just adjusting your general ledger but this does NOT make any adjustments to your Transaction History in Accounts Payable, now will it correct any inventory that may have been purchased.

• General Ledger Transactions:

If you have already written these transactions but not posted to the master you can enter edit transactions in the wrong year and zero out the amounts or you can just make reversing entries in the wrong year. Then switch years and re-enter into the correct year.

• Inventory:

Because of valuation reports and physical inventories any wrong year entries you make should be reversed out of the wrong year and entered into the correct year.

• Bank Reconciliation:

Reverse as a negative in wrong year, then re-enter into the correct year

Sage MAS 90 will become Sage 100 ERP.  Sage MAS 200 will become Sage 100 ERP Advanced.  Sage MAS 200 SQL will become Sge 100 ERP Extended.  The new names are designed to indicate the increasing technology available with each version of Sage 100 while the look and feel of the programs to the user are the same.

A lot of time and effort has gone into the rebranding of Sage Software products.  While having the resources of the large Sage family behind each of their products is impressive, it’s the features of the software itself that will sell it, not the name.  Companies care about the ability of an ERP program to solve their accounting problems and make their company more efficient and profitable first.  The name of the product is secondary.

If Sage continues to pour the effort and resources into improving their software products that they’ve spent on the rebranding effort, they can’t help but succeed.  They have a large, diverse portfolio of excellent software products.  Investing this kind of effort in improving each of their products will produce dividends, not only for Sage’s customers but for Sage as a company itself.

Mark Ledford

Amazing Solutions, Inc.