A Message from our Co-founders | May 2020

As we talked about in an earlier post, New Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulations are in effect as of July 1, 2010. In addition to standards for your accounting software these standards also cover other areas of business processes. If you process credit cards, there are questionnaires you are required to complete.   About PCI/DSS
The PCI Security Standards Council was created as a collaboration between major card brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and others) to prevent credit card fraud. The first PCI/DSS standards were set in 2004 and first round of regulations released in 2005. The current compliance document was published in October 2008, and requires all organizations who process credit cards to be in compliance as of July 2010. Risks Of Non-Compliance
Of course you can hope that you never experience a data breach. However, if you do any time in the future and you have not gone through the steps to ensure that you comply with the standards, you could incur some major costs. Non-compliant organizations experiencing a data breach can expect to pay any and all of the following: Investigation costs Remediation costs Non-compliance fines from each card Card re-issuance costs ($20-30 per card) Ongoing compliance audits Victim notification costs Becoming compliant with the standard is a good idea in any case. It helps provide your organization with protection against fraud, offers ideas for best practices in data security, and is applicable to other audits and assessments. In completing your evaluation, you will better understand your systems and understand where data assets reside on your network. You can check your compliance by completing the appropriate questionnaire and then submitting it to your acquirer as proof of compliance. An acquirer may be your financial institution or other payment processing provider. The questionnaire you need to complete depends on the number of credit card transactions you process and the method you use to process them. You can tackle this complex process on your own and find the questionnaires at: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org An easier option is to get assistance from the experts. Trustwave is a leading provider of on-demand data security and payment card industry compliance management solutions to organizations throughout the world. The company can help you identify the correct questionnaire and explain how to answer the questions based on your organization’s situation. You can access this service at: https://pci.trustwave.com If you have questions or concerns about PCI-DSS and your systems please contact our Helpdesk.

Sage is following up the its release of Sage Abra Suite Version 9 with two Service Releases. The first one, released in June, contained changes required for the HIRE Act. The second Service Release is scheduled for release this Fall and includes capabilities requested by customers during the beta testing of Version 9.0. Simplified Product Updates
One of the capabilities added to Sage Abra Suite Version 9 is the ability to install cumulative product updates that include all changes made to the product. This means that Service Releases will include all changes made to the system and you will have the benefit of all updates added to the system since the previous release. June Service Release
If you are running the Sage Abra Payroll module, you already should have downloaded and installed the June Service Release because it included changes required for second quarter tax reporting and third quarter payroll processing. This release addresses changes made to comply with the HIRE Act legislation. A new field, HIRE Act Qualified Employee, has been added to the Payroll Status window. The field default is no, check yes to indicate a HIRE Act eligible employee. Two new tax codes have been added for the HIRE Act: EMP9 (HIRE ACT Employer Social Security Tax) is similar to the EMP1 (Employer Social Security Tax) tax code but it has a rate of 0.00. RR19 (HIRE ACT – RAIL & RETIRE LEVEL 1 TAX ER ) similar to the RR1E (RAIL & RETIRE LEVEL 1 TAX EMPR) tax code but with a rate of 0.00. By default, these tax codes are set to expire on 12/31/2010. However, if this tax credit is extended, the expiration date can be changed. The 941 form has been modified to accommodate the HIRE Act. Changes to the Form W-2 and Form W-3 also are needed for the HIRE Act. These changes will be made in the fourth quarter and will be available in the Q4 2010 Tax Update. The June Service Release also corrected a performance issue with the HR module. Customers reported performance problems when running an Employee Find at the same time as running a Crystal ReportÆ that used the HRPERSNL database. The June Service Release corrects this issue. September Service Release
Another Service Release is scheduled for delivery with the 3rd Quarter Tax Update for Payroll customers and also will be available for download for HR customers in late September. The Service Release includes a selection of customer-requested updates in the Sage Abra Suite HR, Benefits, Attendance, Payroll, and ESS modules. These requests were gathered from customers who participated in the beta testing of Sage Abra Suite Version 9.0, comments added in Product Feedback, and through Customer Support. Among these are several key enhancements for Employee Self Service. Payroll and Attendance information now will be available to include in the dynamic information sharing capabilities of ViewBuilder, introduced in Sage Abra Suite Version 9.0 Also added is the ability to create and publish Crystal Reports on the Web and include them for viewing in ESS. Give us a call with your questions about the Sage Abra Suite Version 9.0 service releases.

