Technology in Practice

Gartner’s annual Strategic Technology Trend list is considered to be the de¬finitive predictor of what’s to come. Innovative businesses with the most successful track records know to pay attention to everyone. This year’s trends fall into three distinct categories: engineering trust, sculpting change, and accelerating growth. Get a glimpse of the individual technologies supporting each pillar in this infographic and see what to be on the lookout for in 2022:

Sage X3 multi-currency translates transactions entered in foreign currency into your native accounting or ‘ledger’ currency and automatically provides any exchange variance (gain/loss) due to currency fluctuations for these transactions. In this blog post, we will look at an example that shows how Sage X3 handles invoices and payments in a foreign currency (EUR) with an unrealized currency gain. AP is a multi-currency ledger, meaning that AP Vendors that transact in EUR will have their balance aged in that currency, and users are able to cancel the invoices in that currency using a EUR account. Here’s an example of a payment: As we can see, the payment was in Euros, the invoices were shown and paid in that currency using the EUR bank account. No conversion takes place in the AP sub ledger. Now, in the GL we see the entry made in EUR: But also, by hitting the ‘Currency’ button, we can see the conversion done by Sage X3. The rate used (1.18744 USD) corresponds to the posting date. Now, let’s look at the Manual Matching screen. Here you can see what Sage X3 did with these amounts and the side by side translation from the transaction currency (EUR) to the ledger currency (USD): This payment for 147,332.82 EUR is perfectly matched against the four invoices that it is paying (Match Letter A). However, if you look at PIN065348, the Invoice was for 22,173.00 EUR, against the payment of 22,173.00 EUR, but the invoice was created at a given rate that translated the EUR to $26,329.11 USD, and the payment was made for $25,043.74 USD. The difference, or exchange rate variance, of $1,285.37 means that the USD appreciated against the EUR in that period—resulting in an unrealized currency gain. Hopefully walking through this example helps explain how Sage X3 treats invoices and payments in a foreign currency (EUR) with an unrealized currency gain. If you have any questions about multi-currency support, or any other questions about Sage X3, please contact us.

In a recent study by HR Daily Advisor, 78% of initiative-oriented HR professionals were responsible for leading learning and development initiatives, yet only 35% used a Learning Management System (LMS). However, the ongoing pandemic and remote workforce shift, has organizations migrating to full digital onboarding and training programs at an accelerating pace. Watch this recorded session with the experts at DialogEDU, and see how an LMS provides the opportunity to leverage training and educational programs, enabling departments to more efficiently and effectively: Develop Courses Deliver Instruction Facilitate Communications Foster Collaboration between Employees (remote and in person) Assess Achieving Learning Outcomes And Even, Monetize Learning for Training Clients Tune in on and see how to unleash the power of your organization’s capabilities with next generation digital LMS, and transform the way you share information and collaborate

The Price Utility for Sage X3 automates the process of updating price(s) and/or cost(s). The Price Utility allows you and your team to quickly and easily make profit-preserving decisions and make mass updates to the pricing and costing table in Sage X3. Key Features Access current and past pricing by a variety of criteria including stat groups, like descriptions, BPs, site, etc. Increase or decrease pricing by amount or percentage Select the site and cost method to use for the margin calculation Save your work in progress for review/approval before you publish new pricing (all changes are retained for audits) Supports multiple units of measures – either specify a new price for one unit and the utility will apply to all other units OR manage each unit individually Supports conversion of liquids to dry (and vice versa) using density/specific gravity stored in Sage X3 Set an effective date for pricing to manage changes in advance View and compare margin for new and old values in a grid display Manually override pricing as required – updates to resulting margin show in real-time for decision making Generate a detailed report or export from the grid to Excel for further analysis and/or distribution Produce price increase letters and send directly to customer contacts Choose to exclude products not recently sold so customers only get notified of changes to active products Works for both sale and purchase price lists Supports any currency configured for price lists Old pricing is never deleted – records are expired when the new pricing is published   For more information about the Pricing Utility for Sage X3, or any other Sage X3 questions, please contact us.

