Dear AccountMate Clients,
There’s gold in your system – no doubt about it…
Some of the gold is simple operational information, such as your gross margin or overhead/burden rate per dollar of sales, which is easily discerned from the built-in financial reports.
Other gold is buried a little deeper, such sales by salesperson/region or product line, some of which can be found with built-in reports while other has to be “mined” from the data.
Then there’s gold in the deep data that are sometimes even surprising. My favorite is a study of “related grocery purchases” which showed a preference of dog owners for thinner spaghetti sauce (think Ragu) and a preference of cat owners for thicker spaghetti sauce (think Prego). While not to imply the sauce is being applied to the pets, that valuable information is still being used by the respective brands to great effect – although I’m sure Prego still mourns the demise of Cat Fancy.
Mining this gold requires getting to the underlying information in a meaningful way – and being able to understand it – so what are the tools at your disposal? There are several:
- AccountMate built-in reports: There are hundreds of built-in reports to your system, and when you consider the numerous ways to sort and filter them the number of ways to report on information explodes into uncountable options. There’s example sample reports here organized by module – so you can quickly review the options.
- AccountMate built-in Custom Report Writer: Available in your system under <Utilities><Custom Report><Custom Report Setup> this is a very user-friendly method of creating simple reports of a single table or very closely related tables (like invoice header and detail). The results aren’t exportable to Excel, and it doesn’t easily handle calculations, but it’s built-in (translation: free!) so often a good place to start when the information you need isn’t in a built-in report.
- Stonefield Query: A classic report writer that has many of the AccountMate table relationships pre-programmed. Details are here and it’s much more functional than the prior option. It helps to be a little bit geek to use this, but a 30-day fully functional demo is available for you to check it out.
- ClickBase Business Intelligence: A true Business Intelligence (BI) tool for sophisticated end-users, ClickBase is also “AccountMate smart” – in that it has many of the table relationships pre-constructed so the end-user doesn’t need to write complex “SQL queries” – and is AWESOMELY powerful, including the ability to interface to non-AccountMate data and create dynamic dashboards. Much more than a report writer, I call it a “data doodler” since it’s such an interactive tool.
- AccountMate Business Analysis Powered by F9: All of the above options allow you to access information across a wide range of AccountMate modules – GL, AR, SO, AP, PO, IC, etc. – but if you only want to report on GL information, then the “F9” add-on, which lets you sit inside Excel and pull information from AccountMate GL in real-time, just *can’t* be beat. More info, including a short demo video, are here – and a free fully-functional 30-day demo is also available.
The gold is right there under your feet (or, more accurately, inside your system) – and we have the tools for mining it – time to start digging!
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
June 7 Webinar: AccountMate/LAN V9.1
The latest version of the AccountMate/LAN product line is here with over three dozen new features and capabilities.
The enhancements provided in AccountMate 9.1 for LAN include:
- Capability to enter or input data for Forms 1094 and 1095 (Affordable Care Act)
- Option to limit the number of paid leave hours for an accrual year
- Track paid leave using an anniversary or fiscal accrual year
- New time card data converter function
- Ability to void checks by batch
- New accrual year-end closing function
- Option to freeze active or inactive items only
- Ability to change the warehouse after the SO# has been entered when recording SO shipments
and advanced billings
The end-user webinar presented by AccountMate will go over these and more. It’s coming right up from noon to 1:30 CDT on Tuesday, June 7, so sign up right now while you’re thinking about it!
To register for the webinar, hit this link: AccountMate 9.1 LAN New Features Webinar.
Technical Tips
Versions: AM9 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM8 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM7 for LAN
Modules: AR, SO
Q: I want to disassemble a returned customized kit item and restock its component items to their original inventory bins. How should I do that?
A: To disassemble the returned customized kit items, perform the following steps:
Access the Disassemble Customized Kit Item function.
Enter the SO # that contains the customized kit items that you will disassemble. AccountMate will automatically display the Kit Items for Sales Order # [xxx] window.
In the Kit Items for Sales Order # [xxx] window select the customized kit item that you will disassemble.
Review the values displayed in the Default Restock Bin, Disassembly Date, Restock Qty, Special…, and Restock Bin fields and change as necessary.
Click Save.
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Versions: AM9 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM8 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM7 for LAN
Module: AP
TIP: Marking the Hold Apply Payment checkbox in the Vendor Maintenance ► Settings tab configures AccountMate to disable the Apply Payment section of the AP Invoice Transactions, Prepayment Transactions or Deferred Expense Invoice function when posting a transaction for the vendor in these functions. You can, however, override this disabled setting by unmarking the Hold Payment checkbox in these Transaction functions.
Note: The Deferred Expense Invoice function is available only in the AccountMate for SQL/Express version.
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Versions: AM9 for SQL and Express
AM8 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM7 for LAN
Modules: AR and BR
Q: I just started using the Bank Reconciliation module. When I attempt to reconcile my bank account I don’t see any deposits to reconcile. What did I miss?
A: In order to see deposits in the Bank Reconciliation Module you must create deposit records for your cash receipts in the Account Receivable Module.
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