Version 4.4 Product Update 1 is available now!
ERP March 31st, 2010
Product Update 1 for Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.40 (4.40.0.01) was released 03/29/10. The release includes the following enhancements:
- Accounts Receivable (similar to AR-1027) - Locate an Invoice using Customer Information
- Accounts Receivable (similar to AR-1200) - Cash Receipts Entry
- Account Receivable (similar to AR-1027) - Search for Invoices by Lot or Serial Number
- Accounts Payable (NEW!) - Record Wire Transfers
- Payroll (similar to PR-1018) - Set Up Automatic Earnings Codes for Each Employee
- Sales Order (similar to SO-1096) - Enhanced Duplicate Purchase Order Visibility and Safeguards
- Sales Order (similar to SO-1271) - Additional Purchase Controls
- Sales Order (similar to SO-1035) - Expanded Options for Quick Print
- Sales Order (NEW!) - Print Back Ordered Information on Picking Sheets
- Sales Order (NEW!) - Avoid Duplicate Picking Sheet Printing
- Job Cost (similar to JC-1046) - Define Allowed Job Statuses in Data Entry Tasks
- Inventory Management (NEW!) - Search by Lot or Serial Number
- NEW! Enhanced Credit Card Security
- NEW! Enhanced Searching Ability in Data File Display and Maintenance
This Product Update has been audited for PA-DSS (Payment Application Data Security Standard) compliance. To enhance the ability to safeguard credit card information, new user preferences have been added so you can designate users that can print or display fully formatted credit card numbers. The credit card information will be protected for unauthorized users by masking the credit card numbers. Two security event roles have also been added to allow you to designate which roles can change, or delete, the encryption key for credit card numbers. Industry standards recommend that you change this key annually, or even more frequently. Also to enhance your credit card security, the key used to encrypt the credit card information is now stored separately from your company data. By using the Sage MAS 90 and 200 alternate directory feature, your key will be stored in a different physical location than your company data.
A new Credit Card Audit Log will provide:
-
- All credit card transaction requests sent to the payment server
- Each time credit card numbers are encrypted or decrypted
- Each time a user’s print or display credit card preferences is changed
- Each time a credit card key is changed or deleted
For more information about PCI Compliance and the PA-DSS visit our website.
Download Product Update 1 at Sage Support Online. It’s always a good idea to contact Blytheco before installing any product update. Contact us by phone on our national support line at 877.411.2339, or email us.
![[del.icio.us]](http://blog.blytheco.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://blog.blytheco.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://blog.blytheco.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://blog.blytheco.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Technorati]](http://blog.blytheco.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://blog.blytheco.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Email]](http://blog.blytheco.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
MAS 90-200 Updates Available
ERP March 30th, 2010
As of 3/29/10, Service Update 18 is now available for MAS 90-200 Version 4.3 users.
A new Tax Table Update is also available as of 3/23/10.
Both can be downloaded from Sage Support Online.
As always, contact us if you have questions about these updates or for assistance installing these updates.
Updated MAS 90-200 Road Map
ERP March 23rd, 2010
The Road Map has been updated as of March 12 to include more specifics about which Extended Solutions will be incorporated in which releases.
From Sage Abra on the HIRE Act
Human Resources March 19th, 2010
From Johnny Laurent, Vice President and General Manager, Sage Abra:
President Barack Obama this week signed into law the $17.5 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act which encourages companies to hire unemployed workers by exempting certain wages from Social Security taxes and by providing employers with a tax credit if new hires are retained for at least 52 consecutive weeks. This legislation impacts companies of all sizes.
Specifically, an employer would be exempt from paying its share of 2010 Social Security taxes on any new hire who has been without full-time employment for at least 60 days. The maximum tax break an employer could gain per employee under this provision would be $6,621, or 6.2 percent of total wages paid in 2010 up to the $106,800 FICA wage cap.
Sage is acting swiftly and is fully committed to helping our Sage Abra clients navigate these changes. We are currently working on implementing changes to our product offerings to help organizations comply with the HIRE Act and will reflect the legislative changes in an upcoming release.
The HIRE Act offers an opportunity to demonstrate our leadership and commitment to our customers. You will receive more specifics on the schedule and changes to the software within the next coming weeks.