How inventory & average cost valuation are managed, considering input pricing fluctuation or additional landed cost imposed following inventory receipt. Sage X3 maintains several methods to value inventory including Standard, FIFO, LIFO, Lot Average Unit and Average Unit Costs. Industries, such as Food & Beverage, with supply chains prone to fluctuating material and component costs or manufactured units indistinguishable from each other may benefit from an Average Unit Cost stock valuation. The operational measure, cost of goods sold, is updated continuously using Average Unit Cost and allows for accurate calculation of sales margin in these circumstances. Valuation methods are assignable by site and product in the Sage X3 application. Sage X3 Master Data Valuation methods for raw material & finished goods inventories are managed within Sage X3 by the product category, product, and product-site records. An organization may value a stocked part with the same method, like Average Unit Cost, across its sites or choose to maintain Standard Cost on Site A, while Average Unit Cost is observed on Site X. In this post, we will walk users through master data setup & transactional configuration to calculate an inventoried part’s Average Unit Cost, while referencing common system inquiries to visualize the evolution of cost across time. Purchase Order With Average Unit Cost established for part, RAW046, Organic Powdered Eggs, we issue a system Purchase Order from vendor NA055 for 100LB @ $1.50 per LB, to receive at manufacturing site NA021 (the quantity and price are highlighted). Purchase Receipt Warehouse personnel conduct a Purchase Receipt from NA055 PO, bringing 100 LBS of RAW046 into the system at $1.50 per LB for an order cost of $150. Prior to this receipt, the Average Unit Cost (AUC) for this raw material was $1.17/LB, stemming from a base quantity of 700 LBS and base value of $820 ($820/700 LBS = $1.1714/LB). This information is visible to users on the Product-Site Record Cost Tab. Average cost is always calculated during the receiving process. This receipt adds 100 units in quantity and $150 total to AUC base value, again, visible on the Product-Site Record Cost Tab. Purchase Invoice Transactionally, a Purchase Invoice is generated for the receipt at the PO purchase price – there is no impact on Average Unit Cost. Product-Site Record Cost Tab Checking the cost tab, a user will see the impact of the recent receipt, bumping the AUC from $1.1714 to $1.2125. The new base quantity is 800 LBS (700 + 100 from receipt) & new base value is $970 ($820 + $150 from receipt). Another Purchase Order Site NA021 places another Purchase Order with vendor NA055 for 100 LBS of RAW046, though price is now $1.75/LB. Warehouse personnel conduct a Purchase Receipt from NA055 PO, bringing 100 LBS of RAW046 into the system at $1.75 per LB for an order cost of $175. The same AUC calculation, taking the recent receipt order cost and adding to on-hand raw material units & base value, yields a new cost of $1.2722/LB. A Supplier Wrinkle Several days later vendor NA055 submits an invoice for $2.00/LB, not the $1.75/LB cost as received (pays to get that PO Acknowledgement)! Processing the Supplier Invoice with a different value than the cost received will, once posted, prompt a re-valuation of material AUC. Checking the Product-Site Cost Tab, a user will see the AUC of $1.30/LB, owing to the $0.25 difference in received versus invoiced price. Considering 100 LBS received, that is an additional cost of $25 for the order. Average Cost Evolution Inquiry As stock transactions are validated or posted the average cost is calculated and tracked in the system. To review the history of changes to an item’s Average Unit Cost a user may run the Average Cost Evolution Inquiry, found in menu path Stock > Inquiries > Movements (Average Cost Evol/Movement).
Below is the average cost history of RAW046, considering two (2) receipts processed and Supplier Invoice booked at higher cost than received. Costs Incurred After Receipt Sage X3 will readily manage subsequent costs from the same or a new vendor, related to a purchase part’s receipt. In this case, a 3rd party freight provider billed site NA021 for $1000 for the most recent receipt of RAW046. A process known as “complementary invoicing” will pick up this additional cost and apply it to on-hand inventory on a pro-rata basis. Following successful posting of this complementary invoice, a user may check the Product-Site Record Cost Tab to view the impact to AUC. Average Cost Evolution Inquiry Running this inquiry, again, we can see the impact of the additional $1000 charge. Examining Row 1 of the inquiry we see the 100 LBS added to inventory, comparing Stock Before and Stock After columns. Then the value of $1000 (900 LBS on-hand with an AUC base value of $1170, now reflected as $2170). AUC base value $2170/900 LB = $2.41/LB. Stock Value Change Utility Sage offers a Value Change Utility to re-cost from a global amount or % basis for products valued as Average Unit Cost. By site & product a user may update the global amount to reflect a new value and run the Stock Accounting Interface to generate journal entry, G/L, for the Inventory account (differences will book to PPV account in G/L). The same re-valuation may be initiated, by tier, for items costed with a FIFO valuation (but that is for another day). For more information about Average Unit Cost valuation in Sage X3, please contact us.