Sage Accpac Accounting Software Vancouver Blog - Unisoft

Recently we added two new videos to our video section on our site:

What’s New in Sage Accapc ERP 5.5 Fiancials?

This video basically covers System Manager, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Bank/Tax Services.

What’s New in Sage Accpac ERP 5.5 Operations?

Operations suite video shows thew new features in Order Entry, Inventory Control and Purchase Order as well as the improved integration of these modules with PJC, AP and AR.

Overall the Sage Accpac v5.5 release is a good move in the right direction for Sage Accpac, it was part of the Sage Accpac Extended Enterprise Suite which is essentially a complete business software solutions including ERP (accounting) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) along with some analytical dashboards.  Also, a number of optional modules (AR Inquiry, Customer Number Change, etc.) purchased separtely before are now part of the suite if you purchase the associated core modules.

Using Excel to retrieve sales information from Sage Accpac is quite simple and powerful.  In both the Order Entry and Inventory Control Modules there is a table that includes sales statistics. ICSTATI is the name of the table that includes the sales details for the inventory module. Essentially this is is a table that includes records per accounting period for the quantity sold, sales amount, return amounts and cost of goods sold.  By importing this table into Excel you can easily create a pivot table/report that shows your net sales (sales - returns) for a range of periods and/or years as shown below.

Sales by Period for 2009/2010

Preparing such reports can be accomplished with the help of our consultants, 604-926-3398.

New Sage Accpac ERP and CRM webcasts were released on unisoft’s website. Unisoft will be adding more webcasts on an ongoing basis so make sure to check back often.  There will be webcasts focusing severa categories.  Current Sage Accpac ERP and CRM users will be provided with webcasts on tips and tricks on how to use more of their business software and accounting system. There will also be a section for users on the new features in each version to keep you up to date on the lastest product developments. Finally, there will be a general business level section for managers and desicion makers to see how ERP and CRM software systems can help advance their business.

This is just a highlight of 2 of the many new features Sage Accpac ERP 5.5. It is also important to note there was a large effort to improve performance in the new release.

Drill Down to Quantities from Order Entry Screen

To all order entry transaction screens there is now the ability to drill down for each item to find out what is on sales order, which sales orders have quantities commited and what is on purchase order with associated expected arrival date. Previously Sage Accpac this was quite a task to retrieve this type of information for order entry clerk and now it can be done with the click of a button.

General Ledger Account Rollup

In the GL module you can now create rollup accounts that allow you to “rollup” account balances from child accounts into a parent account. For example you can setup a your sales accounts 4000, 4000-100 and 4000-200 and then rollup the balance from the 4000-100 and 4000-200 into the 4000 account balance. Previously this kind of information was obtained through the Financial Reporter in your financial reports. It can be now be simply setup through your GL chart of accounts.

The customer event for Sage Accpac 5.5 and Sage CRM 6.1 was held today at the head quarters for Sage Software’s Sage Accpac.  They gave a good mix of product demonstrations of the new features in Sage Accpac and Sage CRM as well as higher level business discussion on the value these products can bring to a business.  The theme of Laurie Schultz’s team focused on feedback from customers to improve the product is definitely started to show both in the products as well as the focus of the staff. Overall it was an excellent event for customers to see the value in upgrading their software to take advantage of the new features and free of charge modules.

If you weren’t able to attend the event either contact us from a product demonstration of the new features or check back on our website as Unisoft will be posting videos on “What’s New in Sage CRM and Sage Accpac?”

Take advantage of the benefits of your software assurance!  Version 5.4 of Sage Accpac ERP was released more than a year ago and some clients are still in Version 5.3 or even 5.2.  267 new features distributed across all the modules have been added and if you are still in an older version, then you are missing out on these benefits.  Most importantly, the older your version, the more time we may need to spend converting your data, so while you are no doubt almost always busy we still recommend upgrading during you slow season if it is at all possible.

Examples include:

Accounts Receivable –  Keep track of your client’s credit card information in a safe and secure place!

Accounts Payable – Specify the method of payment for documents within payment entry.

Order Entry – Inquire on sales orders by customer based on order status.

Purchase Order – Automatically post Accounts Payable batches created from Purchase Orders.

The list certainly goes on and on.  Remember, new features were developed based on client requests to Sage Accpac’s development team!

Call us today to book your upgrade date. 

customer.care@unisoft.net
604-926-3398

In many ways Sage Accpac possesses a love/hate relationship with its third party developers.

