Sage 500

We are at the end of the year and many of you are preparing or already processing physical counts. If you are familiar with this process in Sage 500 you have already noticed that unit cost field is not available in any of the forms in this task. This is because the unit cost is calculated based on the item’s valuation method and a setting in Set Up IM Options form. So here is the logic:

For all valuation methods…

Light Manufacturing provides an easy-to-use Production Entry screen where finished goods are reported after the fact. This single point of entry eliminates dozens of potential labor and production transactions by automatically issuing material quantities, outside process transactions and labor time to finished goods. There are no Work Orders with Light Manufacturing. Use the backflush feature to automatically issue labor…

Bins are built into Sage 500 ERP activities to manage stock movement and inventory transactions.

• Specify volume, weight, and count cycle for bins.
• Define preferred bins for specific items.
• Use fixed bins for items that may be stocked in various bin locations within the warehouse.
• Use random bins for items that may be stocked in various bin locations within the warehouse.
• Staging bins can be used to temporarily hold items…

Purchases Clearing Report can be used to simplify month-end reconciliation of the purchases clearing account balance with open amounts on purchase order. The purchases clearing account is a liability holding account that contains inventory received in Receipt of Goods Entry without full invoicing until all invoices are posted in Process Receipt of Invoice (partial receiving and invoicing in Sage 500 is allowed). This account…

Often you need to import Sage 500 data using built in Import utility in multiple modules (GL, AP, AR, IM).  The data is imported as ASCII records in flat files using either fixed length or record delimited (using a specified character) source records. By convention, files containing fixed length records have the extension ".asc," while the files containing delimited records have the extension ".del." .…

The manufacturing software industry has many industry-specific terms. We've compiled a short list of key manufacturing terms used with Bill of Materials in Manufacturing module. Here it is:

Backflush – The deduction from inventory records of the component parts used in an assembly or subassembly by exploding the bill of materials by the production count of assemblies produced.

Bill of material (BOM) – …

• The ‘Book Balance’ is the balance in Cash Management Module. It is not the General Ledger balance in General Ledger.
• The Bank Balance (Book Balance) calculated in Reconcile Bank Accounts is the sum of any beginning balance entry made in Cash Management (CM), plus the outstanding transactions sourced from Accounts Payable (AP) checks, Accounts Receivable (AR) deposits, and CM transactions, including adjustments…

Adjustments to inventory value are made using Process Cost Tier Adjustments task. Here are some important  things to know about cost adjustments :

• Inventory Quantity cannot be adjusted through Cost Tier Adjustments. Quantities in the cost tiers are not adjusted through this program, but rather, would be corrected or adjusted through the inventory transactions program.  
• Cost adjustments will create general ledger transactions…

The new year is coming and this necessitates creating the inventory calendar in Sage 500 ERP. The Inventory Calendar must be set up before posting transactions to the new year.  There is no direct task on the Sage 500 desktop, which may make the Inventory Calendar difficult to find.  

By default the inventory calendar starts on 01/01 and ends on 12/31. This can be broken down over multiple periods and even more than 12 periods…

Allow negative quantity on hand option determines if the system allows the user to ship, issue, transfer or consume more than the quantity they have on hand. Theoretically, a stocked inventory item should never have a negative balance, but negative on-hand balances have their place in the real world. Suppose a product runs out and customers are constantly calling to see if a shipment of the item has arrived. As soon as…

An outside process is an external process or service that is performed by a vendor outside your company.  Outside processing involves sending raw materials or manufactured goods to a vendor outside the company for processing. For example, if you manufacture items which have chromed parts on them — but your company does not have a metal chroming facility — then you would need to send the raw metal part to an outside vendor…

Set Up IM Options sets defaults that are used throughout Inventory Management and other modules, and activates / deactivates features and processing options available on the system. These options are designed to allow the users to tailor the Sage 500 ERP Inventory Management module to the specific needs of their business.  

