The upcoming scheduled Fall update for Sage Timberline Office is the first

Transcription

1 Vol. VIII Out With The Old, In With the New: What s New Coming this Fall What s New? New Names, New Updates What s Happenin? CPA Technology CEO Reaches Industry s Audience Product Highlights Sage Timberline Offi ce MyAssistant Sage Construction Anywhere: Go Where Your Work Takes You Also... Upcoming Events Tips & Tricks The upcoming scheduled Fall update for Sage Timberline Office is the first of several sweeping changes coming your way before the holiday season commences. It is evident that Sage is resolute to making a grand entrance with the upcoming release in concurrence with the official name change to Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate. Just a few of the enhancements underway include the ability to pay vendors electronically, ly, a robust subcontractor compliance workflow and a substantial user interface (UI) uplift. Other provisional product improvements involve the ability to mark records inactive such as a vendor or GL account, better integration between inquiries and Excel and Google map integration. While priorities may budge between now and the actual release, Sage is determined to make this one of the most significant updates they ve had in years. Speaking of name changes, keep an eye out for these names as the change is becoming official this fall: Sage Timberline Office (becoming Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate) Sage Timberline Enterprise (becoming Sage 300 Trade Specialty) Sage MAS 90/200 (becoming Sage 100 ERP (Standard/Advanced) Sage Estimating (SQL) 2013 just around the corner: Sage developed a Microsoft scalable, SQL Server database backend to its Sage Timberline Estimating product and has its third generation of Sage Estimating Microsoft SQL planned in the near future. With seamless integration with digital takeoff software, this product is a powerful, robust tool to help in winning more jobs and maximizing profit. A few enhancements include role-based security for better estimating data management, the capability to develop new or use existing custom reports for estimates, the ability to view and manage all of your estimates from one location built into the application and a new and improved Management Console for easier system administration. If you are interested in learning more about this application, call and speak to one of our Certified Sage Estimating Consultants.

2 Sage Construction Anywhere: Go Where the Work Takes You In this industry, a successful business does not run solely behind a desk. With the amount of consolidation, decentralization of offices, travel-based positions, and project work being done in multiple locations, solid remote access technology to employees is more key than ever before. New from Sage Construction and Real Estate, Sage Construction Anywhere will make it easy for you to execute tasks and access critical project information no matter where you are. These web-based, construction/real estate management-specific services will extend the reach of your data in Sage Timberline Office. Today s construction companies need to be more collaborative, using technology to connect all project team members from subs to general contractors to owners in one central location. With web-based, secure and timely exchange of project information, you and the Sage network of more than 40,000 customers will be able to better manage your projects, communicate between team members and vendors, and deliver information whenever and wherever it s needed in the office, on the jobsite, or at a client s office. Call CPA Technology at (610) for more information. Product Features Project reporting request and delivery Connector for Sage Timberline Office Powerful user management Security and scalability Project maps Simple to set up, simple to use Benefits Save time, improve decisions, and enhance client service with mobile access to project reporting that provides project team members with real-time access to job cost and project management information. Ensure that key financial and project information is secure both behind your firewall and in the cloud. Use role-based security access to easily control who can view project information, ensuring the right information gets to the right people. Built on Microsoft s industry-leading cloud services platform, Microsoft Windows Azure, Sage Construction Anywhere leverages state-of-the-art data center technology. Gain efficiencies with map functionality that allows access to job site addresses, directions, and related project reports. An easy-to-use interface allows the field to be productive right away and without training. Make a seamless transition to a solution that protects your current investment and infrastructure. Sage TimeSheet For Sage MAS 90: Web-Based Time Tracking Sage TimeSheet 100 helps small and midsized businesses track time more profitably while optimizing the flow of information on project schedules, expenses, and workforce allocation. With PC and Web-based solutions, Sage TimeSheet adds sophisticated time and expense data collection to all major financial, project management, and payroll systems. It can also function as a standalone time management tool. Sage TimeSheet is flexible and customizable so that it easily adapts to your organization s or workgroup s project structure and workflow. You can customize Sage TimeSheet to work according to your company s workflow structure with easily defined feature sets such as time entry black-out dates, definable workflow approval processes with notification, multilevel sign off, and more. It also can be implemented for an unlimited number of employees. The Sage TimeSheet Project Budgeting module provides enhanced budget tracking and scheduling capabilities for more comprehensive project tracking.

