Falling Off The Bus

Dear Clients,

Business improvements can definitely be gained with new features and enhancements when you keep up with technology and avoid the accumulation of technical debt. The argument could be made that not running the most recent version is a business failing in itself. However, we understand there are cost/benefit analyses to be made—especially with highly customized systems where the cost of upgrading may be significant. So, let’s focus on when this becomes truly critical: falling off the bus of supportability.

Like it or not, Microsoft’s window of product support is 10 years, after which they stop releasing security updates and patches—and that’s a dangerous place for your accounting and financial data to be!!!

Acumatica provides more-than-gentle encouragement to keep your system within two years of the current version by imposing a penalty on the software licensing for older versions.

AccountMate doesn’t technically enforce an upgrade, which is why we run into problems with clients who fall off the bus of supportability—often with disastrous consequences, as about every two months we deal with another instance of ransomware. The root cause is regularly attributable to unsupported operating systems and database servers, and we just had another client calamity this week…

The majority of our AccountMate clients upgrade about every three years, which seems to be a good compromise of not updating with every release (typically every nine months) and maximizing the cost/benefit of the process. To those clients we say, “Thank you! You’re in the sweet spot of business management!”

At the extreme are clients skating on the thin ice of systems past the expiration of Microsoft support, with the mistaken rationalization that it’s saving them money. Tell that to the clients we routinely see incur costs of tens (and hundreds) of thousands of dollars in recovery efforts—or the handful of companies for which this precipitated the complete end of their business… Not kidding…

So, where’s the line? Find yourself in this quick-reference chart:

Then please plan accordingly—it’s genuinely YOUR systems we’re concerned about.

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We’ve been contacted by numerous clients regarding the upcoming payroll updates to handle the changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBA), signed into law on July 4, 2025. The IRS has posted a Fact Sheet, but no detailed information on the W-2 changes yet.

Rest assured the programming staffs at AccountMate and Acumatica are hard at work and we’ll be ready!

Regards,

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

AccountMate: Better Item Tracking with “Virtual” Bins and Warehouses

Even when items aren’t in your warehouse, you can keep track of where they are

We have clients leveraging the built-in flexibility of their AccountMate warehouses and bins in many ways! Here’s a list of ideas for you to consider.

1. Track in-transit and off-site items

Of course, defining bins (sublocations) in your warehouse makes it easier to find items. And it makes year-end inventory counts easier.

➤ Have you considered adding “virtual” bins and warehouses?

For example, if you ship goods in from overseas, typically it’s FOB Origin for those items—you own the items when they get put on a boat in China. If you add a warehouse in AccountMate named something like “Shipboard” or “On the water,” you can receive your quantity of items into your shipboard warehouse once you own them.

The bins in that warehouse can be named by their expected receive-by date. If you know it takes two months for that shipping route, add a bin named with the expected date of receipt, such as “2025-10-01” to help you keep an eye on your expected deliveries.

➤ What about tracking items that you loan out to customers for evaluation?  

Some of our clients have a warehouse named “Consignment” with bins that have the names of customers. It’s easy for them to see how much inventory they have on “consignment,” and which customers have items.

➤ This method works to track spare parts kept on hand in a field service truck too. And to track items borrowed by sales or marketing for display in your company’s trade show booth.

The current location of your items should never be a mystery! Where else in your regular workflows do you lose track of items? Adding new warehouses and bins is built-in AccountMate functionality.

It’s simple to set up. Reach out and we’ll walk you through it.

AccountMate: September 15-19 Payroll Module Hands-On Training

Friendly reminder that registration closes September 8 for this annual offering of deep-dive product training for the Payroll Module.

It’s an interactive online class, held conveniently at your computer, for 3-4 hours per day Monday through Friday the week of Sept. 15, 2025.

This is a great way to master all-things-payroll in AccountMate! You’ll come away knowing what options are available to handle the many payroll details in your company, and how to use each option.

Attend one or more sessions. It’s $1,900 for the full class, or $525 per session, per person. Learn more about it on these pages:

Course Overview | Course Outline | Course Schedule

To register, contact NexLAN.

Acumatica: What Will You Optimize Next in Your P2P (Procure-to-Pay) Workflow?

It’s all about continuous improvement of sourcing, purchasing, and paying for your items

P2P is the umbrella term, and current buzzword, that covers the part of your workflow that goes from submitting a requisition > to getting approval > to deciding who to buy it from > to buying it and receiving it.

Acumatica is packed with features to help distributors add new optimizations at each step, delivering business benefits:

• Protect and increase margins
• Improve customer service levels
• Reduce risk
• Reduce problem resolution time
• Support many other business goals

Areas for Procure-to-Pay Optimization

This means that no matter which features you’re using now in your workflow, there are opportunities to make things even better.

