AI Accelerated Hacking

Dear Clients,

For an outfit that’s not your IT support, we sure talk about computer security a lot, huh? <grin> Since our role is providing business and financial management information, we’re always one of the first calls when a client gets hacked—which is happening with increasing frequency and here’s a big reason why…

The world is abuzz with performance improvements and expected impacts of Artificial Intelligence, and I’ve been personally impressed with the videos I’ve seen and the conversational answers to general inquiries.

Unfortunately, every tool may be used for both good and ill and hackers are leveraging AI to increasingly greater effect and in numerous ways to automate the entire “attack lifecycle.” What this means to you is a redoubling of your efforts at securing your systems and software with the latest/patched versions and reliable offsite backups.

Have you heard about the recent use of consumer-level AI to hack the Mexican government, both Federal and State level, out of 150GB of data?

To that point, if you’re running AccountMate/SQL V10.1 then there’s a scant four months to get your systems updated as Microsoft’s extended support for SQL Server 2016 ends in July—see here. That means no more security updates and patches, which is a DANGEROUS place for your accounting and financial data to be.

If you’re running AccountMate/SQL V9 and prior, then the wolves are already at the door as your database server isn’t receiving security updates and patches now!

So, how is AI an accelerant for these nefarious actors?

Coherent Emails and Social Engineering: Historically, you could often spot a phishing email by its poor grammar, but AI has eliminated that tell. Also, by scraping social media (LinkedIn, X, Instagram) AI can write emails that mimic your boss’ tone or are at least “in the vibe” to sound culturally and professionally authentic to your organization—making them nearly indistinguishable from internal staff communication while even referencing a recent project you actually worked on.

Speed-Running Exploits: AI has compressed the time it takes to launch an attack by allowing hackers to use AI to reverse-engineer the patch and generate a working exploit within minutes—often before a company’s IT team has even finished their morning coffee, let alone installed the patch.

Polymorphic Malware: Recent malware like LameHug or PromptFlux are “self-evolving” programs using Large Language Models (LLMs) to rewrite their own source code every time they run, allowing them to slip past antivirus software that looks for specific file “signatures.”

Just Getting in the Door: One of the most dangerous trends is AI-assisted malware-free attacks. Instead of programs that must “break in,” AI helps hackers “log in” by managing thousands of stolen credentials and tokens simultaneously. Then, once inside, they use AI agents to run “reconnaissance scripts” that blend in with normal network traffic. To a security monitor, the hacker’s activity looks like a standard administrative update.

Dark LLMs (the “Evil” Chatbots): While public AI has guardrails, hackers use “Dark LLMs” like FraudGPT or DarkBart, which are specifically trained to write malicious code without ethical filters, identify the best files to encrypt for maximum ransom leverage, and even automate negotiations with victims during ransomware attacks.

Totally Removed the Barrier to Entry: The barrier to entry has collapsed. Amateur “script kiddies” can now use AI platforms to launch sophisticated attacks that previously required a nation-state’s budget, while nation-states can operate at an unprecedented level.

So, are you scared yet? I am…

While it’s impossible to ensure “total security,” we hope to make you aware of the heightened threats and ensure you’re running systems with current vendor support to minimize the risks.

Regards,

Kevin E. Stroud
kestrou@nexlan.com
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com

AccountMate: Focused Training on the Manufacturing Module

April 15-16—Online, live, hands-on class, 3 hours per day. 

Manufacturing Module – Advanced Module Training

$1,050 per person or $525 per individual session

Registration is open now and closes April 8.

Manufacturing Module Course Overview   |   Course Outline   |   Course Schedule

As one of the more advanced AccountMate SQL/Express modules, an entire class is offered once per year to focus on its many capabilities. It’s your opportunity to efficiently learn about ways to get more from your Manufacturing Module for your 2026 business growth goals. Or get more people on your team up to speed, confident, and productive with the module.

Take a look below at the module’s capabilities to assess where you might benefit from learning more. Or if you’d like to see a brief description of each of these, view the 3-page AccountMate Manufacturing Module PDF brochure.

Overview of key Manufacturing Module key features

• Overbooking of resources can be prevented
• Flexible posting and voiding of work-in-process
• Flexible posting of finished jobs
• Option to allocate work-in-process components in proportion to finished quantity
• Choice of calculation methods
• Analyze the usage of components and subassemblies
• Wide selection of documents and reports
• Integration with other modules (such as the Manufacturing Configurator Module to define and enforce rules for product options)
• Other features

For course questions or to register, email NexLAN. 

