How Accounting Has Been Changed Over Time By Technology
Luca Pacioli (1494) was the first to describe the systems of debits, credits, journals and ledgers. Pacioli's writings are the basis of modern accounting. Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita ("Review of Arithmetic, Geometry, Ratio and Proportion"), a twenty-seven page treatise on double-entry accounting, was one of the first items to be published on the Gutenberg printing press. Leonardo da Vinci was one of Pacioli's students in Milan.
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Tags:
Cloud Computing,
Small Business,
quickbooks Pro,
Accounting systems
Sage has recently announced that after 9/28/2012, all purchases of upgrades, new modules, and new lanpaks for Sage Pro ERP must be added to a system that is current on maintenance. This is not as bad as it seems, if you are more than 2 years behind on maintenance (which is not uncommon for heavily modified Sage Pro systems), you will need to buy 2 years of back maintenance and one year ahead. This works out to 54% of the new price. So, for an upgrade to the current version, that's just a bit more expensive than the long standing 50% of the new price that upgrades have cost up until now. But if you just wish to add one lanpak to an old out of maintenance system and not upgrade, you have to pay as much as if you were going to upgrade everything rather than just pay a penalty. In the worst case, you could pay the upgrade price just to add a single user.
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Tags:
ACCPAC | SAGE PRO | Xtuple | MAS90 | Foxpro
Accountmate ERP system has been around for many years and is still going strong as a unified, source code based, MS SQL back end, enterprise resource planning system which can be customized at a business logic level or used out of the box as is.
One of the latest improvements on this product is the addition of native configurator modules for sales orders and manufacturing. In some cases, these modules will provide enough manufacturing capabilities that additional manufacturing modules are not needed.
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Tags:
SAGE PRO,
Visual Accountmate,
Source Code ERP,
Visual FoxPro,
SBT
Budget processes conducted outside of your accounting system using external spreadsheets and handwritten notes will slow you down. Constangly updating these external worksheets are inevitable changes as changes occur with your planning and spending. These changes most likely cause errorswhen updating this information in both your external spreadsheets and your accounting system and waste valuable time with duplicate data entry.
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Tags:
Sage 300 ERP,
Sage Pro ERP,
Budget,
Sage Accpac ERP,
F9,
Accpac Intelligence
Sage FAS software is a depreciation, asset maintenance, and repair schedule module that links to a large number of accounting systems, including Sage PRO and Sage Accpac.
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Tags:
asset tags,
SAGE FAS,
Depreciation,
Fixed Assets,
repair schedule
Large retail customers (Walmart, Target) now drive EDI adoption. They simply inform their suppliers that EDI is mandatory for keeping their business.
Paperless document transfer
systems allow faster transactions with fewer errors; this might seem reason enough to migrate to EDI software, even without customer and vendor pressure.
But the improved performance that EDI can bring usually requires that software integration with back end software already be in place, as well as the capability to translate outgoing invoices into the varied EDI formats that customers' systems might require. Both requirements can be difficult and intimidating for a small enterprise to successfully implement. Any software integration project can encounter unexpected pitfalls, and the sheer number of document formats and transport protocols that EDI supports adds complexity that can be both daunting and confusing.
Transport protocols include HTTP and
HTTPS,
POP3 and
SMTP,
OFTP, SOAP,
WebDAV, X.400, and
EDIINT
AS1,
AS2,
AS3 and
AS4. The file formats supported by EDI are also very numerous, and include comma-separated value files and
EURITMO as well as:
- ANSI X12
- GS1 eCOM EANCOM
- XML
- Tradacoms
- EDIFACT
- CEFIC
- EDIBDB
- EDIFICE
- EDIFURN
- FORTRAS
Nonetheless, many enterprises do attempt to individually accommodate the format requirements of each customer and vendor, and to establish integration between incoming EDI data and often legacy accounting and business systems. Homegrown works-for-us EDI software integration is still being used but is no longer a top EDI software solution. Companies just starting with EDI tend to use web or fax based services. The trading partner sends the order to the service which then emails, faxes, or provides a web interface to retrieve the order. Costs per order can be as much as $20, but the implementation costs are minimal.
Fortunately, the emergence of cloud and Software-as-a-Service providers means that small businesses and understaffed information technology departments have an alternative to pulling their hair out over EDI integration with their existing back end accounting software. A number of vendors offer managed and hosted EDI solutions with the EDI capability your business partners are asking you for, and to provide it in much less time, and with much less stress, than this might otherwise take.
Here are some of the most prominent vendors, and a quick look at some of their services:
Redtail Solutions has a managed cloud EDI solution that natively integrates with Microsoft, Sage and
AccountMate software. Their
3PL Link product provides an electronic link from your accounting system to your third party fulfillment providers.
123 EDI has software, EDI Engine, that supports all versions of all standards for EDI software, and can translate XML and flat files as well. 123 EDI also offer both hosted and managed EDI. Their software accommodates many interfaces, for example Quickbooks, Peachtree, Sage, UPS,
DHL and FedEx.
