If you prefer not to transmit this information (which Sage say’s may happen as often as once per day and include software serial numbers, usage of key features, etc) then you can turn it off in three easy steps.

Step One

Login as the administrator to Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200. This happens directly from the initial login. Instead of using your user login code – use the login Administrator.

Enter in the administrator password.

If you do not have the administrator password – locate the person in your company who does or contact your Sage business partner – or Sage.

Step Two

Once logged into the administrative control panel – select the very last option at the bottom of the screen:

Sage Product Enhancement Program

Change your participation in the program

Step Three

Remove the check mark from the following screen where it indicates “Participate in Program”.

If you change your mind in the future you can always reverse these changes by following the above steps and checking the “Participate in Program”.

More screenshots/instructions on opting-out of MAS90 PEP

© 2011, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Formed in 2005. the 90 Minds Consulting Group is a collaboration of 100 Sage partners who independently join together online in a 24 x 7 private communication network to solve difficult issues for their customers. The group is not affiliated with Sage and our collaboration provides for unparalleled member access to early warnings of bugs and other issues which members in turn are encouraged to use to provide an exceptional customer experience.

Courtesy of Jeff Schwenk of Bottomline Software, here is a nice detailed overview document (with screen-shots, graphics, etc.) that explains what’s included in the latest Product Update 5 (PU5) for Sage MAS 90/200.  Enjoy!

         What’s New in PU 4.40.0.5?

© 2011, Brett Zimmerman. All rights reserved. Formed in 2005. the 90 Minds Consulting Group is a collaboration of 100 Sage partners who independently join together online in a 24 x 7 private communication network to solve difficult issues for their customers. The group is not affiliated with Sage and our collaboration provides for unparalleled member access to early warnings of bugs and other issues which members in turn are encouraged to use to provide an exceptional customer experience.

Wrong!

The first test conversion ran over the weekend before I stopped it. After several more attempts (different workstation, different server) I was going nowhere fast. Since I was jumping up three versions, I tried migrating to v4.2 (no problem) to v4.3 (again no problem) and finally to v4.4 (stopped dead again).

I contacted a fellow member of the 90Minds group who was able to troubleshoot the problem for me.

He traced the problem to the AP_OpenInvoice table changes made to support the new A/P Electronic Payments enhancement. The conversion works well until it encounters hundreds — if not thousands — of records that have the same Div/Vendor/Non-Blank CheckNo combination, namely 00-NOF vendors.

This client has a tremendous number of 00-NOF transactions in the AP_CheckHistoryHeader table.

I submitted the files to Sage for their review and hopefully code correction.

In the meantime, this client will have to wait a while longer before upgrading from v4.1 to v4.4.

Jeff Schwenk
Bottomline Software, Inc
jschwenk@btmlinesoft.com
jschwenk@90minds.com

© 2010, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Formed in 2005. the 90 Minds Consulting Group is a collaboration of 100 Sage partners who independently join together online in a 24 x 7 private communication network to solve difficult issues for their customers. The group is not affiliated with Sage and our collaboration provides for unparalleled member access to early warnings of bugs and other issues which members in turn are encouraged to use to provide an exceptional customer experience.

Yesterday, I was on site at one of these clients so I decided to create the VI job to renumber inventory. Took about 10 minutes as it is straight forward.

Simple right?

Wrong!

The import fails on the NewItemCode line. The number is not file.

Of course it isn’t as I am creating a new number.

The utility works well from the MAS 90 menu as I threw up my hands and just rekeyed the 50 new numbers. The client has waited long enough.

I submitted the case to Sage this morning. To their credit, they were quick to respond with a possible resolution “Remove the “NEW_MRG_Item_NO” validation record in the Validation tab of the import job. I gently reminded the Senior Analyst that the new business framework did not have this flexibility.

I hope that it is not another six months before this issue is resolved. But if it is, it will be a welcomed Christmas present…….

Jeff Schwenk
Bottomline Software, Inc.
Jschwenk@btmlinesoft.com
Jschwenk@90Minds.com

© 2010, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Formed in 2005. the 90 Minds Consulting Group is a collaboration of 100 Sage partners who independently join together online in a 24 x 7 private communication network to solve difficult issues for their customers. The group is not affiliated with Sage and our collaboration provides for unparalleled member access to early warnings of bugs and other issues which members in turn are encouraged to use to provide an exceptional customer experience.

