The Oates & Company Blog

Sage and BrainSell, Together Again

Posted by John Shepperson | Jun 26, 2014 11:00:00 AM

Whether you use Sage 100 ERP, Sage 300 ERP, Sage 500 ERP, or Sage CRM for your business, you will welcome the recent announcement that BrainSell and Sage have extended their long-standing partnership. This extended partnership means that the focus of the Sage’s existing software will be complemented with the addition of Human Resource Management (HRMS) software.

business_mapping Sage's HRMS software will provide a very agile way to manage the complex and often confusing processes involved in human resource management, from payroll and time/attendance to the changes in health insurance resulting from the Affordable Care Act.

Topics: Sage, customer relationship management, Sage 500, enterprise resource planning, crm, Sage 100, sage 300, brainsell, sage hrms, human resources, human resources management

Sage 500 ERP Version 2014 is NOW AVAILABLE!

Posted by John Shepperson | Feb 19, 2014 11:00:00 AM

Sage’s latest version of its 500 ERP software is full of new features and has been designed to improve your productivity and simplify your business processes even more.

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Topics: oates, Sage, Sage 500, inventory management, cloud services, john shepperson, sage inventory advisor, reverse applications, expanded fields, payment solutions, sage 500 erp, 2014 version, electronic funds transfer, ach network

How Sage Makes It Easy For You

Posted by John Shepperson | Jan 31, 2014 7:33:00 AM

Do you have a Sage enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and need some help learning about it? Obviously you could go to your Sage consultant for help, but if that’s not an option, you should consider going to the source: Sage itself. Sage has a whole section of their website dedicated to teaching Sage; known as Sage University, it allows you to participate in trainings of your choice at any time. Working in a business, you’re busy – training is important, but you can’t leave your other tasks unfinished. With Sage University, you have the option to use real-time webcasts in virtual classrooms, but you can also watch pre-recorded training sessions whenever it fits your schedule.

Sage University offers training on 19 of their products, including (but not limited to):

Sage 100 ERP (formerly Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200)
Sage 300 ERP (formerly Sage Accpac)
Sage 500 ERP (formerly Sage MAS 500)
Sage Accounting
Sage ERP X3
Sage CRM
Sage Fixed Assets
Sage HRMS

Topics: ERP, Sage, MAS 500, fixed assets, Sage 500, MAS 90, MAS 200, accounting, oates and company, enterprise resource planning, software, crm, Sage 100, X3, john shepperson, Accpac, sage university, networking, sage summit, sage 300, hrms

Using Training Consultants Can Improve Employee Morale and Retention

Posted by John Shepperson | Jul 15, 2013 4:02:00 PM

Knowledge over ignorance Your employees are a long-term investment for your company.The cost of workshops and continuing education is far less than the cost of interviewing, onboarding, and initial training. Choosing a program that will offer program-specific training is a big step. Training can be the link between company goals for keeping pace with industry trends and improving employee morale and reduced attrition rates. Employees who feel valued are more likely to be committed to the organization and will take a sense of 'ownership' in their role.

Topics: Sage 500, training, employee retention, oates and company, Sage 100, X3, Sage X3, X3 ERP, john shepperson

Sage 500 ERP: 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Version 2013

Posted by Randy Aimone | Mar 20, 2013 1:30:00 AM

With the chaos of year end processing behind you, you might be thinking about an upgrade to Sage 500 ERP Version 2013 released in November. Here are 10 reasons to consider an upgrade to the newest version of your ERP software.

Topics: Blog Posting, Sage 500

SAGE 500 ERP: Improvements in Credit Card Processing

Posted by Randy Aimone | Mar 7, 2013 2:47:00 AM

The introduction of Sage Exchange changes the way that credit card transactions are processed in Sage 500 ERP beginning with Version 2013, which was released in November of last year. Sage Exchange is cloud-based technology that provides the integration, or bridge, between Sage 500 ERP and the Sage Payments Gateway. It all adds up to new features and improvements in credit card processing that we think you’ll like. Here’s a closer look.

