The Business Insights module in version 4.20 of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 has added a new Explorer section. Instead of the “canned” views available in the Dashboard section, you get a data-grid of the data-view that you have selected. There are 11 views available with data from the AR, Sales Order and RMA modules. The grid view allows you to add, remove, sort or condition each field on the screen. You can export this data to a report, text-file, Excel, HTML, Access or XML format. The lower screen displays whatever “preview” option you have selected, which further detail of the data-line you have selected.

A task menu is also available to allow you to link to tasks related to the view you have selected. For example, displaying the Customer View you can select a preview of “contacts” that will display all of the selected customer’s contacts, with their phone #’s, etc. at the bottom of the screen. The task options displayed for the Customer View relate to customer data and include: Customer Maintenance, AR Invoice Entry, SO Invoice Entry, Cash Receipts, etc. If you select Customer Maintenance, then the customer you have selected in the data-grid is called up in Customer Maintenance for you to view or modify the information.

The Explorer allows you to select groups of related data and then do tasks for each member of the group. For example: Condition the credit-hold column to only select customers on credit hold in the Customer View. Then access each customer’s record and perform a task like adding a pop-up memo for Sales Order order and invoice entry. Then you can click on the next customer in the grid of credit-hold customers and add a pop-up memo to their account.

Why did I choose the name “Friendly Systems” for our company?

As a high school and junior high and pre-school teacher, I discovered that people learn better from you if they like you. I learned that my job was to know my stuff and also to present it in a way that made my students like me, too.

When I worked as an accountant, financial analyst, systems manager and controller, what I wanted from my software provider was someone who was knowledgeable about their product. I also wanted someone who be kind to me, as I learned about and used the software. Someone who was going to be supporting and helpful. Someone who would be on my side when the going got tough. Someone with integrity. I wanted a “friend in the business”.

When I started the company in 1982 I knew I wanted to be a business that was friendly. When we added software vendors, that was a key characteristic we looked for. People like to to work with people that are friendly. While all software may, at times, be not so co-operative, the people who help you with the software can be. We listen to what you want and determine what it we can do to provide for you. After a few years, it was proven by our work that we could do the work and still be seen as friends by our allies.

So I decided to name the business “Friendly Systems” so that we would always remember that one of our main jobs was to be “friendly” even while working with “systems”.

Now that’s Friendly!

As mentioned in the Atlanta Journal on 9/19/06, for the third time in recent months Microsoft has filed suits against metro area firms as the company attempts to crackdown on the sale of counterfeit copies of its software, including Windows XP.

The local cases, all in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, are among 20 filed nationally by Microsoft.

The metro area filings were against Atlantatechnology and Dalsand Computers, both of Norcross, and GForce Computer Sales and Services of Douglasville.

Mary Jo Schrade, a Microsoft lawyer based in Alpharetta, is the lead attorney for the cases here and nationally.

She said she believes that all the metro areas firms were small ones.

Schrade said the lawsuits are designed to raise public awareness of counterfeit or illegal software. She said it was still too early to evaluate how effective that campaign has been.

Sage Software recently released a service update for their Mas90 and Mas200 4.10 version. It is labelled 4.10.1.3 Service Update. Some corrections/enhancements include:

1 In Invoice History Inquiry, the Tracking Number will now be displayed in the Summary Package Tracking Inquiry window.

2 A progress meter has been added to Accounts Receivable Delete and Change Customers process.

3 Running Period End caused Similar named Customers information to be removed i.e. Customer 01-ROCK and 01-ROCKWELL. If 01-ROCK was a temporary customer then running period end caused Invoices of both 01-ROCK and 01-ROCKWELL to be removed.

4 For Repetitive Invoices that have a short customer number (for example; 01-AA, 01-AA1, 01-AA2) and have the same reference number the sales tax detail records will no longer be removed when the repetitive invoice for customer 01-AA is deleted.

5 The Credit Card Settlement Report now correctly lists post-authorizations under the company code after the Sales Journal is posted.

6 In the Aging and Finance Charge Section of the Accounts Receivable Options, If the Aging “Age Invoices By” is set to Due Date and then the Aging Category for Calculation is entered, and then subsequently the Aging Category By is changed to Invoice Date, the finance charges will now correctly be calculated.

7 Performance enhancements have been made in Finance Charge Entry.

8 In Cash Receipts Entry, the Invoice Amount now displays correctly when a Cash Receipt is entered, changed, recalled and changed again.

9 Future dated transactions no longer erroneously print on statements.

10 In UDF and Table Maintenance, creating a UDF for AR Cash Receipts detail and choosing the Data Source InvoiceNo will now correctly pull in the column assigned.

Remember that companies that have custom modifications to their Mas90 or Mas200 software should review their modifications before installing the service-update. If you have custom modifications, there is a potential for conflict, especially since service-updates include previous program changes in addition to the latest changes. It is possible, to install each of these corrections on an individual basis without involving the new or prior changes included in the service-update. See Sage’s support website or contact your Sage reseller for details.