Resources for Sage X3 Users

Have you ever watched the construction of a new house? It seems to go so slowly at first—often taking weeks (if not months) to lay the foundation, connect to a water source, bring in electricity, and so on. And then—seemingly overnight—walls appear, the roof materializes, and before you know it, doors and windows are in and the painting’s complete. That’s when the buyers appear—taking little notice of the hidden construction work that took so much time. They focus entirely on the visible finishes: the floors, woodwork, appliances, et cetera. That’s where we get a similarity to analytics software; prospective buyers focus on the visible features of Analytics (dashboards, slice-and-dice, Google-like searching) while paying little or no attention to the “plumbing” that sits beneath those eye-catching features. Many people think that you can take an analytics solution, stick it on top of a database, and—presto!— out come meaningful reports and dashboards. Unfortunately, that’s like thinking that if you drill a well for your new house, you’ll get water from your faucets. It’s not that simple. When it comes to analytics software, the “plumbing” is key. Take connectivity; some application data resides in the cloud, some on-prem. Some data is accessed via .NET provider; some via ODBC/OLEDB, and some via web service. And then there’s security: different types, different levels, and who can see what. But even those are just the tip of the plumbing iceberg. Databases—particularly ERP databases—are complex: typically with hundreds of tables and “views,” complex associations (“joins”), and enough data to choke a horse (and slow-down report & dashboard creation to a snail’s pace). So, when considering and evaluating analytics software, go ahead and be dazzled by the colorful dashboards, the easy drill-downs, and the “what-if” predictions. But after you’ve seen all that, don’t forget to ask the vendor about the plumbing behind those features. Find out how the plumbing is done, how long it takes to deploy, and how easy it is to expand. And then . . . ask the vendor to do a proof of concept. Modern analytics solutions should make it easy to connect and customize the plumbing right off the bat. Because your business truly is a “house of data”—and it’s ever-growing. If you have any questions about how to evaluate data analytics software or the value it can add to your business, please contact us. Note: Content for this blog post was originally posted on DataSelf.com March 15, 2022.

When changes to existing components or operations on a work order are made, it is possible to track these critical changes when using non-versioned products. In Sage X3 Version 12, two new parameters were added to the following chapter: GPA chapter/WOM group/ TRACKMATWO – to track WO component changes GPA chapter/WOM group/ TRACKOPEWO – to track WO operation changes When these two parameters are set to “Yes” and changes are made to a component or an operation on a work order, the changes are recorded to the following two tables: MFGMATREV – Work order materials audit table MFGOPEREV – Work order operations audit table When making changes to a component or an operation line, a “Revision reason” can be entered manually but this revision reason is not mandatory, and it can be left blank. Once a change is made, the revision can be viewed by using the Revision history action from the Actions icon on the component/operation line. The revision history for the changes made to an operation or a component will be available after saving the changes. For example, if a new component is added, the “Revision code = Add” will show that a new component was added. However, it is not mandatory to add a revision reason for changes to components on non-versioned products. After saving the changes, the revision code changes to “Modify” and the new revision line displays the changes in red. The top line in the revision history always reflects the current values of the changed fields in the component line. The revision history is displayed in reverse chronological order from newest to oldest. If you have any additional questions about tracking changes to components and operations on a work order with non-versioned products, please contact us.   Note: content for this blog post was originally posted on Sage City, September 24, 2020 by Vanessa Quwar.

In this blog post we will show you how to create a workflow that will email log files when errors occur in either the Stock Accounting Interface or the WIP Accounting Interface. Accounting Interface errors occur when, for example, an integration interferes with the Stock or WIP interface, or an operator creates their own query that interferes with other processes in Sage X3. You will need to be a system administrator to create these workflows. First add this flag on the task you want to manage: Then create, activate, and validate the notification. You will receive an email with the log file attached: You can open the file in notepad: For more information about creating workflows for Stock Accounting Interface and WIP Account Interface errors, please contact us.