EDI Consulting Group offers many EDI software integration solutions tailored to specific tasks, such as FAX 2 EDI and
PDF2EDI and EDI LINK, a bridge from EDI to your accounting software that generates sales orders from incoming customer purchase orders and translates outgoing invoices into EDI data formats. EDI Consulting supports all EDI formats including X-12, UN-EDIFACT, and XML. We do a lot of business with this EDI provider.
Which of these vendor is best for you? If your business needs EDI today, outsourced solutions may be the place at least to start. If you have the time available to map out and implement an organized and incremental roll-out, you may want to keep at least some of your EDI capability in-house, if your information technology department has the required capabilities.You may also want to bring fresh eyes in to analyse your EDI needs and capabilities. Call PC Methods Inc. at the number above and we will be happy to discuss your EDI requirements and potential designs for a solution that fits your business.
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Tags:
ACCPAC ERP,
Accpac Pro,
ERP systems,
Sage Pro ERP,
"EDI software"
| |
| May, 2014 |
| Stonefield Software is pleased to announce the newest release of the Stonefield Query for Sage Pro ERP. |
|
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Tags:
ACCPAC ERP,
Sage 300 ERP,
Accpac Pro,
Sage Pro ERP,
ACCPAC | SAGE PRO | IT Consulting,
Sage 300cloud
Expiring 3/15/2014, Sage is offering special pricing for Sage Pro and Sage Platinum customers.
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Tags:
SAGE PRO,
Sage 300,
Sage CRM,
Special Pricing.
If you purchased or upgraded an ERP system less than 2 years ago, chances are great that in 5 to 6 years when you upgrade, you will upgrade to a cloud based system. So, what does that mean:
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Tags:
Backup to the cloud,
Cloud Computing,
ACCPAC,
SAAS,
Accpac Online,
As a Service,
AAS,
IAAS,
XAAS,
NAAS,
CAAS,
HAAS,
PAAS
MARKETPLACE FAIRNESS ACT:
What it is and how we got there:
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Tags:
MARKETPLACE FAIRNESS ACT,
Sales Tax,
Nexus,
Internet tax
There are four big deadlines on the horizon for Sage Pro and PFW customers. In many cases, customers will wish to do nothing and continue to use their existing system. However, the lack of software publisher support for the software will be a red flag for some users, and the use of older 32 bit programming languages will be a red flag for other users. (Note, with virtual systems becoming more supportable, it may be possible to run Pro and PFW indefinitely, but the caveat is that the longer this is done, the greater the risk that the software will become a black box that nobody understands. See our blog article on "
Software Rusts"). Because of business reasons, Sage has chosen to declare that Sage Pro and Sage PFW will not be supported by Sage after March 31, 2014. (PCM will continue to support this product as long as there is a demand for support).
- First Deadline is March 31, 2013. This deadline is for Sage Pro and PFW customers who wish to get on plan (get current with software support). Customers must be on plan to purchase additional modules, so off plan customers have until March 31, 2013 to decide if they want to purchase additional modules or user licenses for Sage Pro or PFW. They don't have to purchase the licenses by then, but they do have to get on plan by then.
- The Second Deadline is September 30,2013. This deadline is to qualify for the migration discount described in the table below. No license fees will be charged for on plan customers wishing to migrate to a Sage 100 ERP or Sage 300 ERP license with the same number of users. A $2000 per user credit will be offered for on plan customers wishing to migrate to Sage X3 ERP. The cost to do so is a prorated portion of the annual software support fee for the new system only. (So instead of paying 118% of list which is the normal new license and support cost, you pay only 18% of list and even that is prorated). Off Plan users are not without discounts either. They get $750 per user trade in credit toward any of Sage 100, Sage 300, or Sage X3. Technical support will be offered for Sage Pro and Sage PFW to on plan customers for 6 months after the new licenses are purchases, since most users will probably continue to use the old software during the conversion process.
- The Third Deadline is March 31, 2014. After this time, NO MORE MODULES or USERS MAY BE ADDED TO Sage Pro or Sage PFW even if you are on plan.
- The Fourth Deadline: After September 30, 2013 and until September 30, 2014, on-plan users will receive a $2000 per user trade-in credit for migrations to Sage 100, Sage 300, and Sage X3. They will still have to purchase licenses and the software support plan, but get this credit to reduce the cost. Off plan users will only get $500/user trade in credit.
- Of course, Sage may offer some discounts after September 30, 2014, to try to round up addtional Pro and PFW users, but there is no promise or guarantee (or even a hint) that they will do so.
Tags:
Sage Accpac,
Sage 300 ERP,
Sage 100 ERP,
Sage Pro ERP,
Sage X3 ERP
Some accounting systems and ERP systems such as QuickBooks Pro have built in support for reconciling credit card type accounts. Most of the mid level ERP packages such as Sage 300 ERP and SAGE PRO ERP do not have this support. So, what can be done to work around this missing feature?
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Tags:
Sage Accpac,
Sage 300 ERP,
SAGE PRO,
Bank Reconciliation,
Accounting System Workarounds