AccountMate: A Complete List of Available Training for Users

Check out our newly published AccountMate Resources page, Training Resources for AccountMate Users.

It’s a recap of all the ways you can access AccountMate training info and classes.

1. Free, do-it-yourself training sources
2. Free and paid support from NexLAN and from AccountMate Corp., where you can ask not just a tech support question, but a training question, too. “How can I ____?” “Where do I go to ____?” “How do I undo ____ that was just mistakenly done?” “Does AccountMate have a built-in way to ____? or a built-in report for ____?”
3. Free and paid online training options, including standard or totally custom topics

Who in your company might be ready to learn something new in AccountMate?

Acumatica: The Best Time to Read an Acumatica Brochure?

It’s after you have Acumatica in place, not before

Acumatica’s abilities are wide, deep and advancing quickly. When you get a new system, you initially focus on (and we help you focus on!) the best-fit capabilities for your core business.

Setting up and trying to adopt too many new things in Phase 1 results in an overwhelming situation. It’s a leading cause of implementations that drag on with scope and budget creep, and low employee adoption levels, and poor ROI from the investment in a new system.

Instead, you get phase 1 and phase 2 in place, and get your team using it well and your company experiencing new business benefits quickly.

After that, you incrementally expand your use of the system, optimizing one new piece at a time.

That’s where the brochures come in

A good example is Manage Inventory Effectively with Advanced Replenishment and Flexibility, which is just two pages long. But take a look at that recap of 21 Acumatica abilities on the back page.

Put your quality assurance hat on. Or your profitability hat. Or a hat from one of your company’s KPIs for 2026. Maybe you’re focused on increasing customer retention this year.

Then review the brochure’s handy list of capabilities and look for one or two that, if you were to really optimize it and apply the Acumatica capabilities there and hone your internal processes around it, will shoot your performance up to the next level. Make that your next Acumatica phase. The brochure helps you look at opportunities from new angles and generate possibilities to ponder.

After the initial ideas, reach out to NexLAN to discuss your goal. We can take help assess which reports, features and add-ons would best drive results in the next phase of your business.

Acumatica—New in 2025 R2: Use the Cross-Sell Assistant to Automate Add-On Suggestions

The new Cross-Sell Assistant uses machine learning to suggest accessory items and upsell items for your sales orders through analysis of your historical sales data.

Suppose your company sells bicycles and cycling accessories.When a customer buys a new bike, you have an opportunity to recommend accessories such as high-performance tires, a right-fit handlebar bag, or sunglasses. Recommending the correct related items in your inventory takes research time and knowledge of your items—especially as your product lines increase in number and complexity. That’s where the Cross-Sell Assistant comes in. 

The Cross-Sell Assistant analyzes your previous sales to create relevant suggestions of related items in your inventory. Once configured, the assistant runs on a schedule with your selected parameters to make suggestions, such as the period of time you want the assistant looking back on, the maximum number of suggestions you want, or by a relevance score to previous orders of items sold together.

This means it can find patterns in what items customers like to purchase together, so that you can suggest upsell items. So that you can sell more, as well as stop shipping incompatible add-on items.

You can set the Generate Cross-Selling Suggestions process to run on a schedule or kick it off manually. Then you’ll receive a list of suggested cross-sell items based on your data, to approve or delete. It doesn’t automatically add the item; someone must approve each suggestion. When you delete one of the cross-sell suggestions, the system learns and reduces the score of that relation for future automated suggestions. 

By using the Cross-Sell Assistant you are able to use your previous sales data to influence cross-sell suggestions, approve or delete suggestions in mass, and continually refine suggestions as the Cross-Sell Assistant continues to take in your new sales, approvals, and deletions of related items.

For more information on the Cross-Sell Assistant feature or to see a demo, email NexLAN.

To see highlights of other features added in the 2025 R2 Acumatica release, visit the webpage Introducing Acumatica Cloud ERP: 2025 R2. Most clients’ Acumatica systems will update in Q2, though if you’re itching to start using the new 2025 R2 features, we can get your update started early!

AccountMate Tech Note: How to Move AccountMate to a Different Server

For optimal performance of your AccountMate software, you may need to upgrade your Microsoft SQL Server installation or acquire a new server machine. Consequently, you will need to move AccountMate to a new server. Article #1231: How to Move AccountMate to a Different Server lists the requirements and outlines the procedures you can follow to move AccountMate to a new server.