The Components of Sage Exchange

As mentioned, Sage Exchange provides the integration between your accounting system and the Sage Payments Gateway. It’s made up of two components which we’ll take a look at here:

Sage Exchange Portal - this configurable dashboard consolidates all of your credit card and payment activity into a single web portal that can be accessed from a tablet or PC. From the portal, you can connect Sage 500 to your payment devices, administer users and control employee access, create customer coupons and push them out to your point-of-sale terminals, and much more.

Sage Exchange Vault - this secure, cloud-based vault stores sensitive credit card information online and processes transactions outside of your Sage 500 ERP system. By doing so, it reduces your PCI compliance burden, allowing you to more easily comply with credit card processing laws. For added cardholder security, Sage 500 ERP 2013 will also allow a “one-time use” credit card for payment transactions without saving credit card information.

If you’re migrating from previous versions of the software, you can easily move customer credit card information from the current Sage 500 database location into the secure Sage Exchange Vault.

New Payment Options, Including Mobile

The implementation of Sage Exchange in Sage 500 ERP Version 2013 introduces new payment entry options. New card swipecapabilities have been truly integrated so that payment processing is built into the normal Sage 500 ERP workflow, which can replace the disconnected card swipe system that you may be using today.

Using the new Sage Mobile Payments, you can capture credit card transactions using a smart phone; ideal for companies with a mobile sales force or service providers that collect fees on the go. Simply launch the app, identify an existing customer from the mobile device, and select one or more invoices to pay. And with a Sage Mobile card swipe device connected to a smartphone, you can swipe the customer’s credit card and present a touch screen for signature and approval.

Topics: Blog Posting, Sage 500

Sage 500: Introducing Visual Process Flows

Posted by Randy Aimone | Dec 19, 2012 6:30:00 PM

Customers participating in Sage 500 ERP Version 2013 beta testing earlier this year were unanimous in giving a thumbs up to the new Visual Process Flows feature. These graphical workflow diagrams provide a visual representation of your business processes, helping you navigate the system more easily, perform daily tasks more quickly, and serve as a nice refresher during procedures that are preformed infrequently like year-end processing. Let’s take a look at the new Visual Process Flows.

What Are Visual Process Flows?

The newest addition to an arsenal of Sage 500 built-in self-help tools, Visual Process Flows are interactive HTML pages that not only demonstrate the steps of a process in visual terms, but also include links to the various tasks along the way. So, they can serve as both a visual diagram and a launching point for the steps and tasks in the process. The 2013 release includes a number of key pre-built processes as well as an easy to use tool that allows you to design your own custom workflows that reflect your unique processes.

Improving Your ERP Experience

The primary goal of the new Visual Process Flows is to allow you to quickly identify your tasks and launch screens without searching through the giant tree of menu items and icons within Sage 500. Even though you can customize the tree of icons to limit what a user can see based on his or her role, usability studies conducted by Sage revealed that customers were still spending quite a bit of time searching for the correct screen to launch for a given task. Process Flows also make it easier to visualize how individual tasks relate to the overall business process. So in this case, a picture is worth a thousand hours of productivity.

See It In Action

Visual Process Flows are ... well, a visual thing. So you might want to check out this Visual Process Flows overview video on YouTube to see exactly how it works. Even though the video is using Sage ERP X3 as the demo system, it’s the same Visual Process Flow engine that’s built in to Sage 500 ERP.

RETIRED VERSIONS REMINDER - Sage 500 ERP (formerly “MAS 500”) versions 6.3 and 7.0 are now retired. Product updates (including year end) and telephone support are no longer provided by Sage. However if you’re on a current maintenance plan, you still have access to the online knowledgebase with articles and support documents covering retired versions. Please don’t hesitate to Contact Us if you need assistance.

Topics: Blog Posting, Sage 500