Sage Accpac Accounting Software Vancouver Blog - Unisoft

Recently we added two new videos to our video section on our site:

What’s New in Sage Accapc ERP 5.5 Fiancials?

This video basically covers System Manager, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Bank/Tax Services.

What’s New in Sage Accpac ERP 5.5 Operations?

Operations suite video shows thew new features in Order Entry, Inventory Control and Purchase Order as well as the improved integration of these modules with PJC, AP and AR.

Overall the Sage Accpac v5.5 release is a good move in the right direction for Sage Accpac, it was part of the Sage Accpac Extended Enterprise Suite which is essentially a complete business software solutions including ERP (accounting) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) along with some analytical dashboards.  Also, a number of optional modules (AR Inquiry, Customer Number Change, etc.) purchased separtely before are now part of the suite if you purchase the associated core modules.

I wrote an article a while back about how to use the Sage Accpac data integrity check tool but did not include anything about how to analyze the reports generated from the data integrity check. As a consultant I have been asked many times from very worried customers why their data integrity check report is showing errors. In data integrity checks reports their are two different types of errors:

• Type 1 errors are data errors and need to be dealt with immediately as the represent damage or corrupted data. An example would be an corrupted data file that can’t be accessed by your data engine.
• Type 2 errors are accounting errors and can be quite normal but you should pay attention to these types of errors. An example of a type 2 error would be missing item number or order number.

It should be quite obvious to tell the difference between the two.  Again type 1 are almost alyways serious and should be dealt with immediately while type 2 can be serious but most times can be left alone or attended to at a later date. At Unisoft, we find it good practice to run the data integrity check once a month and try to fix any errors on an ongoing basis. 

Recently reviewed by The CPA Technology Advisor the 200 edition of Sage Accpac ERP 5.4 received 5 stars out of a possible 5.  The review is mid-range accounting systems and bases it’s assement on 6 categories:

1. Ease of Use/Transaction Entry - 5/5
2. Modules & Notable Features - 5/5
3. Integration/Import/Export - 5/5
4. Reporting - 5/5
5. Support/Training/Help System - 5/5
6. Relative Value - 5/5

Sage Accpac ERP got 5/5 for every category which is no surprise to Unisoft, an organization that has been dealing with accouting systems since 1989. One notable part of the review was the relative value where they stated that:

“Sage Accpac 200 ERP is an excellent product for companies that have outgrown their current software. The scalability of Sage Accpac with its three versions means that an investment in the product today will easily pay for itself over time.”

This is outstanding considering the other systems it was compared to including QuickBooks.  It also goes back to my article I wrote about outgrowing your current accounting system and moving to Sage Accpac as it is extremely scalable and according to this review, worth it’s value.

Today TPAC (Third Party Advantage Conference) 2007 started today with the preconference. Unisoft attended Norming Software Intl training sessions on Norming eTimesheet and Norming Asset Management. Norming Software Intl is based in Beigjing and has produced a number of third party products that integrate with Sage Accpac ERP. 

Norming eTimesheet is a web based job planning, time and leave tracking, expense reporting and billing software suite that the fully integrates with Sage Accpac ERP. It also integrates with almost any other accounting system through it’s integration component. The technology is built on Microsoft’s .NET framework and has can use a number of database engines including MS SQL, Pervasive and Oracle. We look forward to hearing more from the Norming team. This was a great start to the Sage Accpac third party products and really shows the depth and flexibilty that can be achieved Sage Accpac ERP trhough the third party solutions giving business owners a complete end-to-end ERP system.  

Unisoft will be attending the Sage Accpac third party conference or formally Third Party Advantage Conference (TPAC) from August 26th to 28th.  TPAC is a conference showcasing thrid party products that work with Sage Accpac ERP. The conference was founded in 2003 after the AOC, the old Third Party conference was discontinued.  All the major Sage Accpac third party developers will be there and will be a good time for Unisoft to get up to date on all their latest technologies and developments. There will be training sessions and exhibitions that will allow Unisoft to help find the best products to help improve our customers business systems. We will be posting back here after the Conference to give a quick summary of what of the Accpac conference.

This is a quick tip for Outlook users. If you have deleted items and then removed them from your deleted items folder in outlook there is a way to retrieve these items. All you have to do is locate the menu bar item named “Tools”, expand this and click “Recover Deleted Items…” and that is all. This only works for users using Excahgne 2003 and later versions with Outlook 2003 and later versions.  The number of days items are recovered from are set on your Exchange server.

This is a good question. For any business, small, medium or large, looking to utilize technology to their full advantage they will need to know what ERP is and how they can use it.  Essentially, ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, another great IT acronym. However, this is not what we are after, we are after the concept that is making ERP software the next revolution in business technology.

ERP software is meant to be a solution for your business that can encompass and integrate all of your business processes and needs. It can include manufacturing, supply mangement, sales, financials, customer management  or just a few business activities. ERP systems are built around what your business needs.

Why is ERP software so important? Because it brings all your systems together and ensures every business process is integrated, bringng your business technology system closer and closer to mimicking your business. This makes all your company activities more efficient and enables you’re business to get more out of your investment. 

Unisoft offers a secure remote access solution for your business. This allows you to access email via outlook, file shares at the office, and data you need to get access to while sitting at home, on the road or in a cafe. The technology powering this solution is called SSL-VPN and allows you to easily and securely log in to your office network by simply going to a web site.  If you are interested in adding secure remote access for your business please contact Unisoft today.

Ever since Unisoft began providing one of North America’s most effective customer relationship management solutions we have been met with some confusion regarding what CRM systems really can and cannot do. We hope this 3 part series of posts will help clear up some of this confusion as well shed some light into the intentions behind Sage CRM’s architectural design.

In many ways Sage Accpac CRM certainly is the all-encompassing “yes” solution.   It has been highly regarded for the ease of use and flexibility involved in the customization process as well as won out against its competitors for various user friendly features including an appealing and uncluttered interface, web deployment that provides real time access at anytime and from anywhere, integration with its host accounting solution (Sage Accpac ERP) and a wide range of readily available third party products that often also integrate with Sage Accpac ERP.  Nevertheless, customers often approach the prospect of purchasing a CRM system with unclear views about what they really want to achieve with the solution, or even worse, with little or no expectations at all.  In the first case this type of confusion can lead to a circle of indecisiveness which often stops at a dead end with no decision at all and in the second case customers that do go ahead with the purchase will often feel dissatisfied with the product because they never distinguished what they wanted it for in the first place.  In both situations the solution is simple: isolate your needs from your desires and come to a conclusion which is both satisfactory and realistic.  Of course, while we never want a client to settle for just anything that happens to come along, we also want you to remember that you will rarely find a solution that is perfect and so a little compromise is better than nothing at all.  

Join us next time when we discuss elements and functions that most customers should be looking for in CRM systems and how Sage CRM compares in this regard.

Have you been looking to get information about sales, inventory or customer activity out of your Sage Accpac ERP system? Unisoft has many consultants that are excellent at writing custom Crystal Reports to get exactly what you need out of your Sage Accpac data. Unisoft’s trained and proficient team of consultants will provide simple edits to fully customized sales and customer activity Crystal Reports tog et exectly what you want. Please contact us at 604-926-3398 or submit a service request and we will have one our consultants get back to you.