Sage Accpac Support Hub

As I write this week's blog, I'm sitting in the Support Center at the 4th Annual Sage Summit at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.  For all of you who attended, hopefully you had a chance to come by the Support Center, and talk to one of us.

For those of you who don't know, Sage Summit is a chance for customers like you to meet other customers, as well as people from Sage.  Here's just a few things you can do:

• Have a problem with your program?  Come see us in Support.
• Have a new feature you'd like to see in the program?  Go to a Product Management roundtable.
• Want to meet other customers, and see how they feel about the product?  The Meet and Greets are perfect for that.
• Need an addon that does something Accpac doesn't do out of the box?  Attend the tradeshow, see what's available.
• Want to learn about different products?  Signup for a session.

As you can see, there's lots to do, and lots to eat (at one point, there were barrels of popcorn lining the tradeshow floor).

Unfortunately, by the time you read this, Sage Summit will be over, but I hope to see you all there next year!

Nowadays you can basically do everything on the internet. You can read the news, you can buy a car, or you can access your bank accounts. Next thing you know, you'll be putting on a pair of goggles and going on a 3D virtual vacation using the internet. So just like everything else, you should be able to access your Accpac information through the internet.

https://kb.accpac.com

Our Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base contains answers to many questions or issues that you may have in regards to the Accpac program. This is the first place you should check when you have an issue.

http://support.accpac.com/

You will need your Sage Username and Password to access this site. In here, you can access the technical center and your Sage account by going to the Clients menu near the top of the window.

http://support.accpac.com/techsupport/
Point to the Clients menu and click the Client Support Center option to go to Technical Center. There is where the Product Updates and various documentations are located. Keep your software up-to-date by installing the latest Product Updates.

http://support.accpac.com/myaccount
Point to the Clients menu and click the My Products and Services option. Here, you can check your account and contact information. This is also where you can download the installation files for the latest version of the software plus their activation codes. But more importanly, this is where you can access your payroll tax updates.

http://ideascopeanywhere.com/Sage%2DAccpac/
Use this link if you have any suggestions on how to improve the product.

http://www.sageaccpac.com/community/
If you are reading this blog, you probably know about this site already.

http://www.sageaccpac.com/products/
Another website with lots of documentations such as compatibility charts and system requirements.

Personally, I find myself visiting these sites very often. If you have any questions about Accpac, you should be able to find your answer in one of them.

Despite what some people may tell you, everybody makes mistakes once and a while.  Machines can make mistakes too.  These mistakes can be caused by a simple thing like a typo, to something that's as mysterious as your high school cafeteria's "Meatloaf Surprise."  To minimize the impact of these mistakes, Accpac has the Data Integrity Check.

What does Data Integrity Check do?  It looks for mistakes and inconsistencies within your Accpac database.  Some common things Data Integrity Checks for:

• Inconsistent Totals
• Locked Fiscal Periods that may not need to be locked
• Users that the program refers to, but don't exist
• Invalid values for certain fields

To use the Data Integrity Check, go to Administrative Services, and then Data Integrity.  You can choose to check just a couple of modules, or all of them.  The more you choose to check, the longer it will take.  If you want to check everything, it's a good idea to leave it over night.

For certain modules, you'll notice the Application Options button becomes available.  Click it for a list of additional checks.  There’s also an option to Fix Minor Errors.  Before selecting that, make a backup of the data.  When you're ready to start, click the Check... button.  Once the scanning is done, the report will come up.  If you checked the Fix Minor Errors, anything the system corrected will have a "Fixed" next to the error.  For all other errors, you may be able to correct them yourself, or search our Knowledge base for the error to find out exactly what it means.

Just because there's an error, it doesn't mean the end of the world, it may just be bad historical data from 7 years ago and that won't affect your daily processing.  It can't check for everything, but we update Data Integrity to check for more and more with each new version of Sage Accpac.  Data Integrity isn't perfect, but that doesn't mean we can't try to make it perfect!

Just in case you didn't already know, support for Sage Accpac ERP 5.3 has been discontinued back in September. The only versions that we currently support are 5.4 and 5.5. But if you are still using the payroll for version 5.3, don't worry, you don't have to panic just yet.

Discontinuing the support means tax updates for version 5.3 will no longer be available after December 31, 2008. So if you want to continue to use Accpac to calculate your 2009 payroll, you will have to upgrade to one of the supported versions. However, we will still provide an update so you can file your 2008 taxes. It will include all the up to date changes that you will need for your submission. For example, if there are any changes to the format of the W2 or T4 forms, we will include those required changes in the 5.3 update. But again, the 5.3 payroll update will NOT include tax tables for your 2009 payroll calculations.