➤ For example, are you regularly using Acumatica’s built-in approval process automations? Many clients have told us that they want anyone to be able to enter a requisition in the system, and then a manager gets notified to review it for approval, and then approved requisitions get turned into POs. Acumatica’s got those details covered and automated, with role-based workflows. You can even route requisition requests to a different manager when a main approver is temporarily out of office.

How do you know what new P2P capabilities you could tap into?

Start by reading this recent blog post from Acumatica:

The Procure-to-Pay Process in Distribution: Best Practices and Common Pitfalls

It lays out an excellent overview of the opportunities to further optimize a company’s Procure-to-Pay process. It’s a few pages long—you could open it in a Microsoft Edge browser tab and right-click on the blog for the Read Aloud option, to turn the blog into a mini audio book.

Make a note of ideas specific to your business, whenever you find yourself mentally saying things like, “Oh, that directly applies to the department goals we were just re-prioritizing,” or, “I want to learn more about that!” The blog post also links to an ebook that lists Acumatica’s many P2P-related abilities.

Once you’ve identified a potential new optimization or two for your P2P process, reach out to NexLAN. We’ll help you pinpoint which options best apply to your unique business, and answer your questions.

Acumatica offers nearly endless possibilities to help your business get better and better. Remember to keep pursuing new-to-you benefits incrementally over time to get the most value from your system.

Acumatica 2025 R1: Shopify Enhancements

Because Acumatica’s integration with Shopify is native, all improvements are included in every Acumatica release with no additional effort or customization updates on your part. Here are four Shopify integration updates included in the newest release:

1. Import Shopify orders to Acumatica without requiring customer accounts

In previous versions when you received an order through your online Shopify store, it was required to create a customer in your Acumatica system to process the order. 

Starting in the 2025 R1 release, you can now import orders from Shopify and use a generic guest customer account instead of creating a new customer each time.

2. Use your Acumatica’s default currency to import Shopify orders

Previously if your Shopify store accepted payments in multiple currencies, the orders were imported to your Acumatica in the currency that the order was placed in. 

Now, you can choose to have all orders from Shopify imported in the default currency of your Acumatica system. 

3. Map taxes with the same names between Shopify and Acumatica

Before Acumatica’s latest release, the taxes in Shopify were mapped to your Acumatica system by their names, which sometimes caused issues if there were taxes with the same names but different rates.

In 2025 R1 the tax mapping has been improved so that an administrative-level user can map taxes with the same name using Substitution Lists to differentiate taxes with the same names, but different rates.

4. Simplify price list updates between Acumatica and Shopify

Prior to the 2025 R1 release, when you synchronized your Acumatica catalog to Shopify, it would push new items or update existing items in your Shopify stores even if no price had been defined yet, depending on the price class.

Now, only items of the price class with prices effective on the synchronization date will be synchronized. For more information about the synchronization of price lists, go to Acumatica’s Help Wiki section, Sales Price Lists: General Information. 

To get a highlight of other features added in the 2025 R1 Acumatica release, visit the webpage Introducing Acumatica Cloud ERP: 2025 R1. Got questions? Shoot us an email.

AccountMate Tech Note: How Multi-Step MI Work Order Processing Affects the Inventory Quantities

The multi-step manufacturing work order process feature allows authorized users to post into work-in-process the manufacturing components (i.e., materials, labor, or machine resources) up to a certain step in a multi-level production process or simultaneously post all the steps in a work order. Each component may be assigned to a different step in the process. When processing work orders, AccountMate can be configured to put into process only those components that are assigned a particular step number.

Article #1321: How Multi-Step MI Work Order Processing Affects the Inventory Quantities presents the effects of each manufacturing phase not only on the component inventory quantities but also on the master item quantities. It also discusses how AccountMate updates the inventory quantities.

AccountMate Tech Note: How to Post Credit Card Billing

AccountMate understands the need for companies to efficiently record a multitude of credit card transactions. AccountMate has the Post Credit Card Billing function, which you can use to record at one time all the purchase and return transactions listed in a credit card billing statement.

Article #1350: How to Post Credit Card Billing provides step-by-step instructions on how to post credit card transactions using the Post Credit Card Billing function.

Acumatica Technical Tips

How Can I See Who Is Logged Into Acumatica?

Q: How can I see all active users in my Acumatica system?

A: Using your Universal Search Bar, type in System Monitor and click System Monitor. Go to the Active Users tab to see who is logged in as well as how long since their login and since their last action.

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How Do I Restrict Financial Periods?

Q: How can I restrict Financial Periods in Acumatica so no one can post into them?

A: You can restrict posting to financial periods on the Master Financial Calendar. Use the Universal Search to search for Master Financial Calendar and select it there, or go to Finance > Profiles > Master Financial Calendar. Select the financial year you want to restrict periods in, and then check the boxes in the grid below to restrict the modules and months as you wish. Then click Save.

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How Do I Create Recurring Transactions?

Q: How can we set up recurring transactions in Acumatica?

