While I won’t quite say I’m a beer snob, I prefer my occasional grog to be brown/red/amber—so was sad to hear Anchor Brewing filed for bankruptcy last month.
For the non-suds-fans in the crowd, Anchor Brewing started in 1896, then really took off with the explosion of regional craft beers in the 1970s and was a major player in the market for several decades. But, no more…
I tipped my first mug of their flagship Anchor Steam during numerous trips to Silicon Valley in the 80s and it was my favorite in the area as it was only available thereabouts. But, unlike Coors and other brands which broke out nationwide (you can’t go ANYWHERE now without seeing Sam Adams on tap), Anchor never seemed to expand beyond the very near proximity of Fog City, and this was ultimately their downfall…
Anchor Brewing had been suffering financially for numerous years for numerous reasons, including higher than average productions costs in their mostly residential San Francisco neighborhood. But it was their limited distribution that was the real root of their problems as, even in their small geographic footprint, they were heavily dependent on restaurants—which we all know went to near-zero traffic in 2020 and haven’t fully recovered even now in The City by the Bay.
Which brings us to the moral of the story, and a reiteration of working ON the business as well as IN the business: How wide is your customer base, and how diverse is that base?
Reports abound in your system to show “sales by customer,” which can be filtered by date (only the last year?) and sorted by customer class, industry, territory, state, or salesperson to see how “broad” your base is.
The Pareto Principle posits that 80% of your revenue will be from 20% of your customers—but are you even more skewed than that? Would be good to know while those customers are still buying that you’re not dependent on only a small handful of customers…
Of course, few things solve business problems more than additional sales—but it is very much worth focusing on adding customers in different geographies and, as much as possible, different industries. Or, if you’re a manufacturer/distributor to consider selling direct to end-users through e-commerce. All with the goal of making your customer base
as broad as possible.
Just another part of managing a business brought to top of mind when a 127yo company goes down, leaving me without the option of a favorite amber ale…
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
kestrou@nexlan.com
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
Find Out What’s in AccountMate/SQL V13.1
Watch the recorded webinar on YouTube: AccountMate 13.1 SQL New Features. You’ll get a tour of the enhancements for sales, receivables, manufacturing, and financial management, including:
- Credit Card Integration – AccountMate 13.1 introduces the Credit Card Integration feature in the Accounts Receivable and Sales Order modules, allowing users to pre-authorize, pay, and manage customer credit card transactions seamlessly within the software.
- Sales Tax Integration with Avalara – Expanding on the new Sales Tax Integration module, AccountMate 13.1 now offers the option to use Avalara AvaTax alongside TaxJar.
- ClickToPay Enhancements – AccountMate 13.1 improves the ClickToPay feature (the new online payment portal for your customers).
- Enhanced Bank Account Maintenance – The Bank Account Maintenance function has been enhanced to provide a separate Immediate Origin field for AR payments.
- Support Attachments in Machine and Labor Maintenance – AccountMate 13.1 now supports attachments in the Machine and Labor Maintenance functions, allowing users to add machine inspection records and other supporting documents for easy reference.
- Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2022 – AccountMate 13.1 stays up-to-date with the latest Microsoft technologies and fully supports Microsoft SQL Server 2022.
As always, don’t hesitate to call or email NexLAN with your questions about any version of AccountMate, or to discuss an upgrade plan.
Upcoming AccountMate Classes
1. Payroll Module Class | September 18-22, 2023
Registration closes September 15
There’s still a little bit of time to register for this annual class!
The AccountMate Payroll Module Class shows you all that the module can do. The instructor makes sure that the training has a lot of value for each student at all skill levels, so that each person gains knowledge and confidence to do more with the module, as well as tips and tricks to improve their efficiency.
You’ll also come away with a solid understanding of which other integrated AccountMate modules are impacted when you do something in Payroll.
It’s 18 hours of hands-on live training, online. There are plenty of opportunities to ask the instructor about the best ways to handle aspects of your company’s payroll processes.
Class details:
Call or email NexLAN to register, or if you have questions.
■ ■ ■
2. AccountMate for SQL/Express Core Product Training | October 4 – November 9, 2023
Offered three times per year, the six-week online AccountMate SQL/Express Core Product Training covers the major features and functionalities in each of the core modules that make up AccountMate for SQL/Express.
This training class is held on Wednesdays and Thursdays and has been divided into multiple sessions with varying lengths depending on the module (4-5 hours per session). You can pick and choose the session (module) you want to attend or sign up for all of them.
Class details:
Any AccountMate customer that is on a current Lifecycle Maintenance Plan can send one or more trainee annually to the Online Core Product Training for AccountMate SQL and Express at no-charge. (This doesn’t apply to the Payroll Module training.) Contact NexLAN for details about how many users your company can send for free.
Call or email NexLAN to register, or if you have questions.
A Smorgasbord of Upcoming Acumatica Events
1. Product Launch: Acumatica 2023 R2 Virtual Launch Event
October 5, 2023 12:00pm – 12:45pm CT
Acumatica delivers two major releases per year, and the second one for 2023 is in sight now. The 2023 R2 Virtual Launch Event will showcase and demonstrate their latest cloud ERP product updates and features. You can optionally register for one of the industry-specific breakout sessions that immediately follows, including distribution, manufacturing, and a few others.
