Frequently Asked Questions

Q – Is there a way to include pending transactions when calculating the available credit amounts when entering orders within Order Entry?

A – Yes. In Sage Accpac ERP v5.4, you change the credit check settings for pending transactions on the Processing tab of the O/E Options form.

You can also set the credit limit balance for transactions in the individual customer records in Accounts Receivable, as well as set an overdue amount and number of days overdue in the Accounts Receivable customer record.

Q – Is there a way to setup Contract Costs for suppliers?

A – Yes. In Sage Accpac ERP v5.4, you can set up contract pricing for inventory items, including basic vendor costs, volume discounts, sale costs, item tax statuses, and default units of measure within the Purchase Order module.

Once you setup the vendor contract costs, all vendors’ contract costs appear in the Finder on the Purchase Order, Receipt, Invoice, Return, and Credit/Debit Note entry forms. As a result, users can easily review vendors’ contract cost information while entering purchase order documents.

Vendor contract costs provide the default unit cost of items in Purchase Order documents. If contract costs don’t exist for an item, the program uses the default unit cost specified in P/O Options in the Purchase Order Entry or Receipt Entry form.

Q – Can I change how on-screen coaching is displayed?

A – Yes. Users can control how on-screen coaching is displayed on screens for which coaching has been set up. To access on-screen coaching display settings:

1. Select My CRM.
2. Click on the Preferences tab and select the Change button.
3. Select the required setting from the On-screen Coaching drop-down list.

‘On’ turns coaching on for all screens on which it is available. With this setting, the full coaching content is displayed in a frame at the top any screens that have coaching content.

‘Off’ turns all coaching off. With the ‘Minimized’ setting, the coaching frame does not appear automatically at the top of the screen. Instead, users can click on the Maximize On-screen Coaching button to view the full frame for an individual screen.

This setting might be used by users who are familiar with CRM and might only need to view coaching very rarely. The ‘Customized’ setting allows users to minimize coaching on some screens while leaving it maximized on others.

4. Click on the Save button.

Q – Can I create a Company for an Outlook Contact when adding it to CRM?

A – Yes. When adding an Outlook contact to CRM you can now add a new company to CRM for that contact.

To add a new company for an Outlook contact:

1. Select the CRM button in Outlook and log on to CRM.

CRM is displayed within Outlook. In Outlook Contacts, select the contact to add to CRM and click on the Add Contact button.

If CRM detects possible matches with the new contact a list of possible matches is offered. You can select a record from the list or click on the Ignore Warning and Enter Individual button to continue.

2. Click on the New Company button.

You can proceed to add the new company to CRM. Details from the Outlook contact display in the matching fields on the company summary screen.

Q – What is the meaning of the ER and EI Values in the ICTRAN.Trantyp Field?

A – The “Trantyp” field may be used to identify which system process created the record in ICTRAN. Normally, this field is populated with an “I” which refers to an inventory issue or an “R” which refers to an inventory receipt. These values are created from sales orders being shipped or purchase orders being received. The appearance of an “ER” or “EI” value in this field usually indicates that a manufacturing process created the record. The ER value appears when the item was created via Work Order Processing (an inventory receipt) and the EI value appears when the item was used in Work Order Processing (an inventory issue). The following are examples of how certain manufacturing transactions affect the ICTRAN table:

• Shipping an order with a finished good that has a Bill of Material setting of Explode on SO Shipment – see attachment ictran1.jpg
• Using Post Completed Manufacturing in the Production Entry module to build an item into stock (back flushing) – see attachment ictran2.jpg
• Completing and processing a work order in the Work Order module – see attachment ictran2.jpg

Note: For further information regarding the Trantyp field and the ICTRAN table, please refer to the Pro Series Technical Reference Guide.

Q – How can I determine what Service Packs are installed on Sage Pro ERP?

A – Follow the steps below to view the service packs installed on Sage Pro:

1. Under the Help menu, click About Sage Pro ERP.
2. Click Technical Info…
3. Click the Service Pack tab.
4. The service packs that are installed are listed in the Select Patch File to View list box.

The information that is displayed here is stored in PAT files which are installed into the root directory of the Sage Pro installation when the service pack is applied.

Technical Tip
The PAT file can be edited to record important information such as who did the service pack installation, date, modification notes, etc. This information will appear when viewing what service packs are installed in Sage Pro.

Related Solutions
Please refer to the newsletter from June 2006  for instructions on how to determine the number of user licenses  and solution 22669 on how to determine the version for a Sage Pro installation.

Q – When should I use the “Check Table Integrity” option?

A – The check table is used to verify the integrity of tables when a system crash occurs. This will detect corrupted tables that cannot be populated.

Example
When saving a purchase order, the power goes out on the server and the POTRAN table is corrupted. Clearing flags, re-index, Verify File Structures, and Validate Database all complete without error and more purchase orders can be entered without errors. However, the POTRAN table was not populated for any transactions entered since the crash. The table can be opened but no new records appear.

Solution
Check Table Integrity will attempt to write a temporary record to the selected tables and then verify if it exists. The program will notify of a problem if the record was not successfully saved. When choosing to fix the corruption, the table records will be copied to a temporary table and the existing table will be deleted. The records will then be copied back into a newly built table.

Check Table Integrity Tips

• This tool should be run with the Fix Table option set to “N.”  The resulting text file is saved and can be previewed to evaluate the issue. The utility can be run again to fix the tables. This may correct the issue going forward but it will not restore missing records. Use a Microsoft Visual FoxPro repair utility if a problem is detected. 
• This tool is only meant to identify and correct this particular kind of corruption. It will not correct other kinds of corruption, especially if the table cannot be accessed.
• Corruption of tables is not a programming issue, it is the result of environmental failures. If this a recurring issue, evaluate possible causes of the crashes. The Error Log in Sage Pro ERP  may help identify the time, users, and nature of the issue.
• No users should be in the program when running this tool.
• It may be possible to correct this corruption by copying the structure of another company’s table, appending data from the damaged table into it, renaming that table and using it to replace the damaged table. Run Validate Database from the System Recovery menu once this is complete.
• Use this tool as a part of regularly scheduled maintenance, after any system crash or power failure, and after a conversion.