The year end tax updates are usually released close to the end of the year, some time in December. They will be available for download at www.sageaccpac.com/myaccount. If more changes are made after that, usually another update will be released in January.

If you are planning to continue using payroll in 2009, you may want to start planning for the upgrade now. Cause as your know, year end could be a very busy time and I don't think you want to get caught trying to do your Sage Accpac ERP upgrade on New Year's Eve.

Remember the first day of high school?  You were probably forced to take Math, Science and English.  You probably asked yourself "When will I ever use Shakespeare or Thermal Dynamics?  What's the point?  Who cares?"  With Sage Software University (sagesoftwareuniversity.com), you can take whatever classes you want, you'll know why you're doing it, and odds are, your boss will care.

Here's some types of courses you can take advantage of:

• Tech Tuesdays - Usually happens on the second Tuesday of every month, and the sessions are an hour long.  An analyst from Customer Support will give an overview of a certain function of Accpac.  Upcoming Tech Tuesdays: there's one for Bank Reconciliation on November 4 (hosted by me!), and another for using Macros on December 9 (not hosted by me, but still a good course).  Best of all, if your company is on a Priority Software Support plan, it's free!
• Anytime Learning - This is an online course, and offers much more in depth information on different modules of Accpac.  You can replay the sessions anytime from 6 - 12 months.  There's course material you can print out, and there's quizzes along the way too to see how much of the material you're picking up.
• Lunch & Learn - Similar to Tech Tuesdays, a short one hour online session, showing a function in Accpac.  This is usually led by one of our trainers.
• Realtime - This is an instructor led online course.  Definitely a better alternative to Anytime Learning for those of you who learn better from a real person, rather than just listening to a recording.

So, take the time to explore the Sage Software University, and see what classes are offered, and hopefully you can learn a couple of things which can make your day to day job just a little bit easier.

Have you noticed the new option, Calc Max Carry-over based on Remaining Balance, under the Employee tab when setting up an accrual in Payroll version 5.5? No? Yes, but you don't know what it does? The last thing you want to do is to shortchange your employees of their vacations and cause an uproar.

If you do not select the option, the program will behave the same as previous versions; which means, if your vacation has been accruing correctly, you don't want to change anything to mess anything up. So what's the difference between the two? Let me explain it with an example.

Let's say you set up your employees to have a beginning balance of 50 hours, and you set the Maximum Carry-Over to 100. If the employee accruals 80 hours during the year and did not take any vacations:

130 hours will be carried over to the next year if you do not select the Calc Max Carry-over based on Remaining Balance option. The employee will end up carrying over more hours than the hours set in the Maximum Carry-Over field. In this method, the program allows the user to carry over the unused portion of the hours accrued during the year up to the specified maximum carry-over, plus the unused portion carried over from previous year. In other words, the program compares the Maximum Carry-Over field to the unused hours accrued during the year only, ignoring the beginning balance.

On the other hand, 100 hours will be carried over with the option selected. In this method, the program compares the unused amounts accrued during the year PLUS the beginning balance (the entire unused hours) with the Maximum Carry-Over field. The amount that is carried over will never exceed the number set in the Maximum Carry-Over field in this scenario.

So make sure you set your vacation accruals properly, otherwise you could end up being at work when you could be spending an extra few days on the beach in Hawaii!

So your boss has decided everybody has worked really hard this month, and everybody gets a bonus of $500 on their next paycheck.  Happens all the time, right?  Well, when it finally does happen, Timecards is how you would do it.

First, you will need an Earning setup for your bonus.  In Earnings and Deductions in Payroll Setup, enter in a new code/description/short description.  Here's the rest of the settings:

• Category: Earning
• Type: Salary & Wages
• Employee Calc. Method: This one varies, but for the example above, use Flat
• Frequency: Unless your boss really does want to give you a bonus every month, switch this to Quarterly
• Level: Unless you have a good reason, this level should be the same as your standard earning
• Starts: This one doesn't really matter for this

In addition to this, you will want to check Print Earning/Deduction on Check.  If you're running Canadian Payroll, select Non-Periodic Payment.  That makes your taxes calculate as expected.

In the Employee tab, add all the applicable taxes.  If you choose to skip this part, employees will get the $500, but will have to pay the taxes later when they do income taxes.