Time to go on another adventure exploring the automatic journals in Sage X3. A few months ago our travels brought us to Exploring auto journals: the descriptions. Today our adventure leads us to the auto journals and the “V_” formula. Before we proceed, as was mentioned in the previous blog, it is better to do our exploring in the test environment. It is too easy to accidentally click Save and alter our auto journal. Note: content for this blog post was originally posted on Sage City, February 22, 2022 by Pam Nightingale. Our journey starts in Automatic journals (GESGAU) under Setup, Financials, Accounting interface. We will venture into the PRINC (Master Payment Journal) Entry Code. Let’s click Lines to look at the details. We will select Line number 20 BnkBP(cpte WAICURACC1). The Control account isn’t selected and Accounting code and Index is blank for this line so we venture to the Formulas tab to see how the account number is derived. Once there, we find the formula for the accounts is “V_ACCMIS.” What does that formula mean? The “V_” in the formula points us to the Automatic journal variables (GESGVG) found under Setup, Financials, Accounting interface. There is quick way to get to the Automatic journal variables screen. We’ll go to the Account Legal line in the grid. Click the Actions icon on the formula line and select Variables (1) which will bring you directly to the Automatic journal variables. Here we have the variable definition. There is a nice explanation of what the variable does in the Description block. But, before we go to Local menu 2649, how do we know what the values are for CPY, LEDTYP and ACCMISTYP? Back at the Formulas tab, click Parameters (2) and the Parameter values screen will be revealed. We get the CPY (company) code from the PAYMENTH table entry for the transaction. The LEDTYP is 1. To verify that LEDTYP 1 is the legal ledger, start at Account core model from the Organizational structure, Companies entry. We’ll use Company NA10 and its Account Core model is NA1. The Account core model (GESGCM) is located under Setup, Organizational structure. We can verify that the Legal General ledger type is “1.” Now to the Local Menu (TXT) 2649 under Development, Data and Parameters Tables… Does the menu look familiar? The menu ties back to the Miscellaneous tab in the Chart of accounts (GESCOA) function found under Setup, Organizational structure. We can see what account will be selected based on the value for line 16. The Auto journal variables can also be used in the calculation of amounts. We’ll look at a simple formula for Code PRINC Line 43 this time. Here are details for the Variable code CONVERT. This code “Converts an amount to a currency used as parameter.” Then we go to the Parameters of variables which displays where the process grabs the necessary values for calculation. Has this piqued your interest to explore more about Automatic journals? Then, check out these classes offered by Sage University: X3 – Sage X3 – A deep dive into Auto Journals – In this course, you will learn the structure of and how to configure and use Auto Journals. We’ll discuss best practice tips for customizing to your needs, including using accounting codes. Also covered, are the most commonly used auto journals that you may consider implementing for your organization. X3 – Sage X3 – Expert Workshop: Automatic Journals – Attend this expert learning session to gain an understanding of how to perform automatic journal adjustment or changes safely in Sage X3. You will also learn about possible adjustments you can make any development knowledge. If you have additional questions as you explore the automatic journals in Sage X3, please contact us.

