What’s New in 4.3?

Included in the new release of MAS 90 and MAS 200 are additional business intelligence capabilities, the incorporation of paperless office, direct deposit functionality, usability improvements, architectural improvements and updated integrated Sage solutions.

NEW BUSINESS INSIGHTS EXPLORER VIEWS
Building on the business intelligence tools that Sage MAS 90 and 200 provides, 4.3 will provide additional Business Insights Explorer (BIE) views, adding to the customer-centric views which were originally introduced in 4.2. Providing additional visibility into your business, these new BIE views will include General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Inventory Management and Purchase Order. The drag and drop, sort, filter, calculate, color highlight, and save personalized views functionality will continue to be available. The additional views will allow users to provide even better customer service, improve operations monitoring, and get more efficient use of Sage MAS 90 or 200.



NEW BUSINESS INSIGHTS EXPLORER CHARTING
BIE in 4.3 will introduce a new charting tab. You’ll be able to quickly generate a chart on-the-fly based directly on the view you create in BIE. Available chart types will include bar, line, area and pie, with customized titles, displaying the series you’ve selected. Additional options for designing a chart on-the-fly are how many data points for each series you want to display. The series will appear in the order they are selected, so if the chart isn’t displaying the information as expected, you will be able to quickly deselect the series using the boxes, and select the series again in the desired order.



UPDATED BUSINESS INSIGHTS DASHBOARD
The Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.3 Business Insights Dashboard will be easier to use and view with customer-requested options and an updated cleaner look. You will be able to select up to 12 different standard graphical reports and include them on an HTML-based start page from their desktop, use a start page wizard to select which reports and graphs will be displayed, the order they are displayed, and the level of detail that will be included.



PAPERLESS OFFICE
In 4.3, many of the paperless office titles, that have been available as add-ons, will be incorporated into the product, for no additional charge. This functionality will include e-mail, fax, and document storage. Customers who already have the Extended Solutions titles will lower their total cost of ownership because they’ll no longer have to pay a separate maintenance and support fee on their Paperless Office titles.

ENHANCED PAYROLL AND ACCOUNTS PAYABLE TAX REPORTING
Federal and State eFiling and Reporting will be introduced in 4.3, streamlining the tax reporting process. The new capabilities will include over 250 federal and state Unemployment, Withholding, and New Hire reports to assist employers with filing their payroll tax information. This feature will also include 1099 reporting through the Accounts Payable module. Offered on a transaction fee basis, the eFiling Service will provide the ability to streamline the tax reporting process for W2s, 1099s and State form reports. All federal and state forms will be available to print and mail with no fees. For these additional eFiling options, you will only incur eFiling fees, with no additional module, maintenance and support costs. For states that conform to federal reporting standards, existing W2, 1099 & 941 form processing functionality in the Electronic Reporting Module will continue to be available.

DIRECT DEPOSIT
Safe and efficient Direct Deposit functionality will be available for purchase as an add-on to Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.3 Payroll. Direct Deposit will reduce the time and cost associated for employees processing and printing checks, and for the receiving employees to physically take those printed checks and deposit them into their checking or savings accounts. Employees will be able to choose to split disbursements between multiple accounts, such as savings and checking, and different institutions based on fixed dollar amounts or percentages.

ENHANCEMENTS TO FIXED ASSETS
The Fixed Assets Module introduced in 4.2 was developed to meet the basic needs of most small to mid-sized businesses to provide fast, dependable, customizable fixed assets management for a fixed asset inventory up to 1,500 items. In 4.3, fixed asset information will now be even more closely associated with the core functionality in Sage MAS 90 and 200. Customers will now have an option to auto-create Assets during Accounts Payable invoice data entry. And, during Purchase Order Entry and Receipt of Invoice, the register will automatically update the asset to the Fixed Assets Module, based on the asset template selected from Purchase Order Entry.

USABILITY IMPROVEMENTS AND APPLICATION ENHANCEMENTS
Accounts Receivable Global Customer Change Field Utility 4.3 will be able to utilize the Global Customer Change Field Utility in AR to make a change to the Salesperson associated with a specific Ship To Address. For example, when a salesperson leaves or joins the company, you will be able to completely reassign the accounts.