In the G/L Dist tab, add in a GL Distribution code, and its respective GL Accounts.

Now, in Payroll Timecards, pull up each employee who's getting the bonus.  In Timecard, it just needs a unique number, like "1".  The Period End Date should be fairly self explanatory.  In the grid below, add the new Bonus Earning, and under Rate/Amt/Pct, put the amount of the bonus in.  Add this, and repeat for every employee.

When you calculate payroll, do it as normal, and ensure the Quarterly Earning checkbox is selected, and when you print your checks, voila!  You and all your co-workers have their bonus!  Don't spend it all in one place!

P.S. We've identified a potential problem with Job-Related Payroll Timecards, so if you use these, along with FLSA OT in US Payroll, or Regular Rate Hourly/Salary Hours in Canadian Payroll, check your Payroll Job Register and PJC Detailed Transaction Report have values which are reasonable and expected.  Be sure to apply Solution 25786 to prevent this from happening in the future.

With the slumping economy, cutting spending is on top of everybody's list. Start by reducing the amount of paper you use everyday. Use the File or Preview option when you print your reports. E-mailing invoices and statements to your clients can also be a fast and cost-effective way of conducting business. So here's a question for you to see how familiar you are with Sage Accpac ERP. How many ways are there to change the print destination?

The answer is 3... but wait, there's more to it. Do you know there's also an option to setup print destinations for each customer when you print Invoices, Statements or Letters, called the Delivery Method? This will help you send out information quickly and efficiently.

As you may already know, there are four options within the Print Destination: Printer, Preview, File, and E-mail. But do you know there are 3 different ways to access it? The first one is through the File menu. That should be quite easy to locate. The second one is through the Page setup icon on the tool bar. Once you bring the Page Setup window up, you will see the Print Destination button. Finally, and I bet that you don't know this, you can access the Printer Destination setup by double-clicking its icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the Sage Accpac ERP window. The Printer Destination will show as a printer when it is set to Printer, a magnifying glass when it is set to Preview, a hard drive when it is set to File and a letter when it is set to E-mail. A pretty handy way to change the print destination, isn't it?

Some customers may like to receive invoices through e-mail, but some may like to receive them in mail. What do you do then? Well, when you are printing invoices, statements, or letters, there is something called the Delivery Method. Selecting Print Destination as the Delivery Method will print to the option that you have selected in the Print Destination setup. However, if you change it to Customer, the program will print to the option that you have selected in the customer setup. For the customer setup, you can access the Delivery Method option under the Processing tab within the Customer icon. You can select from Mail, E-mail, or Contact's E-mail. Mail actually refers back to what you have setup in the Print Destination. But with Mail and E-mail, you can set up the program so that it sends the documents to the e-mail address that you have set under the Address tab or the Contact tab.

Just imagine how much paper you can save when you can access these options quickly and change the Print Destination to something other than Printer. Not only can you save your company money by saving lots of paper, you can also help save the environment by saving all those trees!

Everybody loses things, at least once and a while, be it keys or socks.  What if you had 1000 socks, would you know when you lost 1?  How would you know? Easy, you would count them, and after you get a number, you would know, I lost a sock, I now only have 999 socks.

Why not do the same thing with your inventory?  It's not good when something is lost, but wouldn't you rather know about it?  Doing a Physical Inventory can let you know what you've lost (or somehow gained), and can give you a better idea of what you have to sell.

Start by going to IC Physical Inventory, and Generate Inventory Worksheet.  Using the criteria, narrow down what needs to be counted.  Now, print out the Inventory Worksheet, and hand it out to whoever's doing the actual count.

Once you get the counts back, in Physical Inventory Quantities enter in the quantities counted.  The Quantity Variance column will tell you if you have more or less than what's recorded in the system.  Also, if you were unable to count an item, but want to update your quantities for all the other items, change its Status from "Ready to Post" to "On Hold."

Before you post the Inventory, print an Inventory Reconciliation Report to have a record of all the different counts.  Once you're comfortable that the numbers are accurate, go to Post Inventory Reconciliation, fill in the fields (look in F1 help if you're not sure what each field does), and boom!  Your inventory is now up to date!

Check out Chapter 6, Lesson 6 in the Workbook located in the System Manager Online Documentation if you would like some practice doing this.  Now, if only I could find a use for that sock with no pair...

A number of clients have called and asked if we have a Cash Flow report. The program may not have a Cash Flow report, but it does have a Cash Flow macro. So... what is a macro? A macro is a file that can run through a series of commands instead of having to go through them step by step. It is true that creating a macro could be quite complicated, but we've included some macros that you may find useful.

