Ei Dynamics Business Alerting Tools for SMB

Sage Master Builder has excellent, but rather static, tools for helping run a company. If you want to know something, you have to open the program and go look for it, print a report or run a query. How useful would it be if an email alert was sent to a responsible person whenever a particular circumstance existed, or something needed to be followed up? What if those alerts were sent automatically, without having to remember to seek out the conditions or run a report or query?

Now there is a terrific tool available to send intelligent alerts automatically to employees, managers, owners, vendors and customers, without requiring someone to remember to start up the process. Dynamic Alerts and Dynamic Reports from Ei Dynamics, Inc. are business alerting programs that never sleep and never forget to let someone know when a situation needs some attention! It works with Sage Master Builder and comes with a collection of pre-built alerts designed for use with SMB.

These links may be of interest:

• Ei Dynamics Product Flyer for Construction Products
• Ei Dynamics List of Pre-Built Alerts for Sage Master Builder

The pre-built alerts are really just a few examples of the kinds of things one can do with Dynamic Reports and Dynamic Alerts, as customized alerts and reports can be designed and scheduled to fit virtually any need. Would any of the following tasks be helpful to your company?

• Send an email alert to each project manager of all his or her RFIs (or Submittals or RFPs) that don’t have a response logged in SMB by the Required By date.
• Send an email reminder to Vendors that have not replied to an RFI (or Submittal or RFP) by the Required By date.
• Send a list on the first of each month to Purchasing Manager of Vendors that do not have a proper 1099 Status, or Federal ID # if needed, so that he or she can follow up.
• Send an email request for a W-9 (with a W-9 form attached) to any vendor that meets certain conditions.
• Send the company owner a short email list of projects, the assigned manager and the amount by which each project is over budget on the first of each month.

For more information about Ei Dynamics products and how they can help your company get even more benefit from Sage Master Builder, give us a call at 800-281-2675.

Year End Closing Procedures

It’s that time of year again! Thanksgiving has just passed and its time to start planning for the end of year procedures.

Year end closing can be a little intimidating on the surface, so each year we publish a guide to year end procedures for Sage Master Builder to ease the concerns.

Sage has advised that the 2010 tax update will require you to be using Version 14 to get the latest payroll tax tables. If you haven’t upgraded to Sage Master Builder Version 14, call us and we can help you get upgraded.

Sage’s Technical Support no longer supports Master Builder versions earlier than 13, but our version 13 documents should work well with earlier versions.

Our Year End Closing Procedures documents can be found on the Downloads page of our website. Decide whether you need the Combined Closing document for December fiscal year end closings, or the Separate Closings document for closing payroll and 1099’s at the end of December and closing the fiscal year at some other time. Select which version of Sage Master Builder is appropriate for you. Right click on that link, select “Save Target As…” and decide where to save the file.

If you read through this document and follow it carefully, year end is easy! Consider practicing on a copy of your company on your local C: drive if you wish. Plan out the process with a calendar and you will find year end to be the least stressful part of this holiday season!

As always, don’t hesitate to call us if you have questions or concerns.

Windows 7 and Sage Master Builder

Twice now, important customers have upgraded machine operating systems to Windows 7 without checking with Sage Tech Support or us. Please note that Sage has not blessed Windows 7 for use with Sage Master Builder at this time. Sage is actively testing Windows 7 with Sage Master Builder, but has deferred an official blessing at the time of this posting. We have seen SMB run in a Windows 7 environment, but have also noted some unusual behaviors that may be attributable to the Windows 7 environment. If you don't mind being on the "bleeding edge," dive right in to Windows 7, but do so at your own peril.

As with Windows XP and Vista, do not use the Windows 7 Home products, as they are likely to present problems with networking. Instead, insist on Windows 7 Professional for your business workstations.

We will post updates on Windows 7 as they become available.

Some Sage Master Builder Users are preparing to blast out of the slump!

In the past year, a number of Sage Master Builder users have "hunkered down" and sought to cut overhead costs during the economic downturn. During this time, we counseled our clients to look for ways to use this time to streamline operations and optimize their use of existing resources, such as their investment in Sage Master Builder.

Recently, we have seen an increase in calls from users of Sage Master Builder looking for help in improving how they use the program. Some of the calls have been for:

• Improving estimating techniques and the integration of estimating with other areas of the program
• Improving purchasing processes, through use of the subcontracts and purchase orders modules
• Improving post completion job reviews (or job autopsies) to fine tune estimating and production processes and improve profitability

These users are positioning themselves to be more productive, effective and profitable as the economy improves and their business volumes grow!

Terminal Services is a reasonable solution for heavy hardware requirements

As noted earlier, Sage Master Builder Version 14 expects much stronger computing power than prior versions. A company may be faced with a significant investment to upgrading RAM and Processors on all the machines on which SMB Version 14 is to be run.

One alternative is to switch to using Windows Terminal Services. I'm not a technical network whiz, but in a nutshell, with Terminal Services, a single powerful server runs SMB for all users in the company. The users access the server over the network using more modest computers, sending keyboard and mouse commands to the server and receiving back display images from the server. All actual processing is done on the server and very little is expected of the remote computer's processor and resources.

Setting up a Terminal Services server is a bit complicated and requires a competent network consultant, but the return on this investment can make it worthwhile. Terminal Services Servers can be configured to permit workers outside the office, working from home, a field office trailer or a branch office, to access the power and information of Sage Master Builder just like workers in the main office.

SMB Version 14 wants more robust hardware!

Users of Sage Master Builder Version 14 are advised to upgrade their hardware and operating systems to avoid significant processing slowdowns.

Servers should be running 32 or 64 bit versions of

• Windows Server 2003,
• Windows Small Business Server 2003 with SP1 or newer,
• Windows XP Professional with SP2 or newer,
• Windows Server 2008, or
• Windows Small Business Server 2008

Servers should have 4 GB or more of RAM, 3.5 GB of free disk space, and an Intel Dual Core/Quad Core processor running at 2 GHz+ or its equivalent.

Workstations should be running 32 or 64 bit versions of

• Windows XP Professional with SP2 or newer, or
• Vista Business Edition

Workstations should have 2 GB or more of RAM for Windows XP Professional or 4 GB or more of RAM for Vista Business Edition, 3 GB of free disk space, and an Intel Dual Core/Quad Core processor running at 2 GHz+ or its equivalent.

The most significant change is the increased amount of RAM required. It is likely that systems that previously ran with lesser amounts of RAM and older processors, will continue to operate, but performance speeds may be unsatisfactory.

SMB Version 14 and Custom Reports

While we are excited about the impending release of Sage Master Builder Version 14 (see the earlier posts), there is apparently a minor challenge with some custom reports that would run without problems in earlier versions. The migration to a more robust and modern programming language has caused a few custom reports to not run properly.

If you have a "mission critical" custom report (either only run from menu 13-4, or run from a normal report printing window, but numbered lower than 21) you may need to have it adjusted to run properly with Version 14.

If you have such a "mission critical" custom report, and would like us to test it to ensure that you will not have any problems with the report after Version 14 is installed, please give us a call at 480-471-5305 or 602-357-0150 and we will be happy to test it for you on our pre-release copy of Sage Master Builder Version 14.