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Year End Information

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Brian Rice
on November 29, 2010
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Sage has announced that the Q1 2011 Tax Table Update (TTU) and Interim Release Download (IRD) should be available after December 17, 2010. The TTU will be updated each week with adjustments  for late-breaking changes. In line with Sage’s practice of releasing comprehensive updates, all of the program changes in the IRD will be included in Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 v4.40 Product Update 4 and Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 v4.30 Service Update 21 which are expected to be available the week of December 27, 2010. If you install PU4 or SU21 instead of the IRD, you will still need to download and install the Q1 2011 Tax Table Update before processing your first payroll for 2011.

This information and more detail will be addressed during the next Sage MAS 90/200 User Group meeting on Thursday, December 9 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. More details will follow, but you can register for the meeting now.

Sage MAS 90 and 200 2010 Year End FAQs Nov 2010

2010 K2 Enterprises 9th Annual Quality Awards

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Brian Rice
on September 28, 2010
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K2 Enterprises, a technology-focused continuing education provider for accountants and other professionals has released the list of recipients for their 9th Annual Quality Awards (which includes Sage North America in the Reseller Channel category and BizNet in the Financial Reporting category.)

Hammond, LA – September 27, 2010 ‐‐ K2 Enterprises today announced the recipients of their annual quality awards as follows:
· Reseller Program – Avalara
· CPA Program – QuickBooks ProAdvisor – Intuit, Inc.
· Installation Channel/Methodology – Intacct
· Reseller Channel – Sage North America
· New Product – iPad – Apple, Inc.
· New Module – MIP Fundraising Online – Sage
· New Technology – Intelliconnect – CCH
· Management Strategy – Thomson Reuters
· Technical Support – Conexxus
· Customer Satisfaction – AccountantsWorld, Inc.
· Ease of Use – Confirmation.com – Capital Confirmation
· Marketing Communications – Thomson Reuters
· Overall Quality – Windows 7 – Microsoft, Inc.
· Tax – Pro Systems fx – CCH
· Accounting Industry Press Coverage – CPA Technology Advisor
· Audit – Knowledge Coach – CCH
· Financial Reporting – BizNet
· Workflow – XCM – XCM Solutions
· Small Business Solution – Freshbooks
· Small CPA Firm Solution – Drake
K2 Enterprises is the premier provider of technology continuing professional education (CPE) in both the United States and Canada. With seminars in over 46 states in 2010, 1,000+ presentations, special events such as their turn‐key Annual Technology Conferences, CPE & Ski, K2 Enterprises ‐ Canada, they are the largest provider of technology CPE in North America.
K2 Enterprises CEO, Val Steed, announced five new categories this year.  “We feel like after nine years we needed to expand our awards a bit.  The accounting technology industry is becoming more specialized and I would imagine we will add a few more categories next year”.  Executive Vice President Randy Johnston said “I am especially pleased to see so many good candidates this year.  It certainly makes voting much more difficult and expanding the awards is the right thing to do”.
K2 Enterprises Annual Quality Awards are determined by a simple voting poll of the K2 Enterprises instructor team. The polling members of this team are Randy Johnston, Will Fleenor, Val Steed, Bob Spencer, Alan Salmon, Lawrence (Mac) McClelland, Tommy Stephens, Brian Tankersley, & Ilene Eisen.
K2 team votes are influenced by, end user feedback, and experience from consulting and extensive teaching. Detailed biographies on each of the polled members can be found at:
http://www.k2e.com/team

Bank Code Field Limitations

Published
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Brian Rice
on August 31, 2010
in Uncategorized
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To some businesses, it might seem negligible but to others it is vital. The Bank Code field in MAS 90 and 200 is limited to a single character which means any single organization can have up to 36 bank accounts (26 alpha plus 10 numeric characters). With the number of locations that Bank Code file writes to in a MAS 90 or 200 installation, extending the field to two or more characters is a daunting task.

Wisely, our friends as DSD Business Systems in San Diego, have programmed a system enhancement allowing lower-case characters in the Bank Code field. Now 62 bank accounts are available (26 lower-case alpha, 26 upper-case alpha, plus 10 numeric characters).

MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.4 Has Arrived

Published
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Brian Rice
on March 2, 2010
in MAS 90 and MAS 200 and Uncategorized
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Sage has invested a great deal in the release of MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.4 to deliver another useful business reason for their customers to maintain their annual software subscription/maintenance agreements. As a part of their investment, they have made a tremendous effort to educate everyone about the benefits of the software and to their credit, the release was shipped on time. Now that it is in our hands, we’ve started our own testing and evaluation and will be sure to keep you updated.

Who Talks Like This?

Published
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Brian Rice
on July 14, 2009
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I suspect it is a result of monkey-see, monkey-do but at some point in time some writers got too smart for their own good and started using phrases like:

Best of breed/best in class
Ground-breaking
User-friendly
Robust
Interoperable
Turnkey
Cutting edge

Honestly, who talks like this? Well, I did once while introducing Acuity Solutions as an event sponsor. A (thankfully) blunt friend of mine was kind enough to point it out. After I thought about the nonsense I had spewed, I hung my head and vowed to change my ways.

In The Gobbledygook Manifesto, David Meerman Scott calls for the madness to stop. I find it infuriating to read stuff that is written in this vain and now that I know better, it’s tough to write that way. Please call me on it if you ever catch me slipping.

I hope this takes ground somehow and changes (again) the way we write.

FAS version 2009.1.1 released by Sage

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Brian Rice
on June 10, 2009
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All Sage FAS 50, 100 and 500 end-users with current SupportPlus plans are eligible for the 2009.1.1 release from Sage. You can read the complete list of updated forms, limits, extension in the What’s New document.

A new feature available in this release is the Asset Snap Shot, a dashboard summary of your asset information including charts and statistics. The Asset Snap Shot can be viewed each time FAS is opened or it can be run directly from the Reports menu.

Segment of the Asset Snap Shot

The Snap Shot includes:

  • Asset Listing: A table that displays the net value of your active assets.
  • Active Assets by Property Type: A pie chart that shows the total acquisition values for the top four property types with all remaining types categorized as other.
  • Latest Activity Dates: This section displays the latest date that various activities occurred.
  • Placed in Service by Quarter Chart: Displays the total acquired value of the assets placed in service in each quarter of the current year. 
  • Investment by Remaining Life Chart: Groups active assets into four categories, according to how much time remains before the assets are completely depreciated.
  • Five Year Acquisition Comparison Chart: Shows the total acquired value of assets placed in service in each of the last five fiscal years.
  • Depreciation Comparison by Book Chart: Compares the total acquired value and total accumulated depreciation for all active assets through the current reporting period for each open FAS book. 

Latest Edition of the *info Newsletter for MAS 90 and MAS 200

Published
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Brian Rice
on March 17, 2009
in MAS 90 and MAS 200 and Uncategorized
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Next week we will distribute the latest edition of the *info newsletter. infoReaders of the blog are getting a jump on everyone else with this link.

This issue covers two issues we have been discussing with our customers recently: Paperless Office and the new Sage Communities. Both of these topics are approached from a different perspective as well as the curious ghost asset fixed asset tracking issue.

Customers or Clients?

Published
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Brian Rice
on February 26, 2009
in Uncategorized
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Around our office questions get asked all the time. Some of the questions are very concrete, tangible. Some of the questions are nebulous. Some of the questions fall somewhere in between. After our MAS 90/200 User Group meeting last week, I asked our team if we had customers or clients.

I explained my reasoning as I had heard it described to me. When the people you do business with get specialized treatment, when the work you do varies, it is customized so you have customers. It is also the custom of the people you work with to have a mutually beneficial relationship (those business have a custom of paying).

Shari’s counter-point said the connotation attached to client is that there is a relationship and the connotation attached to customers is one of many. Clients have open and extended communications; customers exist in a queue, placing their order and moving on without establishing any memories or feelings. I had always imagined the opposite.

Esther shrugged and said that client had “I” in the middle. I commented that customer included “me” to which Esther responded that with customers it is all about “u” and “me.” Sounds like an argument for customer.

We didn’t reach a conclusion and I would really like to establish some common terminology. What do you think?