Dear AccountMate Clients,
We average meeting one “new group of AccountMate friends” (translation: AccountMate end-user installation) per month – and a question always raised is how we’re able to support systems remotely?
At this point, we support more than 200 AccountMate installations across 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Japan, Australia and Africa – and have met face-to-face with well under half of them. So, while it’s not unheard of for NexLAN to be onsite, the majority of our support is COMPLETELY remote.
Because our support responsibilities are focused on AccountMate itself and directly integrated software – and only those applications and not infrastructure like hardware or server operating systems – I think it’s working pretty well, but I’m obviously only seeing this from our direction.
Sure the Internet connectivity options of the last two decades have allowed remote support to flourish and you, the end-user, to benefit from only paying for the support time required (pretty nice when we can connect for a quarter hour and that’s all you pay for, as we don’t wrap clients up with prepaid support contracts for support hours), the lower hourly rate of an organization “in the cornfields”, and to leverage, literally, the best AccountMate support in the world (which I say in all seriousness based on the size of the NexLAN staff and our broad expertise in the product) – but how’s that NexLAN remote support working out from YOUR angle?
I’m seriously interested in your feedback – positive AND negative – and promise a little something special for your responses, in addition to improving your support of course.
To our friends in The Seychelles, we hope your National Day went well last Thursday and our Timbits eating pals had a good Canada Day on Saturday. For us ‘Mericans, tomorrow is Independence day, with 七夕 (Tanabata) on Friday for our Nihonjin no tomodachi, with whom we wish for no rain on “The Evening of the Seventh”.
Best wishes to all, and I look forward to hearing from you!
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
Independence Day Holiday
NexLAN will be closed on Tuesday, July 4th, in observance of the US Independence Day Holiday.
Of course we’ll be checking e-mail to support@nexlan.com intermittently, but hopefully you have a copy of our “Emergency Numbers” document which lists cell phones for everyone here. If not, then please <reply> and we’re happy to provide.
Two Year Notice: End of Manufacturer’s Support for AccountMate/SQL V8.x
AccountMate’s policy of at least providing eight years of support under our Maintenance Plans (4 years of Regular Support + 4 years of Extended Support) gives tremendous value for remaining on a consistent maintenance program.
Consistent with that, support for AccountMate/SQL V8.x will end on 06/30/2019 – two years from now. Payroll tax subscription coverage will end on 12/31/19.
This friendly reminder is meant to provide end users of this version enough time for us to jointly discuss upgrading to a supported product version. Two years certainly sounds like a lot of time, but we all know it will pass rapidly while dealing with other important business issues…
Core Product Training in September
AccountMate regularly offers the Core Product Training class at their offices in Petaluma, California. These are always HIGHLY rated by attendees, with the next one scheduled for Wednesday-Friday, September 20-22.
Contact us for additional information and see the course description here.
Tech Note: Using AccountMate Audit Trail to Improve Internal Controls
AccountMate’s built-in Audit Trail feature allows you to track original transaction and master record entries and subsequent changes to these records – even allowing selection at the specific field(s) you’d like to track.
Please see Article #1296: Using AccountMate Audit Trail to Improve Internal Controls for details on setting up, monitoring and purging the audit trail.
Tech Notes: Understanding Electronic Payments
We’ve updated two Technical Notes that discuss the electronic payment features in AccountMate/SQL:
Article #1288: Understanding the Electronic Payment Features in AP and PR
Article #1300: Understanding the Combine Electronic Payment Feature
Tech Note: How to Record Payments for Advanced Customer Billings
There are instances where you need to issue advanced billings to your customer to collect payment prior to shipping the order or performing the service. AccountMate allows you to create a pro-forma invoice (advanced bill) to send to your customers – then, since AccountMate/SQL V8.3, instead of posting that payment as an open credit, you can directly apply the payment to the advanced bill.
Please see Article #1336: How to Record Payments for Advanced Billing, which details how to record customer payments using the Apply Advanced Billing Payment function in the Accounts Receivable module.
Technical Tips
Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express
Module: PR
TIP: To record payroll transactions for a salaried or hourly employee with multiple tax states, perform the following:
- Verify the following in the first Apply Payroll/Payment window:
a. The Tax State field is blank.
b. The Manual Apply method is selected in the Apply Method area. - Click OK.
- Enter the employee number in the Employee # field in the second Apply Payroll/Payment window.
- Review payroll transaction details for the employee’s default tax state; amend, if necessary.
- Click the Tax State List box button to apply payroll for the employee’s other tax state.
- Click Yes when AccountMate displays the message informing you that you are about to apply payroll/payment for another tax state; then, proceed to enter payroll transaction details for the state.
- Click the Save button to save the apply payroll/payment transaction.
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Version: AM10 for SQL and Express
Module: PR
TIP: You can amend a salaried or hourly employee’s applied payroll/payment transaction to record payroll transactions for another tax state as long as the employee has multiple tax states set up in the employee record. This is true even if the original applied payroll/payment transaction for the employee is for a single state only. To do this, perform the following:
- Access the Amend Applied Payroll function; then enter the employee number in the Employee # field.
- Review the original payroll transaction details for the employee; then, click the Tax State List box button to select the employee’s other tax state.
- Click Yes when AccountMate displays the message informing you that you are about to apply payroll/payment for another state; then, proceed to enter payroll transaction details for the state.
- Click the Save button to save the apply payroll/payment transaction.
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Version: AM10 for SQL and Express
Modules: IC, KT, SO
TIP: The Calculate Price from Components checkbox has been added to the Inventory Maintenance function. This option allows you to configure whether a customized kit item can use the sum of its components prices as the kit item unit price. To use this feature, mark the Calculate Price from Components checkbox in the Inventory Maintenance > Settings (1) > Kitting area. This checkbox is enabled only when the inventory item record is set up as a customizable kit item.
This will then effect pricing for Customized Kit Items in the following functions of the Sales Order module:
- Create Sales Order
- Create Sales Quote
- Recurring Sales Order Setup
- Generate Recurring Sales Order
- Create Blanket Sales Order
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