Making a List!

Dear Clients,

Christmas is over—but taking a hint from the jolly old elf himself, not the effort of making a list and checking it twice. And what better list than NexLAN’s classic annual beginning-of-year suggestions? Number 7 is an important new addition to the list this year.

1. Lock your January 2022 fiscal period! In Acumatica, closing a period automatically restricts the period from posting. In AccountMate, this is an additional manual step in the General Ledger module via <Housekeeping><Posting Period Restrictions>. In both cases, lock at least your January 2022 fiscal period to ensure no one typos the year and restates financials from a year ago.
2. Make a backup of your live company! You *WILL* later want reports that are difficult to create after transactions have occurred, so at least make the backup now and then we can restore it for access later. For AccountMate, this requires a SQL geek or our NexSQLBack utility. Acumatica has built-in user functionality to be able to backup your company database to a local snapshot file on your local PC.
3. Check your AccountMate database maintenance plan backup directory! Your AccountMate database should have a database maintenance plan implemented to optimize system performance and, ideally, to automatically backup your database as a “rolling week” of nightly snapshots. While not a complete backup solution, this has “saved the bacon” on numerous occasions, so please confirm the files are being created and confirm with your IT department these files are being copied offsite. For more info, see our complete recommendations for AccountMate system backups.
4. Photocopy your wallet! We are talking backups here, right? It’s pretty valuable to have a backup of your personal portable accounting information for “just in case.”
5. Order your tax reporting forms! Details for forms for AccountMate are below and some reports DO require special preprinted forms, so don’t delay.
6. Refer to last month’s NewsLine for information on year-end closing for the accounting and payroll modules! Available here and, not your CPA talking, don’t forget to increase the 401(k) withholding limits to $22,500 or $29,000, based on the age of the employee.
7. Vow to make 2023 the year you document procedures! We’ve seen many clients struggle with the loss of a key employee and their knowledge of their business systems and procedures. Always a good idea to systematize your processes in writing. In Acumatica, use the Company Wiki feature to store your documentation; it offers versioning, support for file attachments, user search, and multi-level access rights via user roles.
8. Post NexLAN’s emergency contact information! We’re always available for FREE telephone and email support, toll-free at 877-2NEXLAN, and hope you have a copy of everyone’s off-hours contact info as well. You don’t? Then just email us at support@nexlan.com for a current copy.

Thank you all for 2022, and we look forward to supporting you in 2023!

Regards,

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

February 1 – March 9 AccountMate SQL/Express Core Product Training

Registration for the next scheduled offering of AccountMate’s 6-week Core Product Training is now open. Classes will be held online two days per week on Wednesday and Thursday for six weeks, from February 1 to March 9, 2023.

If you have a New Year’s resolution to LEARN more about some of the modules and features in AccountMate—in order to DO more with your flexible, powerful AccountMate system—this training is an excellent way to get started on your goal!

It’s an ongoing process to find ways to automate areas of your organization that have been changing recently, or that will be changing and expanding soon, so that you can support those changes while making your teams’ work easier at the same time. A solid training class like this is one great way to look for opportunities for process improvements.

Check out the class details:

• Course Overview (including how many free seats you qualify for if you’re on Lifecycle Maintenance, and info about sending different people in your company to sessions on different modules)
• Course Outline
• Course Schedule

Call or email us if you have questions or if you’d like to register.

A Continuous 360-Degree View of Your Acumatica Customer Activity

With Acumatica, your company has a “single source of truth” so everyone in your company can view the latest customer information and status, all in one consolidated system.

When it comes to information about your customers, that consolidation happens via Acumatica’s CRM (customer relationship management) functionality, which makes it easy for you to update or find details and status about a customer’s account, invoices and payments, support cases, quotes and orders, and more.

So how does new customer information consistently get put into Acumatica day-by-day? Read on for an impressive example.

Check out the Acumatica button in the upper right of this Outlook email. When you click the button, it offers the options below it that let you view contact and account info for this person from Acumatica; log a copy of this email message as an activity in Acumatica; or open a support case or sales opportunity (lead) in Acumatica for this person to keep things moving to the next step.

Acumatica CRM add-in for Microsoft Outlook

• Imagine that you emailed a credit application to your customer and they emailed you back their completed application, attached as a PDF in the email.
• Now imagine clicking an Acumatica button in Outlook to bring up a menu in that email. Acumatica will immediately check the email address of your customer in Outlook and find that person in Acumatica, displaying contact and account details right in your email.
• You can then click a button to log the email conversation from Outlook into Acumatica as an activity—as well as submit the PDF attachment into Acumatica and alert your credit team that there’s a new application ready to process. Other folks at your company who are working with that customer can see the activity too, which they wouldn’t be able to do if you only forwarded the credit application email to someone in the credit department.

So, with just a few clicks in Outlook, the latest customer activity has been consolidated into your Acumatica system and made available to anyone in your company who needs it. You can also click from your email to generate a new contact or sales lead in Acumatica, or open a support case in Acumatica to get a customer’s emailed question answered by your team, and more.

Cool!

➤ If your Outlook isn’t talking to your Acumatica CRM, let’s get that connection in place for you so that you can easily get emailed updates from customers into your system, and thus smoothly track and process customer activity in one place.

AccountMate Supported Tax Forms

As much we’d love the world to be completely paperless, if you’re not filing your tax forms electronically then you’ll need special paper—but what special paper?

Below is the detailed list by form. To simplify the process, the forms are available in multi-quantity packs at the AccountMate Forms website so we’ve also listed the product item numbers.