Macros are located in the macro folder inside the Sage Accpac folder. By default, this directory is C:\Program Files\Sage Software\Sage Accpac\Macros. One of the more common Macros that you may use is the Cash Flow marco that I have mentioned above. To run the Marco, first logon to your company in Accpac first. Then within the company, you select the Macro menu and click the Run option. Finally, in the Run Macro window, browse to the Macros folder. Click on cashflow and then the Open button to start the macro. After that, the macro should run. Once you make your selections, you should see the results on screen.

Another macro that you may find useful is the Getrates macro. Running this macro will automatically retrieve the foreign exchange rates from the internet and import them into your company. However, keep in mind that if you are using version 5.5, you will need to run the Propagate function within the Database setup to have the rates in the company database updated. Otherwise, you may run into an issue where some of the screens in the company may not show the updated rate.

You may have noticed in the Run Macro window that the macros have a .avb extension. However, if you look in the Macros folder through your Windows Explorer, you will notice that there are a couple of Excel files also. These are also macros, just a different type of macro.

Budget.xls is a common one that I find a lot of clients use. Simply double click on the file to run it, or open Excel and browse to the file to open it. You may run into a warning message if you have the Macro Security set to High. Follow the onscreen instructions or simply set the Macro Security to Low. You can change the setting by going under the Tools menu in Excel. Highlight Macro and click on Security, and you will be able to change the setting there.

The macros that you can use are not limited to just the ones within the Macro folder. If you would like to try to create your own macros, you can refer to Chapter 13: Using Macros in the System Manager User Guide for more information.

Since the modules are intertwined with each other, trying to understand how information flow between them can be quite confusing. When will information flow from Bank Services to General Ledger? Will information flow oppositely from General Ledger back to Bank Services? First, let's talk about how information flows into Bank Services. Then, we can discuss if any of the information flows out of Bank Services and back into the other modules.

"Aren't these two functions the same?" somebody from another department was asking me the other day. They do sound similar, don't they? So under what circumstances do you use each of them?

Refund Entry is added recently in version 5.4. Refund Entry lets you easily refund customers’ unapplied credits – and if you’re refunding by check, you can actually print a check through Refund Entry so you no longer have to do it in Accounts Payable. That way, the refund check can be tied to the original payment from the customer. So what are unapplied credits? They’re documents that show a negative amount in Accounts Receivable, such as credit notes, prepayments, unapplied cash, and receipts.
 
So for example, if a customer owes you $900, but sends you a $1000 payment, you can use Refund Entry to return the extra $100. First, post the $1000 payment against the invoice and the program will create a receipt of $-100. Then in Refund Entry, select the receipt and the Payment Type. If you need a check to be printed, make sure you click on the Check Payment button and select the Print Check option -- the Print Check button at the bottom of the window will become available after saving the entry.

Similarly, if you’ve posted a receipt where you can’t identify the invoice or a prepayment that was never applied, you can simply reverse these transactions using Refund Entry.

Return Customer Checks in Bank Services is also used for reversing, but it only reverses the customer payment in full, and you won’t be able to print a check for the reversal. Use it in a situation where there is a NSF check, or when your customer voids a check, to reverse the payment and reinstate the invoice as outstanding again.
 
What about a situation where an invoice has been paid in full and the customer wants to return the item? You can’t do a refund if it doesn’t have a credit balance, and you can’t reverse it in Bank Services because the payment has been deposited and it needs to remain in Bank for reconciling. I recommend creating a Credit Note in Accounts Receivable to offset the invoice so you won’t overstate your sales. Now, you can go into Refund Entry and create a refund for this Credit Note.
 
I hope I was able to paint a clearer picture on how to use Refund Entry and when to use it.

You're now an expert using the export function.  Lets move on to making you an expert in the import function.

We'll start by making a template for import.  The easiest way to create an import template is to input 1 entry into the screen you're working with (So if you want to create an import template for IC Items, input one of your items in manually first).  Based on last week's blog, create an export file with the following:

• Only export the fields available for import (the fields without the "+" symbols)
• Export only the record you are using with the Set Criteria function (in my example it would be just the one Item)

Open this newly created file in Excel, and you should see multiple worksheets, and columns.  Based on the entries from one item you exported, you should see where the data for each column goes.  Note that for Excel, some of the fields are not recognized unless a apostrophe (') is in front of the field.

