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Recency, Frequency & Monetary Value

by | Jul 1, 2024 | Accounts Payable, Optimizing Your Business, Payroll, REPAY

Dear Clients,

There’s numerous ways to “mine your data” to find the most important customers or items you sell, to focus your energy on those key elements and prove/disprove whether the Pareto 80-20 principle functions in your business.

I’ve recently been looking at the Recency, Frequency, Monetary value (RFM) system which ranks by three common evaluation factors you can merge if you’d like. These factors are:

  • Recency: How recently a customer bought or an item sold
  • Frequency: How often a customer bought or an item sold
  • Monetary value: How much money a customer spent or an item generated

In the classical method of RFM analysis, for a defined period of sales (such as “the last 12 months”) each of those factors are broken into quintiles of 20% each and assigned a value from “1” (lowest) to “5” (highest) for a total range of “3” to “15” in value.

Thus, a customer who bought recently, bought often and spent large would score a “5” in each category for a total of “15”—a very valuable customer indeed! An item that sold rarely (“1”) but fairly recently (“4”) and is YUGE dollars (“5”) would total “10” and is worth special consideration in your marketing and sales efforts.

The overall score is, of course important—clearly the 15s are great and the 3s are negligible—but visibility to each individual factor can also be useful as customers/items high on Recency are likely to sell again soon, items high on Frequency need close monitoring for stocking and replenishment levels, and customer/items high on Monetary value get kid glove treatment.

There’s many gold nuggets in your data, and an RFM analysis is one way to find them—which we’re happy to assist with setting up!

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Gentle reminder for our AccountMate clients to occasionally hit <Utilities><Check For Payroll Tax Subscription Updates>, as updates are released throughout the year. Mid-year updates are easily installed by you, the end-user, and there have been two recent releases, getting us up to 2024.07, with updates for Connecticut, Georgia and Ohio. Not sure what version you have? Please hit <Help><About AccountMate> then look on the Payroll tab for the Version # field. But it never hurts to just check for payroll tax updates!

Regards,

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

AccountMate Live Demo on July 10—New AP Automation Feature

AccountMate Corp. and REPAY will be demonstrating the recent new AccountMate V13.2 feature, Accounts Payable Payment Automation:

Wednesday, July 10, 2024, 1:00 CST for 30 minutes on Zoom, plus live Q&A

What is the Accounts Payable Payment Automation feature from REPAY?

  1. It processes your vendor payments online for you in a REPAY payments portal integrated with AccountMate. This reduces your resources needed for check printing and ACH payment processing and earning rebates on virtual card payments.
  2. REPAY processes the payments for you once you review and upload them, and REPAY works directly with your vendors to maintain up-to-date vendor banking information for receiving payments, securely storing their data. 
  3. Each vendor can still have their preferred payment methods (virtual card, credit card, ACH, or check), and you can securely register your bank accounts and assign them per vendor.
  4. This new automation integrates with the AccountMate SQL/Express Accounts Payable Module, as well as the Bank Reconciliation Module.

Click to view a two-page Accounts Payable Payment Automation brochure for an overview of the features and capabilities.

This event is a great way to get up to speed on what’s possible with AP automation these days!

Register for the July 10, 2024 live demo of AccountMate’s Accounts Payable Payment Automation from REPAY.

AccountMate Payroll Module Class—September 16-20

It’s time for AccountMate’s annual offering of a live, online class for the AccountMate SQL/Express Payroll Module.

This is your opportunity to go through all of the built-in payroll functionality. And there’s a lot of functionality, as there are many situations and preferences for employers when it comes to how to pay employees and contractors. AccountMate’s Payroll Module is mature and robust.

This is a five-day online hands-on class, 3-4 hours per session; 18 hours total—$500 per session or $1,800 for all five sessions.

You’ll dive into everything from master records setup, to the payroll process, payroll transactions, and reports—as well as tax forms, General Ledger integration, tax year closing, and how the payroll tax subscription keeps you current year-round with tax updates. You’ll be able to ask questions about your company’s payroll needs, and you’ll get new ideas from other students in the class discussing how their companies do payroll.

View the Sept. 16-20, 2024 payroll class details:

Course Overview  |  Course Outline  |  Course Schedule

Note that this class doesn’t qualify for the free class seats that come with Lifecyle Maintenance.

To register or ask questions about the class, contact NexLAN.

Acumatica Webinar: Take Your Distribution Business to New Heights

Streamline Sales, Inventory, Purchasing, and Warehousing

Once you’ve become familiar with your Acumatica ERP system as a user, and your team is managing your company’s workflow smoothly in the system—that’s a good time to take a new look at what Acumatica is capable of. You’re sure to spot areas where your company and your customers might benefit from a new-to-you feature that’sin your system.

An easy way to get ideas of what’s possible with fresh eyes is to sit back with a cup of tea and watch a webinar, keeping an eye out for things of potential interest to your team.