Finance departments spend a lot of time determining which items need to be accrued for at the end of a period. In the majority of cases, the reason for an accrual is because goods/services have been received but not yet invoiced. The accrual is put in place to allow them to recognize the expense and the eventual liability on the balance sheet. But what happens when an invoice is received prior to the goods/services being delivered? This is a fairly common occurrence in overseas transactions these days due to heavy delays with international commerce. In this blog post, we will review the best way to address this issue in Sage X3. Here we create a regular Purchase Order: However, instead of the typical PO > Receipt of Goods > Invoice process, this situation requires the receipt of the invoice prior to the receipt of the materials. As mentioned above, this is fairly common in overseas transactions and may or may not involve a pre-payment (this sub-process will be analyzed separately): In our example we are receiving the invoice for the complete quantity, 500 units. Upon posting of the invoice, we review the journal entry. SAGE X3 created the credit to Accounts Payable and the debit to Purchase Accrual (GL account 23000 in this example). This creates a temporary imbalance on the accrual account because the material was not received, so the credit accrual is not yet created. On the next step we can see the PO Receipt. If the invoice was linked to the PO, the receipt CANNOT BE MADE for a quantity less than the quantity invoiced (500 units in this case). Following the creation of the receipt, the Purchase Order is automatically closed by X3: Here’s the journal entry generated by the receipt. As you can see, the accrual is going to the credit side, balancing the previous charge from the invoice. The ending result is a debit to Stock and a credit to Payables, the regular AP accounting flow. Because the receipt could be delayed for several weeks or months, it’s important to understand that there could be an improper balance reflected in the AP accrual account in the meantime. It’s important to verify the POs invoiced but not received to make, if the amount is significant, a correcting GL entry at month’s end that will be reversed the first day of the following month. For more information on how to account for an invoice when goods haven’t been received, or for any other Sage X3 questions, please contact us.

Elevate your skills by attending new Expert Workshops delivered by the Sage Center of Excellence team. Sage X3 Expert Workshops have been added in SageU. Seats are limited be sure to sign up today! Below are scheduled classes through end of April, including many new courses. April Expert Workshops Apr 4 Workflows and 4GL: Learn how to use workflow actions to update tables, create bespoke ACTIONS, use functions and entry points for advance bespoke contents and actions management, and understand how to use workflow in Syracuse or hybrid contexts. Apr 4-5 Putting GraphQL to Practice: Learn how to use the existing GraphQL APIs and practice retrieving information from and write to Sage X3. Apr 4-5 Tips & Tricks for Importing & Exporting Data: Learn best practices for handling different import and export standard requirements and learn about specific script statements to work with when importing or exporting data. Apr 4-7 Multi-legislation Set Up: Learn how to implement, in the same folder, companies coming from different countries and using different legislations. Apr 4-7 AVC stock valuation recommendations & troubleshooting: Learn the setup involved and how postings are made to the general ledger and reflected on specific reports Apr 7 Developing Add-ons for Sage X3: gain a better understanding on the rules and best practices for developing official add-ons for Sage X3, analyzing 4GL code and the impact. Apr 7-8 Implementing MRP: Learn the best way to implement MRP. You will learn how to use MRP efficiently including understanding why maintaining data integrity and accuracy is essentials. Apr 12-14 Shipments Preparation & Packing: Learn the concepts for shipment preparation and packing, as well as the settings and process flow through different business cases. Apr 14-15 Using Sage X3 SQL Views to create Requesters/Queries – Level 1: Discover how to use Sage X3 SQL views to extend the potential you have to create complex requesters/queries. Apr 19-20 Understanding and Managing Supply Chain Constraints: Learn the different constraints (Production Constraints, Flow Constraints, and Storage Constraints). You will also learn how to include other constraints including: Supplier, Manufacturing, Storage, Loading/Unloading, Demand Fulfillment, and Time-Phased Constraints to manage the needs of the customer in Sage X3. Apr 21-22 Shop Floor Tracking Best Practices: How to enhance the manufacturing offer for additional industries and verticals. Apr 22-29 Project Management Implementation Best Practices: gain a better understanding of the PJM structure and flow giving you a better understanding of how you can customize the PJM structure based on a user’s requirements. Apr 25-26 Mastering Settings for WIP Accounting: Define information to utilize WIP accounting for a specific company and be able to reconcile the movements between the accounting and manufacturing modules. Apr 25-28 Core Model Approach Best Practices: Learn about the corporate logic integrating each factory’s distinctive features and creating consistency between various productions sites. Apr 25-28 Advanced Development Best Practices: Learn tested and trusted development best practices representing the most efficient and effective development methods recommended by our experts. Apr 26-27 Mastering Invoicing Elements in Sales and Purchasing: Attend this expert level workshop to see advanced settings of Invoicing Elements Apr 26-29 Understanding different Configurator Scenarios: After attending this session you will have a better understanding on: the Configurator philosophy and limitation, be familiar with the Configurator set up process, and be able to set up Configurator scenarios. Apr 26-29 Distribution Best Practices Tips & Tricks: Learn about best practices and tips and tricks for defining advanced settings to help resolve these challenges. For more information about these workshops, or any other Sage X3 questions, please contact your Sage X3 Account Manager: Tom Dieterle, Jaleidy Tannenbaum, or Sonia Ferrera.

