Avant-Garde Software Solutions Partner for Sage and Microsoft offering consultancy, training and support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM (formerly Microsoft CRM), Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Microsoft Great Plains), Sage 200, Sage MMS, Sage line 100, Sage line 50 and Sage payroll

Which CRM Software and Accounting Software is right for you?

Being Microsoft and Sage accredited we offer unbiased advice

Avant-Garde Software - London - UK 020 8672 2808

Microsoft Gold Partner and Microsoft Small Business Specialist, specialising in Microsoft Dynamics CRM (formerly Microsoft CRM) and Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Microsoft Great Plains). With the new Microsoft Dynamics range of software businesses can transform their customer relationship management and financial reporting.
Skip Navigation Links
The Microsoft Dynamics SuiteExpand The Microsoft Dynamics Suite
The Sage 200 SuiteExpand The Sage 200 Suite
Skip Navigation Links.
Collapse HomeHome
Contact Us
Expand About UsAbout Us
Expand Our ServicesOur Services
Expand Our SoftwareOur Software
Collapse Accounts SoftwareAccounts Software
Expand Dynamics GPDynamics GP
Collapse Sage-200Sage-200
What's New
Analysis
Financials
Commercials
Project
Expand Sage Line 50Sage Line 50
Sage MMS
Sage Line 100
Expand CRM SoftwareCRM Software
Expand Online DemosOnline Demos
Expand BrochuresBrochures
Expand Case StudiesCase Studies
Expand Free EventsFree Events
Vacancies

						Find out more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (formerly Microsoft CRM). With Microsoft Dynamics CRM a fully integrated customer relationship management software package, it is easy to improve customer service helping organisations to win new and retain existing customers.
 

Sage 200 Whats New at a glance

Sage 200 news from Avant-Garde with the latest news on Sage 200 including new module releases 
        and service pack releases

Sage 200 and the Sage 200 suite is expanding fast with new modules being added for additional functionality and vertical industries.

This page of our website is dedicated to technical news for the Sage 200 product suite.

We will be including news of the new Sage 200 modules as well as the release of service packs and updates for the Sage 200 Suite

Sage 200 Version 5.10 now released

Sage have recently released version 5.10 of Sage 200 which incorporates lots of new functionality including items highlighted below