Here is a graphic representation for some of the setting that will help you understand better how…

Sage 500 ERP product has summarized quantities in various screens to assist the user in making business decisions relating to inventory availability.  You probably noticed that often in various Sage 500 forms/windows (usually accessed thru one of IM context menus) quantity on hand and quantity available are different. Quantity on hand is a quantity of a finished good or raw material item that is physically present in the…

The Credit Card Vendor feature was added in a later version of Sage 500 ERP, version 2018.  In Accounts Payable, Maintenance, Maintain Vendor, a Vendor can be created to represent a Credit Card (CC) for paying vendors.   You may create more than one CC vendor if you are using multiple credit cards to pay your vendors.   The best practice is to use the CC name for the Vendor to avoid confusion during transaction processing…

The most common issue with Sage Intelligence, is when you run a Report Designer Add-In Report, you get '#NAME?' on all cell values in the Report.  Look for missing Task Panes.

All cell values on the report are all formulas.  Without the Task Pane, Sage Intelligence has no way to interpret the results of those formulas.

Sage Support document on how to troubleshoot Task Pane issues can be found below.

First, verify…

Beginning July 1^st, 2022 Colorado will impose a $0.27 retail delivery fee on all deliveries by motor vehicle to a location in Colorado. The fee is per order and applies if there is any taxable item in the order.  Wholesale or other exempt sales are not subject to this fee.

The fee is displayed on the sales invoice. It is charged to the customer by the retailer and that retailer is liable to collect the fee and remit the…

Configuring Business Insights Dashboard in Microsoft Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Click the Settings and More (ellipsis) button on the top-right corner.
3. Select the Settings option.
4. Click on Default browser.
5. Under the “Internet Explorer compatibility” section, turn on the “Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode” toggle switch.
6. Click the Restart button.

  You can add a page: http://localhost…

The settlement process releases a batch of transactions to the credit card processing networks for the funds to be transferred between the card holders bank and the merchants bank. This process normally occurs automatically (typically in the evening, and you can Contact the processor to change this option). Once finished the funds will have a "Settled" status.

At this point, Sage 500 does not know that the…

The topic for this month shows you where you can look to get a list of users that are logged into Sage 500 AND how to check if there any blocked / blocking connections. I will demonstrate an example of a blocked / blocking transaction, to show you what it would look like if you were to run into that scenario.  The task is System Status, located under System Manager, Tools.  By the way, you would also need to have security permission…

This was originally posted by Tony Dizon, and updated by Phil Kennedy  in August 2024. If you ever had a need to run the Sage 500 Database Synchronization Utility from a command line, then this will be of interest to you.  The Sy...

In Purchase Order > Maintenance > PO Setup > Set Up PO Options > Others > Matching > Match Invoice to PO

Match Invoices To PO

• Select this check box to allow invoices to be matched to purchase order according to the tolerance codes established in 'Set Up Tolerance Codes'.  Selecting this check box enables the PO Default and Line Item Default files.  Clear this check box if you do not want to match…

When will the 1099 update for tax year 2020 be available?

1099 updates are independent of Sage 500 product updates. The official release date is by the end of the calendar year. However, we normally release the second or third week of December as we make a serious attempt to get it out as early as possible. The tax year 2020 will bring a new 1099 form, the 1099 NEC (Non-Employee Compensation). With it, will bring some…

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is an encryption protocol intended to keep data secure when being transferred over a network. Microsoft has been announcing  the deprecation of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for the Office 365 service for more then two years and finally enforced it starting October 15, 2020. 

The Office client can use TLS 1.2 if the web service of the local computer can use TLS 1.2. Here is how Microsoft addressed this issue…

How  do you handle returns when you're drop-shipping and the goods were sent directly to the customer from the supplier?

Drop-ship returns are processed as customer returns. In Set Up SO Options, you can also select if drop-ship items can be returned through the Customer Returns process.

Select this check box to allow customers to return drop ship items that are linked to sales orders. Clear this check box if you do…

If you need to add a default value to an existing control you can use Sage 500 Customizer. In this example using Customizer  script the default credit limit in Maintain Vendors form is loaded by tabbing to the control containing the default value.

1. Launch AP/Maintenance/Maintain Vendors
2. Click on the ‘Customizer’ (Alt + F3) to open the ‘Customization’ screen
3. Click on the ‘Credit Limit’ text field…