Review the steps carefully before you begin a server move. Reach out to NexLAN if your inhouse or outsourced IT doesn’t have our handy list of afterhours NexLAN support numbers on hand.

AccountMate Tech Note: Understanding Customer Returns Using Repair and Reship Return Action

The Return Authorization (RA) module handles customer return transactions. It allows you to define several return actions that indicate a unique way of identifying whether the product is returned for credit, replacement or substitution, restock, discard, or repair. Article #1306: Understanding Customer Returns Using Repair and Reship Return Action discusses how using the RMA–Repair and Reship return action affects the flow of inventory and its effects in the General Ledger.

Acumatica Technical Tips

Note: This month, all four tech tips focus on Acumatica’s new Modern User Interface. The screens and product have been retooled to be faster and more responsive, as well as easier for you to just know what to do next. In the tips below, get a look at how easy it is for you to customize your Modern UI to do cool things!

How Can I Set Up Audit Trails to Help Improve Quality?

Q: Can I add an Audit Trail to specific fields in a Modern UI form in Acumatica so that I can view the history of edits to a field? We have noticed changes to our Sales Orders that we want to see what user is making the changes, when they are making them, and what changes are being made in these fields. 

A: Yes, you can! In the Modern UI forms in Acumatica you can set up Audit Trails for specific fields only within the screen. Here’s how:

Example – On the Sales Order screen, we want to audit fields such as Unit Cost and Unit Price. 

1. Go to User Security > Preferences > Audit and click the plus sign in the header to create a new Audit.
2. Select the Screen Name lookup and find the screen that you would like to run the audit within.
3. Give it a description, check the Active box, and make sure you have UI fields selected from the “Show Fields’ dropdown.
4. You can then select which Fields you would like to Audit from the right column, and any tables from the left column that you would like to have Audit trail capture data on. (See screenshot below)
5. To see the Audit trail of a specific Sales Order go to Sales Orders > Transactions > Sales Orders > and select the SO # you would like to inquire about. 
6. In the Sales Order form for the specific SO #, select the Settings button in the top right of the form (the cog wheel). Then select Audit History
7. Acumatica will create a new window with the Audit History: Sales Order report for that Sales Order Number where you can expand each Audit and view the data that was changed. 

■ ■ ■

How Do I Display Forms in the Modern UI to Hide the Data That I Don’t Want to See?

Q: Can I personalize my Modern UI forms to only see the data I would like to see?

A: If you have the proper access rights, you can personalize the Modern UI forms to your preferences. 

Example: Accounts Receivable Invoice Form

1. Go to Receivables > Transactions > Invoices and Memos > click the plus sign to create a new Invoice. 
2. In the Invoice and Memo’s screen click the Settings button in the top right of the form (the cog wheel).
3. Select the Screen Configuration option. This changes the screen into ‘Form Configuration’ mode.
4. Each top header section/grouping in the form now has a settings (cog wheel) available to select. When you click on a section/grouping Settings button you have the options via the Section Configuration pop up screen: 
   • • All of the Elements/fields associated with the form available to bring into this section.
     • Current Elements can be moved within the current section. Click and drag these elements up or down to your desired location.
     • Current Elements can be unpinned and set to invisible.
5. Once you’re finished, select Apply on the bottom of the screen. 
6. The tabs section also has a Settings button to open the “Tab Configuration” screen to see the current ‘Visible Tabs’ and the ‘Hidden Tabs’ on the form. You can:
   • • Move any tab to a different order by clicking that tab and dragging it up or down to where you want it.
     • Move a tab from the Visible section into the Hidden section by dragging it into its new section.
     • Move a tab from the Hidden section into the Visible section by dragging it into its new section.

Note: Tabs that are Hidden are still available from the ellipsis button at the end of your visible tab list. 

Once you’ve made your changes, please click the Apply button, then click the Apply to all button at the top of your form. On the pop up form, click the Preserve Personal Configuration button. The screen will exit out of Form Configuration mode and return to normal.

■ ■ ■

I Want to Use the Modern UI’s Ability to Add New Fields to a Form

Q: Can I add a field that already exists in the system onto a form where it is not already in place in the new Modern UI form? 

A: If you have the proper access rights, yes. 

