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ACH Electronic Payments Processing For Sage 100 ERP

April 24, 2012 by Wayne Schulz

My friend and 90 Minds colleague Ed Wlodarczyk of Jacksonville Florida based Ennis, Pellum & Associates has a nice post that documents the steps users of Sage 100 ERP can take in order to send ACH electronic payments from within their accounting software.

Increase your efficiencies, improve your cash management, reduce operating costs and lessen the risk of lost or stolen checks by paying vendors electronically using an ACH file created from the Accounts Payable module. Enable ACH electronic payments, define how they will be handled by your company, and the type of information that will be transmitted to your financial institution.

You have the flexibility to select and set up one or more financial institution(s) for your electronic payments, and for each one you select, define the format and layout of the ACH file. The feature includes pre-note functionality, and flexibility in your electronic payment distribution, including options to allocate amounts between one or more accounts.

ACH information on processed payments, historical information and vendors paid electronically is available on AP Reports. They can include auto checks, manual checks, voided checks, reversals, credit card transfers, electronic payments, wire transfer information in any combination.

This enhancement was added to version 4.4 Product Update 2 as an incorporation of the prior Sage Extended Solution AP-1063. There is no additional cost to use the feature , including creating the transmission file, as it’s included as part of the base program.

Sending electronic payments is a great timesaver for any company issuing many expense checks to remote employees and for situations where vendors request ACH payment.

For more details head to Ed’s Blog

Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 v4.50 Product Update 2 Now Available

December 26, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

Sage have been working hard over the holidays creating their second product update for Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 4.50 as well as their 8th product update for version 4.40.

Check the list of new features in 4.50 PU 2 here or 4.40 PU 8 here. There’s a new inventory balancing utility on the *UTL hidden menu and slow performance printing Crystal Forms across the network in 4.50.

Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 Product Updates – Version 4.50

Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 Product Updates – Version 4.40

How To Change Inventory Standard Cost in MAS90 or MAS200 4.4+

September 26, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

If you’ve been using Sage ERP MAS 90 or MAS 200 Inventory since prior to release 4.4 then you may know (or should know) about a release enhancement that impacts anyone making changes to the standard cost of an Inventory item.

In prior releases (v4.3 and earlier) this standard cost field on the Inventory Maintenance field was modifiable. You could change it at will (whether that is the right way to make the change for accounting purposes is between you and your accountant).

With the release of 4.4 Sage changed (corrected?) this feature.

Now instead of seeing a field for standard cost which you can edit at will – you must follow a specific posting procedure to change the cost.

This procedure has always been there – Sage is just now forcing you to use a more formal method for making the change.

Here’s the description of how Sage would allow you to make a standard cost change prior to 4.4:

For Standard Cost items, although the standard cost can be manually changed within Inventory Maintenance, this change will not update the inventory value in General Ledger. Using an adjustment to bring the total quantity (for all warehouses) to 0 at the current (incorrect) standard cost will bring the total quantity and total value in inventory to 0. At that time, you can manually change the standard cost within the Inventory Masterfile and adjust the total quantity back in at the new standard cost. This transaction will update General Ledger with the new inventory value.

The Automatic Cost/Price Change utility can also be used to update the standard cost for ranges of items. This utility does not update the general ledger. A Journal Entry will need to be made for the difference in inventory value. The Inventory Valuation Report should be printed before and after the change and then used to make adjustments in General Ledger.

If the item has a bill of material, the ‘Cost Roll up Register’ can also be used to change the Standard cost.

Here’s Sage’s knowledgebase entry on the issue that exists with 4.4+:
Unable to change the standard cost field. The standard cost is grayed out in Inventory Maintenance

Along with their recommended workaround of using Standard Cost Adjustment Entry:
How to enter Standard Cost Adjustments for an inventory item

What you should know is that making this standard cost adjustment will require exclusive access to your MAS 90 or MAS 200 inventory. This means people working within integrated modules (think Sales Order, Purchase Order, Inventory, etc) will need to exit the software for the period of time when the update is running. This can be a potential issue for any company where cost adjustments were entered manually several times per day. Be sure you consider this impact on your workflow during your MAS90 or MAS200 upgrade to version 4.4 planning.

Sage Rolls Out MAS 90 “Wicked Edition” with Product Update 5

March 29, 2011 by Wayne Schulz

For years my users have been clamoring for a way to tell their separate MAS 90 companies apart. Usually what they’d ask for is a different shade of background color so if they logged into the system without paying attention they’d HAVE to notice they were working in a different company.

Be careful what you wish for.

Sage have just rolled out their MAS90 Product Update 5 which includes enhancements to update the Form 941 to the latest format as well as bundling in an enhancement that’s been available for a while but only at a separate charge.

Formerly known as LM-1028 Company-Specific Background Colors – this enhancement is now bundled into MAS (as of PU5) and allows you to choose whether you want a company to have a unique background color. According to Sage color editing is helpful for telling different companies apart at a glance. One of the default colors is a glowing shade of green more suited to fans of the Broadway Musical Wicked where the lead character in the story is known for being born a glowing shade of green (see also How to win tickets to the NYC Broadway Wicked show).

Visit this link for more information on Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 Product Update 5.

Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 v4.4 Product Update 4 – What’s New

December 28, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

Sage just uploaded their latest product update for Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.4. This release was previously announced as containing fixes centered around the year end processing time.

Instead of introducing new features which might carry pesky bugs and increase support burdens – Sage have wisely decided that product update 4 will primarily be to fix open issues as well as add any needed functionality for those closing the year and preparing year end governmental reporting.

Here’s a concise summary of what you can expect in product update 4.

MAS90 and MAS200 4.4 Product Update 4 What’s New

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