B2B eCommerce is accelerating as the preferred mode of purchase for most buyers. According to research from McKinsey, millennials now influence 60% of B2B buying decisions, and 75% of B2B buyers prefer online purchasing and remote sales interactions instead of in-person purchasing. B2B Purchasing Preferences When it comes to the B2B purchase process, 57% of the entire funnel takes place prior to engaging with a live-person, and this trend is only expected to become more firmly established in 2022. A whopping 96% of B2B Companies are already planning to change their go-to-market strategies, and are committed to increasing spending on digital selling channels. However, while many B2B companies recognize the need to sell online, most aren’t fully capable of delivering a satisfactory customer experience. To drive adoption toward this eventual channel, B2B Merchants need to provide their customers with a self-service option or portal. Adopting a customer portal leads to less friction in the merchant-customer relationship, reducing the need for back and forth emails and offline communication like phone calls, and making it easier for both customer and merchant to spend their time on more impactful activities than tracking orders. A portal is more than a sales website. Alone, a website provides merely a single-faceted customer interaction. Likewise, an ERP doesn’t improve the situation — unless it is fully integrated and supports bidirectional syncing of critical order information between your customer facing site and your back end. Bi-Directional Sync With Sage X3 erpCommerce™ When someone places an order on your website, is your ERP instantly updated? Are you able to get orders out in a timely manner, and track inventory in real time? Or does slow syncing cause bottlenecks for fulfillment and disappoint customers with late out-of-stock notifications? With Pixafy erpCommerce™ powered by Boomi, orders placed on Adobe Commerce (Magento) can be synced to Sage X3 ERP for fulfillment, streamlining operations. Orders placed in Sage X3 can be synced back to Adobe Commerce, improving customer experience by giving them complete visibility into their online and offline order history. This gives your company the structure required to provide your customers with full and up-to-the-minute visibility into their account and transaction history. Our erpCommerce™ already natively syncs invoices for online orders and their associated shipments and invoices. By syncing in your offline orders, you can allow erpCommerce™ to also import shipments and invoices for those orders. Shipment importation lets you set up triggers so that customers can be notified when their items are shipped and informed of the tracking information for offline orders. In addition, imported invoices deliver real time visibility into their statuses, allowing you to accelerate AR processes by leveraging payment configurations. Your customers can make online payments against open invoices/balances associated with their offline orders, consolidating and streamlining their post-sale experience. Benefits of Sage X3 ERP & eCommerce Bi-Directional Order Sync Syncing across order touchpoints provides a range of benefits for you and your customers: Reordering Since most B2B buyers come to a website knowing what they want to order already, giving your customers access to their complete order history lets them add specific items or all items from a previous offline order to their online Shopping Cart in one click. They can even view a consolidated list of all items purchased across all orders to create a “My Products” list that can be viewed and selected from as needed. Order Editing Formerly, Adobe Commerce/erpCommerce™ wouldn’t allow customers to edit orders after placement; they would have to completely change their order and start again. Bi-Directional Order Sync makes it possible to edit orders placed in Adobe Commerce by syncing to Sage X3 ERP , which can then be used as a Single Source of Truth. Any customer-requested edit is completed in Sage X3, the original Adobe order is automatically canceled and the new Sage order imported as replacement, and all fulfillments and invoices flow into the new record seamlessly. Personalization Adobe Sensei technology is native to erpCommerce™, and driven by offline purchase data, allowing you to personalize featured content, products and promotions based on what your customers have previously bought from you, driving their attention to new offerings and other related products. To learn more about erpCommerce™ for Sage X3 watch this 2-minute overview video For a more detailed look at Sage X3 Bi-Directional Sync visit here.

