Are you looking for a Sage MAS 500 module to help you with bank reconciliation and more? In MAS 500 the cash management module is the place to perform bank reconciliations but it also has additional features that assist with banking functions.

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 this year’s event is all about preparing for and embracing the future, we’ve taken a quick look back to see what our past Aspire attendees have found most valuable about the conference and what would be the Top 10 Reasons to attend Aspire 2010:

10.  A variety of sessions focused on empowering you as a person and as a professional

“It is nice to have a conference that includes messages that promote better business and life.” – Kathy McCord, Liberty Savings Bank

9.  Opportunity to meet and interact with Socius staff

“It’s especially nice to have the opportunity to interact with our Socius “family” when we are often too busy to touch base with you on a regular basis.  You have a great crew!”  -Gwen Ross, School Employees Retirement System

8.  A terrific location and amazing food

“I thought the conference center was a great place to hold your event as they were so welcoming.” – Missy Anderson, ELK Promotions

“Lunch was TOO good!” – Kristy Spire, Grand Aerie FOE

7.  Networking opportunities with other software users and members of the business community who you can share experiences and tips with

“Talking to other people to learn about them, their business, etc. – Networking and seeing others who use similar products was the most valuable part of Aspire for me.”  – Takasi Sibuya, Riverain Medical Group

6.  Learn more about third-party products that can enhance your solution directly from the people who know them best – our Independent Software Vendor (ISV) sponsors

“Talking to ISVs about our needs was very valuable.  Thanks for bringing them in.  I had no idea these option were available.” – Kathy Grove (Shephard), OPERS

5.  Real-life examples of how businesses like yours are leveraging technology to accelerate their growth and profitability

“I valued meeting all the various [software] users and learning how businesses are integrating the various applications.”  – Diana Louiso, Horan Associates, Inc.

4.  An inspiring and relevant keynote address that is meant to help you succeed in work and life

“I felt the speaker was truly wonderful.  It got me motivated and excited for the remainder of the day.  I also felt enthusiastic to take this information all back and motivate the rest of my team.”  – Missy Anderson, ELK Promotions

3.  Roadmap presentations to help you understand the future direction of our Microsoft and Sage solutions – presented by the software company executives

“I really valued the roadmap review.  It was extremely helpful to see where [the software company] is heading.” – Jennifer Lunsford, Unifund

2.  Expert presenters that are excited about the information

“[The presenters] were very prepared and enthusiastic and gave very helpful tips.”  – Donald Lapp, St. Luke Lutheran Community

“I enjoyed these sessions and the presenters were very informative and presented the messages very well.  I can take some of the things I’ve learned and apply these tools to my job function.”  – Tannisha Kendrick, R.C. Olmstead, Inc.

1.  One day designed to equip and excite you to find greater success in work and life

“Aspire has not only helped my business move forward…but has helped me move forward as a professional as well…I took away more from this conference than any other, anywhere.” – Bob Wright, ELK Promotions

Learn More about Aspire 2010 or…

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.

The new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployment of Sage SalesLogix is now available across the US!  Sage SalesLogix Cloud offering is built upon the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud™ (EC2™) infrastructure and costs $65 per named user per month for new implementations. Current on-premises Sage SalesLogix users who wish to migrate to the cloud can do so for $35 per named user per month. Multi-user and multi-year discounts are also available.

Sage understood that they would need to bring new and current CRM customers alike up to speed on the difference between their on-premise and on-demand deployments, so they created a world-class educator named Professor Crumblehorn to provide some brief video tutorials:

Cloud Computing 101 – Prof. Crumblehorn explains what an on-demand crm system is, some of the issues that plague other SaaS CRM deployments, and how Sage SalesLogix Cloud combines the best qualities of SaaS with the best qualities of on-premise to create a one-of-a-kind hosted CRM solution.

Cloud Computing 102 – Prof. Crumblehorn dives deeper into the benefits of Sage SalesLogix Cloud including:

• Data Storage and Ownership
• Control, Change, and Customization
• Complete view of relationships and insight
• Flexible payment options

Sage is also offering a 30-Day Free Trial of Sage SalesLogix Cloud so you can get a taste of their new deployment offering:

HR Actions enables:

• Improved service delivery to the workforce
• Simplified transactional processes for managers and approvers
• The elimination of the clerical aspect of maintaining Abra
• Improved productivity of the entire organization

Version 10 of HR Actions is being released and brings with it automated performance appraisal forms.  View a demo of this new functionality here.

You see, Socius is a professional services company, providing a wide variety of consulting services to companies across the country.  This makes us a great candidate for customer relationship management software.  Our relationships with our clients and partners are the lifeblood of our organization and we need a system to manage those relationships. 

Unfortunately for the company sending the email, many of the services that we offer center around the selection and implementation business management software solutions; including industry leading CRM software from Microsoft Dynamics and Sage.   We also use those CRM systems internally to track, not only our sales activities, client relationships and the services we provide, but also our marketing activities. 

The CRM solutions that we use and support have advanced marketing functionality with robust data cleansing and segmentation tools, leading campaign management features, and insightful marketing analytics to increase the effectiveness of marketing programs, improve efficiencies, and better track key metrics.  First and foremost though, our CRM software products have marketing data and list management capabilities that help you segment and target your marketing activities for maximum efficiency and return on your investments.  These tools can also help you navigate through the marketing minefield and keep you safe from costly mistakes (like marketing directly to your competitors). 

