Review: Accounting Grows Up

The release of Sage Software's MAS 500 version 7.0x midmarket accounting package offers many new features that enable partners to provide sophisticated solutions.

Among the most notable is the addition of Business Insights Explorer (BIE), an analytics tool that gives users the ability to conduct drill-down analysis from a single screen. Other key features include a streamlined distribution process and the new warehouse management and warehouse automation modules. The new features and enhancements represent a significant upgrade in terms of ease of use for handling and inquiries into transactions, processing options for sales orders and the package's ability to fully integrate with warehouse systems.

Building on the success of the Business Insights Analyzer (BIA) module from the previous version of Sage MAS 500, BIE consolidates inquiry, drill-around and analysis in a single view. The preview option allows a user to view key information about a specific entity, i.e. a customer or item with related transaction data (invoices, orders or projects.) When selecting a customer, the context of the related view will automatically change to show only information related to that customer. The drill-into option is an extension of the preview feature and enables a user to delve into data related to the original records.

Each view allows the user to set his own selection and sort criteria. The user can also choose which columns of data to display and in what order. Column sums, as well as calculations, are easy to set. These selection sets can be saved for use at a later date.

Sage MAS 500 ships with a set of predefined relationships, including customers, vendors, items, warehouses, and project and work orders. Perhaps more importantly, this lets the user create personalized SQL views containing Sage MAS 500 and related non-MAS 500 data, which can be used within the Sage MAS 500 framework. BIA and BIE work together to pass the selection and sort criteria, from which users can create graphs, pivot tables and excel sheets, directly from Sage MAS 500. Sage MAS 500 offers BIE and BIA for use with a standard user license as well as a separate BIE/BIA license at a greatly reduced cost. Senior managers have access to data without the cost and burden of taking away a user license.

The sales order entry area has a redesigned user interface, facilitating faster and easier data entry of sales orders. Users can now customize their individual entries by placing most-used fields in the grid entry, leaving seldom-used fields available in the "more" section. If needed, users can also distribute lot and serial numbers, create pick tickets, edit shipments, commit and invoice all from one screen—a great convenience and significant time-saver.

The drop-ship process has been revised to give users the option of selecting the purchase from vendor, as well as allowing the user to acknowledge and pick drop-ship orders. When a vendor indicates that a drop-ship purchase order has been shipped, the user can release the drop-shipped lines to accounts receivable invoicing. All drop ships that haven't been invoiced will appear in one grid entry screen.

Next: The Bottom Line The standard picking process (non-drop ship) has been enhanced to enable users to automatically generate shipments from picking, allow product substitutions and place orders on hold based on a credit check. Comprehensive allocation rules permit users to optionally fill sales orders before transfers, prioritize back orders, fill by order date and order by priority.

Users also have enhanced options, including the ability to specify picking by lot expiration date, exhaust preferred bins first or take oldest inventory first—just several examples of the new methods included in the latest version of the Sage MAS 500 package.

The shipping and packing process has been enhanced to include more bill of lading and packing information, providing tighter integration with the StarShip manifest program. This includes integration of multiple tracking numbers and full package and carton tracking including lot and serial numbers. For existing users on subscription, Sage MAS 500 7.0x will be shipped with the new warehouse management module, whose core capabilities include zones in warehouses, wave and zone picking ability to track quantity by bin and three-step transfers. This module is offered as a free add-on to existing inventory management customers.

The new warehouse automation module provides companies with a wireless solution for tasks such as order picking and cycle counts with direct interaction and validation with Sage MAS 500. The module supports radio frequency communication and uses handheld devices to scan bar codes during standard data entry. It also has a user interface for reconciliation. In addition, it allows users to work offline; the system is automatically updated when the connection goes live. The warehouse automation module enables users to print bar code labels and supports any Windows Mobile 2003 or CE.NET device with a wireless connection.

The package's added features— from new analytics tools to enhanced warehouse automation—combined with the already strong functionality of the base product, make Sage MAS 500 version 7.0x a significant upgrade and a solid fit for medium to large ERP implementations.

Debra Ellis is manager of consulting services at Net@Work, a Sage partner and New York-based provider of technology consulting, applications and hardware.