Synopsis of the portion of the legislation impacting the payroll:
Social Security tax exemption
The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) imposes two taxes on employers, employees, and self-employed workers—one for Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI, commonly known as the Social Security tax), and the other for Hospital Insurance (HI, commonly known as the Medicare tax). The FICA tax rate for employees and employers is 7.65% each—6.2% for OASDI and 1.45% for HI. There is a maximum amount of compensation subject to the OASDI tax (i.e., $106,800 in 2010), but no maximum for HI.
The HIRE Act provides certain employers with relief from their share of the OASDI taxes on wages paid to a “qualified individual.” A qualified individual is anyone who:
1. begins work for a qualified employer after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011;
2. certifies by signed affidavit (under penalties of perjury) that he was employed for a total of 40 hours or less during the 60-day period ending on the date the employment begins;
3. is not employed to replace another employee of the employer unless that former employee separated from employment voluntarily, or for cause; and
4. is not related to the employer (under rules similar to those in IRC §51(i).
The exemption would be available to any employer, other than a federal, state, or local employer (or government instrumentality). However, an employer that is a public higher education institution could claim the exemption. An employer could elect not to receive this payroll tax benefit.
The bill also provides a similar payroll tax benefit to railroad employers.
It is expected that the Social Security tax exemption would be reported on Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. The first quarter return (January 1 to March 31, 2010) must be filed by April 30, 2010. However, the bill does not allow the Social Security tax exemption to be claimed with respect to wages paid in the first quarter of 2010. The tax benefit that employers would have received in the first quarter of 2010 will be claimed in the second quarter of 2010 instead.
An IRS representative has stated that the IRS will be ready to make changes to Form 941 shortly after the bill is enacted.
The legislation calls for the employer Social Security tax exemption for qualified employers, as applicable, for wages paid to the qualified individual during the period beginning on the day after the date of the enactment and ending on December 31, 2010.
Questions? Give us a call at 800.425.9843, extension 2500, or email us.
March eNews Preview: Documents, Technology and People
ERP, Events March 15th, 2010
From our friends at Acom
Designing a Document Management Strategy is complicated. Concentrate on three elements: Documents, Technology and People. These three elements are essentially the “what, how and who” of your document strategy: what documents are important, how they are produced, and who cares about how they perform.
Documents are, naturally, the subject of your strategy. In order to increase the strategic value and tactical effectiveness of your documents, it stands to reason that you should determine which ones are the most important to your organization. Identify the “vital few” documents that offer the highest return and the best likelihood for success in terms of meeting the needs of your organization. Target these documents in your strategy.
Technology enables the document process. Computers, printers, databases, networks, and all their associated systems and programs are the means by which documents are created, produced, and processed. This is an area that most of us have little trouble concentrating on (almost to a fault), but by performing a fresh and comprehensive survey of the technology used to produce your target documents you establish a technical grounding for your recommendations. Once you understand your current capabilities you are in a better position to make meaningful and intelligent choices about trends in technology that might improve your process.
In the end, people are the reason documents are produced - without cavemen there would be no cave drawings; without people there would be no documents. It seems reasonable, therefore, that the people who populate the document process in your organization are the best people to describe the process. Examine your “document constituency.” Who are the people who create, use, and care about your documents? Recognize and incorporate their needs and objectives into the scope of your strategy. Authors, readers, producers and stakeholders all have specific, varied, and sometimes conflicting, interests. Include these interests when designing your document strategy.
Read more here, and attend our free webinar for more information about creating your Document Management Strategy!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
11:00am Pacific Time
Register here.
MAS 500 Warehouse Automation Changes
Uncategorized March 11th, 2010
To MAS 500 Warehouse Automation customers:
Effective April 1, 2010, there will be several important changes regarding the Sage MAS 500 Warehouse Automation module that you should be aware of. The Sage MAS 500 Warehouse Automation and LabelXpert solutions have always been developed by Scanco, and marketed and sold by Sage under an OEM agreement (similar to common private label business practices). The agreement with Scanco is scheduled to end on March 31, 2010, resulting in several changes.
Given Scanco’s extensive product knowledge as the developer of Warehouse Automation and LabelXpert, we expect this to be a smooth transition, and many things will remain the same, such as:
• No interruption in product usage
• Warehouse Automation and LabelXpert products will continue to be available (from Scanco instead of Sage)
• No change to product pricing
• Customer support will continue without interruption
• No change to support hours (9:00 AM – 8:00 PM Eastern Time)
• Scanco will continue all product development and updates
CHANGES STARTING APRIL 1, 2010
Several changes will take place starting April 1, 2010.
