A True Timesaver in 9.7

With the busy year-end season upon us, many of you have already upgraded to 9.7 for Sage Timberline Office and to meet the latest reporting requirements.  To maximize effectiveness and simplify workflow in your day-to-day operations, the performance improving enhancements in this upgrade version are plentiful.  Your Timberline Office system now allows your team to efficiently locate and act upon key information with a wide range of automation, workflow and process improvements.

Among the numerous enhancements in 9.7 (Summer 2010- 9.7b release) is improved integration between Project Management and Document Management with the capability of sending and archiving Project Management attachments directly to the Document Management DocuVault. 

Queries can be initiated from the Attachment window and original documents or DocuVault versions can be easily accessed and retrieved.  I remember back in the day, several of my college professors advocated the “KISS” concept – Keep It Simple Stupid.  Now that’s what I call “simplicity.”

Now the question is how do you perform Project Management DocuVault integration?  Keep in mind; attachments are able to be sent from these tasks: 

•          Change Order Requests
•          RFIs
•          Submittals
•          Meeting Minutes
•          Commitments
•          Commitment Change Orders
•          Custom Logs
•          Drawing Logs

 To send an attachment to the DocuVault for one of the above Project Management tasks:

•  Click [Attachments...].
•  On the Attachments window click the File Links tab.
•  Click [Add...] to select a document to attach or drag and drop a file into the window.
•   If the Automatically send to DocuVault check box is selected, then you can click [OK] to close the window. Otherwise, click Send Copy to DocuVault.

Now that your file has been sent to the DocuVault, you can open it from DocuVault or from the original location. In addition, you can now open a Document Management query from the Project Management Attachment window.  And for now, life is simpler.

"Chaos is a friend of mine."

As Bob Dylan once quoted, "Chaos is a friend of mine." 

Come again? Obviously, Mr. Dylan never had the all too familiar task of closing out the books at the end of the year. When we're thinking of business year-end, we think of "chaos." Installing updates, closing applications, printing 1099's, closing the fiscal year, closing the payroll year, yada, yada, yada... Determining the order you should follow for year-end tasks can be challenging, to say the least. Believe it or not, there is a method to the "year-end" madness. 

For a straightforward Q&A on timing year-end tasks, take a peek at the Year-End Resource Center on the CPA Technology website at www.cpatechnology.net. Hey, there's even a workflow diagram to help you along. 

To quote a polar opposite of the above, German novelist/essayist, Thomas Mann once said, "Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject."

CPA Technology's Fall Goings-On

Apparently, the leaves are falling (proven by the body aches I'm feeling today from the amount of raking I did over the weekend) and so are the prices for On Center Software, but you have to act fast...this promotion only lasts until the end of November!

Boost your Estimating - On Center Software is running a November promotion; 15% - 25% discount to new and existing customers!  Purchase On-Screen Takeoff, Quick Bid, and/or Digital Production Control and receive a 15% to 25% discount off the software purchase.

Eligible software licenses for this promotion include On-Screen Takeoff, Quick Bid, and/or Digital Production Control. The End of the Year 15% discount replaces On Center Software, Inc.’s standard 10% Bundle discount however can be applied to single license purchases. The 15% discount applies to software only and does not include any services or License Manager. Volume discounts are to be calculated, if eligible, at the standard volume discount levels ($10,000, $20,000, $30,000, and $40,000 list price). The total discount available, if applicable, is 25% off any one order. This offer cannot be combined with any other promotion or discount. Previous purchases are not eligible for this promotion. Purchase must be made on or before November 30, 2010! Contact CPA Technology at (610) 862-1998 if you're interested.

And just a side note, here's a way to stay abreast on the latest Sage product updates, year-end information and more!!!  Read "The Net", Vol IV.