3 Tip: Sage MAS 90/200 Not sure of the order in which you need to close your Sage MAS 90/200 modules*? The order in which modules in Sage MAS 90/200 are closed during month and year-end is very important. Some modules maintain buckets of data by year (year-to-date, prior-year, etc.). These data receptacles are re-initialized during year-end processing. The period-end and year-end processes performed in one module often write data to another module, so closing the modules out of order may cause damage to your data. The first step to take is to make a backup of your company data. Year-End in Sage MAS 90 can only be reversed by restoring from a backup. Modules should be processed or closed in the following order (after you back up your data!): Order Closed Module Order Closed Module 1 System Wide Backup 9 T/C -Timecard 2 B/M - Bill of Materials 10 M/R - Magnetic Media 3 W/O - Work Order Processing 11 P/R - Payroll 4 B/C - Bar Code 12 A/R - Accounts Receivable 5 P/O - Purchase Order Processing 13 A/P - Accounts Payable 6 S/O - Sales Order Processing 14 J/C - Job Cost 7 I/M - Inventory Management 15 G/L - General Ledger 8 M/P - Material Requirements Planning The order logic assures an application that writes to another application is processed first. For example - Sales Order Processing, which can post to Inventory Management, Accounts Receivable and General Ledger should be fully processed and closed before Inventory Management, Accounts Receivable or General Ledger. Some applications can send information, in addition to receiving information from another application. For example -Job Cost can post invoices to Accounts Receivable and Accounts Receivable can post invoices to Job Cost. Therefore, both Job Cost and Accounts Receivable should be processed prior to closing either application. General Ledger is the only module that can be re-opened for a prior month or a prior year. No other module other than General Ledger should be left open for more than two months. If you are running modules not on this list, for example e-business Manager, one or more Sage MAS 90 ERP Extended Solutions, or a third-party product, there may be special considerations involved in year-end closing. For more help, call CPA Technology to speak to one of our Certified Sage MAS 90/200 consultants. * Sage MAS 90/200 is becoming Sage 100 ERP (Fall 2012)

4 CEO of CPA Technology Reaches Industry s Audience on Cloud Technology Ben Hofferman, Chief Executive Officer of CPA Technology, LLC, has been asked to serve on a panel discussion at the annual Joint Meeting of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the CFMA and the American Subcontractor s Association which is being held in Northern Virginia on September 11, As the volunteer National Chair of CFMA s IT Council, he will be reaching out to the industry s audience on the increasing prevalence of cloud computing in today s technological world. Ben states, There are producers developing an increasing amount of applications built on this cloud concept and a growing number of consumers need to get access to corporate and personal information on the go. Tip: Sage Timberline Office 9.8 Are you tired of wasting paper when entering journal entries or invoices? Sage Timberline Office 9.8 has a new feature that allows you to print to file without having to name the file: > On the Desktop>Common Tasks>Tools>Options > Check the box to Automatically print journal to file > Pick a folder and pick a naming convention for the file. Check the Help Screens for more information. Get Out of the Weeds with Sage Timberline Offi ce MyAssistant We ve all felt like we ve needed a weed whacker to get us out of the weeds when disarray prevents us from keeping a close eye on business operations. Some are even overwhelmed by the sheer volume of sticky notes strewn about the desk or stashed in random drawers intended for reminders or notes of importance. This is where Sage Timberline Office MyAssistant comes into play. Now part of the Sage Timberline Office, MyAssistant proactively identifies what needs to be done, just like having your own personal assistant. MyAssistant uses Microsoft Outlook to deliver timely automatic notifications where the user can select from over 330 prebuilt rules or customize their own according to their business needs. With automatic document distribution, report, spreadsheet, and alert generation, communications are improved keeping you in the loop so you can act quickly to take advantage of opportunities and avoid costly issues. With MyAssistant: Identify vendors with insurance expiring in 30 days and send them a letter. Send past due customers a list of their delinquent invoices. Generate and distribute personalized reports on a regular schedule. Notify executives when jobs drop below a profit threshold. Send each project manager a list of costs codes that are over budget for their jobs. Audit processes such as job, contract, or employee setup to ensure they are completed correctly. And do much more! To find out more, call us for a brochure or speak to Fred at (610)