My suggestion before you start an actual import, make a backup of your database.  Imports done incorrectly can sometimes have adverse and difficult to reverse effects on your data.

Time for the actual import.  On the screen where you actually want to import the data, go to File, Import.  Your type is Excel, and next to that is a menu for 3 different options: Insert, Update, Insert/Update.  Input the file location directly below.

Next comes the flexible/complicated part.  Think of each part of the top grid as each seperate worksheet.  Selecting different parts will change the field options directly below it.

Because the import was created from an export file, the system automatically knows which column is for which field.  If you want one of the fields to get data from a different column, right-click the contents, and select the appropriate column.  There are other fields which are not columns too:

• <Value...> allows the input of a literal value, like "1" or "abc".
• <Default Value>  allows the input of automatic values.  For example, in IC, if you have a default Unit of Measure defined as Ea., and you're importing Items, by selecting <Default Value>, the system will automatically populate Ea. into each item imported.

If you're going to reuse this as a template for future imports, you can save this with the Save Script... button, and then load it again with the Load Script... button.

Once you're done all this setup, press the OK button, and the import should start.  Once it's done, bring it up in the system to make sure everything is correct.

Congratulations!  You're now an expert in both import and export!  Go ahead and get those items into the system and start your new company!

You've just started a new company in Accpac.  You have a massive Item Status report printed from your old company.  You're using this report to input your item information into Accpac manually, and you're only on page 10.  STOP!  Make life easier for yourself, use the export/import function. 

What the export function does, is it can extract information from Accpac into a file (like Excel).  The import function is the exact opposite, where it can use information from a file, and input it directly into Accpac.

We'll start with the Export function.  Lets use the IC Items as an example.  Open the IC Items screen, and go to File, Export...  The export screen comes up.  Specify the type of file at the top.  I generally find the Excel file format to be the easiest to work with.  Next is the file location and name.  In this case, probably something like "C:\Items.xls".

The section below should light up now, showing which items should be available for export.  Each header in this section can be opened, and individual pieces of information can be selected for export.  To help decide which fields to select, go to File, Display Export Fields.  A new screen should come up.  The name of each field should be fairly descriptive, the * next to some fields means it's a key field, and the + next to the rest means the fields are only for export.  Here's a quick explanation of the Type column:

• String(x) - This is a general text field, most characters are accepted.  x is the length, spaces included.
• Boolean - TRUE or FALSE
• Integer - Any whole number, both negative and positive.
• Long - Similar to Integer, but can be much bigger.
• Decimal(x,y) - Any decimal number.  x is the length, and y is the number of decimals.  So Decimal(4,2) could be 12.34.
• Date - Pretty self explanatory, the date format will depend on your regional setting.

So, based on this information, you can select the fields you want to export.  For now, lets just do all of them.  Once you're more comfortable with this, you can select the fields you want, and save the settings using the Save Criteria function, and load them again with the Load Criteria function.

There's also the Set Criteria function, which allows you to isolate which records are exported.  This works exactly the same way as the criteria function in the finder (we talk about this in the Using the Finder blog).

Press Ok, and the program should export all the information to the specified file.  Congratulations, you've just finished your first export!  Next week, the other half of the equation, import...

 A lot of people call into support, saying that they've lost something.  Unfortunately, we can't help you find that remote control that's probably tucked between the cushions of your couch, but we can help you keep track of, and hopefully prevent the loss of your Accpac transactions.

So, you have a GL Transaction, and you have no idea where it's from, what it's for.  One of the first hints you can look at is the Source Ledger and Description.  If the batch was generated from another module, the source ledger will match, and the description will generally say something like: O/E Generated Batch.

Next is the drilldown function.  You've figured out the batch came from OE, but you want to know which shipment created this batch?  Open the GL Entry, and click the drilldown button (the button next to the entry number that looks like a drill).  Assuming the Shipment wasn't deleted, it should come up.  From there, you can further drilldown to the Order.  (If you do this on a batch from AP, it will pull up the AP Batch, and so forth).

If you want to be able to instantly recognize Order Numbers from the GL Batches, you can setup GL Integration to populate numbers from OE into the GL Batch.  In the OE Setup, in the GL Integration tab, you can define many of the fields in OE to go into different descriptions/comments in the GL Batches.  The GL Integration tab is available in all the other Sage Accpac ERP modules as well, like AR and IC.

Hopefully these tips will give you one less thing to look for, and try leaving the remote control on the coffee table next time.