Sage Accpac ERP Software Support Hub

New videos for the following product lines have been uploaded to the SageU ERP Learning You Tube site at http://www.youtube.com/SageUERPLearning

• Sage ERP Accpac
• Sage ERP MAS 500
• Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200

Check them out and let us know what you think!  You can also subscribe and leave comments on the site.

The new business management system, or as we know it, the portal, has now been up and running for 3 months.  As with any new system, getting used to it takes time, practice and patience.  Do you need help finding activation codes, using the knowledge base, changing portal passwords or using Self Service?

For customers, please visit: https://customers.sagenorthamerica.com/.  When you are logged in, select the 'Help' tab next to the 'Support' tab. You can find the answers to your portal questions here.

For partners, please go to: https://partners.sagenorthamerica.com/.  When you are logged in, select the 'Help' tab next to the 'Partner Resources' tab.  If you need additional assistance, don't hesitate to call our dedicated 'Portal' support group at 1-877-828-6372.  They will be able to answer any of your portal questions.

Effective July 1, 2010, British Columbia and Ontario will replace their provincial sales taxes and the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) with a single Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).

For those Canadian customers who use Accpac, please visit our Knowledge Base.  Refer to Answer ID: 210-30006 on how to setup a new HST tax code in Tax Services.

The official twitter account for Sage Accpac Customer Support is now live. Follow us and get the latest info on our product and update releases. Check out the latest knowledge base articles to keep yourself up-to-date on all current issues or any tips and tricks.

PU1 for version 5.6 has finally been released. It incorporates all the Hot Fixes needed for upgrading to version 5.6. So if you are planning to upgrade to 5.6, make sure you install PU1 before the upgrade. Also, if you are installing the latest Payroll Tax update or adding new Lanpaks, make sure you install PU1. In fact, as long as you have version 5.6 installed, make sure you install PU1!!!

To download the Product Update, first log in to our new Portal. You can then go under the Documents tab or the Knowledge Base to download it. In the Documents tab, click the For Customers link, then Sage Accpac ERP, and then Subscriber Downloads. You should now see a link for Accpac Product Updates and Service Packs. To download the Product Update from the Knowledge Base, highlight Sage Accpac ERP under the Sage Products list, and do a search on "Resource Center". Open the Resource Center article and you should also see a link for Sage Accpac ERP Product Updates and Service Packs.

So to summarize AND to emphasize, if you have version 5.6 installed, we strongly recommend that you install Product Update 1.

We encourage you to always check the Sage Accpac ERP Knowledgebase for information before upgrading your customers to a new version; however, for the Sage Accpac ERP Version 5.6 upgrade we want to make you aware of some critically important hot fixes.  Your customer may encounter issues in Bank Services and/or Purchase Orders, if you do not apply hot fixes for the issues outlined below. The hot fixes will only prevent issues from occurring after the upgrade, therefore, they must be applied prior to upgrading your customers.

If you have upgraded customers to Sage Accpac ERP version 5.6A, please contact them and advise them to not post further Bank Reconciliations. You may advise them that they can continue to reconcile and clear checks. If you are in the process of implementing a customer upgrade, please apply hot fixes to prevent these issues from occurring. Please contact our Customer Support team for more information and to obtain hot fixes.  All hot fixes will be included in Sage Accpac ERP Version 5.6A Product Update 1, which is scheduled to be released May 2010.

In this day and age, it is easy to get confused with what is supported and what is not in terms of hardware and software requirements.  There are so many versions and editions available to the public.  Consumers may ask: What does my business need to be productive?  Is this the most current and up to date software?

To stay competitive in today's software industry, both Microsoft and Pervasive regularly develop new versions of their software.  They make it bigger, better and faster because if they don't, someone else will.

For a complete list of the hardware and software requirements for PSQL 10x, please visit:
http://www.pervasivedb.com/Database/Products/PSQLv10/Pages/v10SystemRequirements.aspx

Starting with the March 31, 2010 US Payroll Tax update, and July 1, 2010 Canadian tax update, Activation Codes are no longer required when installing the update. However, in order to actually install the update, there are a few requirements.

Before installing the payroll tax update, verify your service pack or product update level first:

• If you are on Payroll 5.4A, you will need to install Service Pack 3
• If you are on Payroll 5.5A, you will need to install Product Update 2 or Product Update 3
• If you are on Payroll 5.6A, no Product Update is required

To verify what service pack or product update you have installed, click the System Information option in the Help menu in your Sage Accpac ERP program. Service Packs and Product Updates can be downloaded from http://support.accpac.com/techsupport/Service_Packs/a4w/. If you do not have the required patch, you may get an error message when installing the tax update:

"The installed version of System Manager is not compatible with the Payroll tax update version. You will not be able to install this tax update. To resolve this issue, please read KB article 28923, or contact Customer Support."

