That is where simple reporting tools, like Microsoft Office Excel, can become such an asset to your daily business processes. 

Did you know that by leveraging Microsoft Office Excel, you can manipulate your reporting data from your Sage MAS ERP solution so that you can:

• Reduce the file size of an Excel document even after a PivotTable has been included?
• Separate an Excel column of mixed positive and negative figures into two different columns?
• Insert a chart without going through the Chart wizard?
• Automatically insert a frequently used list of items into a worksheet?
• Display numbers in one or several columns as only thousands or millions?
• Automate the comparison of two lists to identify the differences between the two?
• Easily print different ranges in the same spreadsheet for different departments?
• Match the name of a worksheet tab to a cell on the worksheet?
• Sort a month column in month order?
• Customize your Excel user experience?

Learn how to accomplish all of this and so much more by downloading the “Simplify your Sage Reporting Process: Excel Tips and Tricks Booklet” here. 

If your reporting needs extend beyond the functionality available in Excel, Sage MAS 90 and 200 and Sage MAS 500 contain several tools to enhance your data reporting and analysis, including the powerful new tool, Sage MAS Intelligence. 

Mistakes Can Be Costly

We’re human – we make mistakes. But human error in the warehouse comes with a price. No matter how large or small the order, inaccurate order fulfillment usually results in additional unnecessary costs with no corresponding increase in revenue – a real hit to the bottom line. 

Consider the example of a customer that receives an over shipment, under shipment, or just the wrong order due to a data entry error.  You’re now in a position where you incur additional shipping costs for the returned items as well as labor costs to process the return and re-process the correct order.  Not to mention the “soft” cost of a potentially unhappy customer.  By all accounts, companies that have implemented automated WMS technology have significantly reduced or completely eliminated these situations.

Work Smarter
Have you ever found yourself or your staff wandering around the warehouse looking for inventory that you know is out there somewhere but can’t seem to find it?  Maybe someone filled an order earlier in the day but forgot to enter it in the system.  Or maybe it was moved to another area but never recorded. 

With Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, a handheld scanner will guide your warehouse personnel with precise instructions as to which aisles and bins hold which products.  As the item is picked, it’s simply scanned and your Sage MAS 90 or 200 inventory module is instantly updated.  What’s more, WMS can transmit specific picking and routing instructions to the handheld device to prevent multiple trips to the same area of the warehouse for better efficiency.

Warehouse Automation for Sage MAS 90 and 200
Any business, large or small, can appreciate the benefits of eliminating manual keystrokes, reducing labor costs, and eliminating errors.  And that’s exactly what happens when you automate your warehouse using Sage MAS 90 and 200.  You can replace the old paper tickets and manual data entry with handheld wireless scanners and bar codes that seamlessly feed real-time inventory data into Sage MAS 90 and 200. Plus with better and more accurate information, you’ll make more confident stocking decisions and reduce excess inventory.

There are several flavors of warehouse automation available for your Sage MAS 90 or 200 system from simple bar coding to a full-featured wireless Warehouse Management System.  Read how Ultratech teamed with Socius to help manage their warehouse using Sage MAS 90.

What is ACH?

ACH is an acronym that stands for Automated Clearing House. The ACH network is a secure payment transfer system that connects banks all over the U.S., making it easy for them to transfer funds amongst one another while relying on a common set of standards. It represents an important link in the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) process that acts as a sort of escrow for payments as they await clearance for their financial banking destination. 

The new ACH feature in Accounts Payable allows you to use EFT as an alternative to issuing paper checks for payment.  That means paying vendors and taking advantage of early payment discounts is easier and faster than ever.  Plus, you eliminate the complications and cost of:

• Processing paper checks including printing, stuffing, and mailing
• Purchasing and securing paper check stock
• Approvals and signatures that can delay paper processing

Since ACH is governed by strict rules that regulate electronic payments, you can rest assured that your electronic banking transactions are totally secure.  The new ACH feature supports both the United States (NACHA) and Canadian (AFT) formats.

What is Positive Pay?

If you’re unfamiliar with Positive Pay, it’s essentially a tool for fraud prevention and security.  Offered by most banks, Positive Pay is a service that matches the check number, account number, and dollar amount of each check presented for payment against a list of checks that have been previously authorized by your company.  All three components of the check must match the exact details of the authorized list or the bank will not pay.

With Positive Pay in Sage MAS 500 Version 7.3, a file is generated and sent to the bank each day that checks are written.  That file contains information necessary for the bank to match your authorized payments. In the event that a check is presented that does not match the list, the bank will send an image of the item to you for manual authorization to pay or return the check.

