When presenting our offerings to new clients, I often say, “This isn’t QuickBooks!” to stress that mid-tier products have functionality well beyond those for small businesses. Yet too often we see our current mid-tier clients not making use of functionality available… Kinda like having a jet but only using it to taxi around! <grin>
So, here’s some examples that I hope don’t apply to your business—and if any do, then let’s chat!
- Doing Bank Reconciliation in Excel: Using the built-in module instead of Excel is not only easier and faster (even before we implement automated clearing based on your bank’s data), it also allows real-time visibility to your cash throughout the month and a means to validate your Balance Sheet.
- Outsourcing your general ledger to your CPA: We all love CPAs and understand they need to eat too—but paying them to prepare financial statements weeks/months after-the-fact means you’re “driving while looking in the rear-view mirror!” Your system has all the information to provide always-current financial reports throughout the month.
- Keying ACH payments into your bank website: You have the ability to create ACH-formatted files from both Accounts Payable and Payroll for upload to your bank, which is faster, plus then you never make a typo.
- Outsourcing Payroll: I don’t know where the canard that “it’s hard to do payroll” came from—since it’s no more work than all the effort required to communicate with a payroll services company. Inhouse payroll also simplifies your accounting as it’s integrated with your general ledger.
- Winging it on Sales Tax: If you’re in an origin-based-sales-tax state like Illinois and only sell in that state, you can manually create a single tax code and you’re good. But there are 34 destination-based states where it’s not that simple—and if you sell online, then keeping track of nexus in other states is a big effort with legal consequences and fees. Instead, your system can charge and collect the correct taxes for you, using the current rates from each jurisdiction.
- Inventory isn’t in the system: Believe it or not, we have AccountMate clients who track all their inventory onhand in spreadsheets. SMH…
- Not Using Accrued Received Goods: On a related topic, if you don’t use the ARG functionality with your purchase orders to debit your inventory asset at the same time you increment the on-hand quantity, then you’ll NEVER have an accurate Balance Sheet or Income Statement.
- Keying Shipment Tracking Numbers into Invoices: We have integration options to pass your customer ship-to address to the shipper of your choice and get back the shipment cost and tracking number, in addition to automatically notifying your customer via email.
Above are processes we hope you’re NOT doing, as they’re inefficient and error prone. But if you are, then we’re standing by in the cornfields with solutions to make your system run faster and smoother!
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
kestrou@nexlan.com
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
AccountMate: Are Your RMAs Out of Control?
If you have regular product returns from your customers, but it’s hard to stay on top of the many RMA details, your RMA costs and processing time could be adding up. Common symptoms include:
1. When your customer calls about a bad item, your team cannot instantly verify warranty coverage dates based on the item and its purchase date;
2. You receive returned items from your customers but your on-hand inventory counts and valuation don’t always get updated accordingly;
3. You sent a returned item out for repair a long time ago and nobody’s noticed that it hasn’t come back repaired yet;
4. You’re leaving revenue on the table because your RMA process isn’t centralized to facilitate the sales of other products and services;
5. Your RMAs are being managed in a spreadsheet that’s become a spaghetti mess, and that’s not working well for your business.
The Return Merchandise Authorization Module can help—a lot!
AccountMate’s RMA Module offers a seriously robust array of automations and controls to make it easy for you to stay on top of all your RMA details. Each RMA gets an RMA order to track its status from beginning to end.
Importantly, RMA orders integrate with your other AccountMate modules, like Inventory Control, Kitting, GL, and more, to streamline processes. (See page 2 in the RMA module fact sheet for the list of integrations.) For example, when an RMA transaction is completed, credit invoices are created in the AR module automatically. And RMA credits can be applied automatically against the related RMA invoices.
Examples of the flexible RMA options include:
- Create unlimited return codes and predefined actions for each of your return processes
- Track and report the reasons for product returns so that you can take steps to reduce returns
- Ensure that you don’t give credit until you receive the goods being returned
- Complete sales returns as a one-step process when your customer brings an item in to your counter and wants money back
- Consistently charge restocking fees
- Monitor the gain and loss variances between the actual substitute or replacement costs, and the RMA order costs
- Allow RMA shipments to exceed customer credit limits to speed up customer RMA processing
- Efficiently record multi-currency sales return transactions
There’s more:
➤ View the AccountMate RMA Module fact sheet
➤ View the Benefits of the AccountMate RMA Module tech note
Do you want to tighten the screws on your RMA processing? Reach out to NexLAN with questions about the module or to schedule an online demo.
AccountMate: Online Class for the Manufacturing Module
April 16–17, 2025 (Wed. and Thurs.) – 3 hours each day; 6 hours total. $1,050 per student.
Brush up on features and expand your skills, so that your company can leverage more of the capabilities and automations offered in the Manufacturing Module. Or, if working with the module is new to your role at your company, get a solid understanding of how to use and optimize it.
