Dear AccountMate Clients,
Investing in your business can mean many different things – from putting in money for capital equipment, technology or personnel to just flat devoting more of your time and energy to the job. But the biggest payoff we see is when businesses invest in the training of their employees – making their jobs easier, simpler, faster, and less error prone.
Especially in something as complex as a financial management system where the number of transactions are large, the opportunities to post something incorrectly, or inefficiently via a convoluted method, are innumerable.
We also often meet clients after their system has been installed and running for years, yet the beginning configuration was incorrect or not optimized for their business.
Finally, even with excellent initial training if you’ve had personnel turnover then it’s easy to lose the understanding of why things are done the way they are, and instead you have employees doing transactions purely because “that’s how we’ve always done it” – which might not be applicable today.
All of these scenarios result in financials that either aren’t correct or are labor intensive to “jerk straight” at the end of the month or fiscal year to match the subledger reports that validate the financials – and you lose the detailed visibility you need to effectively run the business.
So, if you don’t TRUST your financials – and by that I mean, if you’re not confident that you can at any time transfer all modules to GL and see an interim Balance Sheet and Income Statement that you believe is at least 99% accurate – the solution is most likely employee training.
This is an investment that will last for as long as the employee is part of your organization, is often the catalyst for other process improvements, and nothing is more valuable to your business than being able to trust your accounting statements at a moments notice so you can make the critical decisions necessary in today’s fast paced environment.
On the running front, spent the month of September training for my upcoming Trans-Illinois run and organizing a fairly sizable race. I took over a few years ago as “race director” of the Wild Wild Wilderness, a local 7.5 mile trail race, and it’s grown ever since – with over 340 runners this year. It’s my annual reminder that “event organizer” isn’t a career field I’d like to get into permanently, but is fun to put on an event and give back to the running community.
The biggest news is that I’ll soon be starting my solo run 240 miles across Illinois; leaving Hannibal, Missouri this coming Sunday morning (October 4th) heading east back to Danville, here on the Indiana state line. I’ll be pushing a jogging stroller loaded with clothes/food/drink and covering 40 miles per day, with my route planned to hit a hotel at the end of every day. I’ve always kept my running very simple, but finally decided to yield to technology and get a wrist-mounted GPS unit – and will be posting updates at http://kestrou.com/transillinois if you’re interested in checking in on my progress. Everybody has to have a hobby, right?!
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
LAN 5 Extended Support Ends Next Year
Extended Support for AccountMate LAN 5 ends on July 31, 2010. While the Payroll Tax Subscription is included in Extended Support, since it will be released next January for the entire year, all of 2010 will be covered. Please note, however, that 2010 will be the final year for Payroll Tax Subscription for LAN 5, so please contact us if you’re currently running Payroll in LAN 5.
AccountMate Basic Product Training Class
AccountMate regularly holds product training classes at their corporate offices in Petaluma, CA, covering the planning and implementation of the AccountMate 7 core financial modules (AP, AR, BR, GL, IC, PO, SO, and UM). The cost of the class is $2,085 per person, not including travel and hotel expenses.
The next scheduled class is October 14-16. If you are interested in the class please contact us at NexLAN at (217) 431-7236 or by <replying> to this e-mail.
Free Vertical Solution Webinar
AccountMate continues to offer webinars on vertical solutions to improve your business. All webinars are one hour long from 12:00pm to 1:00pm CDT, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to attend please contact us, by <replying> to this e-mail to sign up for the webinar.
Stonefield Query- Thursday, October 8 – a reporting solution that enables you to pull data out of one ore more databases and provides reports.
Tech Note: Understanding the Effects of Cash Flow Category Assignment
The Statement of Cash Flows is one of 3 reports that make up a company’s basic financial statements. This report is important in that it shows how different types of business activities affect the company’s cash balance at the end of its fiscal year. In order to get an accurate report, it is critical that you assign the correct cash flow category in the Cash Flow 1 and Cash Flow 2 fields in the Information tab of the Chart of Accounts Maintenance function. This article explains how each cash flow category is used in the Statement of Cash Flows. This TechNote contains a downloadable version of the article.
Article 1131: Understanding the Effects of Cash Flow Category Assignment
Technical Tips
Versions: AM7 for SQL, Express and LAN
AM6.5 for LAN (LN603 and higher using SQL Payroll)
Module: PR
Q: I set up a new paid leave code called “Vacation”. When I attempt to assign the leave code to the employee I am unable to see it in the Paid Leave tab in Employee Maintenance. What did I miss?
A: Access Earning Code Maintenance and select the earning code you will use to calculate payroll for this employee. Click the Accumulate Paid Leave tab and ensure that there is a check mark in the Accumulate check box for the appropriate paid leave code.
■ ■ ■
Versions: AM7 for SQL, Express and LAN
AM6.5 for SQL, MSDE and LAN
Modules: SO, AR, RA
Q: I attempted to delete a customer record using the Customer Maintenance function; however, I encountered a message, “Unshipped Sales Order(s) found for this customer. Deletion is not allowed.” How can I successfully delete this customer record?
A: To delete a customer record with unshipped sales order transactions, first cancel all open orders for the customer record you want to delete by performing either of the following:
- Access the Cancel SO Open Order function. Enter in the From and To fields the customer # whose open orders you need to cancel, and click OK. In the second Cancel SO Open Order window click Mark All to mark the Cancel checkboxes for all open orders displayed in the grid; then, click Save. A message is displayed informing you of the number and total amount of the canceled open orders. Click OK to close the message window. Use this approach if there are several open orders that must be cancelled.
- Access the Create Sales Order function, and choose the Amend Sales Order option. Enter the SO # of the open order you need to cancel; then, click Cancel. When a dialogue box appears asking for confirmation to cancel all items on the open order; click Yes to confirm. Use this approach if there is only one open order that must be cancelled.
Note: When you have cancelled all of the customer’s open orders, you can proceed to delete the customer record using the Customer Maintenance function.
■ ■ ■
Subscription Information
If there is someone else in your office who would like to receive this NewsLine, please email newsletter@nexlan.com. In the meantime, browse through our archives.
If you would like to discontinue your subscription to this NewsLine, please click here.