Feature Explanation Benefits
Sage 200 Financials and Commercials enhancements:
Financial Statements for Next Year New Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports have been added to the menu, to allow users to produce financial statements for next year. Allows the accounting function of an organisation to produce financial statements for the next year without having to close down the previous year. This takes the pressure off this department at a typically hectic time of year.
Import & Export of Financial Statements A financial statement layout, set up within a dataset, can now be exported and imported into another dataset or Sage 200 system with the same nominal structure. This feature saves the user or the Business Partner time, as duplication of effort is no longer required. One or more layouts can be set up and copied across datasets or Sage 200 systems.
Reconciliation Enquiries within the nominal ledger Two new reconciliation screens have been added to the software. These enquiries for debtors and creditor reconciliations show the balances held in different parts of the system. This helps with reconciling sales or purchase ledger balances to the nominal ledger. These screens bring all of the information required to aid reconciliation onto one screen. The user can see balances held in each ledger, posting files and on journal entries at a glance, making it easy to identify errors or mispostings. The user can also drilldown into the transactions from these screens.
Pay Suppliers with Negative Balances The suggested payments routine now allows the user to process a payment to a supplier who has a negative balance on their account. Previously it was not possible to make a payment through the suggested payments routine to a supplier with a negative balance. The user can now do this, eliminating the need to pay this supplier separately through the purchase payment routine, which doesn’t produce documentation to go with the payment.
Batched Cash Book Transactions When paying multiple suppliers via the purchase ledger’s Suggested Payments routine, the user can now choose to post the payments to cash book as individual payments or as one posting. Saves time when doing bank reconciliation as typically, an automated payment to a number of suppliers will appear on the bank statement as one value. This eliminates the need for the user to manually add up individual entries to ensure they reconcile back to the bank statement.
Extend Factor House Name The field length of the factor house name has been increased to 60 characters. This increased field length, ensures that the correct names are printed on cheques for those factor houses with longer company names.
Purchase Invoice Validation When entering a purchase invoice directly into the purchase ledger, the system will check to see if an invoice with that date and reference has already been entered. Eliminates user error. A user can check whether an invoice has already been entered, ensuring that transactions are not duplicated on a purchase ledger account.
Extended Criteria on Sales Order Post Invoice Routine The criteria screen, when posting invoices, has been extended to include the ability to post invoices based on invoice or credit note date, order or return date, order number range, invoice number range and account number range. Gives the user more flexibility when deciding which invoices they would like to post to the sales ledger. Previously, only invoices relating to an individual order (or all unposted invoices) could be processed.
Process Goods Received by Exception The Goods Received screen has been improved to include an option to select all and receive all transactions. A new button has also been added to allow the user to process the purchase invoice from this screen. Saves vast amounts of time, as the user no longer needs to record the receipt of each line of the order individually. They can also choose to invoice the goods received from this screen, meaning goods can be received and invoiced from one place.
Enhancements to Direct Delivery Addresses When using purchase order direct delivery and specifying a delivery address, a new option has been added to make this address the default. On previous versions a delivery address had to be entered for each individual direct delivery line. Makes order entry quick and easy when using the direct delivery option. It eliminates the need to have to re-enter the same address over and over again.
Purchase Order Accruals Enhancements Previously the purchase order accruals feature would only accrue for stock items. The user now has the option to include free text and service lines in this process. Ensures that accruals for the whole order are now posted to the nominal ledger. The user will no longer have to do manual journal entries to account for these postings.
Unallocated Sales Order Quantities A new stock control view has been added to the software to show the total free stock available. This view, by default, takes into account the stock required to meet the demand of sales orders that have been entered but not yet allocated. Allows users to monitor stock levels and get a clear picture of the stock required to meet the demands on sales orders entered on the systems. This view gives the user an overall view of stock items and will help when deciding how much stock they need to order to meet demand.
Stock take facilities for traceable items Traceable stocks items are now included as part of the Stock Take routine. When performing a stock take on previous versions, traceable items would be omitted from the stock take list. These items are now included, meaning that a full stock take can be carried out, without the need to manually generate lists and count sheets for traceable items.
Stock take templates When running stock takes the user can choose to retrieve a previously saved stock take template. For example, a stock take for a particular product group. Selecting items for a stock take can sometimes be a lengthy process. The user now has the ability to save and restore a template to use when needed, based upon a previous selection.
Improved auto-select features More advanced options have been added to the auto select criteria screen. It is now possible to run a stock take by product group, quantity, date last sold or date of last stock take. Gives the user more flexibility when carrying out a stock take, making it easier to select a range of items based upon the criteria or a combination of the criteria.
Sage 200 Project Accounting Enhancements:
Accumulate payments in payroll When posting timesheet entries to the payroll system, it is now possible to add the values posted to a previous timesheet entry. In previous versions this would be overwritten by the new entry. The user now has the choice of whether to accumulate timesheets on the payroll software or overwrite the previous entry. This allows for multiple timesheet entries for one pay period.
Manage resource authorisation A new screen has been included in the Project Accounting module to make it easier to set up resources and authorisers in one place. Provides a quick, clear and easy to use resource grid, so that a user can set up, review and change resource and authorisation settings.
Send to Excel Enhancements:
Improved column and heading formatting When data is 'sent to Excel' from Sage 200, the column widths are automatically formatted to fit the text exported and column headings are formatted to appear in a bold font. Saves the time and effort currently needed to ensure that column widths and headings are formatted correctly.
Improved speed when exporting information to Excel The speed at which large amounts of data are exported to Excel has been improved. Data transfer to Excel is now quicker and more efficient.
Sage 200 CRM enhancements:
PDA access Connected access via your PDA to your CRM data (internet connection required, and compatible browser). The important CRM data is exposed via your mobile browser; summary information for Company, Person, Case, Opportunity, Lead, and Communication. There is also the ability to create a mobile dashboard and run reports. View CRM data on the move, via your PDA’s browser. Having your CRM information at your fingertips will save you time and allow you to work more effectively.
Microsoft Outlook Integration Enhancements Sage CRM Microsoft Outlook integration has been enhanced.

- Conflicts: Synchronisation conflict handling has been improved and the conflict display is now clearer.
- Organiser: The meeting organiser is now displayed on the Sage CRM meeting screen.
- Appointments: Multi-user appointment handling has been improved.
- Deployment wizard: Sage CRM now offers a simple, wizard-driven Outlook plug-in deployment method.
- File and view email: A new file and view email button has been introduced to allow users to immediately respond to emails from within Sage CRM.
Tighter Sage CRM and Microsoft Outlook integration results in a more seamless user experience.

Offers a simple, straightforward installation of the Sage CRM Outlook plug-in.