There are several tricks to setting up Paperless Office for MAS 90. Here are a few of the suggestions from members of the 90 Minds consulting group:

Via Brett Zimmerman – The Fitzgerald Group – Sharon, MA

I’ve always been in the habit of obtaining the Paperless Electronic Delivery setup info ahead of time to avoid having to scramble while onsite.

• SMTP (MAIL) SERVER: Enter the DNS Address (e.g., mail.example.com) or IP Address (e.g., 128.0.0.102) of the SMTP server you are using to send e-mail. This address is needed to generate e-mail messages.
• PORT: Enter the port number the SMTP sever is using if it is not configured to use the default port. (25 ?)
• USER ID: Enter the USER ID and password to use for authentication at your e-mail server. While not always required, it is a good idea to only send ‘authenticated’ mail. This user does not have to be the one the mail is from; it is only used to log onto the e-mail server when sending mail. It’s recommended a separate e-mail account be used specifically for Paperless, to prevent the password from being changed and therefore causing Paperless to stop working.
• PASSWORD: Enter a password for this user. The characters that you type are masked with the ‘$’ symbol.
• “FROM” E-MAIL ADDRESS: What is the e-mail address you want these MAS 90/200 e-mails to be sent from? And this will obviously be the e-mail address used if the recipients reply to your e-mails.

Via Beth Bowers – MAS90 Consulting in Michigan

• This wasn’t mentioned, but it’s a bug (Sage knows) – if you print the AP Invoice Payment Selection Register from CHECK MAINTENANCE, it will not prompt for Paperless (or go to Paperless automatically if you have it setup as Yes). It won’t do Paperless at ALL, no how, no way.
• The Payroll reports on the Main Menu are considered REGISTERS, not Reports, and you can’t check the box re only keeping the last register or you will overwrite week after week. I consider this another bug – but since there are no journal/register NUMBERS associated with these reports, I guess that’s why they can’t verify and think they’re all the same week’s report. ANYWAY, if you are doing Payroll Paperless, you can’t check that box.
• If you’re doing IM Period End, you also need to setup IM Reports, since Trial Balance is not on the Period End menu of reports.
• File/Run/PL_AdvancedOptions_UI comes in really handy.
• The most common problem in setting up Paperless is that CDINTF.DLL isn’t registered. (At least in my experience – have had this at at least 6 different sites – more common more recently.) (Actually, besides not being registered it usually isn’t even in the folder it’s supposed to be in (C:|Program Files\Common Files\Sage\Common Components)

Via Jeff Schwenk – Bottom Line Software – MAS 90 Consultants – Indiana

Here is a little tidbit that I picked up from last week’s install.

Working with an Master Developer, I mentioned to him that certain journal updates were not going to PDF even though it was supposed to be active.

And the only reason I brought it up to him was the fact that the update was one that may have been affected by his enhancements.

Below is a DFDM screen shot from the SY_task.m4t file.

Field 18 holds the flag that associates (at least partially) the report to the PDF. If the field is N, then nothing will generate via paperless. If the value is 1 (one), then a PDF is generated for journals and registers.

Each type of paperless update (period end, report, customer viewer, etc) will have a different value.

Here is a recap of the values.
1 – Journals/Registers
2 – Invoice Printing
3 – PO printing
4 – PR DD Stub and Governmental Forms
5 – Reports
6 – Period End
N – Nothing Assigned.

Chances are if you’re having trouble getting paperless to print, look into SY_Task.M4T and check field 18 and you may see that the flag is set to “N”. Be careful because some reports are not named as you would think. For example Check Maintenance is different from Invoice Payment Selection.

© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Formed in 2005. the 90 Minds Consulting Group is a collaboration of 100 Sage partners who independently join together online in a 24 x 7 private communication network to solve difficult issues for their customers. The group is not affiliated with Sage and our collaboration provides for unparalleled member access to early warnings of bugs and other issues which members in turn are encouraged to use to provide an exceptional customer experience.