If you receive the above message, just install the necessary patch and install the payroll tax update again. If you are still running into issues, please feel free to contact Customer Support at 800-253-1372.

Product update 3 is now available for the following modules, with the exception of Customer Number change.

• Account Code Change
• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• AR Inquiry
• Customer Number Change (PU2)
• General Ledger
• Inventory Control
• Item Number Change
• Lot Tracking
• Ops Inquiry
• Order Entry
• Payroll - Canadian
• Payroll - U.S.
• Project & Job Costing
• Purchase Orders
• Serialized Inventory
• System Manager
• Uni Sales Analysis Product
• Vendor Number Change 

Install the product updates only on the computer(s) where the Accpac program files are installed locally.

For example:

If you are running Accpac in a client/server environment where Accpac is installed only on the application server, install the product updates only on the application server.  There is no need to install the product updates on the client workstations that are running Accpac workstation setup.

If you have X number of client workstations were Accpac is installed locally, install the product updates on these client workstations.

To see a list of changes included in product update 3, please visit:

http://support.accpac.com/TechSupport/Service_Packs/a4w/WhatsNewInPU3.pdf

With new releases of software, there are always compatibility questions that arise.  Unfortunately, finding this information is not always easy.

Here are a few common questions and answers related to HRMS 10.0

Q: Is HRMS 10.0 compatible with Accpac ERP 5.6 and 5.5?
A: HRMS 10.0 is only compatible with Accpac ERP 5.6.  HRMS 8.5 and 8.3 are compatible with Accpac ERP 5.5.

Q: Is HRMS 10.0 compatible with 64bit Windows Servers?
A: Yes, HRMS 10.0 is compatible with Windows Server 2003 and 2008 64bit.  However, to run HRMS 10.0 on a 64bit Windows Server, you will need to use 32bit compatibility mode.

Q: Is HRMS 10.0 compatible with 64bit Microsoft SQL Servers?
A: Yes, HRMS 10.0 is compatible with Windows SQL Server 2005 and 2008 64bit.  However, to run HRMS 10.0 on a 64bit Windows SQL Server, you will need to use 32bit compatibility mode.

If you are using HRMS 10.0 Abra Workforce Connections, the Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server must be 32bit.

HRMS 8.5 and 8.3 are not supported with any 64bit Windows Server or Microsoft SQL Server.

If you are unable to find your answers in our Knowledge Base at kb.accpac.com, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or drop us an email.

Yes, it is actually that time of the year again already. To help you get through the tax season with a little bit more ease, here are some tips when filing your T4s electronically:

1. Electronic T4s have a XML format. However, if you attempt to print the T4 through the T4 report icon and export it using the XML format, that file will be rejected because it does not have the correct format. You need to use the T4s Electronic Filing icon instead.
2. Enter the SIN number for the owner in the SIN of 1st Proprietor field. When needed, you can enter 0's in that field.
3. Transmitter Number is assigned to you by CRA. It will always start with MM follow by 6 digits.
4. Submission Reference ID is a field where you can enter a number to keep track of how many times you have submitted your T4. For example, you may want to enter 001 for your first submission.
5. You will also need your Business Number when filing your T4s. Enter the business number in the Reporting ID box in the EI Rate in the Income Taxes icon in Payroll Setup. If EI is exempt, enter the number in the INCTAX tax code.

Short and sweet. You should now have the basic info that you need to file your T4s electrionically.

I joined the Sage Accpac ERP support team back in October of 2007, without knowing much about the product at that time. Two years later when I am about to leave the support team for a different position in Sage, I’d have to say that what I know about Accpac is still very limited.

Accpac is a complete package with a very large number of functions and options which could satisfy many different kinds of business needs. Supporting our clients as well as resolving program and user/environment issues pushes me every single day to learn more about our products, database systems, our customers, and everything that’s related.

Although specializing in certain modules and 3rd party products is our main task as support technicians (and I am quite familiar with some of them) I still wish that I would have learned a bit more about the Operational Suite, and some other related products, such as HRMS and Insight.

Fortunately being in a different position will still allow me to access our online learning tools and resources such as Sage University and the Accpac Online Community where I can keep myself updated with the newest product knowledge.

The time I spent in Accpac support has been quite a ride. There are ups and downs, but mostly ups. Since our company is getting stronger day by day, and every new Accpac release ) improves upon the previous version, I believe that's what had made my time in support so special.

Have you come up with any new year's resolutions for this year? I haven't checked the statistics, but I would say most of them are never fulfilled. If there's one thing that you should have completed this year already, that's installing and activating the payroll update.

