Oates and Company Blog

Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 have been renamed Sage 100 ERP and have undergone a facelift to offer a wider range of modules to fulfill all of your needs.

A company known as State of the Art, Incorporated introduced software into the market in the mid-1980s. It was called the “Master Accounting Series for the 90s” and was known, for short, as MAS 90. Like many similar companies, State of the Art, Inc. gained traction in the market with their MAS 90 software by encouraging others to become resellers. Their resellers were, at the time, most often certified public accounts (CPAs), who used the software, liked it, and then recommended it to others.

MAS 90 is no longer strictly accounting software, CPAs are no longer the ones promoting/reselling it, and State of the Art, Inc. is no longer the company supporting it.

The base – that is, out of the box – version of QuickBooks is for financial/accounting only – you have to purchase industry specific versions for manufacturing, wholesale, professional service firms, contractors, non-profit entities, and retailers. QuickBooks is best for very small companies, supporting only 1-5 active users with their general accounting needs.

Sage ERP X3, on the other hand, supports all those things right out of the box – it covers discrete, process, and mixed mode manufacturing, advanced financials, wholesale distribution, contractors, etc. – all without purchasing additional software. Its functionality extends from accounting to inventory control, material resource planning, shop floor control, supply chain management, and even human resources. It is also more flexible in terms of size capabilities: it is best suited for 50-1,500 employees, all of whom can be working in the system concurrently.

Many companies prefer to use as many in-house processes as possible in order to ensure that they save as much money as possible. In-house processes, however, aren’t always the best choice to meet a need, and Sage software training is frequently one need that can't be met without outsourcing. Although some companies may be able to meet their own needs when it comes to Sage software training, many others find it more efficient and cost-effective to enlist the assistance of outside experts. Consider the following factors when discussing whether or not your company will find it more efficient to outsource your Sage software training.

The complexity of your company's Sage software training needs is one major factor that plays into the decision of whether or not to outsource. If your training needs arise out of something simple like a minor modification to your existing Sage software system, then it is possible that in-house Sage software training will be adequate. If you are implementing an ERP system for the first time or completely overhauling your accounting system, on the other hand, then your existing staff is unlikely to be able to cover your training needs. In more complex instances like these, outsourced Sage software training is likely to be necessary.

One of the most attractive elements of the Sage ERP X3 system is how easily it can be customized. Every business has its own needs and priorities, and the beauty of enterprise resource planning systems is the numerous modules and add-ons that they offer. Sage ERP X3 is a powerful tool on its own; customizing it will make sure that your company gets  the best results and the most efficient use out of this great ERP tool.

Inventory is the lifeblood of your business; it probably represents the biggest number on your balance sheet. Managing your inventory is possible through a number of different methods – you can use anything from top-notch software to Excel spreadsheets to paper-based documentation. And while of course each business must make their own decision about how to manage their inventory, we at Oates & Company recommend Sage’s Inventory Advisor. Not only does it make your inventory management easier and more effective, Sage’s products offer stellar customer service as well.

Sage’s Inventory Advisor software is a warehouse-centric system that enables you to track costs and sales histories by warehouse and to set up multiple price lists in multiple currencies and multiple warehouses – so the size of your company is not a boundary with this system. It supports assemble-to-order as well as build-to-order kits, includes lot and serial number tracking, and supports first in first out, last in last out, average, actual, standard, and warehouse-specific costing.

In a previous post, we discussed some signs that might indicate your need for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. We said that if you have these issues, it’s probably time for new software:

• each of your processes/departments uses different software
• statistics about your business are not easily accessible
• your accounting tasks seem interminable
• your customer service is suffering
• your Information Technology team is stressed out

Our last post asked questions in each of these areas to give you an idea if the response to those indicators was “yes.” Today we’ll talk about how an ERP system will fix those issues.

Each of your processes uses different software

If your accounting department uses a different system than your sales department and both your accounting and sales departments use a different system than your warehouse, you’re doing too much work. In addition, when departments are operated separately from each other, their data may not match, which could affect everything from payroll to the marketing budget to inventory management.

An ERP system has one database that integrates all the data from all the departments and keeps it in a centralized location. Integrated data means several things: more accessible, more accurate, and more up-to-date data than was ever possible before; in addition, your employees will be able to make better decisions more quickly, which leads to higher productivity.

Statistics about your business are not easily accessible

With your current system, key performance indicators, like sales-to-date or average sales margins, take a lot of effort to find. The ERP system’s database gives you and your employees immediate access to all available data. The data, being real-time, offers a current, holistic view of business processes and key performance indicators.

And there’s more: an ERP system can automate reports, so if you need a daily report about completed transactions, the software can create one for you, automatically, every day – and then send it to you in the medium of your choice.

Your accounting tasks seem interminable

Anything being paper-based in your accounting department is a red flag that you need a new system. Paper-based items required manual entry into different systems, which is a huge waste of time when an ERP system could do the job instantaneously. The need for cross-posting, re-typing, reconciling, and compiling data will be gone, along with the high levels of human error that manual data entry is prone to.

Your customer service is suffering

One of the biggest challenges that your growing company will face is inventory management. Learning how to order and stock product so that you have enough is difficult to do when you’re gaining new customers all the time. If your sales, inventory, and customer data are maintained in individual systems, your numbers could easily be thrown off.

An ERP system, on the other hand, allows staff in all departments to have access to the same information. Therefore, an employee in sales can view what inventory is available before he/she promises an order; customer service employees will be able to answer questions without consulting another department.

Best of all, the system automatically updates itself, so when an order is taken, the inventory number immediately refreshes to show current available inventory.

Your Information Technology team is stressed out

If your information technology team is bogged down with maintaining multiple systems, an ERP system will greatly ease the burden. Each team member will be supported by the other members because they all need know only one system, and

So if you found yourself nodding along when you read the reasons that your business should get an ERP system, and you like how an ERP system can fix those problems, contact Oates & Company today to get started!

Sage ERP X3 Usability makes it easier for mid range companies with international goals to expand their presence in the world market. Sage ERP X3 can help you achieve your long and short term goals.

In our last post we listed some of the pros and cons of both industry specific software and enterprise resource planning software. Now we're going to expound upon some of those topics and show you why ERP systems are the way to go.

We talk A LOT about enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems on our blog, and for good reason: they are the best bet for your business. If you follow along with us, you've read about how ERP systems work, and what kind of mistakes you should avoid if you implement one, and what stages you'll go through to do so. Et cetera.