Sales Order Split Commission Override To reduce keystrokes and mistakes when using the Split Commissions option, the default will now be the pre-assigned salesperson commission percentage, under Setup in Accounts Receivable, Salesperson Maintenance.

Sales Order Discount Warning In 4.3, if a discount amount is entered on a Sales Order, Total tab, when discounts are not allowed for all line items, a warning will allow the user to make adjustments before moving to the invoicing stage. Choosing "Yes" will provide the ability to edit the sales order to prevent unintended results. Choosing "No" will zero out the non-allowed discount on the Invoice.

Shipping Data Entry Subsequent Item Scans Additional flexibility will be added to the process of scanning multiple items using a wedge scanner for shipments. If Auto Increment Quantity is disabled, the person using the scanning device will be able to move through the order efficiently, scanning items in any order without keyboard interaction – the system will recognize the item scanned. Shipping personnel will be able to scan the first item and either accept the default quantity of one, or enter a quantity amount, and quickly move to the next item.

Shipping Status An additional column will be added to provide shipping personnel with the order status when using the Order Number Lookup field within Shipping Data Entry. One of the three following status conditions will be displayed: “New” when an order is entered for the first time, “Lines Complete” when the Lines tab is completed and Accepted, and “Shipped” when the Shipping tab is completed and Accepted. The Shipping Status will also be viewable within Sales Order Inquiry.

Accounts Payable 1099-INT Box 8 and 9 4.3 will automatically enter necessary information into the new Internal Revenue Service 1099-INT form 8 and 9 boxes.

Report Dates Simple Selection Options Users will be able to select from predefined ranges based on the system date, such as: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Last Week, Last Month, Last Year, This Week, This Month, Next Week, Next Month, Next Year, Last 7 Days or Newer, 30 Days or Older, etc.

Keep Window Open if No Data Selected Occasionally in Sage MAS 90 and 200 when selection criteria are entered for a report, a message box appears with “No Data Selected to Print“. In 4.3, when this message appears, the report selection window will stay open. All previous selection criteria will be available for examination so the user will be able to readjust and produce the desired information on the report.

Optional Keep Window Open After Report Selection In 4.3, an option will be available for users to return to the report selection screen within Business Framework modules. This option will allow you to preview and print reports with different selection criteria, such as date range, or to make changes to the print criteria selections. The user-selected criteria will persist, until the print criteria selection screen is closed. The choice to keep it open or close will persist by user and by report the next time they open the report’s print selection screen. This enhancement only affects reports within the Reports menu of GL, AR, AP, BR and SO, and does not apply to forms or journals.

Enhanced Saved Standard Report Settings This 4.3 enhancement will allow a user’s default printer to automatically be selected for printing Standard reports or form settings, regardless of which user previously saved the report. This feature will be set on a company basis.

Reduce Keystrokes in Report and Form Criteria Selection This 4.3 enhancement will display all the available print criteria on one screen for selection, without having to click to different tabs. Further reducing keystrokes, users will be able to click in the value field and enter a value without having to first select an operand.

Eliminate Printing of Zeros on Selected GL Reports In 4.3, unnecessary zero amounts will be eliminated from General Ledger Detail Reports.

Improved Financial Reports When setting an Income Statement Format, 4.3 users will be able to select to print Actual, Budget, and Budget Variance values for any of the three financial periods, Period to Date, Year to Date or Both Period & Year to Date. In General Ledger, 4.3 users will be able to choose condensed formatting, reducing the number of pages printed for a Financial Trend Report. This format will be available in the ‘Set Trend Report Format’ step of the Report Wizard.

Easier to Read Inquiry Screens The sales order inquiry screens, Customer Inquiry, Invoice History Inquiry, Sales Order Inquiry, Sales Order/Quote History Inquiry and RMA Inquiry, will be easier to read by the application of a bolder typeface in the most important fields on each screen.