Fall/Winter 2010 "The Net" Vol IV

Free Continuing Education Seminar "Enhancing Your Business By Reducing Wasted Efficiencies"

Guest Speaker: Mr. Manfred Marotta, Former V.P. of Toll Brothers, Inc.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
8:30 AM - 10:30 AM (Sign-in begins at 8:00 AM)

CPA Technology Training Center, 101 W. Elm Street, Ste. 500, Conshohocken, PA 19428
Hosted by CPA Technology (a Pennsylvania CPE Program Sponsor - License # PX 177404)

This free speaking engagement will focus on eliminating waste in Manufacturing and Distribution operations while increasing efficiency and improving your return on investment and profit-margin. Our guest speaker will discuss the types and causes of waste found in this industry and will also inform the audience on ways to minimize these, as well as overhead costs in the administrative department.

Forms of waste which may be hurting your operations:
Product/Service defects, Processing, Overproduction, Motion, Inventory, Waiting, and/or Transportation

Event Registration Link 

Guest Speaker Bio:

With over 35 years experience as an Executive in the Construction, Manufacturing, and the Building Supply Sectors, Manfred believes the key to success is tied to the Synergy of the team. He has searched throughout his career for the next step to efficiently automate a process, whether it is moving product on an assembly line or moving information through the office. Manfred has also always believed that change must pay for itself. There has to be an immediate and substantial return on the cost associated with changing a process.

Without this continuous improvement, his organization would have lost their competitive advantage. $300 million  division…training has enabled his workers to become more personally accountable for their work. He has maintained this philosophy throughout his career.

My Tenant Pro 7 clients have asking me lately:

I need to change the management fee I charge, but when I try to do it the systems warns me that it will recalculate all past management fees. How do I change my fee?

Tenant Pro 7 will only recalculate past manangement fees if you run the Paymatic feature for a prior month. Moving forward Tenant Pro will calculate the current fee based on the new rates setup on each property. So before you change your management fee rates, make sure you are paid up for all your properties at the old rate first, then go back to each property and put in your new rate, when the warning box comes up click Yes to save the changes. That's all there is to it!

Let us know if you think this was helpful.

Attention: Tenant Pro users, tell us what you think.

RealPage Acquires Domin-8, the corporate parent of Tenant Pro, on February 16, 2010
Well it has been five months since Domin-8, the corporate parent of Tenant Pro was bought out by RealPage, Inc. CPA Technology, LLC a leading Tenant Pro consulting firm, located near Philadelphia, is interested in hearing about your current experiences with Tenant Pro software since the big acquisition. Let us know what you think, good or bad so we can let RealPage know how they are doing.

So, what's this "Sage Timberline Enterprise" that everyone keeps talking about?

Get ready for Sage Software's newest CRE robust business management solution coming later this year (currently in its beta-testing stage and planned for a general Fall 2010 release).  Designed to meet the unique business needs for service and/or specialty contractors and general contractors who self-perform work, Sage Timberline Enterprise (STE) is developed with tighter integration between Service Management, Purchasing, Inventory, Estimating and Accounting for maximum productivity, greater visibility and reducing unnecessary data input.  Sage's development roadmap for STE includes a second release (time TBD) developed more for the general contractor market.

Built on a high performance and secure Microsoft SQL platform, dispatchers can check inventory and order parts from their dispatch board.  Project managers can see responses to RFIs, transmittals and submittals. Accounting staff can set up jobs simply by selecting from a list of estimates.  Some of the many other features include:

• Robust API functionality for heightened adaptability
• Industry-leading Estimating solutions helping to improve the estimating process for more accurate and profitable estimates and bids
• Intuitive and easy-to-use Workspaces that provide interactive inquiries
• Full integration between Purchasing, Inventory, Service Management, and accounting applications eliminating the need to enter information more than once
• An optional Service Management application centering around a new state-of-the-art Dispatch Board
• An open design providing integration with a variety of third-party applications (remote/mobile solutions, alert & notifications software, MICR check printing software and more!

Current Timberline Office and Master Builder customers who decide to migrate to STE receive an “In The Family” discount. On top of that customers will be eligible for an “Early Bird” discount if they purchase Sage Timberline Enterprise by September 30, 2010.

For a more in-depth look at this new solution from Sage, call CPA Technology at (610) 862-1998. We also have an upcoming Breakfast Meeting previewing Sage Timberline Enterprise on August 17th, 2010.  Call us for more details!

Sage Timberline Enterprise Overview Brochure: Find it here!