upgrade – Page 4 – Schulz Consulting

Sage 100 ERP Upgraders: V4.5 vs V2013 – Which Should You Upgrade To?

May 21, 2013 by Wayne Schulz

Earlier this week I asked my private 90 Minds Consulting Group which is comprised of 130 experienced Sage partners from across North America whether they’d recommend Sage 100 ERP v4.5 or v2013 for a customer upgrade.

Here’s my exact question about whether it’s better to upgrade to Sage 100 ERP v4.5 or Sage 100 ERP 2013?:

Ok to go with Sage 100 ERP 2013 from v4.3 or are you still recommending 4.5?

I’m very hesitant to put a customer on a version (4.5) that’s already one level back when the upgrade fee is fairly costly to begin with.

If I hop to 4.5 then I will presumably still have a decent hop to 2013 (given the credit card upload which this customer is using).

What say everyone – 4.5 or is 2013 ready?

Notes:

1. Credit Card Upload is a reference to Sage 100 ERP 2013 requiring integrated credit card users to move to Sage Payments (if they are not already on the platform). During the upgrade all payment data is uploaded to the Sage Vault which can be time consuming depending upon the volume.

2. This information is general in nature and may not be applicable to your company. Please consult with your Sage Business Partner.

3. The responses are unfiltered and come from experienced Sage 100 consultants with a varying degree of experience with the Sage 100 ERP 2013 upgrade. Complexity of upgrades vary from company to company and it’s impossible to list every complicating factor from an upgrade which might have tainted one person’s opinion.

Is It “Safe” To Upgrade To Sage 100 ERP 2013?

(A compilation of feedback received from 90 Minds members)

I’m installing 2013 whenever I can. Because if not now, when? Before you know it 2014 will be released and your client will again be 2 versions behind.

We are going to 2013 as a rule, unless they have a third party that is not yet ready, such as JobOps. JobOps 2013 is out some time in June, so then we’ll recommend 2013 for most.

The real $64,000 question that the customer asks “will there be any bugs if we go 2013 v 4.5? ” … talk about setting yourself up to be blamed for making the decision if there are any v2013 issues that arise…….

Answer: Yes, but that is true with any software, no matter how mature. However, we will make sure all patches are installed on a timely manner, as needed, and we’ll help you as new bugs are discovered to mitigate any problems that arise. That is our job. However, we are not the publishers of the software and we can not, and do not, make any guarantees regarding the software.

We are starting to roll it out for smaller clients. For a 20 user wholesale distribution customer I would still be nervous, but if they were anxious to upgrade “now” I would probably go with it and do as much testing as possible. Pretty sorry state of affairs when the software has been out for 6+ months and people have little confidence.

In the good old days… we would wait until the first fix collection came out. I am not as close as I used to be, but it seems 2013 is having some underlying technical issues in our hosted environment which makes me wonder…

We also are running into situations where the Extended Solutions people still rely upon are taking time to be upgraded.

My biggest issues are all Crystal and workstation related.

I would go for it – we have a client, 100 advanced, Distribution BOM, a lot of custom fields/scripting, things have been running well. My feeling is that it’s ready, and it’s a separate install, so you have the opportunity to do some good testing prior to a final migration.

I say 4.5, I had one upgrade from 371 to 5.0 (Sage 100 ERP 2013) everything went wonderfully with exception to Printing and Sage Exchange communication errors that were invalid and seemed to be locking issues. Spent several weeks dealing with it , Sage Support was involved but got the typical answer of Reinstalling the applications. I did not reinstall. However after …

Here is a nice collection of Sage 100 ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200) links which might be helpful to you as you try to decide on which version to upgrade your system to. This includes a link to Sage’s page showing what’s new in almost every version of Sage 100 ERP since the 3.x days. Sage 100 ERP Technical Resource Links for Upgraders

Sage 100 ERP 2013 Payroll and Tax Form Printing Tip

December 31, 2012 by Wayne Schulz

Beginning with Sage 100 ERP 2013 (fka MAS90 or MAS200) printing for W2, 941 and 1099 tax forms is hidden with Sage suggesting that you use the eFiling which is included with Sage 100 ERP 2013.

If instead of using the included Aatrix Federal and State eFiling and Reporting (which BTW works very well and allows quite nice after-the-fact edits before printing forms) you wish to print the forms the “old fashioned” way from within Sage 100 ERP 2013 – you simply need to follow these instructions to unhide the tax form printing.

New installations of Sage 100 ERP will not have the 3 menu tasks listed. To enable these tasks, from the toolbar menu click File > Run and type the utility name *unhidetaxforms.

When these menu options are unhidden, these installations will get the same warning message to say that ‘starting in 2014…no longer supported’.