Example: Sales Order Form

1. Go to Receivables > Transactions > Invoices and Memos > click the plus sign to create a new Invoice. 
2. In the Invoice and Memo’s screen click the Settings button in the top right of the form (the cog wheel).
3. Select the Screen Configuration option. This changes the screen into ‘Form Configuration’ mode.
4. Each top header section/grouping in the form now has a settings (cog wheel) available to select. When you click on a section/grouping Settings button you will see the ‘Available Elements’ column.
5. The Available Elements column shows all available tables, and fields, that are being pulled in for the form data for you to choose from. You can click on any table in the list and it will expand out to show all the fields within that table.
6. Once you have found the field that you would like to bring into the form, please click and drag it into the ‘Selected Elements’ column – and in the location that you would like to see it placed within the column list.
7. Click the Apply button, then the Apply to all button at the top of your form.
8. On the pop up form, click the Preserve Personal Configuration button.
9. The screen will exit out of Form Configuration mode and return to normal.

  ■ ■ ■

How Can We View Our Data Per Branch Office in Modern UI Dashboards?

Q: We have multiple branches in our Acumatica system. Can we configure our dashboards to view data per branch in the new Modern UI Dashboards?

A: Yes, you can easily configure widgets to show on a per branch basis. While a lot of the standard dashboards already come with a ‘Branch’ dropdown filter, some may not. But not to worry, with the new modern functionality we can easily add the ‘Branch’ filter. 

1. Go to Customization > Profiles > Dashboards 
2. Select your desired dashboard.
3. Select the Parameters tab and click the plus sign to add a parameter.
4. Enter “Branch” in the Name field.
5. For this example, we are adding it to the Sales Manager dashboard, so in the Schema Object field—locate and select PX.OBjects.SO.SOOr
6. For the Schema Field please select BranchID from the dropdown list
7. Click Save. 
8. Click the View button to see your dashboard in action with the Branch filter.

AccountMate Technical Tips

Can I suppress the Inventory Maintenance validate message for Price < Unit Cost? 

Versions: AM11 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Modules: AR, SO, PO, IC, MI, RA

Q: Is there a way to suppress the Price < Unit Cost validation message in Inventory Maintenance?

A: An item’s unit price is always validated against its unit cost. This is true even if the item is not set to be used in Sales Order/Accounts Receivable.

The only instance where the validation message Price < Unit Cost is not displayed is when the item is set to allow negative price (Inventory Maintenance ‣ Settings (1) ‣ General ‣ Allow Negative Price checkbox is marked for the inventory item).

■ ■ ■

Why can users amend invoices in restricted periods? 

Versions: AM11 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Modules: AR, AP

Q: Why are users allowed to amend invoices for which the transaction date falls within a restricted period?

A: Invoices in both Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) can be amended even if the transaction date falls within a restricted period, provided the changes do not affect financial reports (e.g., period balances for the restricted period) or aging reports.

Amendment Guidelines:

AR Invoice (Create Invoice – Amend mode) – Users may not modify the following:

•     Order Date
•     Invoice Date
•     Any fields in the Line Items tab
•     Any fields in the Line Item Details tab
•     Sales Tax Code

All other fields are editable.

AP Invoice Transactions (Amend Mode) –  Users may not modify the following:

•     Invoice Date
•     Post Date
•     Invoice Amount
•     Nonpayment
•     Any fields in the Apply Prepayment for Vendor window
•     Any fields in the GL Distribution tab
•     Any fields in the AP/PO Matching window
•     Any fields in the Reverse Accrued Landed Cost window

All other fields are editable.

■ ■ ■

Why is the vendor debit invoice Print Computer Check checkbox missing?

Versions: AM11 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)   

Module: AP       

Q: I want to offset a vendor’s debit invoice against one of their regular invoice; however, I cannot mark the debit invoice’s checkbox in the Print Computer Check function. The checkbox is missing. Why?

A: This happens if the vendor is set to print one check per invoice (i.e., the Print One Check Per Invoice checkbox is marked in the Vendor Maintenance ‣ Settings tab). Unmark the Print One Check Per Invoice checkbox so that you can offset the vendor’s debit invoice against regular invoices.

■ ■ ■

Two Year-to-Date budgets—what’s the difference?

Versions: AM11 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)   

Module: GL       

Q: What is the difference between the Year-to-Date budget in the Budgeted Income Statement report and the Annual Budget in Budget Maintenance?

A: The Year-to-Date budget is the running balance as of a particular fiscal period for the fiscal year (e.g., as of September 2025). The Annual Budget is the budget for the entire fiscal year, from the first fiscal period through the last fiscal period, which may or may not include the Year-End Adj. period).

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