Register now and you’ll receive a link to the recording after the event, too.
■ ■ ■
2. Annual Conference: Acumatica Summit 2024
Save the Dates—Jan. 28 to 31, 2024 | Wynn Las Vegas
Did you know that there’s a conference for Acumatica users, partners, solution providers, and anyone interested in Acumatica? NexLAN sends employees each year, and we highly recommend the conference. It’s impressively produced, jam-packed with content for all levels, educational, and motivational. Last year, over 2,800 attendees convened in Vegas, plus 1,000 joined online for the live keynote presentations.
Here’s the Acumatica Summit 2024 event website. Registration to attend in-person will open this fall, with early bird pricing through December 1. Registration for the live virtual keynotes will follow closer to the summit.
■ ■ ■
3. End User Course + Webinar: Intercompany Transactions in Acumatica
Self-paced hands-on class | Plus a 4-session webinar September 25-28, 2023
Acumatica Open University offers many classes and we’re highlighting the Intercompany Transactions in Acumatica class here as just one example, to peak your interest!
Acumatica University is free to all (you’ll need to create a free Acumatica account), offering classes in the use of Acumatica. A free trial version of the complete Acumatica ERP is provided for your hands-on use in completing the class exercises, along with sample data from a fictitious company, PDF and video course materials, and links to further resources.
You can get a course overview by skimming the course’s step-by-step PDF guide. Or take the entire course “hands on” to complete all the exercises in Acumatica and take the quizzes. It depends on your goals and how deeply you want to dive in! You can take just one course, or follow one of the recommended Learning Paths for various topics like Finance Management, Orders and Inventory, or Reporting.
Some courses have webinars too—such as the upcoming Intercompany Transactions (CPE) webinar. It runs September 25-28, four days, for 90 minutes per day at noon CT, and you can attend it standalone or in conjunction with taking the course. This webinar introduces the types of organizational structures that can be configured in Acumatica ERP, the configuration of interbranch balancing transactions, and the processing of interbranch transactions, intercompany sales, and GL consolidations.
Hopefully this was a great reminder of all that Acumatica Open University offers. Head over there to see which course draws you in.
■ ■ ■
4. Webinar: CRM—Perfecting the Contact-to-Cash Process
September 26, 2023 12:00pm – 12:45pm CT
Learn how Acumatica makes it easy to stay on top of all the details related to your prospective customers and customers, from the first point-of-contact with your sales team, all the way through their sales orders.
During this webinar, you’ll see how to use Acumatica to:
- Create leads directly in the CRM system
- Use campaign management features to score leads
- Nurture opportunities through the sales pipeline
- Analyze and diagnose pipeline health with opportunity summary reports
- Create sales quotes and convert them to sales orders
- Send invoices to customers
Use CRM to boost productivity, improve customer relationships, ensure that nothing falls through the cracks, and increase your bottom line.
Register for CRM—Perfecting the Contact-to-Cash Process and you’ll also receive a link to the webinar recording after the event.
Communicating Financial Information to Non-Financial People
In addition to creating and validating your company’s financial information, it’s the job of the accounting team and management to make that validated information relevant and useful to the rest of the organization.
The guide Communicating Financial Information to Non-Financial People outlines how to translate financial information in a way that can be understood by everyone in an organization. You’ll get ideas for making it easier to communicate your financial goals, and educate people in other departments how their jobs are connected to the company’s financial results.
The 5-page guide suggests focus areas and concepts to communicate; activities that map to those areas; and the benefits of automation in each.
Use this guide as a starting point for the accounting team to brainstorm and prioritize steps to create stronger partnerships with others in the company. And to create more consistency company-wide in following important processes that involve financial data.
You’ll make a bigger impact on improving company results when everyone understands more about the benefits the company gains when it has solid financial information and knows how to use it.
View or download Communicating Financial Information to Non-Financial People to get started.
AccountMate Tech Note: Processing a Vendor Return for Credit Using the RVA Module
AccountMate’s Return to Vendor Authorization module provides an efficient method of controlling the vendor returns for credit, ensuring visibility, and tracking the item through the transaction’s completion.
Article #1189: Processing a Vendor Return Using the Return to Vendor Authorization Module discusses the procedures for recording vendor returns and shows the related journal entries and the recommended procedures that affect the inventory items’ quantities and vendor balances.
AccountMate Tech Note: Understanding the Effects of Un-Invoiced SO Shipments
AccountMate provides flexibility in invoicing shipments. In some instances, customers may opt not to immediately generate an invoice upon shipment of items.
This is usually done for partial shipments, shipments of backordered items, or shipments to various customer ship-to-addresses. In those instances, customers generally opt to receive a single billing for multiple shipments for a particular sales order rather than receive an invoice for every shipment from the same sales order. This results in some shipments being uninvoiced.
Article #1116: Understanding the Effects of Un-Invoiced SO Shipments explains these effects.