The increased frequency of cyber attacks have greatly reinforced the vulnerability of networks and the near inevitability of a cyber incident. Staying ahead of phishing, ransomware, and the new wave of sophisticated cyberthreats means addressing vulnerabilities has never been more crucial. The best safeguard is to put in place a multi-layered security approach that is both proactive to prevent potential attacks and responsive when attacks can—and likely will—occur. Here are some key tips on preempting a cyber attack and protecting your data. Solidify and share your cybersecurity policy. Data security should be everyone’s priority. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. The onus is on leaders to continually educate their staff, contractors and other vendors on their role in protecting the company’s information assets. Use a cybersecurity policy to keep everyone informed and accountable. Secure your internet connections. The coffee shops and coworking spaces employees often feel most productive aren’t always the most secure. Instead of policing where remote teams can work, encourage them to utilize the company’s virtual private network (VPN) before connecting to public Wi-Fi. Doing so encrypts the data they access and provides a layer of protection from cyberattacks. Utilize a password manager. Remembering a series of unique, long passwords for every account is challenging for anyone. Password managers do the heavy lifting by generating strong passwords, storing them securely and logging the user in automatically. Update accounts with two-factor authentication (2FA). You’ve probably seen 2FA when you log into your bank accounts. It’s the two-step process that asks you to answer a “secret question” or sends a new, time-sensitive code to one of your devices after you’ve entered your username and password. This additional protection has been shown to block 99.9% of automated attacks. Install encryption software on your devices. Lost or stolen devices pose a serious risk to your SMB. Encryption software allows you to restrict access if an unauthorized user attempts to use a device once it’s been reported missing. Encourage your employees to encrypt files and documents they share via email or chat applications, too. Include firewalls, antivirus software and anti-malware for everyone. These should be regularly updated for any device that accesses company information. Make sure you have a technical support team in place who can help remote employees with this type of device management. Finalize backup and disaster recovery plans. Hybrid cloud architecture solutions often come standard with data duplication and recovery tools for cloud assets. However you’ll want to create a plan for any on-premise applications or data. Duplicates will ideally be stored in regionally diverse areas and backed up remotely from your source data. It may not be possible to create a network that is 100% secure 100% of the time. But with some expert guidance, a robust toolset, and continuing employee education, you can create a work environment that will stay out in front of cyberthreats and keep the dangers at bay. Learn more about how to protect your organization by connecting with one of the information and cyber security specialists on Net at Work’s Managed Services team.

Once again, it is time to start preparing 1099 filings for calendar year 2021. Sage recently released the 1099 updates for 2021 for both Sage X3 and Sage 500. In this post we will review what you should expect if you are on a covered version and what we recommend you do if you are not on a covered version. Sage X3 Sage released the 1099 update for 2021 which covers Sage X3 v11 and 2019R5 (v12p20) and higher. The update is included in v11p21 and 2022R1 (v12p29) and therefore doesn’t need to be installed on those two versions. If you are on a covered version, Net at Work will: Refresh a test folder if required (time depends on folder size) Install the patch on a test folder in your environment Support testing and training as required Install the patch on your production folder NOTE: patch installation does not require downtime while a folder refresh does. If you are NOT on a covered version, Net at Work recommends purchasing and using 1099 Express. If your 1099 reporting is company based, you can simply extract information from Sage X3 and place it in the required format for use with 1099 Express. If your 1099 reporting is site based, Net at Work will need to build queries to get information in the required format for use with 1099 Express. For more detailed information about Sage’s 1099 update for Sage X3, please check out this Sage City post from Pam Nightingale. Sage 500 Sage released 1099 updates for Sage 500 v2018, 2019 and 2020. If you are on a covered version, Net at Work will: Refresh a test database if required (time depends on database size) Install the patch on the test database Support testing and training as required Install the patch on your production database NOTE: Sage 500 ERP sums up 1099 data and sends that data to Aatrix.  From there, Aatrix can print forms, mail forms, send electronic 1099s via e-mail, etc.  If you are on a support plan, some of that is included, with additional options at additional costs. NOTE: patch installation does not require downtime while a folder refresh does. If you are NOT on a covered version, Net at Work recommends purchasing and using 1099 Express. Please contact your Team Manager at Net at Work or helpdesk@netatwork.com to coordinate patching, if you need support.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you need to change the start or end date of multiple existing work orders? Whether the scheduling mode is Forward or Backward, it is possible to use a function in Sage X3 called Modify Objectives “FUNTDUOF” to accomplish the change en masse. In this blog post, we’ll explore how you can mass update work order start/end dates and priority. Note: Content for this blog post was originally posted on Sage City by Vanessa Quwar, December 9, 2021. The Modify Objectives function is found in Manufacturing, Planning and any user with rights to this function can access it. When launching this function, the Production Site must be entered prior to making any selection or filtering. Once a production site is selected, it is possible to filter by firm and/or planned work orders and you can include optimized orders as well. It is possible to enter ranges for work orders, projects that are associated with WOs, BP destination, sales order number, released product, and start and end date. The search can also be sorted by the work order start date or by early/late number of days which is the difference between the objective date and the end date. The status of the work order must be Pending or In Progress as Closed work orders will not be included. Once the work orders are listed, if the scheduling mode is Forward, the start date can be modified. If the scheduling mode is Backward, the end date can be modified. Also, it is possible to change the Priority on a work order from Normal to Urgent or Very Urgent. Once the changes are made, click Save and the system will generate a log with the work order numbers that have been modified and the number of changes. If you have any questions about mass updating worder orders, or for any other questions about Sage X3, please contact us.