You can access your payroll update and activation codes by going to http://www.sageaccpac.com/myaccount. For Canadian Payroll, depending on what version you are on, you will require 5.4I, 5.5F or 5.6B. For US Payroll, 5.4L, 5.5G, or 5.6C.

Let me say again, if you have not installed AND activated your payroll update yet, you need to do that immediately. You must have it activated before you run any 2010 payrolls or print any government reports such as T4 or W2. If you still have 2009 payrolls that you need to run, you should still activate the 2010 payroll update first. The program will continue to use the 2009 tax tables to calculate last year's payrolls. There's no "Payroll Year End function". For Canadian Payroll, remember to update the Personal Tax Credit Claims ONLY when you are ready to do your 2010 payroll. You don't want to be using the new amounts when you still have 2009 payrolls to run.

If you have any questions in regards to the update, and I mean anything, I suggest checking the Readme and the Tax Update Notice first. Access them through the Online Documentation folder under the Sage Accpac directory on the Programs List when you click the Windows Start button. The following is a list of knowlege base articles (http://kb.accpac.com) that may be useful as well:

• KB 22335 - Checklist for Payroll Year End (the FAQ)
• KB 22285 - Backing Up and Restoring a Database
• KB 22278 - Installing and Activating a Tax Update
• KB 22276 - Adjusting Employee Federal Personal Tax Credit Claims (for Cdn Payroll)
• KB 22279 - Adjusting Employee Provincial (or Territorial) Personal Tax Credit Claims (for Cdn Payroll)
• KB 28618 - Changes to 2009 W2s On Paper Function for New Jersey (for US Payroll) 
• KB 24258 - HOW TO: Adjust and Correct T4 Box Totals
• KB 20687 - How to Adjust Box 1, 3, 5, 16 and 18 Amounts on W2 by Using Transaction History

I was away from the office last Thursday and Friday, because I didn’t want to get up too early after the Lady Gaga concert on Wednesday night. In the end I was glad I did, because the show turned into a giant party. Everybody had a good time, and I was exhausted but I didn’t have to worry about not having enough sleep.

On Friday I decided to get my mind away from work a bit more, so I started installing a PC game I recently purchased called Borderlands. I build all my PC’s from scratch. The current machine sports the latest hardware - AMD Phenom II X3 720, Radeon 5850, 4GB Ram, dual OS with Windows 7, of course.

Since the installation of Windows 7, I have played a few games on this machine and never had a problem. But this time is a bit different. I spent an hour trying to get the game installed, then spent another couple of hours reinstalling it, tweaking it to get it to run properly. After I had wasted the whole morning, I noticed that Windows 7 is actually not among the supported OS's for the game.

I had no other choice but to load the game on to the secondary OS of my PC, Windows XP. Although the XP system is used as a backup system and not for gaming purpose – it has inferior performance in terms of gaming – Borderlands ran smoothly on it and I was kicking myself for not trying that sooner.

What I have learned from this? If I had applied my work knowledge (doh!) and read the system requirements first, I would have avoided wasting time and energy.

So before installing Accpac 5.6, please review the system requirements and recommendations to avoid any unnecessary work. Trust me, I wish I had.

The wait is finally over. After months of beta testing, we are proud to announce the official release of version 5.6. It is available for download as of this moment, and the official ship date for the product will be December 07.

I still remember the time when we released our products in separate phases, Financial modules first, then Operation modules. It's much more convenient for the clients now since they don't have to plan for multiple upgrades. Plus they don't have to worry about compatiblity issues between versions. Better yet, we have put this new version through a good amount of testing with some selected customers before releasing it. You can expect a much more stable, and problem free product. We have come up with a couple of articles that you may find useful when upgrading to 5.6. You can access them by going to http://kb.accpac.com.

• 27465 - Default Financial Reports in Sage Accpac ERP 5.5/5.6 have different account group specifications from new companies created in Accpac 5.5/5.6
• 28290 - Error is Received During the Activation or Upgrade Process to Version 5.6
• 28112 - Upgrade Older Versions of AR Inquiry to Sage Accpac ERP 5.6
• 28245 - Which version of Sage Payroll Service Integration would be compatible with Sage Accpac 5.6?
• 28111 - Updated - Technical Changes for Sage Accpac ERP 5.6
• 28333 - Pre-installation Checklist for Sage Accpac ERP 5.6
• 28334 - What's New in Sage Accpac ERP 5.6
• 28375 - In Accpac 5.6, Bank Services uses AP/AR transaction date to determine the posting period of the transaction.
• 28221 - Viewinsert of ASGEN1(CADEDL) (1965 c:\dev\lic56a\source\views\snlit.updg.c)
• 27930 - Steps Required Before Upgrading to Bank Services 5.6A

So what are you waiting for!? Upgrade to 5.6 today!