Note: After the 2013 Tax Filing Year, Sage will no longer be providing W-2, 1099 and 941 form changes in the standard Sage 100 product. You will be able to use eFiling and Reporting feature, which allows you to either print W-2, 1099 and 941 forms directly to your printer and/or eFile directly to applicable tax agency through Aatrix.

via: Sage 100 ERP – 2012 Year End Frequently Asked Questions

Sage 100 ERP Support And Technical Links

December 18, 2012 by Wayne Schulz

I’ve just completed a listing of helpful Sage 100 ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200) links which take you directly to the latest release disks (needed for upgrading) as well as administrator and user guides.

Links include:

Sage 100 ERP Tax Table Update

Sage 100 ERP 941 Form Changes

Sage 100 ERP v2013 Download Site

Sage 100 ERP Online Documentation

Sage 100 ERP Supported Platforms

Sage 100 ERP Integrated Solutions Compatibility

Sage 100 ERP Product Updates

Sage 100 ERP Road Ahead

Sage 100 ERP 2013 New Features

And more.

Sage 100 ERP Helpful Support Links

Where Can I Download Sage 100 ERP (fka MAS90 or MAS200) version 2013?

December 14, 2012 by Wayne Schulz

Sage has just turned on their landing page for the new release of Sage 100 ERP 2013.

This release of Sage 100 ERP 2013 is available entirely by download. There are no disks sent by mail. Luckily the process for downloading the 2.29 GB file is very simple (see instructions below) and takes under an hour (depending upon your connection speed).

Once downloaded you will have a single self-extracting EXE file which when clicked creates a folder holding the entire installation disk (including Crystal Reports). Separate downloads are needed if you use Sage CRM or Sage Intelligence reporting.

Once downloaded you can install your upgrade (we strongly recommend consulting your Sage business partner first) from the source files on your server.

Schulz Consulting / DSD Business Systems customers should not worry about downloading the file as we’ve already secured copies and will transfer this file (as well as all other files needed to upgrade) onto your servers via the use of Dropbox which will synchronize the files overnight for you.

This update introduces several enhancements to Sage 100 ERP (fka MAS90 and MAS200)

Visual Process Flows – Menu “maps” make navigating the system easier than ever.
Sage Exchange integration for credit cards now allows for use of credit card swipers (Important: Talk to your partner about the conversion process as it may be more time consuming if you have many years of credit card history. Also please recall that PC Charge is no longer supported on Sage 100 ERP 2013).
Customers and vendors may now be designated as inactive.
Cleared checks from Bank Reconciliation now show up in Account Payable vendor maintenance.
Multiple ERP companies can access a single Sage CRM database.
Sage Advisor notifies you when it’s time to upgrade

The Sage 100 ERP 2013 software may be downloaded from:

CUSTOMERS:

Sage 100 ERP customers on a Business Care plan can download your copy by logging on to the Customer Portal, and then clicking on www.Sage100ERP.com/download2013. Before you download, Sage recommends that you check with your certified solution provider to assist with your upgrade.

PARTNERS:

Sage 100 ERP certified Business Partners can download your copy by logging onto the Partner Portal, and then clicking on www.Sage100ERP.com/download2013.

Detailed Information On What’s New in Sage 100 ERP 2013 fka MAS90 MAS200

For a more in-depth description of new features in this release – please review either of the PDF files

Sage 100 ERP – At-a-Glance Version Enhancements Version 2013 (PDF)

Sage 100 ERP 2013 Detailed Release Guide (PDF)

Need help understanding your upgrade options? Contact Us.

Windows 8 Upgrade: First Thoughts

October 28, 2012 by Wayne Schulz

Anyone load Windows 8 yet? I spent a couple hours loading the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Pretty interesting change. I was very surprised that I did not have many problems navigating. Admittedly I did not try to use it in a network environment (home vs office are two very different work situations).

I like (and hope they continuously improve) the Metro (modern) UI which displays what are essentially a bunch of live tile widgets.

My concerns are:

a. Microsoft will leverage their monopoly to be sure their native apps are the primary ones which work well on Windows 8

b. The settings are going to be tough for people to get their arms around.

c. I’m not sure that I am sold on touch and laptops but I could be persuaded

d. The Microsoft Surface — especially Surface RT v Pro are two very different animals (one only runs Windows 8 apps the other full Windows apps) and I think will be a little to complex to explain to most users. I can see the RT going away quickly in favor of full Window 8 tablets (which honestly are just compact laptops by my view).

I did not put Sage 100 through any type of rigorous testing – other than to see if it started and I could log in. There is a separate desktop that looks just like Windows 7 (hidden behind Metro UI) which is pretty easy to start up and use.

Time will tell but I was more favorably impressed than I though I would be.