Sage Intacct, Sage X3, Sage Cloud, Partner Cloud, which is right for you? With your inboxes filled daily with messages about their Cloud and SaaS based solutions, we’ve pulled it all together in this 30-minute informative session: Clarifying the Noise – Demystifying Cloud Confusion for Sage Users. In this on-demand  session we provide a detailed breakdown of the various acronyms and solutions from Sage, as well as look at Sage’s cloud journey and what to expect in the future. Topics covered in this Sage ERP session include: What “Cloud” means for Sage customers today The difference between Sage 100cloud, Sage 300Cloud, Sage Online, Sage Hosting, Sage Partner Cloud, Sage Native Cloud Sage Intacct and Sage X3 – What they are, where do they fit in, and is ERP migration right for you? Understanding the new lingo in the financial world and how it impacts your company. Transforming your company for the future Doing more with less The impact digital adoption When or how do to start your transformation The cost of no decision

As a small or midsized business (SMB) operating in a rapidly evolving marketplace, the right business management software can create and differentiate your brand, giving you a decisive competitive edge. Speed and agility — two attributes of “modern” software applications — are business imperatives in a world where on time is late and next day is so yesterday. Is it time for your organization to consider a generational move? There are several focus business areas where next-generation technology make the difference: Operations & Financials (ERP), Customer Experience Management (CRM), Employee Experience & HR (HRMS), and strategic IT infrastructure and security guidance and support. We’ll visit each of these focus areas in detail in upcoming posts, but first, what do we even mean by modern solutions? And, if your existing software is working fine, what’s the hurry to make the switch? What is a modern solution? When we refer to modern business management solutions (also referred to as Digital Operations Platforms, or DOPs), we’re largely pointing at scalable, cloud-based, SaaS applications with embedded Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics capabilities. And we’re also talking about the right services and support that help protect and maximize the value of those applications. Cloud-based applications free organizations from the constraints of buying, configuring, managing, updating, supporting, and securing an in-house server and the applications that run on it. And with that freedom comes power. Cloud-based applications run on the vendors’ servers. These servers are some of the most powerful pieces of hardware available, and they are managed, monitored, and updated around the clock. Of course, there are a myriad of other business benefits of cloud-based applications, such as anytime/anywhere access, lowered IT costs, predictable expenses, improved security, and more. Another attribute of modern (DOP) applications is embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI),  BI and data analytics capabilities. We’re talking smart capacities that allow your business to be proactive and predictive, not reactive. We’re talking automated workflows that minimize the need for human data entry. We’re talking deep operational analytics tools that learn as we use them. These capabilities are fundamentally changing the way we use business software and will only continue as the technology improves, and our imaginations embrace it. In order for companies to realize the value of their modern applications, it’s crucial to wrap the applications in the next generation of strategic IT and business consulting services. These services will always include security and may also include tactical offerings such as business process reviews, virtual CIO/CTO offerings, and even cloud hosting services. A strategic IT and business consulting partner will speed and simplify a company’s digital transformation, maximize its investments in technology — turning applications into modern solutions. Why switch now? In an earlier post on this topic, we spoke to the speed imperative – how companies that can pivot and adapt to changing conditions quickly have the best chance for success. The pandemic accelerated the need for speed. Twilio calls the pandemic the “digital accelerant of the decade,” noting that Covid-19 accelerated companies’ digital transformations by an average of six years. Now, we don’t necessarily recommend doing something just because everyone else is doing it, but in this case… If your competition is investing in their technology infrastructure, upgrading to modern business management solutions and services and you are not, you’re taking a big risk. And don’t think you can rely on old-fashioned personalized service and the human touch to get by. Your competitors running next-gen applications are out-personalizing and out-touching you, guaranteed. Next steps to digital transformation Digital transformation, DOP,modern solutions — different terms for ways to align your company’s technology infrastructure with your plans, strategies, and goals to improve your operations today and support future growth initiatives. Your company’s business management software is your primary source of capacity, competitiveness, innovation, quality, and agility, so make it count. If you’ve got questions about your company’s digital path, contact us here or give us a call at 800-719-3307.