Sage Master Builder Version 14 is Coming Soon!

When Sage announced that there would not be any significant enhancements added with the Version 13 release, I was disappointed. I understood that they needed the time usually devoted to new enhancements in order to translate the existing program from Visual Basic, to a more powerful and adaptable language, C# (C sharp), that would provide a better platform for moving Sage Master Builder forward. So the Master Builder world waited…and competitors got busy trying to suggest that this was a death-knell for Sage Master Builder, that Sage was ignoring Master Builder to promote the more expensive and more complex Timberline Office product.

Sage has announced that it will begin shipping Sage Master Builder Version 14 in August, 2009.

I can now say that the wait was worth it! I have been playing around with a pre-release version of Sage Master Builder Version 14, and I can’t wait to show it to my clients and prospects! Some of the enhancements found in Version 14 include:

• Attach Files and Links to Records – So powerful that I’ll devote an entire blog entry to this enhancement!
• Mouse Wheel Scrolling Enhanced – Users can now use their mouse wheel to scroll through grids, lookup windows and the Service Dispatch Board.
• More Under-billed Jobs Available for Display on the Executive Dashboard – A link to show all under-billed jobs (instead of the top five most under-billed) is now available on the Executive Dashboard.
• Support for 64-bit Operating Systems – SMB now supports the 64-bit versions of MS Windows XP Professional, Vista Business, and Server 2008 operating systems.
• Integration with MS Outlook – Outlook can now be launched with a file attachment from many points in the program.
• Improved Workflow for Changing Periods and Closing the Fiscal Year – The user interface has been improved for the old menu item 1-6 Audit/Close Books to reduce confusion and misunderstanding of the process.
• New Income Statement Format – Report 2-3-0-34 Income Statement by Period has been added which now shows each of the 12 periods of a year and a total for the year. This report must be printed on legal sized paper.
• Post Retention-only Progress Bills – One can now post a progress billing that merely reclassifies amounts from Retention to Currently Due, even though there is no current income being billed and still be able to create a “Next” Progress Billing record.
• New Columns Added to Open Invoices and Paid Invoices Lookup Windows in Vendor – This will help with looking up vendor invoices.
• Payroll Check Date vs Quarter Audit Error Handling – Users can now correct their own payroll audit errors arising from conflicts between payroll quarters and payroll check dates, because the payroll quarter field is now editable on saved payroll records.
• Certified Payroll Reports Now Can Mask Employee Social Security Numbers – A new global calculated field has been added that makes masking an employee’s social security number much easier.
• Reprint Direct Deposit Report – An option has been added which permits the reprinting of a direct deposit file report.
• Update Maximum Only for Payroll Calculations – An option has been added which permits users to “push” new calculation maximums out to appropriate employees without wiping out the rates elected by the individual employees, which is particularly useful for 401k contribution calculations.
• Daily Field Report Grid Notes to Payroll and Job Cost Records – Grid notes from the daily field report module now transfer to payroll records and resulting job cost records.
• Integration of Subcontract, Subcontract Change Orders and Accounts Payable Invoices – Another killer enhancement, so powerful that I will devote another separate entry on it.
• RFI and RFP Numbering by Job and Phase – The program can now be configured to assign numbers sequentially by Job and Phase, rather than continuously for all jobs.
• Job Income Statement Report – Report 6-1-4-71 Job Income Statement has been added to the standard reports. It reflects job costs by cost type, billings from both contracts and service receivables, gross profit and gross profit percentage by job and phase. It does not, however, recognize percentage of completion adjustments and thus may not be a true representation of profitability.
• Financial Review and Project Review – The modules found in menu 13-1 and 13-2 have long been broken and did not reflect correct information. Sage has corrected and enhanced these graphical representations of key financial and project information! This should be a real plus for those managers who find graphical information more useful that traditional tabular accounting data!

There is also a long list of fixes and enhancements to the online Help text.

I hope you will agree that many of these enhancements are exciting, and a number of them have been long overdue. Keep an eye on the mail in August for your copy of the new program!