A: In Acumatica you can set up recurring AR Invoices, AP Bills, or GL Batches. These recurring transactions can be run on automatic schedules or manually with the RUN NOW option on the Recurring Transaction form. The steps for the different recurring transactions are below:

Recurring AR Invoices

1. Enter the invoice or credit memo that you would like to set to recur and click Remove Hold to put it in the Balanced status.
2. Use the Universal search to search and select Recurring Transactions in the Receivables workspace OR go to Receivables > Profiles > Recurring Transactions (you may need to click Show All at the bottom of the screen).
3. Create a new Recurring Transaction.
4. Review and fill out the header with the correct information of Frequency, Execution Limit, and Start Date.
5. In the Document List Grid, click the plus sign to add a row and select the correct Type for the document you are setting to recur from the drop down menu, then in the Reference Nbr. field use the magnifying glass to select the document to add to the Recurring Transaction.
6. Save the Recurring Transaction.

Recurring AP Bills

1. Enter the bill or credit memo that you would like to set to recur and click Remove Hold to put it in the Balanced status.
2. Use the Universal search to search and select Recurring Transactions in the Payables workspace OR go to Payables > Profiles > Recurring Transactions (you may need to click Show All at the bottom of the screen).
3. Create a new Recurring Transaction.
4. Review and fill out the header with the correct information of Frequency, Execution Limit, and Start Date.
5. In the Document List Grid, click the plus sign to add a row and select the correct Type for the document you are setting to recur from the drop down menu, then in the Reference Nbr. field use the magnifying glass to select the document to add to the Recurring Transaction.
6. Save the Recurring Transaction.

Recurring GL Batches

1. Enter the Journal Transaction that you would like to set to recur and click Remove Hold to put it in the Balanced status.
2. Use the Universal search to search and select Recurring Transactions in the Finance workspace OR go to Finance > Profiles > Recurring Transactions (you may need to click Show All at the bottom of the screen).
3. Create a new Recurring Transaction.
4. Review and fill out the header with the correct information of Frequency, Execution Limit, and Start Date.
5. In the Batch List Grid, click the plus sign to add a row and use the magnifying glass to select the Journal Transaction to add to the Recurring Transaction. 
6. Save the Recurring Transaction.

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How Do I Find the Field Name to Add to a Report?

Q: I would like to add a new field to a report using the Report Designer, but I don’t know what the field name on the form is to add it to the report. How can I find that specific information on the form?

A: You can use the ‘Inspect Element’ functionality to see the field (Element) properties. There are two ways to get this information:

1. On the form where the field you want to add to the report is, at the top right of the form select Customization > Inspect Element, which then puts a question mark next to your cursor. Click on the field you want to add to your report and you will get a pop-up of the Element Properties. Take note of the Data Field name for adding to your report in the Report Designer.
2. Acumatica also has keyboard shortcuts you can use to view the Element Properties. Hold down CTRL+ALT while you click on the field you want added to the report and the Element Properties will pop-up. Take note of the Data Field name for adding to your report in the Report Designer.

AccountMate Technical Tips

How Can I Set a Customer as Tax Exempt?

Versions: AM12 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Module: AR

Q: How can I activate the Tax Exemption field in the Customer Maintenance ► Information tab?

A: The Tax Exemption field is activated in the Customer Maintenance ► Information tab and the Customer Address Maintenance window if the following conditions exist:

• The Sales Tax Integration feature is set up.
• The sales tax code entered in the Sales Tax field is either AVALARA or TAXJAR.

Note: The sales tax integration with Taxjar is available starting in AccountMate 12.1 while Avalara is available starting in AccountMate 13.1.

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How Do I Set a Default Bank to Print Computer Checks?

Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Module: AP

Q: How can I set up a default bank # in Print Computer Check?

A: Enter the bank account that you want to be the default bank in the AP Module Setup ► General (2) ► Default for New Vendor ► Bank # field.

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Why Do I Get the Message “Outlook Can’t Do This Because a Dialog Box Is Open”?

Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Modules: All

Q: I have been emailing reports from AccountMate with no issues; however, I suddenly get the error, “Outlook can’t do this because a dialog box is open.” when trying to e-mail any report. Why?

A: The error message suggests that Outlook is busy or there is another session of Outlook that was not closed properly. Perform the following to resolve the issue.

1. Access the Microsoft Windows Task Manager; then, go to the Details tab.
2. Select Outlook, then click the End task button. Verify that no entries for Outlook remain in the Task Manager.
3. Go to AccountMate and email reports.

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Can I Change the Post Date On a Payroll Check I Have Printed?

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

Module: PR

Q: I entered the wrong Apply Payroll/Payment Post Date. I discovered the mistake after I had already printed the check for the applied payroll. How can I correct the Post Date? 

A: You cannot amend the Post Date after you have saved the Applied Payroll. You must void the check and void the applied payroll (i.e., do not mark the Keep the Applied Payment checkbox), then enter the payroll again in the Apply Payroll/Payment function, this time with the correct Post Date.

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