Learn more about the marketing, sales and service functionality of SageCRM, Sage SalesLogix, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM or request a complimentary business strategy assessment for advice on which CRM solution can help you streamline and secure your marketing efforts.

The article focused mainly on database structure and typical user amounts to define the difference between the three MAS software solutions.  There are, however, greater distinctions between the products, many of which directly affect manufacturers. 

Although they are built on different databases, Sage MAS 90 and 200 have the same six manufacturing modules: 

• Bill of Materials
• Inventory Management
• Materials Requirements Planning
• Purchase Order
• Sales Order
• Work Order 

These modules provide detailed and accurate tracking and reporting throughout the entire manufacturing process-from forecasting to the shop floor, and on to completion.

If you are a manufacturer looking for an end-to-end solution that includes relationship management tools, Sage MAS 90 or 200 Extended Enterprise Suite (EES) includes most of the manufacturing modules as part of the flat, per-user pricing.  The remaining manufacturing modules are available to be added to the EES solution. 

On the flip side, Sage MAS 500 ERP was built from the ground-up with Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Basic and Microsoft Office technology.  The twelve Sage MAS 500 manufacturing software modules optimize manufacturers’ operations for maximum productivity and provide a real-time business picture to enable you to manage profitability with insight.  These modules include:

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Advanced Planning and Scheduling
• Engineering Change Management
• Estimating
• Light Manufacturing Advanced Kitting
• Material Requirements Planning
• Product Configurator
• Project Management for Manufacturers
• Shop Floor Control
• Planning, Scheduling, and Optimization
• Process Manufacturing
• Service Management

Sage MAS 500 manufacturing software meets the diverse business requirements of varied industries, including industrial, chemical, high tech, automotive, consumer packaged goods, food and beverage and other industries.

To learn which Sage MAS ERP solution is the best fit for your manufacturing organization, request a complimentary Business Strategy Assessment from Socius!

You can use multi-currency with the following MAS500 modules:

• GL
• AP
• AR
• Cash Management
• Sales Order
• Purchase Order

In MAS 500 you define a home currency, for example USD (US dollar). The home currency defines how all the reports and transactional values in the system will be displayed.

Now you can define all the natural currencies for transactions. There is no limit to the number of currencies you can setup. In setting up these currencies you can define GL accounts for realized or unrealized exchange gains or losses by currency.

The multicurrency module is also where you maintain the exchange rate tables ..called schedules. You can define the exchange rates with effective dates and expiration dates if needed. You decide how frequently the exchange rates are updated..daily, weekly, monthly. You can also link an exchange rate schedule to a customer or vendor, or to each customer or vendor location.

Some other features specific to the MAS 500 multi-currency module include:

• Revalue the natural currency of transactions or accounts to reflect their current value, and automatically post the unrealized gains or losses.
• Revalue invoices, vouchers, or general ledger accounts marked as “Revalue.”
• Handle cash receipts, invoices, and credit memos in different currencies.
• Apply exchange rate schedules to a specific company or to all companies defined in Sage MAS 500.

 Multi-currency can save time and increase accuracy by automatically performing currency conversions for accounting transactions. The multi-currency model can help streamline period-end processing by eliminating the complication of having to manually adjust for multiple currencies and exchange rates.

By Jeff Steel, an Ohio Sage software consultant

There are several ways that your Sage software solution can help you “go green” and gain operational efficiencies all at the same time.  Many of these tips center around electronic document management for your Sage ERP software solution.

Email customer communications instead of printing and mailing

• Print files to PDF instead of hard-copy, send those documents to your customer by email, and save the environment by not using ink, toner, paper, envelopes, or transportation resources.  With immediate delivery, you’ll be able to increase customer satisfaction and your efficiencies by confirming orders with customers before they ship, and eliminate the lag time waiting for the mail to arrive. When your customer contacts you to inquire about their order, your computer screen will display the customer’s exact copy. And, you’ll be able to resend the customer a duplicate copy with the click of your mouse.  View these PDFs by date, source, user ID, and file name.  The system also records a record of when the file was sent.

Send vendor communications, including POs, electronically

• Print purchase orders (POs) to PDF and send them by e-mail directly to the vendor – all in one smooth process. You’ll improve the timeliness of communications and order turnaround times while you’re saving on paper and postage. You can retrieve archived POs and payments by date, source, user ID, and file name.

Email reports to your team

• All Standard reports are available in PDF format from the Paperless Office Report Viewer.  You can distribute the reports to the team electronically and save them in the archive for reference!

Complete period-end processing without printing

• Using period-end reports in PDF format saves on paper costs, plus you can archive reports in a secure and searchable digital format.  All documents are available for electronic retrieval through the PDF Viewer. The Viewer enables you to specify any combination of company codes, modules, and documents to view – so you see only what you want to see. Automatically name and save PDF files, eliminating the risk of accidental overwrites.

Electronically archive important documents

• You have the ability within the Sage MAS ERP system to electronically save important documents such as financial reports, customer invoices, and purchase orders, using an efficient archive system.  Eliminate paper and printing costs.  Your staff can easily access needed files, view or email them, and return them to archive. This will help you reduce time spent in retrieval and your need for physical space to store these important documents. Plus, easily keep multiple backups of important documents electronically.

Visit the Sage Online Community for more tips.