Software Purchase in 2008 + Economic Stimulus Package

Posted May 06, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

Under the Federal Economic Stimulus Package of 2008, you can receive tax tax deductions and additional depreciation on your software purchases.

The key components of this package include an increase in maximum deduction, an increase in the maximum amount of qualifying property that can be placed into service during the 2008 tax year, a bonus depreciation, and an increase in the "Luxury" auto depreciation.

Sample Impact Scenario:

• Company purchases software solution for $10,000
• Bonus Depreciation: $5,000
• Asset Life: 3 years
• Straight-Line method using Full-month convention (SF)
• Standard Depreciation: ($5000 / 3 years / 36 Months) x 12 months would be $1,667
• Total Depreciation: $6,667
• Tax Savings in 2008 (Assuming 30% rate): $2,000

For specific advice be sure to consult with your tax advisor. Refer to The Economic Stimulus Package of 2008 (HR 5140 - Pub. L.No. 110-185, 122 Stat). The key components of this legislation related to business are addressed in 21 U.S.C. 179 ("Section 179"). NOTE: The attached report is informational only and not meant as accounting or tax advice.

Click here to print the Sage Stimulus Package document from Sage Software Inc.

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Sage Accpac ERP 5.5 -- Extended Enterprise Suite

Posted Apr 24, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

Richmond, British Columbia - April 24th - Sage Software Inc. has announced the release of its new Sage Accpac Extended Enterprise Suite consisting of Sage Accpac ERP version 5.5 with integrated CRM. The Suite combines the benefits of ERP and CRM to support integrated front and back office business processes and workflow.

The Extended Enterprise Suite will improve decision making ability by providing insight into business happenings. It also promotes inter-department collaboration and customer relationship improvement by providing all employees with one complete and consistent customer view. Analytical dashboards help analyze, predict, and manage business performance.

Click here for the full Press Release.

Sage Accpac ERP Extended Enterprise Suite Brochure

Check out "What's New" in Sage Accpac Extended Enterprise Suite.

SageCRM now included with Sage ERP

Sage Accpac Editions Differentiation v.5.5

Sage Accpac ERP Supported Platform Matrix - v.5.5

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Sage Accpac Architecture

Posted Apr 11, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

Industry's Best Architecture -- Flexible By Design

When choosing a business management system, you are making an investment. The immediate and ongoing costs include licensing the software, training staff, and adjusting business processes. Selecting a product with superior functionality will deliver a quick payback from more efficient operations. Selecting a product with superior architecture will insure investment protection.

That's because high quality architecture stands the test of time - quickly adapting to new technologies and easily integrating external applications for effective information exchange.

Sage Accpac's object-oriented and multitiered architecture is what makes it so flexible. Sage Accpac is released in three editions, with increasing levels of functionality. All editions share the same architecture and code base, which makes it simple for you to upgrade as your business grows, and yet retain the valuable history of transactions for your analysis.

All Sage Accpac editions offer the same flexibility: you choose the database and deployment options, the user interface and languages, the network environment or operating system, the add-on software developed by Sage Software or independent parties, and the features that help you operate more efficiently and profitably.

(Click here to print a full page graphic of Sage Accpac's architecture as shown above.)

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Sage Accpac ERP 5.5 - Pre-Release Sneak-Peek

Posted Apr 09, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

Sage Accpac ERP v5.5 is the next major release that builds on the foundation of the 5.x technology platform bringing many advanced features and enhancements.

While the release is scheduled for April 2008, below is a sampling of some of the 5.5 enhancements.

Dashboard

A dashboard is a user interface that organizes and presents information in a way that is easy to read. The name refers to the fact that it can sometimes look like the dashboard of a car.

• Configurable
• Customizable
• Metrics, goals, what-ifs, reports
• Based on Crystal Xcelsius

Performance Improvements

• Especially for MS SQL Server, DB2 and Oracle
• Streamlined operations
• Reduced memory usage
• Removed redundancies
• Make use of more SQL procedures
• Clone the System database into the Company database

Modules Enhancements

• Ability to enter taxes on entries in Bank Reconciliation
• Support for reversing both the payment/receipt and the invoice when reversing/returning a check
• Account Rollup in G/L
• New revaluation methods to meet the International Foreign Exchange Reporting Standards for GAAP for exchange gain and losses (GL, AR, AP)
• Do not allow a batch to be posted if its being edited or imported (GL, AR, AP)
• Ability to post batches concurrently (GL, AR, AP)
• Separate batch post and entry rights to better separate duties (GL, AR, AP)
• Allow multiple users to enter entries to the same batch
• 10 New Sample FR Specs
• In AP, the ability to enter advanced credits (similar to AR feature)
• In AR, the ability to specify by customer whether the customer allows backordered quantities.
• In IC, the ability to specify start and end dates for price lists.
• In IC, allow already-printed Transfer Slips not to be printed again
• In IC, the ability to inquire on the quantity on sales order, quantity on purchase order, and committed quantity in Location Details
• OE Integration with Project and Job Costing
• In OE, the ability to calculate backordered quantities based on customer options
• Prepayments on shipments
• Ability to drill down to a listing of the transactions that are on sales order and purchase order when entering orders, shipments, invoices, and credit/debit notes
• Ability to copy Purchase Orders like the Order Entry feature Copy Orders
• In PO, the ability to print a report showing the quantity over and under received

Upon formal release of 5.5 we will be providing complete information on all this new release offers.

