AccountMate/SQL V10.4 (soon) Released

Dear AccountMate Clients,

Scheduled for release this month is the latest update to AccountMate/SQL—which will be V10.4.  As always, if you have an active Lifecycle Maintenance Plan, we’ll be shipping a copy to you as soon as it hits the street.

The webinar to present the new features will be Thursday, November 29, 2018 from noon to 1:30pm CST (register here: AccountMate/SQL V10.4 New Features Webinar), and here’s a sneak peek:

• New Credit Card Billing Function: Previously, it took two steps to record credit card billing transactions (enter an AP invoice to the original vendor, then “assign” it to the credit card vendor).  This latest release will record multiple credit card billing transactions in a single entry—capturing all the purchase and return transactions listed on the credit card billing statement.
• More Copy/Paste from Excel into Grids: Hopefully you’re already using the copy/paste from Excel when entering Journal Entries—which is so handy that it’s now available for line item details when entering Sales Orders, Customer Invoices, and Purchase Orders.  While not a true “import,” it’s close enough that we hope you find it handy.
• Amend Lot Number: In prior versions, once a lot number was assigned it couldn’t be changed—which made a typo on the lot number a problem.  So, now you can edit it!
• New Payroll W-2 Codes:  New options “GG for Income from qualified equity grants under section 83(i)” and “HH for Aggregate deferrals under section 83(i) elections as of the close of the calendar year”.
• New Positive Pay Formats: The built-in list now includes Bank of America, CNB, Fifth Third Bank, HSBC, Umpqua, Sun Trust, Wachovia and Wells Fargo.  Others can be custom programmed, but the more built-in the better!
• Ability to Change Posted Date of Fully Paid AP Invoice or Debit Memo:  Previously, once an AP invoice was paid the posting date couldn’t be changed—to prevent the AP invoice from hitting a later posting period than the payment and making the Balance Sheet difficult to reconcile—but due to popular demand this restriction has been lifted.
• Option to Overwrite Unit Cost for Items Not Set to Update On-Hand:  Another popular request—if an item doesn’t update onhand then you can overwrite the cost when creating Sales Orders, Blanket Sales Orders, Recurring Sales Order Templates, Customer Invoices, Sales Returns and Recurring Invoice Templates.
• Numerous New Reports and Improvements, including:
  • New Average Inventory Period—shows the average number of days in a specified period that goods are held in inventory before being sold
  • New Inventory Turnover Ratio—the cost of goods sold in a specific period divided by the average inventory value onhand, this is a key measure of your inventory management efficiency and control
  • Warehouse Quantity Listing—now sortable by GL Account—for validating the Balance Sheet when you have multiple asset accounts for, say, raw material vs. finished goods or for different product lines
  • RMA Line Item Report—now includes the related customer invoice number

I’d also like to take this opportunity to mention that at the AccountMate Business Partner conference three weeks ago in Phoenix, our friends at American Payment Solutions won “Vertical Solution Partner of the Year” for their integration with MKT Credit Card, providing “Level 3” processing rates for business-class customer credit card payments.  If you process customer credit card payments then check out them out here and you REALLY should take advantage of the free opportunity to have your processing statement analyzed for potential savings.  In fact, there’s an upcoming webinar to see an interactive demo—see details below.

Regards,

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Attention AM/SQL Users of V9.4 and Earlier: Upcoming End of Microsoft Extended Support for SQL Server 2008

In the interest of planning ahead, wanted to be sure to note that Microsoft’s Extended Support for SQL Server 2008 ends July 9, 2019, so there won’t be even emergency patches or security updates for the product after that date.  See here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/end-of-mainstream-support-for-sql-server-2008-and-sql-server-2008-r2/

If you’re running AccountMate/SQL V8.2 or earlier, then MS-SQL 2008 is the MOST RECENT version you could be running – so we definitely need to chat and plan for getting your system updated in its entirety.

If you’re running AccountMate/SQL V8.3 to V9.4, then you COULD be running MS-SQL 2008 (or could be 2012 or even 2014) – so we should definitely look and possibly update only the SQL Server back-end version.

With today’s global reach, it’s critically important to not be running a mission critical system outside the window of Microsoft security updates—so, providing eight months notice to make sure we don’t put you in that position!

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Webinar: MKT/APS Credit Card and INFOtrac CRM

I mentioned our friends at APS earlier and the great savings they provide with automated Level-3 Credit Card processing—they’re hosting a webinar in conjunction with INFOtrac‘s tightly integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application on Wednesday, November 21, at noon CST.  Sign up for it here.

American Payment Solutions will demonstrate how to get paid faster with AccountMate integrated credit card processing:

• Access to the Level III Gateway for lower interchange rates
• PCI-DSS compliance assistance at no additional cost
• Some of the lowest Amex fees in the entire industry!
• Next day funding available (American Express included)

INFOtrac will demonstrate how to:

• Manage your business through INFOtrac
• Eliminate duplication of data entry—Enter data once
• Customize to fit your business processes
• Build applications within INFOtrac for your specific business requirements
• Automate repetitive and manual tasks and work flows

Check them both out in detail at MKT/APS Credit Card and INFOtrac CRM—and that webinar sign-up link again is here.

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Payroll Tax Update for 2019

We’ve already contacted our clients regarding the required payroll tax update for 2019—and many have paid—but since there’s a 10% discount if payment is received by November 30th want to include this gentle reminder.  Remember our goal is: keep money in YOUR pocket!

And while I’ve got you on the line… Be sure to hit hit <Utilities><Check for Payroll Subscription Updates> once in a while to ensure you’re running the very latest update for 2018.  The current release as of this writing is 2018.16, which you can confirm under <Help><About AccountMate> in your system.

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Tech Note: How to Record Recurring Expenses in Accounts Payable

Some Recurring Expenses involve fixed amounts on a regular basis (think “monthly rent”), while others are paid in advance but the expense should be amortized over multiple fiscal periods (think “insurance”).  AccountMate’s Accounts Payable module handles both flavors of Recurring Expenses and this month’s Tech Note details exactly how.

Check out Article #1097: Recording Recurring Expenses to identify the functions and the circumstances under which each should be used.

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Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express
AM9 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM8 for SQL, Express, and LAN

Modules: AP, BR

Q: How can I include in bank reconciliation a cash disbursement directly recorded in the General Ledger module? 

A: If you have posted a journal entry for the cash disbursement in the General Ledger module and you want to include the cash disbursement in bank reconciliation, then perform the following:

1. Access the Record Checks/Other Disbursements function in the Bank Reconciliation module; then, record the disbursement.
2. Be sure to unmark the Transfer to GL checkbox.
3. Save the disbursement transaction.

Note: For future reference, we recommend that you post this type of transaction in the Bank Reconciliation module instead of the General Ledger module. In this way, the transaction will be recorded in a one-step process with the bank balance updated and the journal entries created instead of a two-step process. 

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