Sage recently released Sage X3 Version 12 2022 R1 with some nice new features and enhancements to existing features. In this blog post, we’ll review the capabilities delivered by some of the key new features & enhancements in this latest release. For a full description of all the new features and enhancements delivered with this release please refer to the What’s New section of the Sage X3 Online help center. Distribution Sage X3 Automated Data Collection is now Mobile Automation. Stock management rules For simplified use in Sage X3 Mobile Automation, you can now perform receipt and issue flows based on the stock management rules defined in the Product category function. This allows you to apply more functional rules on Mobile Automation. Simplified navigation For your ease of use and simplification, Sage X3 Mobile Automation for Distribution has been enhanced in the following ways: A warning message displays when you select an item that is part of a count session When you perform a stock change or an intersite transfer, you do not need to complete all the destination fields set in the entry transaction When you perform a purchase receipt, you can enter several stock detail lines for the same product. In the database, only one purchase receipt line with several stock details is recorded instead of several receipt lines. Project Management Multi-projects Billing center For your benefit, the Project billing overview function has been enhanced to refresh project billing statuses, update project billing, and validate the invoicing flow. This enables you to have a multi-project view and additional selection criteria. The required access control values in the Functional authorization function for the function code have been applied to the Project billing overview function. Load and Capacity & Time Inquiry To provide you with a graphical view of employee’s workload across selected periods, a new inquiry has been added (Load and Capacity) and can be found in the Time Management > Inquiries menu. This will ease the employee assignments on projects for project managers, reducing risk and minimizing delays. Grouping capabilities and performance improvements have also been provided with this addition. In addition, the Time inquiry function has been enhanced to include an additional employee Role grouping criteria field. Use this field to provide load analysis per role. Grouping criteria Company, Site, and Role are available from the Group by field. Use these selection criteria to provide load analysis per role, per site, or per company. To improve performance, the employee assignments details, as displayed on the detail screen, are only calculated on demand. Performance criteria are available from the Criteria selection screen. Financial overview with Sales deliveries To save you time, products that are manually allocated on project tasks can now be valued in the financial overview function through sales delivery transactions. Manufacturing Sage X3 Mobile Automation: Production section With the planned expansion of Sage X3 Mobile Automation into Manufacturing, the first step has been made whereby a Production button is available from the Mobile Automation navigation panel. The Production menu includes the Production reporting transaction. More features will follow in future releases. Sage X3 Web Scheduling New Sage X3 Web Scheduling version: 11.9.8 is now available. Finance Intrastat Update A change has been made based on the updated 2022 European Intrastat report. This change includes adding the Country code of origin and Customer VAT ID fields to the Intrastat file and updating the transaction nature for dispatch flows. VAT Framework Posting section improvements For a simplified experience, the Posting section in the VAT return function has been moved to the last position in the interface when the posting feature is not used. Formula management To be able to set up more complex formulas for specific requirements, you can now use the same formulas for creating VAT forms when you set up VAT boxes. Please note that formulas using the previous format are fully compatible. Duplicating forms For ease of use in the VAT form function, you can duplicate a VAT form when you modify one key element such as: VAT form code Declaration code Legislation code This applies even when the modification indicator is red. This will save you time as it allows you to set up a VAT form by copying an existing form and adding new boxes to the declaration. Please note that previously existing controls are still enforced. Platform To enhance your user experience, a number of add-ins have been delivered with the Sage X3 platform, including: Microsoft Office add-in with Edge components: Outlook The Microsoft Outlook add-in delivered with the Sage X3 platform has been reviewed to handle the following features: Using the latest Edge libraries instead of Internet Explorer ones (as Internet Explorer will be deprecated) Enhanced security as the connection goes through the node.js web server The features and the user interface remain unchanged, so there is