90 Minds Consultant Harold Westover has this to note about a recent import experience using MAS90 Visual Integrator (aka VI). This same tip probably holds true on MAS 200.

So far Harold’s the first to notice so treat this as unconfirmed – but definitely worth a check on your system if you run into a similar error message.

MAS90 Visual Integrator : VI__ImportJobMaintenance_ui error after Microsoft Patch

Tuesday VI was working fine. Suddenly on Wednesday, when you tried to select any VI job on 24 workstations we got the error above BUT NOT on the server and one workstation. It turned out that that the server did not have Microsoft Office installed and the PC that worked had Office 2000. All the others had Office 97. Upgraded to Office 2000 and immediately that PC could now run VI jobs.

Looks like the Microsoft Tuesday patches caused the problem and the Client is now forced to upgrade to Office 2007.

Hope this saves you all from hours of diagnostic work.

Harold S Westover

Warrior Consultant Group INC

www.warriorgroup.com

Information on Crystal Reports and Xcelsius is also included.  Both these products work well with Sage MAS90 and MAS200.  Everything is wrapped up in an entertaining and visual video and avatar presentation format.

Click HERE to go to our sub-site.

Regarding Partner Certification for 4.40, it needs to be completed by August 1, 2010.
Sage MAS 90/200 v4.4 Recertification – http://sageu.com/ns_acs/bp/cert/mas90certs.html

I also received a copy of the .M4X file of what I assume contains the demo Customizer/Scripts from Steve Malmgren’s 4.40 Webinar a few weeks ago. Don’t believe Sage has posted it yet in the PFC.

Additionally I received a copy of the 4.40 mini-brochure (5 pages) of What’s New in 4.40. Also don’t believe Sage has it posted anywhere yet, but thanks to Wayne Schulz ( http://www.s-consult.com ): http://www.scribd.com/doc/25932616/Sage-MAS-90-and-200-Whats-New-in-4-4

Posted by Brett Zimmerman of The Fitzgerald Group.

Sage has announced that 56 of their Extended Solution catalog will be incorporated into version 4.4+ of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 (EES would receive them as well). The remaining catalog is available to all developers in good standing with Sage. They may upgrade these items and offer them to their customers – or to the general public.

Preferred Development Partners are a firm that has gone through the application process and have 15 positive references on their Providex programming work. They must have 5 partner and 10 client references that Sage checks. If the development partner is already a Gold or Endorsed Partner they get to skip the reference check and are considered a preferred development partner.

90Minds member DSD Business Systems is one of the Preferred Developers on this list. The contact is Jon Reiter – jonr@dsdinc.com.

Here’s a list of the current Sage Preferred Developers who can update your Extended Solutions (for a fee).

Via: Schulz Consulting

This table, available via download only, can be used on any MAS90 or MAS 200 system that is at level 3.71 or higher.

In order to download the tables (none are send by disk) you’ll need to access the Sage Software online site (or have your Sage Business Partner do this for you).

Sage typically updates their payroll tax tables several times during the busy year end time. This is because some states are late to report their changes or have not made up their minds about the rate schedules. Therefore be sure you check back at the Sage site to be sure you have the latest tax update.

After installing the tables be sure you verify they’re operating correctly (proper tax taken out) by manually computing a few checks and comparing the taxes per your computation (use the IRS paper guides to compute the tax manually) to what MAS90 or MAS200 computes.

If you are submitting 1099 data electronically or have New Jersey W2 forms to print – be sure to review the 2009 IRD which Sage also just released. It contains patches to enable MAS 90 and MAS 200 to correctly submit under the two previous situations (1099 filing electronically and NJ W2).

MAS90 and MAS200 2010 Payroll Tax Update and MAS90 and MAS200 2009 IRD

Sage MAS 90 and 200 Development Partners are an important member of the Sage partner community, providing valued specialized solutions for Sage MAS 90 and 200 ERP customers.

The library of over 1000 Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended Solutions titles have been made available to Sage Development Partners so that they can apply their expertise and provide Sage MAS 90 and 200 customers the specialized solutions that they need. The Sage MAS 90 and 200 Development Partners shown below have expressed interest in the Extended Solutions business, and have made a commitment to provide Extended Solutions customers with a high standard of service.

If you are not already working with a Sage Development Partner, please consider one of these Development Partners.

This announcement is related to Sage’s decision to incorporate some Extended Solutions into the future releases of MAS 90 and MAS 200 (version 4.4+).

The remainder that users wish to continue using will need to be independently upgraded by the developer community (of which the Preferred Development Partners are the chosen).

Click the image below for contact information.

90Minds founding member DSD Business Systems is one of the Preferred Development Partners and can be contacted via their web site – DSD Business Systems Preferred Development Partner for Extended Solutions

Sage has been discussing the future of their Extended Solutions since the Insights 2009 Partner Conference. At the conference it was widely discussed that certain Extended Solutions might become open source meaning that the source code would be given to select Master Developers who Sage has authorized to customize their program code. These developers would then be able to upgrade the enhancements individually (and for a separate fee) for end users.

Some Extended Solutions Incorporated To MAS 90 & MAS 200 4.4+

Starting with Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.4 expect to see approximately 56 of the popular Sage Extended Solutions incorporated to the core MAS 90 and MAS 200 product.

These select solutions will likely be added over a period of 12 to 24 months with a few titles being added with each release.

Remaining Extended Solutions Released As Open Source

The remaining catalog of Extended Solutions will be released as open source. Customers are free to select a Sage Master Developer and retain them (for a fee) to upgrade any Extended Solution that they own which was not selected by Sage for inclusion in a future MAS 90 and MAS 200 release.

Below is the list of Extended Solutions that Sage has indicated WILL be incorporated into future releases of MAS 90 & MAS 200.

Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended Solutions Incorporation List

Posted by Brett Zimmerman of The Fitzgerald Group.

This does not necessarily mean that someone is currently logged into the system and entering data into that module.  It can also mean that they have previously entered data and have not yet updated (i.e. run the Daily Sales Reports/Updates and updated, etc).

This will NOT prevent you from closing the period you are attempting to close.  It is merely a warning that an associated module has some data that may affect the balances in the module you are closing, indicating that you should verify that the unposted data is not for the period being closed.

via: Beth Bowers – Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Consultant – Michigan

Due to this limitation of the basic out of the box solution, customers have:

1. Modified the built in e-business templates with HTML code to create some of these functions.
2. Export to SQL or Access and develop a website accessing the data from those applications and importing into sales orders.
3. Customize the ProvideX code that the application is written in.
4. Wrap e-business within another site.
5. Create a site using ASP to read ODBC direct from the application. Then importing or filling in the shopping cart for the user to check out using built in function.

There might be combinations of the above list or others that I have not listed. MBA was working with a client trying to create the ASP read from ODBC and we realized that there were a few people out there trying to figure out how to do this. This blog will document a few key elements needed to read from the ODBC driver using ASP. This is for version 4.x or greater.  Hopefully this will help others trying to do the same thing. This is not meant to be the only way to do it nor the correct way to do it. It is just one way that we did it and it worked.

MORE INFO

Links: MBA Business Software – ASP Web Applications accessing MAS 90