Sage MAS Intelligence – Schulz Consulting

Sage MAS Intelligence (SMI) Free Web Demonstration Schedule

August 22, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

As you know the FRX Financial Reporting tool included with Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 General Ledger is no longer supported by the software publisher (Microsoft).

Sage have issued prior notices on this which you can review here.

FRX remains compatible with prior versions of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200. Sage have also indicated it will be compatible with the next version 4.5 slated for release 9/8/11 – though the only assistance Sage can provide is with integration to Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200. All bug fixes and patches have ceased to be readily available for the FRX program.

For new custom financial reporting projects involving more than a few hours of efforts you may wish to evaluate which reporting tool you should use to create new reports.

Moving forward users of FRX will eventually need to migrate to another reporting solution. Sage have provided Sage MAS Intelligence (SMI) as their recommended solution.

SMI is Microsoft Excel based and draws data not only from your financial data but also data from other MAS 90 + MAS 200 data files such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, etc.

Sage published this PDF which provides many tips and online links showing how to get started with SMI. Those of you with immediate reporting needs may find it helpful to review the information which goes into greater depth on available resources.

On Wednesday August 24, 2011 Sage will sponsor a free one hour look (30 minute demo and 30 minute question and answer) at creating financial statements using SMI Report Designer. The session starts at 1pm PDT or 4pm EDT. You can sign up here to attend this overview or review the schedule of future SMI web seminars.

Sage MAS Intelligence Quick Guides (PDF)

March 4, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

Sage yesterday provided our 90 Minds Consulting Group with three documents that explain a little more about the features, functionality and cost of their Sage MAS Intelligence reporting tool.

As you probably recall Sage was forced to retire the distribution of FRX Financial Reporting as of January 31, 2011. This occurred because Microsoft (the owner/publisher of FRX) discontinued distribution effectively bringing product sales of FRX to an end of life with support terminating at the end of 2012.

Though Sage have promised FRX compatibility through Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 v4.5 – they’re already rolling out Sage MAS Intelligence as their featured replacement for FRX. Since existing users of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 receive a free license of Sage MAS Intelligence (customers on plan receive a free Report Manager license and a Security Manager for Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 v4.4 — or EES 1.4).

There have been a number of questions (cost, functionality) that users and consultants have asked which I think are answered quite nicely in the PDF files below.

Sage MAS Intelligence Cheat Sheet

Getting Going With Sage ERP MAS Intelligence

What is Sage MAS Intelligence?

FRX to SMI Conversion Utility On The Way From Sage

January 26, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

January 2011 is the last month that Sage is able to sell FRX. This has been known for a while and it’s the direct result of a decision by Microsoft to stop offering FRX. Support will still be available until 2012 and Sage have indicated that version 4.5 of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 will continue to be backward compatible with FRX.

Sage have introduced a new tool for FRX users called Sage MAS Intelligence (SMI). This is a re-branded version of the Alchemex reporting tool which is already in widespread use by other ERP packages including Accpac.

However one potential stumbling block with adopting Sage MAS Intelligence is that existing FRX users have no utility to convert their reporting files. Until now.

Erik Kaas, Sage Director Product Management for the Sage MAS product line, has just revealed that a conversion utility is due at some undetermined point in the future:

Sage recently received permission from Microsoft that allows Sage to decrypt the proprietary FRx files. Sage will use this to create a utility that will help reduce the effort to migrate FRx reports into Sage MAS Intelligence. This utility will not “automagically” transform FRx files, but it should allow consultants or users familiar with FRx to more quickly recreate similar reports in SMI. We will be working on the utility but don’t have a specific release date yet. We’ll provide updates as we get closer to releasing

via Linkedin

How To Convert FRX to Sage MAS Intelligence (SMI)

January 25, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

Struggling to convert your FRX financial reports to Sage MAS Intelligence (SMI)?

As you probably are aware, FRX was the reporting tool bundled with all versions of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200. Starting in January 2011 Microsoft has stopped selling FRX. As of the end of 2012 FRX support will no longer be available. In response Sage have pledged to keep version 4.5 of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 backward compatible with FRX.

Beyond version 4.5 it’s anyone’s guess whether FRX will continue working with Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200. For this reason Sage have introduced a re-badged version of Alchemex (an Excel based report writer) as their FRX replacement. Marketed as Sage MAS Intelligence this reporting tool is being provided to every user of MAS.

Users of FRX have questioned whether their existing reports will migrate automatically to SMI. Unfortunately the answer ultimately is no. However Craig Juta from bxintelligence has posted this short 5 minute video that could give you an idea of the ease with which a person skilled with Excel can convert FRX reports.

FRX to Sage MAS Intelligence Conversion in 6 Steps (5 minute video)

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