Sage MAS 90 & MAS 200 ERP Software News & Tips
Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 Picking Up Speed
From a product and innovation perspective, the Sage ERP MAS 90 and MAS 200 products benefitted from a number of significant enhancements throughout 2010. Here's a quick recap of the last year's product releases.
- MAS 90 and MAS 200 v4.4, Feb. 2010 — 28 new enhancements, expanded Customer Number and Inventory Item Number field length, 4 modules (Bill of Materials, Inventory Management, Purchase Order, Bar Code) added to Business Framework
- PU 1, March 2010 — 13 new features added impacting purchase orders, job cost, sales orders, picking sheets, cash receipts, payroll and much more
- PU 2, July 2010 — 8 new features added with a concentration on the Bank Reconciliation and Accounts Payable module
- PU 3, September 2010 — 5 new functional workflows for Bank Reconciliation, compatibility with Microsoft Office 2010
- PU 4, Year End updates, December 2010
- Sage ERP MAS Intelligence
Looking back on it, that's a lot of new functionality that was provided to those customers with a current maintenance plan. As part of Sage's top priorities, they are committed to enhancing end user customers' MAS 90 and MAS 200 experience. One of the best ways to do that is develop innovative products that help us all do our job more effectively. They have certainly raised the bar significantly with their releases in 2010. We know this is a “what have you done for me lately” game however. So the question on everyone' s mind is what's coming in 2011?
What to Expect in 2011
Following is a glimpse of what's scheduled to be included in 4.40 Product Update 5 due to be released in March 2011.
- Inactive Item Designation
This Inventory Management feature allows you to designate certain items as 'inactive'. Sales Order Entry, Sales Order Invoice Entry, Purchase Order Entry, P/O Receipt of Goods Entry, P/O Return of Goods Entry and I/M Transaction Entry will all be modified to disallow entry of Items that have been marked as 'inactive'.
- Security for Inventory Inquiry
Security is added to the Inventory Inquiry Screen, I/M Detailed Sales History Inquiry Option, and Purchase Order Inquiry from Inventory Inquiry. The security prevents the user from entering certain options and seeing cost or vendor information.
- Physical Count Entry by Ticket Number
Data entry options for 'Ticket Number Entry' are added to the Inventory Management Physical Count process for all valuation methods, except Lot and Serial Number. Multiple item records may now be entered for each 'Ticket' Number. You can specify in Setup which Unit of Measure you wish to use for the counting process. If you select any Unit of Measure other than 'Standard,' then the quantity will be converted into each item's Standard Unit of Measure during the update to standard MAS 90 MAS 200 Inventory Physical Count.
- Background Color by Company Code
Allows a different background color to be established by company code. No more accidentally entering hours' worth of data into your test company when you thought you were in your live company!
- Multiple Company Aged Invoice Report
Modifies the Accounts Payable Aged Invoice Report to add a range of Company Codes to the Selection criteria and adds Company Code as a column on the report, to the left of the Invoice Number.
- Distribution Table for Invoice Entry
Adds user defined 'distribution tables' to Accounts Payable. Each table lists up to ninety-nine General Ledger Account Numbers and a corresponding percentage value for each account. During Invoice Data Entry, a distribution table may be selected and used to generate distribution lines for the invoice.
- Additional Check Printing Sort Option
Adds the ability to print checks in alphabetical order by Vendor Name.
Version 4.5 is scheduled to be released in Q3 2011. The details of this release are not as solidified yet, but we have good reason to believe it will include the following.
- Microsoft SQ L Merge — single codebase for PVX and SQL, upgrade process for going from PVX to SQL
- Extended Enterprise Suite (EES) Merge/SageCRM — SageCRM available as add on to ERP instead of bundled with EES, support for SageCRM v7.0, easier upgrades to SageCRM releases
- New Features — adding functionality contained in 14 top selling and requested Extended Solutions titles. These should include
- 5 enhancements in Payroll
- Additional Deduction Calculation Methods (similar to PR-1067)
- Deduction Recalculation (similar to PR-1116)
- Deduction Calculation Based on Earnings Type (similar to PR-1015)
- Import Utility (similar to PR-1031)
- Enhanced Benefit Accrual (similar to PR-1091)
- 6 enhancements in Sales Order
- Price Level by Customer/Product line (similar to SO-1005)
- Item Pricing by Total Quantity (similar to SO-1173)
- Enhanced Sales Order Integration with Job Cost (similar to SO-1530)
- Lot/Serial Distribution Entry from Sales Order (similar to SO-1175)
- Maintain Split Commissions by Customer (similar to SO-1417)
- Commission Rate Table by Salesperson/Customer/Item – similar to SO-1354
- 1 enhancement in Accounts Receivable
- Customers with National Accounts (similar to AR-1068)
- 2 enhancements in Sales Order / Purchase Order
- Purchase Orders Created from Sales Orders (similar to PO-1020)
- Auto Generate Purchase Orders from Sales Order Entry (similar to SO-1489)
- 5 enhancements in Payroll
With the v4.5 release, there is rumored to be a free SageCRM server & first user license to be included at no extra cost. Make sure to keep your Sage maintenance plan current in order to take advantage of all these new developments.
Please contact Integrated Computer Systems Support at 425-820-6120 for questions or more information.
Version 4.5 is scheduled to be released in Q3 2011. The details of this release are not as solidified yet, but we have good reason to believe it will include the enhancements and new features in this article. There is also rumored to be a free SageCRM server & first user license to be included at no extra cost. Make sure to keep your Sage maintenance plan current in order to take advantage of all these new developments.