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Reusuable Water Bottles

Posted Apr 07, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

We've seen lots of press coverage recently about the number of water bottles we are adding to our landfills every day. The figures are staggering.

• 8 out of 10 water bottles used end up in landfills.

• Manufacturing all of these bottles for the US requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually.

• The State of California (for example) estimates 3 million empty water bottles are going into the trash every day.

Many of us are opting for reusuable water bottles which is wonderful. But, is your water bottle safe? Choose your reusable water bottles carefully which means HDPE (high-density polyethylene) or stainless steel. (And if you really want to be earth friendly you can use water filters at home, but then we don't want to overwhelm you. One step at a time is fine.)

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Paperless Invoices & Statements

Posted Apr 06, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

Paperless AR Invoices and Statements

I'd like to send our invoices and statements via email to save time, postage and paper products, plus they arrive immediately. How is this accomplished?

Go to ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE MODULE > AR CUSTOMERS > CUSTOMERS

Click to the "Contact" tab and add the intended recipient's email address in the highlighted area below and save the record.

When invoicing, after hitting "Post", do not print the hard copy.

When all invoicing is complete go to ORDER ENTRY > O/E FORMS > INVOICES. In "From Invoice" and "To Invoice" choose the invoices to be emailed. In the "Delivery Method" drop-down choose "Contact" which will pull the email addresses from the customer master file records. Clic, "Print".

To generate AR statements go to ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE > A/R CUSTOMER REPORTS > STATEMENTS / LETTERS / LABELS. In the "Delivery Method" drop-down choose "Contact" which will pull the email addresses from the customer master file records. Proceed as usual to generate statements.

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MISys Releases New Service Pack

Posted Mar 27, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

MISys Releases New Service Pack 03/27/08

If you are running this version of MISys, please download the Service Pack.

MISys SAE 5.4 Service Pack 5 Addresses:

1. Master Files | Bill of Materials to correct a problem where when you make any modification to a BOM, the max lead was being set to zero.
2. Corrected a problem where corrupted BOM maximum lead values were not being corrected when detected by the Data Integrity Check.
3. Modified Check Stock | Create MRP to set the revision of any required assembled item to the current revision.
4. Modified Physical Inventory | Check Batch to fix the Variance display decimal precision.
5. Modified Production | Manufacturing Orders to show the OE details in the Line Number finder sorted in line number order. Note: You must restore the default properties for the Manufacturing Order icon to make this take effect on existing systems.
6. Modified Production | Retrieve Sales Orders to use the current BOM revision if it is effective at the sales order ship date.
7. Modified Purchase Orders as follows:
   • Corrected a problem where "Invalid input. G/L account cannot be blank" is reported when invoicing multiple POs on the same invoice.
   • Corrected a problem where the history detail for the receipt of a miscellaneous item was showing the display of any previously displayed inventory item.
   • Fixed the decimal display of Base Price on the Unit price zoom form.
8. Modified Production | Manufacturing Orders to generate SLT assignments for Setup and Consumed components only if the order completed quantity is greater than zero.
9. Modified Housekeeping | Change Item Number to include the MISys Custom Congigurator tables.

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Alert - Payroll Form 941

Posted Mar 26, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

Currently, if you print a form 941 from Sage Accpac Payroll for 2008, it will print the payroll information for 2008, but it will print the year 2007 on the form.

Sage will be issuing a Service Pack (or hotfix) for this issue, but it will not be issued until after 3/31.

Let us know if you would like to receive an email alert when this patch is released.

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Restart Maintenance

Posted Mar 20, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

When logging into Accpac, the message "Earlier processing was not completed. Use Restart Maintenance to see which operations stopped due to errors." is shown. What do I do?

This message is shown because there was an interruption in processing in Accpac (typically and incomplete posting or an incomplete import).

If you are unsure as to what would have caused this, log into Accpac as ADMIN, then navigate to Administrative Services -> Restart Maintenance. The screen will show User ID together and source of errors.

In most cases, it is important NOT to delete any restart records, but instead to resolve the cause of the error.

For more FAQs click here.

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Data Loss

Posted Mar 12, 2008
by Kathleen Flynn Barron

Everyone fears losing data, but most don't adequately protect their data. Recent findings from the Gartner Group indicate:

• 34% of companies fail to test their tape backups, and of those that do, 77% have found tape backup failures
• 93% of companies that lost their data for 10 days or more due to disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster
• 50% of businesses without their data for the same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately

Whether you have an in-house tape backup solution or use off-site data backup, make certain you take appropriate measures to ensure...

• Appropriate power protection on your servers
• All applicable data is included in your backup routineData files related to new software products are included in your backup routine
• Users are not storing mission critical data on their individual hard drives
• Backups are performed not less than daily
• Backup tapes are stored off-site if backups are performed in-house
• Periodic data restore tests confirm your backup is functioning effectively

For more FAQs click here.

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