5 Sage 100 Contractor Desktop Completely Refreshed, Completely Redesigned Sage Master Builder is now Sage 100 Contractor. This change reflects Sage s commitment to building an even stronger presence on the construction industry. Although the new name will take some getting used to, many of the new enhancements won t. Smarter and easier to use, Sage 100 Contractor s 2013 (version 18.1) release comes with a completely revised user desktop. You have more options for navigating around in the program, thanks to new Activity Centers that group similar work functions. The Activity Center tabs are an easy graphical way to view areas of Sage 100 Contractor by job function. The tabs are grouped in a workflow order. You can hide the menu tree and use the Activity Center tabs to navigate through the program. The tabs divide up the program into several main sections. Each tab has a drop-down menu associated with it. When you place your cursor on an Activity Center tab, the drop-down menu displays along with a process map in the main desktop. The system s original (default) process maps are arranged in workflow order and allow you to easily see the entire task sequence. You can use the process maps as shortcuts to get to specific tasks and can be customized by each user as well. To edit, click the link on the bottom of the activity center, then select the task icon you want to change. Task icons provide an easy way to correlate the graphical icon to the menu item and are user-editable. The System Menu that is displayed when rightclicking is not changed, but the text visible to the user can be customized. Customizing the task icon allows you easily make the text fit your needs. The generic report title may not tell you that this is the report you need, so create a unique name that is specific and at-a-glance tells you what you need to know. companies accessed from the computer where they are set up. You have two menu tabs available when logging into a Sage 100 Contractor company: 1) a default System Menu tab and 2) a customizable My Menu tab. The System Menu has stayed the same as previous versions, except for a couple of visual changes. The plus/minus signs have been replaced with arrows to better navigate the menu tree. The main header area, such as, 1-General Ledger has been bolded for easier viewing. A new menu, My Menu, only shows you the system modules you have security access to in Sage 100 Contractor. My Menu can be tailored to your workflow. You can customize the My Menu tab to remove items that you have no interest in or do not use on a regular basis. Click [Customize My Menu] at the bottom of the My Menu tab. Desktop configurations are specific to each computer. They are attached to the user name and are consistent throughout all You can create shortcuts on your program desktop from items on the System Menu. Click the link in the lower left corner of the desktop area to change to the edit mode, then drag items from the System Menu to the desktop area and place it where ever you want. You can create shortcuts on your desktop to a specific report from any report printing menu. Highlight the report under the Report Criteria tab and click [Create Shortcut] on the toolbar.

6 LIVE WEBCAST DEMONSTRATION Part Tip: of the Product Sage 100 Knowledge Contractor Seminar Series E-Filing Wednesday, in Sage 100 April Contractor 4, 2012 Sage MAS 90 Distribution Management You can Register now e-file online many of at your tax forms right from Sage 100 Construction (for a small fee per form). Sage has partnered with Aatrix to provide this service for your payroll data at the Federal and state levels. The help screens in Sage 100 Contractor can get you on the right track, and the Look Aatrix for interface more has scheduled its own help live available. web demos The in consultants the near here future! can also help to guide you along. Please note that you do not have to register to use the forms, however if you print them, the word Demo will appear on the printouts. This can still UPCOMING be a time saver when BREAKFAST preparing to complete MEETINGS your forms as you have in the past. Tuesday, March 13, 2012 Equipment Cost/Equipment Maintenance Job Cost projects and forecasting, utilizing Project Management field reports, importing esti- Get mates the most out of your software. Sign up for an event today! VThursday, isit our website April at 19, 2012 to register for our events and to view a Time comprehensive for Timberline event calendar Spring with Cleaning! a complete listing of upcoming trainings. Why is my system slow? Can we review archiving procedures? Why can t I move my AP checks to history? UPCOMING BREAKFAST MEETINGS View our comprehensive list of trainings on our online Events Calendar at September 11, 2012 (8:00-10:00 AM) November (8:00-10:00 AM) Financial Statements & Cash Flow Projections Topic TBD Register at (CPE credits are available) October 17, 2012 (8:00-10:00 AM) December (8:00-10:00 AM) Printing W2 s Through Aatrix Handling Year-End in Timberline Offfice* UPCOMING LIVE WEBCASTS Part of the Product Knowledge Seminar Series August 22, 2012 (10:00-11:00 AM) September 19, 2012 (10:00-11:00 AM) October 24, 2012 (8:30-10:30 AM) Sage Timberline Office MyAssistant Timberline Office Service Management Crystal Reports for Sage MAS 90 September 5, 2012 (10:00-11:00 AM) October 9, 2012 (10:00-11:00 AM) December 6, 2012 (8:30-9:30 AM) Sage MAS 90** Overview/Time Tracking Sage Estimating & Takeoff Year-End Closing for Sage MAS 90 OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS September 11, 2012 (Tyson s Corner, VA) Annual Joint Meeting - Washington, D.C. CFMA Chapter & DC Metro American Subcontractor s Association December 5, 2012 (8:30 AM - 12:30 PM) Training Class: Year-End for Sage Timberline Office * Sage Timberline Office is becoming Sage 300 Construction & Real Estate (Fall 2012) ** Sage MAS 90 is becoming Sage 100 ERP (Fall 2012)