Acumatica Technical Tips
How to Set an Entire Company as Tax Exempt
Q: We have multiple companies set up in Acumatica that share vendors. One of the companies is a sales tax exempt company. Is there a way to exempt tax for the entire company, so we don’t accidently enter sales tax for them?
A: Yes. First set up an Exempt customer tax zone, using the Tax Zones screen—making sure to add a Tax ID named Exempt. Then go into the Companies screen, to the Delivery Settings tab. In Shipping Instructions, use the Exempt zone you just created as the Tax Zone.
■ ■ ■
Automatically Allocate Line-Item Quantities in Sales Orders
Q: Is there any way to auto-allocate or reserve quantity for sales orders in line details?
A: Yes. On the Order Types screen in the Templates tab, use the Require Stock Allocation checkbox to set the system to automatically allocate a line item(s) for that sales order.
If you want the system to allocate line items that have lot numbers or serial numbers, on the same screen, use the Require Lot/Serial Entry checkbox for that Sales Order.
■ ■ ■
Setting Up Automatic Reminders for Late AR Invoice Payments
Q: How do I set up a reminder email to customers when AR invoices are 14 days past due?
A: You can get this done in a few simple steps.
- Create a Generic Inquiry to display the AR Invoices that are overdue by 14 days. (Reach out to us for help at support@nexlan.com if you’re new to Generic Inquiries.)
- Create a Business Event using this GI to look for the record inserted. Or you could use the Trigger by Schedule.
- On the Subscribers tab, set up your Email Notification.
■ ■ ■
How to Apply a Vendor Credit Adjustment to a Vendor Invoice
Q: How can we apply a vendor credit adjustment to a vendor invoice?
A: A Vendor Credit Adjustment needs to be paid like a normal bill. It represents an amount owed to you by the Vendor. From the Credit Adj. document, click Actions, then Pay Bill/Apply Adjustment. You will be redirected to Checks and Payments with the Credit Adj. automatically selected in the payment details.
Alternately, you can manually add the Credit Adj. in the “Documents to Apply” section of the Checks and Payment screens when entering a payment. In this scenario, make sure to select the Document Type before opening the Reference Nbr. Selector.
AccountMate Technical Tips
Printing Proforma Invoices Created in Advanced Billing
Versions:
AM13 for SQL and Express
AM12 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM11 for SQL and Express
AM10 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM9 for LAN
Modules: SO, AR
Q: I created an advanced billing; however, I opted not to print the invoice from the Create Advanced Billing dialog box that was displayed when I saved the transaction. How can I print the invoice now?
A: Creating an advanced billing creates a proforma invoice. You can print, export, or email the proforma invoice using the Print Advanced Billing function.
■ ■ ■
A Custom Report to Show PO Unit Cost and Received Cost
Versions:
AM12 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM11 for SQL and Express
AM10 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM9 for LAN
Modules: PO, SM
Q: What report should I generate to see the PO unit cost and the received cost of inventory items?
A: Create a custom report that shows both unit cost and received cost using the Custom Report function from the Utilities menu. The information is stored in the POPTRS (Purchase Order Line Item File) and PORTRS (PO Received Goods Line Item File) tables.
■ ■ ■
Trouble Deleting a Vendor Record
Versions: AM12 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM11 for SQL and Express
AM10 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM9 for LAN
Module: AP
Q: I get the “Cannot delete. The vendor has existing inventory transactions.” message when attempting to delete a vendor record. What does this mean? How can I delete the vendor record?
A: The message is displayed if the vendor you are attempting to delete has an existing received goods transaction. If the vendor has no other activities and the purchase order and received goods transactions are not valid, then perform the following to delete the vendor record:
- Cancel the received goods. The cancel date must be in the same period as the received date. If the period to which the received date belongs has already been closed, then enter a date in the current period.
- Cancel the purchase order.
- Close the fiscal period to which the order date and received date belong. If the period was already closed, then close the current period. Note: Verify with your accountant that it is okay to close the period. If not, then you have to wait until your accountant gives the go-signal to close the period.
- Verify that transactions were moved to the history file. Once done, you can now delete the vendor record.
If the vendor has valid transactions that are still in the current file such that you should not cancel these transactions, then you have to wait until these transactions were moved to the history file before you can delete/archive the vendor record.
■ ■ ■
The Vendor YTD Purchase Amount Doesn’t Match the AP Invoice Summary Report
Versions:
AM12 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM11 for SQL and Express
AM10 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM9 for LAN
Module: AP
Q: The amount displayed in the Vendor Maintenance ► YTD Purchase field for some vendors does not match the total amount in the AP Invoice Summary Report. Why?
A: The amount displayed in the Vendor Maintenance ► YTD Purchase field does not include prepayment invoices. Generate the AP Invoice Summary Report for the year without including prepayment invoices by unmarking the Include Prepayment Invoices checkbox in the report interface.
If the issue persists, recalculate the vendor’s YTD purchase amount by performing the following:
- Access the Utilities ► Data Manager function.
- Mark the Update Vendor YTD Purchase Amount checkbox.
- Click Process.
Subscription Information
If you or someone else in your office would like to automatically receive our NewsLine in your inbox each month, please email newsletter@nexlan.com.