To that end, check out this recorded webinar-on-demand, Take Your Distribution Business to New Heights: Streamline Sales, Inventory, Purchasing, and Warehousing. Topics include:

  1. Give each of your users a role-based dashboard to keep their most-needed data at their fingertips.
  2. Sell to your customers in more of their preferred places—and reach new customers and new markets— by taking an “omnichannel” approach to your sales.
  3. Manage all of your cross-selling, upselling, and line discounts smartly. Then track what’s selling the best and assess which offers are boosting your bottom line.
  4. Enhance your customer service with simplified returns management, which uses Acumatica’s CRM “ticketing system” to ensure that customers stay updated on their items, and no RMA details or vendor replacements and credits fall through the cracks.
  5. Optimize inventory management, sales order allocations, drop-ship purchase orders, and demand planning, to prevent stockouts and overstock situations—and get orders into your customers’ hands smoothly and quickly.

This 45-minute webinar recording is available on Acumatica’s On-Demand Webinars page.

After you watch, ask NexLAN any questions about how a feature of interest might work for your company’s unique requirements.

Acumatica 2024 R1: New Features in Warehouse Management

The latest release of Acumatica brings flexible new options to improve your picking and packing efficiency:

1. A bidirectional picking option is added
The location of items in the warehouse can affect picking priority. For example, if heavier items are placed closer to the shipping area, picking can be more efficient if you always start picking from that point, so you can load heavier items onto the cart first. Or in your warehouse, you may instead want to begin picking items at the path endpoint that’s closest to where you’e standing when you request the next pick list.

New in 2024 R1 is the Allow Bidirectional Pick Lists check box on the Sales Orders Preferences (SO101000) form on the Warehouse Management tab. 

  • When selected, the system will suggest the nearest pick list for your picker’s location, factoring in whether the item locations on the list have a lower or higher path value— giving the optimal direction to pick for shorter picking times.
  • If the check box is cleared, the system will suggest the next pick list in only one direction: from the lowest value to the highest.

2. Aggregated quantity for picking is now supported
When your pick list has multiple sales orders that each contain the same line item, Acumatica 2024 R1 gives you the option to apply an aggregated picked quantity. This means you only need to enter the item location once, then scan the barcode of the item once, clicking Set Qty to enter the aggregated (total) quantity. The system will automatically distribute the quantities properly across the sales orders, speeding up your picking.

3. The “Efficiency of Picking and Packing” inquiry offers more info
Brand new last year in 2023 R2, the Efficiency of Picking and Packing inquiry provides you insight into the accuracy, speed, and performance of your pickers and packers, to help you assess warehouse performance metrics and identify areas to celebrate and areas for continuous improvement.

Newly added to the inquiry in 2024 R1 is an Expand by Pick List check box to view the data by pick list for a single shipment or worksheet.

Also, the inquiry’s table has these new column additions:

  • Pick List Nbr (wave or batch number, with drill-down ability)
  • Number of Actual Operations
  • Number of Errors
  • Start Date and End Date now include timestamps

4. Manual input of GS1 barcodes is now allowed
Previously, if a barcode was damaged or could not be scanned, you couldn’t enter the GS1 barcode manually. Now in Acumatica 2024 R1, in the Scan box on forms you can enter the Human Readable Interpretation (HRI) characters with all brackets as they are shown in the barcode—for example, (01)23645148496321(17)210927. 

Which of these enhancements will you try out first with your picking team? As always, send us any questions so that we can help.

AccountMate Tech Note: Understanding System-Generated Inventory Cost Adjustments

Occasionally, in the Inventory Transaction Log you may see cost adjustments that don’t correspond to the actual inventory cost adjustments that you recorded in AccountMate. These are the result of system-generated cost adjustments.

Article #1210: Understanding System-Generated Inventory Cost Adjustments differentiates the system-generated cost adjustments from the cost and quantity adjustments recorded by users. It also discusses the scenarios when AccountMate generates cost adjustments and how the cost methods affect the calculation of these adjustments.

AccountMate Tech Note: Calculating Production Cost and Variances in Manufacturing

The calculation of production cost and variances is important for assessing cost effectiveness and production efficiency in a manufacturing company.

Gain a clear understanding (or brush up on the details) of these calculations in Article #1113: Calculating Production Cost and Variances in Manufacturing, which explains the method by which production cost and variances are calculated in AccountMate and how these calculations affect the Production Variance Report.

Acumatica Technical Tips

How to Disable a User’s Acumatica ERP Access 

Q: I need to remove a user from being able to access Acumatica. How can I do that?

A: Here’s how:

  1. Log in to Acumatica ERP as a user with administrator access rights. 
  2. Navigate to More Items > User Security > User Management > Users.
  3. In the Login field select the user for which you want to disable access to Acumatica ERP.
  4. Click Disable User.
  5. In the Status box, verify that the status of the user changed to Disabled. If the user then goes to their login screen, they’ll see a message that says, “Your account is disabled. Please contact your system administrator.”