You’ll learn:
- The manufacturing module flow chart
- Setup options to fit your company’s production preferences
- Setup of master records for machine, labor, inventory and BOM
- Creating and exploding work orders; Work-in-Process (WIP); posting finished jobs
- Recording remnants and scrap
- Making corrections to transactions including cancelling and voiding
- Insights available from the many built-in reports
- Understanding how the module integrates with your GL
- And more!
This is an online, live class with hands-on exercises, taught by an expert instructor from AccountMate’s staff. It covers a lot of ground—so you’ll learn what’s possible, and how to monitor and manage all aspects of your production work.
Course Overview | Course Outline | Course Schedule
Registration closes seven calendar days prior to the session date.
Acumatica: Double, Triple, or More What You Can See and Do On a Single Screen
Use your system’s Side Panels to add related information to your screen
What is a Side Panel?
Side Panels are pop-out side bars on the right side of your Acumatica screens where you can view information, dashboards, or even record transactions related to the screen you are currently viewing—without leaving that screen or tab. You can have multiple related reports or screens on a sidebar so you can see and do even more from a single screen.
Here’s an example
Check out the side panel icons in the first screenshot below (click the image to enlarge it), and then compare that to the same screen below that shows an open side panel added. You can try opening this side panel in your own PO Screen too.
1. Default Purchase Orders Screen
2. Here’s the Purchase Orders screen with the Vendor Detail Side Panel open
Side Panels make your workflow smoother and less fragmented
They bring you the information you need—instead of you having to go on a wild goose chase through other screens to get what you want.
For example, when your customer wants an updated delivery window for their order, you can have their order, their shipment status, and their tracking number all at hand on one screen, rather than bouncing around to multiple tabs while the customer waits for you to pull together the information.
Step one: Use your built-in Side Panels
The first way to get more benefits from Side Panels is to explore and use more of the ones that are built in. There are dozens of Side Panels already included in your system, stock in Acumatica.
Not sure what side panels you have, or whether you already have custom side panels that you don’t know about? Shoot us an email and we’ll tell you where to look in your system.
Step two: Add new Side Panels
Look for opportunities to save time with custom side panels specific to your workflow. For example, one of our clients is an insurance claims adjuster; they have a custom side panel where they can add a new note to their customer’s file without leaving their Open Cases screen.
To imagine where a new side panel could help, identify something that you do many times per day. Maybe you’re often comparing the specifications of multiple products. Then draw a flowchart to break down the smaller steps and screens that you normally hit, to assess which steps could be collapsed into one step if the info that you need was at your fingertips in a side panel.
We’d of course be happy to create basic or advanced Side Panels for you—but don’t hesitate to designate a slightly geeky user at your company to create them. Basic Side Panels are easy to create inhouse; ask NexLAN to show you how.
Acumatica: Watch the Summit 2025 Keynote Recordings
No matter what features you’re using in your system, a lot more keeps being added to Acumatica. Stay informed of the new ways that you can use your system to drive higher business performance, so you don’t stagnate or fall behind.
The mainstage presentations at Acumatica’s annual “Summit” conferences are one way to do this. They provide an excellent overview of where the product is headed next. Last week, over 3,500 attendees (including NexLAN!) convened in Vegas, and recordings of the two main stage sessions are available for you to watch:
Day 1: Drive Higher Business Performance (60 minutes)
Hear from Acumatica CEO John Case and others about Acumatica’s priorities and direction. This includes examples of the expanding benefits from AI within the product. Watch sit-down conversations with two companies about their business challenges and Acumatica experience—which you’ll surely relate to. And get ideas of ways you can connect with users like yourself in the community.
Day 2: New Product Features, Including More from AI (90 minutes)
At the beginning and end of this session, see additional examples of super-helpful (and impressive) AI-based capabilities that will make your job easier. Sandwiched between those, see highlights from the product management team leaders about what’s in the 2025 R1 release in core Acumatica, the industry editions, and the new user interface that continues to roll out in phases.
Watch the Acumatica Summit 2025 Keynotes.
Watching might inspire your team to attend the January 2026 Summit in Seattle with us—everyone’s welcome.
P.S. If you’d like additional info and thoughts about Acumatica’s big-picture approach to AI and how that differs from other ERP companies, check out this excellent Diginomica article, Acumatica Summit 2025 in review – how will cloud ERP fare in the agentic AI era? There’s a more in-depth podcast version on the page as well.
AccountMate Tech Note: AccountMate Function Keys and Hotkeys
AccountMate is equipped with function keys and hotkeys that allow you to perform tasks more quickly than by using a mouse or other input device.
Article #1318: AccountMate Function Keys and Hotkeys lists the different AccountMate function keys and hotkeys. It also explains their functionalities.