Let’s begin with the love…

Companies with complex accounting and operational management requirements will rarely find a software solution that fits them perfectly straight out of the box. To avoid this seeming drawback some companies will either go with industry specific products that are often poorly programmed, prone to bankruptcy and often inefficient in other areas, or make the wiser decision of picking up a well-known and sophisticated brand name product that can integrate with a variety of third party products to choose from. Accordingly, Sage Accpac ERP’s easy to develop for system architecture is arguably one of its many most attractive features for software programmers as well as for companies that are looking for reliable accounting systems that are flexible enough to accommodate their internal operation structures as they grow. With this is mind, during it’s evolution from the years of MS-DOS, Sage Accpac developers were guided to specifically program the Windows based Accpac program to accommodate third party developers. This may be attributed to the fact that corporate leaders at the time realized early on that rather than drowning in the quick sand of targeting vertical markets and thereby excluding various customer opportunities, they would instead use their growing resources to create the perfect full suite of accounting modules that can be used by all industries and incorporate in various windows and doors for developers to integrate their own industry specific products. Whatever the reason may be, this is one of the reasons Sage Accpac has thrived in an increasingly competitive market with the likes of giants like Microsoft. In other words, one of the reasons for Sage Accpac’s success in North America is because of the easy availability of third party products that integrate with it.

But we can’t forge the hate…

That being said, Sage has also succumbed to its greedier instincts and also created and acquired various add-on products for its core financial and operational modules that often come in to direct competition with its third party developers. For this reason and perhaps just because they can, Sage Accpac’s many third party developers have often been introduced beneath the shadow of Sage Software’s expanding girth. For example, at Sage Summit 2007 Sage Accpac third party developers were not given nearly as much publicity as business partners would have liked – after all, the reason Sage business partners attend Sage Summit is for the benefit of their customers, so that they can become more knowledgeable about current and future business solutions for them and third party products make up a huge part of this equation. But Sage was mainly promoting itself and although we can’t really blame them, we can certainly try!

Can’t live with them, can’t live without them

This is not to suggest that Sage and third party developers are butting heads all the time. In fact, there are only a few products that compete directly, but it is interesting to note that there is conference for Sage Accpac Third Party developers, hosted by a third party developer, rather than Sage itself, even though what is really being advertised first and foremost are Sage products! But what it comes down to in the end is that both David and Goliath wouldn’t have been famous if it wasn’t for their very public dueling relationship and in some strange and abstract way we can say the same about Sage Software and Sage Software Third Party Developers.

I wrote an article a while back about how to use the Sage Accpac data integrity check tool but did not include anything about how to analyze the reports generated from the data integrity check. As a consultant I have been asked many times from very worried customers why their data integrity check report is showing errors. In data integrity checks reports their are two different types of errors:

• Type 1 errors are data errors and need to be dealt with immediately as the represent damage or corrupted data. An example would be an corrupted data file that can’t be accessed by your data engine.
• Type 2 errors are accounting errors and can be quite normal but you should pay attention to these types of errors. An example of a type 2 error would be missing item number or order number.

It should be quite obvious to tell the difference between the two.  Again type 1 are almost alyways serious and should be dealt with immediately while type 2 can be serious but most times can be left alone or attended to at a later date. At Unisoft, we find it good practice to run the data integrity check once a month and try to fix any errors on an ongoing basis. 

Recently reviewed by The CPA Technology Advisor the 200 edition of Sage Accpac ERP 5.4 received 5 stars out of a possible 5.  The review is mid-range accounting systems and bases it’s assement on 6 categories:

1. Ease of Use/Transaction Entry - 5/5
2. Modules & Notable Features - 5/5
3. Integration/Import/Export - 5/5
4. Reporting - 5/5
5. Support/Training/Help System - 5/5
6. Relative Value - 5/5

Sage Accpac ERP got 5/5 for every category which is no surprise to Unisoft, an organization that has been dealing with accouting systems since 1989. One notable part of the review was the relative value where they stated that:

“Sage Accpac 200 ERP is an excellent product for companies that have outgrown their current software. The scalability of Sage Accpac with its three versions means that an investment in the product today will easily pay for itself over time.”

This is outstanding considering the other systems it was compared to including QuickBooks.  It also goes back to my article I wrote about outgrowing your current accounting system and moving to Sage Accpac as it is extremely scalable and according to this review, worth it’s value.

As the use of email is now the sole form of business communication for many businesses it is highly recommended that businesses use an email disclaimer.  This protect your business and help to esnure the privacy of emails. There are many sites that provide sample disclaimers that can be easily put to use. There are also applications to ensure every email has a disclaimer attached. I also think this adds a level of professionalism to your emails that can help build a trusting relationship with your customers.