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The Printable Version of a Check Didn’t Appear in a New Tab

Q: When I attempted to print a check in Acumatica, it didn’t open a new tab with my check to print, but my system says it completed the process. No check was printed. Why?

A: Your new tab may have been prevented from opening because of a pop-up/ad blocker installed on your browser. In your browser, disable the pop-up blocker for the Acumatica ERP website address. 

For example, in the Google Chrome browser, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site Settings > Content > Pop-ups and redirects > Allowed to send pop-ups and use redirects > Add. Enter the Acumatica ERP web site address, then click Add.

You can then reprint your check by processing a reprint in your Acumatica ERP. For instructions to reprint a check, see the next tech tip below.

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How to Reprint a Check

Q: My check failed to print. How can I reprint the check?

A: To reprint a check follow these steps to first prepare the check, and then print the check. Reference the screenshots below (click to view them larger).

  1. Go to Payables > Processes > Release Payments. Enter your Payment Method and Cash Account. In the Action box, select Reprint or Reprint with New Number.
  2. Check the box(es) for the check(s) that you need to prepare for reprinting, then click Process. This will also change the status of the check(s) to Pending Print.
  3. Go to Payables > Processes > Process Payments / Print Checks. Enter your Payment Method and Cash Account.
  4. Check the box for the check(s) that you want to reprint and click Process.
  5. A new browser tab will open showing the printable version of the check(s) to print from there.

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When Emailing Statements, I Get an “Email Account Is Empty” Error

Q: I have added my customer’s email to their customer profile correctly, but when I try to email their monthly statements I get an error saying, “Failed. The email account is empty. Please define the Default Email Account in Email Preferences.” How do I fix this?

A: This error message is referring to the “sent from” email address (your company), not the “sent to” email address (your customer). Set your system’s default email address in the Email Preferences (SM204001) screen, defining what email your statement is being sent from: 

In the list of email accounts at the bottom of the Email Preferences screen, choose an email to be active by marking its checkbox in the Active column.

Or, from the bottom of your main left-side-of-screen Acumatica menu, go to More Items > System Management > Email Preferences > Email Preferences field, and use the search icon in that field to choose a Default Email Account for the system.

AccountMate Technical Tips

GL Journal Entries Aren’t Using My New Transaction Date

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

Module: GL

Q: I amended the transaction date of some transactions in the subsidiary modules (e.g., AR invoice, AP invoice); however, the journal entries in GL were still posted using the old date. Why?   

A: This happens if you have not transferred the data to GL after you made the changes. Run the Transfer Data to GL function for each module (or the Batch Transfer Data to GL function) after you amended the transaction dates to update the journal entries’ transaction date in GL.

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How Can I Correct a Prior-Year Journal Entry?

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

Module: GL

Q: I realized too late that the date of my posted journal entry is incorrect. The journal entry should have been posted for the current fiscal year but it was entered for the prior fiscal year. I tried voiding the journal entry, but it does not allow me to void a prior year entry. How can I correct the journal entry?

A: Yes, you cannot void a prior year journal entry. To correct the journal entry, you must perform the following:

  1. Create an adjusting entry to reverse the existing entry. The date of the adjusting entry must be the same as the existing entry.
  2. Create a new journal entry with the correct date. 

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Why Is the Email Field Blank in the E-mail AP Check Stub Window?

Versions: AM13 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Module: AP

Q: Why is the E-mail field in the E-mail AP Check Stub window not populated with the main contact’s e-mail address?

A: This happens if you specify a Factor (Pay To) for the vendor and the E-mail field is blank in the factor’s Vendor Address Maintenance.

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How to Credit Sales Tax That Was Paid By a Tax-Exempt Customer

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

Module: AR

Q: I have a historical AR invoice for which a sales tax was erroneously calculated as the customer is tax-exempt. How can I create a sales tax credit that would record the credit on the date the error was discovered, display the sales tax credit in the Sales Tax Amount Report, and remove the sales tax amount from the invoice balance?

A: Perform the following to address this scenario.

  1. In Transactions, access the Create Sales Return ► Create Sales Return without Invoice # function.
  2. Enter the Customer #, accept or amend the Invoice Date, and update the sales tax code as necessary; then, go to the Line Items tab. Note: The sales tax code should be the sales tax code used for the erroneous invoice.
  3. Click the Overwrite Sales Tax button.
  4. In the Overwrite Sales Tax window, enter the tax amount for which you want to create a sales tax credit in negative; then, click Close.
  5. Save the sales return.
  6. Generate the GL Transfer Report. Verify that the journal entries for the transaction are posted on the Invoice Date you entered in Step 1.
  7. Generate the Sales Tax Amount Report. Verify that the negative sales tax amount (sales tax credit) is displayed in the report.
  8. Access the Apply Payment function and enter the Customer #; then, apply the open credit created by the transaction (sales tax credit) against the erroneous invoice.

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