Look through the list and choose one new-to-you shortcut that looks helpful. Try it now and adopt a new habit that will save you time going forward!
AccountMate Tech Note: Understanding the Physical Count Import Feature
Some companies opt to maintain both AccountMate and inventory management software. They may be using separate software to conduct their elaborate physical counts; thus, they may need to incorporate the physical count results into AccountMate to reconcile the inventory general ledger ID accounts with the on-hand quantities from the other software. AccountMate’s Import Physical Count function provides users the option to incorporate the physical count results from another software without manually recording the count quantities.
Article #1343: Understanding the Physical Count Import Feature discusses how to use the Import Physical Count function and how to verify imported data.
Acumatica Technical Tips
How to Get Rid of Old Retention Invoices with $0 Open Balances
Q: We have invoices in closed periods where the retention was fully paid, but the parent invoice that the retention invoices were made off of are still showing open with a $0.00 balance. I cannot write off those parent invoices because there are no open line items and that is required for the write-off. How can I close these open invoices?
A: To close out these invoices perform the following steps:
- Unlock periods going back to the original period where the invoice originated.
- Run Recalculate Customer Balances from that period for the affected customer(s).
- Lock periods that were opened in Step 1.
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How Do I Lock My Project Budget So No More Changes Can Be Made?
Q: I do not want any further changes made to a Project’s Budget as it is ready to go into the next stage. How can I lock it down?
A: You can lock a Project’s Budget by selecting the ellipsis and clicking Budget Operations > Lock Budget.
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Acumatica Error: You Have Insufficient Rights to Access the ShopifyStore (BC201010) Form
Q: We just added the Shopify Connector, but when I try to connect to Shopify I get the error: “You have insufficient rights to access the ShopifyStore (BC201010) form.” Where do I change that?
A: A user with admin rights will need to grant access by going to More Items > User Security > Access Rights > Access Rights by Screen. Then under Company > Commerce > Shopify Stores check the box for your user’s role and save the change.
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How to Also Print the Remittance Report from the Process Payments / Print Checks Screen
Q: Currently, when we process payments in the Process Payments/Print Check screen, it defaults to printing a Check Form. We want to print the remittance report as well, how can we do that?
A: You can add the printing of the remittance report by going to Banking > Preferences > Payment Methods, selecting the payment method you want to add the remittance report to, and on the Settings for Use in AP tab under Check Printing Settings, check the box for Print Remittance Report.
AccountMate Technical Tips
Why Did My Bank Deposit Not Automatically Record?
Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)
Module: AR
Q: I configured AccountMate to automate the recording of deposits by marking the Automate Record Deposit by Pay Code in the AR Module Setup ► General (2) tab. However, after I recorded a customer payment, the payment was not recorded for deposit. Why?
A: The Automate Record Deposit by Pay Code feature does not automatically record the bank deposit for payment receipts. Marking the checkbox will automatically mark the receipt(s) with the earliest transaction date when you access the Record Bank Deposit function. If there are payment receipts with the same date and pay code, then they will be automatically marked as well. In addition, the Deposit Date field is automatically populated with the transaction date, and the Description field is automatically populated with the transaction pay code. Lastly, the Total No. of Receipts/Refunds Registered and Total Amount Registered fields are also automatically populated with the total number of receipts and the total deposit amount of the selected receipts. The deposit is not automatically recorded; you must Save the entry to record the deposit.
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What Report Do I Run to See My Voided AP Invoices?
Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)
Module: AP
Q: What report should I generate to view the voided AP invoices?
A: You can generate the Deleted Invoice Report, which provides information about the AP invoices that are deleted or voided from AccountMate. You can access this report from the Reports ► Invoice Reports menu.
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Can I See a Log of User Logins?
Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)
Module: SM
TIP: AccountMate has the Track User Access feature that keeps a log of the date and length of time when a user accesses AccountMate as well as the names of the companies, functions, and features that the user accesses, including report functions. To activate the feature, mark the Track User Access checkbox in AccountMate Administrator ► Setup ► Security ► Group/User Setup ► Add/Edit User window for each user. Click the View button if you want to view the user access log.
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How Do I Change the Amount Paid to a Salary Employee for a Single Pay Period?
Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)
Module: PR
Q: How can I pay a salaried employee less than their regular pay for the pay period? I tried reducing the number of hours; however, the employee’s pay amount is still the same.
A: Salaried employees are not paid by the hour; thus, the pay amount will not decrease/increase even if the number of hours for the pay period decreases/increases.
You can edit the pay amount per earning code by amending the Amount in the Earnings grid of the second Apply Payroll/Payment window. Click the Amount field that you want to edit; then, enter the desired amount.
Note that the rate per hour for earning codes that are configured to use X Regular Rate (e.g., Overtime, Leave, and Holiday earning codes) is automatically recalculated after you amend the Regular earning code pay amount.
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