See ACH and Positive Pay in Action – View a Quick Demo

The Disconnected Enterprise
Small businesses today are faced with the same operational complexities as their larger counterparts.  Unfortunately without an equally large technology budget, small businesses are often forced to rely on a patchwork of systems. One system for accounting, another system for sales, and maybe a third for operations.  Sprinkle in a few spreadsheets and rogue databases across various departments and you’ve got the recipe for duplicate data entry, inaccurate reporting, inefficiency, and excessive IT support costs.  That’s where Sage MAS 90/200 Extended Enterprise Suite comes in.

The Extended Enterprise
At the heart of Extended Enterprise suite is the same Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 software you’re using today. Your core system is then extended by adding SageCRM, FAS Fixed    Assets, and a variety of other tools that combine to create a completely integrated front- and back-office suite. Whether data is entered by sales, accounting, customer service, or someone on the shop floor, everything is captured in one integrated system. That means everyone in your company is working from the same data, following the same workflow, and breaking down departmental barriers to improve efficiency.  It transforms your business from a restricted enterprise with departmental bottlenecks to an integrated and free-flowing extended enterprise.

A Quick Look at SageCRM
SageCRM is one of the most important reasons you’d upgrade to Extended Enterprise Suite.  If you’re unfamiliar with CRM software, it’s useful to think of it as technology that helps you manage sales and customer relationships. SageCRM provides tools for contact and lead management, sales pipeline reporting, task management, call center automation, and marketing campaign management.

Perhaps most important is that ALL customer and prospect interaction is entered into a single database that’s part of your core Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 system. Critical information about your customers is stored in one place and automatically synchronized regardless of whether you’re updating SageCRM or Sage MAS 90.  If your accounting department puts a customer on hold in MAS 90 because of past-due invoices, your salespeople will stay informed through SageCRM.  Likewise, salespeople benefit from access to pricing, inventory, and customer history without having to fumble around in MAS 90 or interrupt your accounting staff with numerous inquiries.

The View From Here is Great
With Extended Enterprise Suite, all company transactions are unified into a single database – both front and back office.  Integrated data translates into more accurate reports, better decisions, and a complete 360-degree view of your operations.  Plus, you’ll eliminate duplicate data entry, improve the accuracy of your data, and eliminate the costs associated with maintaining multiple systems and databases.

See the full capabilities of Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended Enterprise Suite in this video demonstration.

If you select Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL, your management will appreciate the robust accounting functionality coupled with the way the solution is tailored to your processes, while your IT department will appreciate the stability of the SQL database and the ease of implementation, customization, and maintenance. 

Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL enables you to combine a broad range of modules to build an ERP system optimized for your business.  The available modules cover the following features:

• Accounting and Financials
• Business Intelligence and Reporting
• Light Assembly and Distribution
• Customization, Integration, and Data Imports

If you so choose, you can purchase the SQL Server and licenses through Sage at the time that you purchase your Sage ERP MAS 200 SQL system.  If you are current Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200 customer, or a Sage ERP MAS 200 for SQL 3.xx customer, you will be able to choose to move to the SQL option with the 4.5 release, which is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2011.

Here are the main entry screens that allow for intercompany transactions:

1. General Journal transactions (GL)
2. Recurring journal transactions (GL)
3. Allocation entries and transactions (GL)
4. Process Vouchers (AP)
5. Recurring Vouchers (AP)
6. Enter Purchase Order (PO)

All of these entry screens open up a company ID drop down on the lines screen of the transaction.

An intercompany transaction in Accounts Payable may look like this:

An invoice is entered in AP for $1500. The invoice is for an advertising expense. You want the amount distributed so $500 posts as an expense in company code SOA while $1000 posts as an expense in company Code COA.

The following tables show how MAS 500 would book this voucher.

Entry posted in Source (Company SOA)

Entry posted in Target (Company COA)

When looking at this entry, you may ask where it picked up the due to and due from accounts. These are defined in the General Ledger in maintain target companies.

The main function of Maintain Target Companies is as follows:

• Defines the target companies the source company can post to. There is no limit to the number of target companies.
• Identifies the GL accounts (due to, due from) for the different types of transactions. Eg.. vouchers, GL journal transactions and GL allocations. You do not have to have the same chart of account between source and target companies.
• Maintain Target Companies must be completed first before intercompany transactions can take place.