The new file and view email button enables users to quickly and easily reply to emails from within Sage CRM.
Calendar User Interface Enhancements The Sage CRM Calendar day view has been redesigned to allow a side-by-side display of overlapping appointments. This enhancement offers a cleaner, clearer display of information and makes it easier for users of both Sage CRM and Microsoft Outlook to switch between the two systems using the different calendars.
Field Deletion Capability Offers Sage CRM developers and administrators a code-free way to delete custom fields directly through the user interface. This method of customisation makes the maintenance of a clean database and a clean user interface easier and more efficient.
Button Group Customisation Button Groups, which appear on specific Sage CRM screens, give users easy access to routine tasks and custom icons. New functionality in Sage CRM v6.1 offers System Administrators the ability to add new groups of buttons to the work area. System Administrators can now further customise Sage CRM to reflect their organisation’s unique business processes and to make the system easier to use for all users.
Sage 200 Construction Enhancements:
CIS Details The Internet Submissions’ Audit Trail report will now include an entry to show a submission was made even though there are no details to be listed. For example, when the monthly submission was attempted but failed.

The S/C Payment statement and monthly return report now show the gross payment value.

An additional option has been introduced to the criteria screen to include gross payments in the statement. The ‘Include Gross Payments’ option is defaulted to No, and may be reset to include gross payments in the report.

CIS Monthly Return Detail Report to filters on refunds. An additional criterion, labelled 'Show Refunds only', has been added to this report and defaults to 'No’. Resetting this value to ‘Yes’ will then only list refunds.
Concise audit information.

This additional value will make reconciliation easier.

It is now possible to produce payment statements for all subcontractors, including those that have not had tax deducted from payments (i.e. type ‘gross’).

Provides the ability to monitor refunds.
Retentions Changes to purchase invoices to release Retention.
- When listing subcontractors on a contract, a new column shows the outstanding retention against each subcontractor.
- When listing purchase documents for a selected subcontractor, only those documents that have a retention or are not yet posted (so the user can amend the retention before posting) are listed.
- When the user selects a cumulative s/c certificate that has been posted, a pop up box informs the user that a copy of this certificate must be created in order to change the retention. The dialog box has a Create button that can be clicked to automatically create the new certificate and copy all the detail lines from the current certificate to the new one simplified s/c retention processing.

When processing purchase invoices/retention release, only those documents with outstanding retention are now listed. When processing ‘by contract’ the list of sub-contractors on the contract has a new column to show the outstanding retention.
Subcontractor retention processing is now simplified.

Improved reporting of retention.
Client Data When processing a purchase order 'by contract', the Site Ref field on the Delivery Address screen now has a lookup button. This lists all the sites set up in Client Data for the client associated with the contract.

The post code is now taken from the company's address details from Company Preferences.

The Save and Delete buttons on the Site Address tab have been renamed to ‘Confirm’ and ‘Remove’ so it is clear that data is not actually saved until the Save button is clicked.
Clicking the ‘Confirm’ button after adding an address enables a further address to be added into the screen. The address is not saved to file at that point. The ‘Remove’ button will remove any address from the screen irrespective of whether it has been saved or not.
Further client information now supplied against the contract detail.

Further company information integration between Construction and Accounts packages.

Improved process for setting up site addresses.
Reports There is now a script available to make the Purchase Invoice and Timesheet Import Audit Trail reports include every transaction imported, rather than just those that failed to import.

The SL Posting report generated when posting sales documents to the sales ledger now reports the URN number allocated to each document.

A new WIP Report is now available in the Extended Reports menu, showing quoted costs, purchase orders, and invoices with a break down by line type on each section level.

Two reports are now available that replicate WIP report data without the section level hierarchy:
- WIP (by Contract and Description) sorts by Contract then description.
- WIP (by Description) sorts by description only.
Both reports are sub-totalled on change of description with a report total at the end. All relevant criteria made available to the main WIP report (e.g. filtering) are also available for both new reports.

A ‘Summary Level’ criterion has now been added to the WIP reports in the Extended Reports menu, to enable the report to be summarised at a specified level.

Added a BETWEEN option to the ‘Trade’ criterion.

The Missing Time report now defaults to exclude ‘on hold’ staff accounts.
This gives the user detailed audit information.

Increased cross reference of information against accounts and Construct information.

Provides further breakdown of cost analysis information.

Consolidation of items such as materials and labour (either within contract or global across all contracts) for easier processing.

This feature is useful when reporting contracts with large tenders that transcend many levels, that would otherwise produce very large reports.

This allows a range of trades to be reported.

Provides the user with quick and concise reporting.
Purchase Orders Purchase order import routine. This routine works in the same way as the purchase invoice import.

click here to speak to one of our representatives

HyperLink News
Click HERE to sign up for our newsletter and learn how to use our RSS feed
Avant-Garde - Specialists in ,Microsoft Dynamics CRM , Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains GP , Sage 200 , Sage MMS , Sage Line 100 , Sage Line 50 , useful sites , vacancies