SUPPORT CONTACT – Customers with existing support contracts will continue to be supported by Scanco without interruption. For plans expiring after March 31, 2010, Scanco will process renewals of support plans for Warehouse Automation and LabelXpert modules. Scanco offers one support plan that includes unlimited support cases, priced at 20% of list price.
Sage will continue resolving any existing Warehouse Automation support cases opened by March 31, 2010. Any new support cases starting April 1, 2010 should be directed to Scanco. Scanco’s hours of support operation will be the same as Sage (9:00 AM – 8:00 PM Eastern Time).
Scanco Support: 877-722-6261 or support@scanco.com
PRODUCT NAME – In the future, the Warehouse Automation solution will be referred to as: Scanco Warehouse Automation for Sage MAS 500. Product information is available on Scanco’s web site at www.scanco.com.
PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION AND INSTALLATION – Warehouse Automation is already included on the Sage MAS 500 v7.3 product DVD, and may be installed from the v7.3 DVD. The next release of Sage MAS 500 v7.4 (mid-2011) will not include Warehouse Automation or LabelXpert, and Scanco will distribute versions that are compatible with v7.4.
Scanco will distribute all product updates and hot fixes for Warehouse Automation and LabelXpert starting April 1, 2010 (future Sage MAS 500 Product Updates will not include Warehouse Automation).
LICENSING AND REGISTRATION – In the short term, Sage will continue to issue license keys to unlock Warehouse Automation. Scanco is working on new licensing capabilities that will allow them to control licensing of their products. Details will be announced when the new Scanco licensing program is available.
If you have any questions about any of these changes, contact Blytheco by phone at 800.425.9843 or by email.
MAS 90-200 Version 4.4 Integrated Solutions Matrix
ERP, Sage Software March 5th, 2010
A new Integrated Solutions Compatibility Matrix (link below) has been published for MAS 90 and MAS 200 Version 4.4.
The matrix shows version compatibility info for products that work with MAS 90 and MAS 200, such as Crystal Reports, FAS, FRx, and more.
Questions? Contact Blytheco by phone at 800.425.9843 or by email.
Sage will be performing data center maintenance this weekend on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 11:00 pm ET. During this time, the Sage MAS 500 registration server will be intermittently unavailable.
If you experience registration issues, please wait 30 – 60 minutes and retry your registration.
If you are still unable to successfully use the registration functions over the weekend, please contact Blytheco at 877.411.2339 during normal business hours of Monday through Friday, 8:00am Eastern Time through 5:00pm Pacific Time.
Document Management: What’s Your Strategy?
Uncategorized March 1st, 2010
What single aspect of business is critical to profitability yet “owned” by no one? The answer is: the Document. After all, most organizations have an IT director, but how many have a “document director?” The result may be a proliferation of documents that do not effectively serve corporate objectives.
To see the consequences, imagine a corporate strategy that includes these three basic elements:
- Increase Revenue
- Decrease Costs
- Increase Customer Satisfaction
If, for example, customer documents are daunting or confusing, and communication is unclear, what will be the effect on these basic corporate objectives? Customers may either be late with their payments or not pay at all. The result: revenue will decrease. Customers may call the company for clarification. The result: costs will increase. Customers may become frustrated and angry about the way the company does business. The result: satisfaction will decrease. What will result in the end is a total reversal of the fundamental corporate objectives.
Consider the consequences when looking at internal processes.
In this case, corporate strategy may be:
- Decrease Effort
- Increase Productivity
- Reduce Labor (headcount)
If internal documents are misleading, hard to find, outdated or inaccurate, what will be the effect on work processes? More effort will be required and productivity will decrease. Eventually, additional staff may be needed; as a result headcount will increase. Once again: a total reversal of corporate objectives.
Alignment of Strategies
The essential questions are:
- What is your corporate strategy and how can your document strategy support it?
- What IT strategies are needed to enable both?
How we manage documents has a great deal to do with how we manage business. A document strategy can help make documents part of the success of a business rather than one of the problems.
Learn more about Blytheco’s document management solution. Attend our free webinar: “Go Beyond Paperless with ACOM Solutions.”
Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 11:00am Pacific Time. Register here.