W-2

• Federal copy on 2-up on perforated blank paper—Items # 5207, 5222
• State, employee and employer copies on 4-up on perforated blank paper—Items # 5209, 5221 (Note: Employee copy can have the instructions printed on the back, but this is not required.)

Please note: If you use the Aatrix efiling option for your Payroll Tax Forms, then employees may directly import the W-2 data into their Intuit TurboTax, H&R Block or TaxAct personal tax filing software.

W-3

• On plain paper only for Federal filing

ACA Forms

• Federal 1095 and 1094—both use plain paper (Note: For the Employee copy, you can either buy paper with pre-printed instructions on the back or use a plain paper and print the instructions on another sheet of paper.)

1099-MISC

• Federal copy on RED PREPRINTED 2-up perforated pre-printed form—Item # 5110
• State, recipient and payer copies on 4-up perforated blank paper—Item # 5221 (Note: Recipient copy can have the instructions printed on the back, but this is not required.)

1099-NEC

• Federal copy on RED PREPRINTED 3-up pre-printed form for federal filing—Item # NEC5110
• State, recipient and payer copies on 4-up perforated blank paper—Item # 5221 (Note: Recipient copy can have the instructions printed at the back, but this is not required.)

1096

• Federal transmission on RED pre-printed form—Item # 5100

Please note: 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC and 1096 forms must be printed via the integrated Aatrix utility and the supported form is 4-up for 1099 state/recipient/payer copies. If you purchased 2-up or 3-up forms, you may print using the Federal option and produce satisfactory reports.

AccountMate Tech Note: Understanding How Physical Count Variances Affect Inventory Costs

Periodic inventory counts are conducted by businesses to ensure that inventory items are accurately accounted for and valued. When there is a variance between the on-hand quantity in AccountMate and the actual quantity during your physical count, it may be necessary to adjust the inventory item’s on-hand quantity and total cost. In AccountMate, the total cost is adjusted alongside any change in on-hand quantity depending on the Cost Method assigned to a particular item, and on whether there is a positive or negative count variance.

Article #1151: Understanding How Physical Count Variances Affect Inventory Costs, discusses the inventory cost adjustment calculation and the adjusted inventory cost.

AccountMate Tech Note: How to Post Employee Additional Earnings

There may be times when your company must pay employees additional earnings such as bonuses, commissions, personal use of company vehicle and other earnings. You may be paying these additional earnings to your employees as part of their regular paycheck or paying them in a separate check. AccountMate provides the flexibility to use either of these two methods.

You may also apply withholding taxes and personal deductions to additional earnings as needed. And you can generate a separate report that tracks those additional earnings.

Article #1182: How to Post Employee Additional Earnings covers the procedure to post payment of additional earnings for each method, as well as the procedures to apply withholding taxes and personal deductions to these additional earnings. Samples are included that illustrate the appropriate use of each method.

Acumatica Technical Tips

Different Replenishment Settings

Q: Does Acumatica allow for different warehouses to have different replenishment settings? For example if I have a MAIN warehouse and stores in City A and City B, can I set the min/max replenishment to different values for each city?

A: Yes. For each Item, you can set different min/max settings in each warehouse in the Item Warehouse Details screen. Edit the Inventory ID and Warehouse fields. Then in the Replenishment tab, go to the Replenishment Parameters, where you can enter numbers for Safety Stock, Reorder Point, Max. Qty, and Transfer ERQ.

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A/R Auto Credit Memo Application

Q: Is there a way to turn off auto application of credit memos in accounts receivable? I want to be able to choose what credits get applied to what invoices so the customer and I are on the same page. I can do this by un-applying the credits, but this is making more lines than necessary and extra steps to the process.

A: In the customer’s Financial Settings, de-select the checkbox Auto-Apply Payments. This setting applies to credit memos as well.

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Unapplying Debit Adjustments

Q: A debit adjustment that was applied to an AP Bill in Accounts Payable was applied to the wrong invoice. How can I unapply it or move it from one invoice to the correct one after it has been released?

A: In Checks and Payments, in the Application History tab, click Reverse Application, then click Release.

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Refunds on Expense Claims

Q: We sometimes have refunds associated with expense claims, particularly when they are credit card expenses. However, Expense Claim entry will not accept a negative value. What is the best way of dealing with refunds?

A: Create a debit adjustment in the Payables module with the payment method matching the refunded card. The debit adjustment is then closed with a vendor refund, which creates the credit card activity.

AccountMate Technical Tips

Void a Handwritten check

Versions: AM12 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM11 for SQL and Express
AM10 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM9 for LAN

Module: AP

Q: How can I void a handwritten check?

A: You can void all types of checks (i.e., computer checks, handwritten checks, non-check transactions, electronic payments) using the Void Check function in Maintenance.

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Get a List of On-Hold Sales Orders

Versions: AM12 for SQL and Express
AM11 for SQL and Express
AM10 for SQL and Express

Module: SO

Q: How can I get a list of all on-hold sales orders only?

A: Create a custom report using the Custom Report function from the Utilities menu. Select the Sales Order File table (SOSORD), being sure to add the On-hold field among your selected fields, and include it as one of the filter criteria. Run the custom report filtered by On-hold sales orders (0 = not on-hold, 1 = on-hold).

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Mass Update Inventory Unit Prices

Versions: AM12 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM11 for SQL and Express
AM10 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM9 for LAN

Module: IC

Q: How can I mass update the Unit Price of my inventory items?

A: You can mass update the Unit Price of your inventory items using the Inventory Price Update function. The new Unit Price can be based on the sale price, average cost in all warehouses, or average cost in a specific warehouse. You can increase or decrease the Unit Price base by a percentage or flat amount.

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Subscription Information

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