no user impact on this function. Microsoft Office add-in with Edge libraries The Microsoft Office add-in delivered with the Sage X3 platform has been reviewed to handle the following features: Fixes to known issues Using the latest Edge libraries instead of Internet Explorer ones (as Internet Explorer will be deprecated) A more intuitive user interface Note that: You must download this new add-in from your Sage X3 home page as soon as the Syracuse web server is installed (due to the communication protocol changes, the previous plugin will not work anymore) PowerPoint is no longer supported Moving to the new Plugin will ensure you that you will not be impacted by the planned end of support of Internet Explorer by Microsoft starting 15th June 2022. Optimize export templates generation management To save you time, you can now use the Validation button from the import/export templates function to avoid a revalidation of the export script every time the export is triggered. Note: If the export script doesn’t exist when an export starts, it is automatically generated and validated. This reduces the export time when small files are managed repeatedly. Sage X3 Customization Audit The new Customization Audit tool will save you time and highlight and mitigate risks that may be encountered during an upgrade as a result of customizations that may have been applied. The Customization Audit tool will check all custom developments or modifications that have been applied in a folder by comparing it with the reference (root) folder. It lists any item that constitutes a risk, or a violation of development rules and highlights the risk level and the detected anomaly. You can then drill into the details of each highlighted issue and fix the problem. Run the new Customization audit function to view the results in a Sage X3 screen and launch the utility as needed. The Customization audit submission function will run the utility. MongoDB 4.4 support The Sage X3 platform is now compatible with MongoDB 4.4.10, Syracuse 12.14 is required. Sage strongly recommends that you update MongoDB as maintenance for previous versions will cease. API’s GraphQL API Enhancements have been made to the Sage X3 GraphQL schema to add various nodes and properties, find below. For more information and supporting materials, please click here. Transaction for Production Tracking Employee ID (Manufacturing) Materials consumption in a work order tracking (mutation) Work Order Operations line Work Order materials line Business Partner (read) Customer (read) Rate type added to currency rates General balance (read) Journal entry lines Work center Work center group Project budget Project Assignment Project Operation Supplier (read) Completed quantity for work order tracking (mutation) Want to learn more? The Sage X3 Central Centre of Excellence team is running a series of New Feature Highlights sessions where you can learn the value of the newest features of Sage X3 2022 R1. For more information, please visit Sage University or contact us.

It is a common practice to need to post a financial entry to a closed fiscal year. In Sage X3, you can easily reopen a fiscal year, but you must edit your new period (NP) journal entries before you do so. Otherwise, the system will throw an error. In this blog post, we will look at the steps you need to take prior to reopening a fiscal year. In Sage X3, when you reopen a fiscal year, the system will attempt to delete the new period (NP) journal entries. It does this so that when you reclose the fiscal year, it can create new NPs to reflect any changes or additions you may have made at the GL level. However, X3 cannot delete the NP journal entries if they are in Final status. Instead, the system throws an error. To avoid this, and successfully reopen the fiscal year, you must first change the status for the NP journal entries from Final to Temporary. Step 1 is to identify all opening journal entries taking place on Jan. 1 of the new fiscal year: These are the entries that are already finalized and will need to change from Final status to Temporary status. To do this, we will edit the GACCENTRY table. Go to Development > Utilities > Maintenances > In lines: Select the table GACCENTRY: On the main screen, go to the right-hand menu and click Selection: Under Selection criterion, enter NUM=‘NP000116’ (In our example, NP000116 is the first of the opening entries to be modified): Now we can access the record: Next, go to the field status and change Status (STA) from 2 (Final) to 1 (Temporary): Save the changes. Now repeat the process starting with the Selection criteria, this time for the next JE: Continue with all opening journal entries shown on the first screen (in this case, NP000116 to NP000122). After completing this step, verify that the entries are in Temporary status: Now we are ready to reopen the fiscal year: Once you have reopened the fiscal year, you can make any changes or additions and then reclose. If you have any questions about how to reopen a closed fiscal year, or any other questions about Sage X3, please contact us.