By Jeff Steel, a Sage software consultant in Ohio

1. Contract Pricing (Item) – This is where per customer and warehouse you define what a customer will pay for an individual item.
2. Contract Pricing (Product Price Group) – This is where per customer and warehouse you define what a customer will pay for a product price group. A product price group is assigned to an item. An item may have only one product price group.
3. Inventory Pricing (Customer Price Group) – This is where per item and warehouse you define the customer price group. A customer price group is assigned to a customer. A customer may have only one customer price group.
4. Inventory Pricing (Standalone) – This is where per item and warehouse you define the price for an inventory item.
5. Matrix Pricing by Customer Price Group (or by Product Price group) – Once the product price groups and customer price groups are established, this is where you can enter specific price information for a product price group and/or customer price group combination.
6. Product Price Group – If no matrix pricing is established, pricing options can be established when building the product price groups.
7. Customer Price Basis – On the customer record, you can define per customer how to calculate the price of the item. You choose a price base for the customer. The choices are: Average Cost, List Price, Price sheet 1, Price sheet 2, Price sheet 3, Price sheet 4, replacement cost and standard cost. You can also define a percentage to add to the base price for the customer.
8. Standard Price of the Item – If none of the above exists then the standard price of the item is used.

MAS 500 can also establish promotional pricing. Here you can establish a date range for the promotion as well as add items to the promotion. In determining the sale price if a promotion exists, MAS 500 will use the 8-step hierarchy from above and also calculate the promotional price and will return to the sales order the lower of the two prices.

When establishing pricing in the difference variations, MAS 500 gives us the ability to establish an effective date and expiration date. Besides different methods for calculating the price (Eg..Discount %, Discount Amt., Markup %, Markup amt.), MAS 500 also lets us define quantity break pricing if needed.

The different pricing features of MAS 500 allow flexibility to match your current pricing model. The key is defining how your pricing model works now. In most cases, once defined, MAS 500 has been able to fit the needs of pricing products to customers. 

By Ohio Sage MAS 500 Consultant, Jeff Steel

The main features of the cash management module automate the bank reconciliation process in the following ways:

1. Many banks now provide an electronic file of cleared checks. MAS 500 can import these electronic bank files of cleared transactions to save time in your reconciliation process.
2. If bank transactions are missed or only appear on the statement, you can enter any bank transaction, such as bank fees, interest, or adjustments, on the fly while reconciling your account. This saves time instead of going to a separate data entry screen for recording adjustments.

In addition to these bank reconciliation functions, the cash management module also includes the following functionality:

During the setup of the module you can define an unlimited number of user-defined transaction types with a default offset account for quick processing of bank transactions. An example of these could be: Bank Charges, Bank Interest Earned, Transfer to and Transfer From.

You can also define your own tender types for cash, checks, credit cards, money orders, drafts, or coupons.

Most of the deposits to bank accounts are handled through the Accounts Receivable module. You can choose to automatically create the deposits when processing a cash receipt in Accounts Receivable or you can have the system manually post the deposits, where the user has the choice of reviewing or combining the deposit batch with another manual deposit.

Cash Management in MAS 500 also supports integration with the multi-currency module. Therefore you can:

• Set up bank accounts and enter transactions in currency other than the home currency
• Create multi-currency deposits
• Transfer cash from bank accounts with different currencies
• Override exchange rates to modify the settlement amount

The Cash Management module in MAS 500 can simplify deposit generation and reconcile transactions. With the Business Insights Explorer tool you can quickly analyze cash transactions and see history or detailed account statements. This module is designed for any transactions that affect the bank account giving you one central module for looking at bank activity.

While Crystal Reports and Business Insights Explorer/Reporter are still available to you, Sage has created Sage MAS Intelligence, powered by Alchemex, to give you valuable insight into your business data and operations, allowing you to make more effective decisions.  Sage MAS Intelligence will be available to MAS 90 and MAS 200 users in August and MAS 500 users shortly there-after.  Leveraging Microsoft Office Excel, Sage MAS Intelligence enables you to create real-time automated reports with up-to-date and accurate information.

Sage MAS Intelligence has several tools to make your reporting and business intelligence customized to your unique business needs, including:

If you own FRx, you will automatically receive Sage MAS Intelligence Report Manager licenses when it becomes available.  Additional Report Manager licenses, Report Viewer, Connector, and Report Designer licenses will need to be purchased separately. 

Contact Socius to learn more or for help integrating Sage MAS Intelligence into your Sage MAS ERP software solution. 

Sample Dashboard:

Sample Report:

Earlier this year, Sage announced that it would no longer be releasing the monthly updates to the MAS 500 ERP product.  Instead, they are now releasing a product update once every 3-4 months.  Less frequent updates mean less time upgrading and more time using the system to better manage your business data and processes.

These product updates not only include resolutions to known issues, but also enhancements to MAS 500’s features.  To learn about what enhancements are in store for future MAS 500 product updates, download the Sage MAS 500 Roadmap.

The Q4 2010 update will be focused on Business Insights and Intelligence and will help FRx users bridge the reporting gap that is being created by the discontinuation of the FRx solution.