Customer loyalty is vital to the success
of any business, and it’s even more
crucial in tough economic times.
Existing customers represent your com-
pany’s most reliable sales opportunities. Here
are a few ways you can use Sage MAS 90 and
MAS 200 ERP to build customer loyalty.

Be Proactive
Never before has providing your custom-
ers the right products and services, at the right
time, been more important. Take the time
to analyze your existing customers’ needs. Is
there a new service or product available that
they could benefit from? Are there accesso-
ries or related items that may be of interest
to your customers? Make certain that you
are promoting these items to your customer
base. Contact your customers and make an
appointment to demonstrate the new items,
introduce a service, or at least mail or e-mail
the brochure or feature sheet and follow up a
week or two later. Sage MAS 90 and 200 store
detailed product sales history by customer.
Using this data, it is simple to identify and
contact customers who have purchased a spe-
cific product or service from your company.
Do you sell consumable items? Analyze
your customer buying patterns so you have
an idea when they may need to reorder. Then
set up reminders to contact these customers
in advance to secure the order.

Reward Loyalty
Create incentives for your customers to
buy from you — and only you. Offer quan-
tity discounts, or a percentage off an order
above a certain dollar amount, for example.
Hold a special sale only for current customers
to reward their loyalty. Sage MAS 90 and 200
support a wide variety of product and order
discount structures to support your customer
loyalty programs.

Focus On The Best
Do you know who your top customers are?
It is important that you and your customer-
facing employees have this information to
ensure they remain your top customers. Set
up a Business Insights Reporter view that
shows you who your best customers are and
another that shows monthly or quarterly sales
to those customers. Consider using Business
Alerts to notify you when a top customer
how to Boost Customer Loyalty Using
sage Mas 90 Or 200
hasn’t placed an order in the last x-number of
days. Make a point of contacting these cus-
tomers and asking for the order, or determine
why they are not reordering. By staying on
top of this information and taking appropri-
ate action, your customers will know you that
you value their business — and are likely to
remain loyal.

Strive For Excellence
Make it easy for your customers to tell
you how your products or services could
be improved. Soliciting this informa-
tion can help you improve before you lose
your customer — and their future positive
reference.
Send periodic surveys to your customers
to find out how you could be serving them
better. Several online survey tools are avail-
able, add a link to the survey to your invoices
and statements you send by e-mail to your
customers. Another option is to include a
short satisfaction survey printed on a postage
paid and self-addressed postcard with each
shipment.
Be sure to follow up on the suggestions
you receive and let your customers know you
appreciate their feedback.

Invest In Your Employees
Remember that companies don’t deliver
great customer service, people do. Promote
a company-wide culture of respect and cour-
tesy from the top down. Treat your employ-
ees or co-workers with the same respect you
expect them to show your customers. Ensure
that your customer-facing employees are
trained to deliver the kind of customer experi-
ence you want to be known for and empower
them to make customer-satisfaction related
decisions on the spot.

Creating a new Company In sage Mas 90 Is easy as 1-2-3
It’s a simple task to create a new Sage
MAS 90 and 200 company and copy the
data from an existing company into the new
company. It is particularly useful at year end
to establish an archive company for the year’s
data. This way you have a copy of the current
year’s data intact even after you perform year-
end processing in your live company. This
is accomplished by selecting the Company
Maintenance task from the Library Master
module’s Main Menu. First, create a new
company code for the archive company.
A suggestion is to include the last two dig-
its of the year to be archived in the code, for
example: A08 for the year 2008. Next, from
this new company’s Company Maintenance
screen, click on the Copy button and type
in the Company Code of your current year’s
live company. You’ll be presented with a list
of the modules installed in that company
and you can select which module or mod-
ules you wish to copy to your archive com-
pany. The steps below provide an overview
of the process.
1. Set Up A New Company:
Create a new (archive) Company Code
into which your 2008 data will be copied.
Next, enter in the source company code (your
current live company) to copy the data from.
2. Select Modules To Copy:
You may elect to include every module’s
data or selectively choose just the data you
wish to copy. If your intention is to create a
duplicate of the current year’s company data,
select all of your modules and copy to your
new company code.
3. Confirm:
After you’ve confirmed your selection,
answer Yes to the prompt to copy all selected
data files to the archive company. It’s that
easy.
2 • *info Newsletter

What’s new and What’s Coming
Interim Release Disk And TTU
Each year, Sage Software releases an Interim
Release Disk (IRD) for Sage MAS 90 and 200
containing the changes required for accurate
tax filing. The Tax Table Update (TTU) for
the first quarter of 2009, typically referred to
as the year-end TTU, also will be available
for download from Sage Software Online by
mid-December.
Without an active ClientCare Plan, you
will not receive the IRD or TTU. This could
result in your company being non-compliant
in its tax filing. Is your subscription current?
To determine the status of your plan, give us
a call.
Note — after 12/1/2008, year-end updates,
including tax table updates, are not available
for versions earlier than 4.0, unless you are on
a special plan. Contact us immediately if you
are running a 3.xx version of Sage MAS 90
ERP.
Updated Limits
The annual limit for Health Savings Plans
for individuals for 2009 is $3,000 and $5,950
for families. The Social Security wage base is
expected to be $106,500 for 2009, up $4,500
from 2008.
efiling And Reporting Module
A new module in Sage MAS 90 and 200,
Federal and State eFiling and Reporting,
streamlines your tax reporting processes.
Over 250 federal and state forms for
Unemployment, Withholding, New Hire
reports, W-2s, and W-3s are included to assist
you with filing payroll tax information. You’ll
be able to automatically eFile W-2s and 1099s
to the appropriate state and federal agencies,
print and mail the forms to your employees,
or choose to use the fee-based eFiling service.
When you use the electronic forms within
Sage MAS 90 or 200, they will look very famil-
iar, as they replicate the printed government
form that you receive in the mail, but on
your screen they won’t be blank — much of
the information will already be populated in
the appropriate fields for you by your system.
Simply select the form, view and edit the
information easily on your screen, and once
you’ve verified it is the way you want it, the
form is ready to print or eFile.
If you choose to print the forms and mail
them yourself, you’ll be able to utilize blank,
perforated W-2 and 1099 forms, available
for purchase from the Sage Software Forms
Division, without having to align pre-printed
forms. You also can go completely green by
utilizing the eFiling Service, offered on a
transaction-fee basis, to further streamline
and simplify your tax reporting process.
Federal and State eFiling and Reporting
functionality is included with Version 4.3,
and works with your Payroll and Accounts
Payable modules. There are no added costs to
your maintenance or support plan. You only
incur fees for the forms you choose to eFile.
Extended Enterprise Suite
The Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended
Enterprise Suite became available in 2008.
It includes an embedded version of the
SageCRM customer relationship manage-
ment solution and many modules you may
not currently have. Customers running Sage
MAS 90 or 200 can pay a modest per-user fee
to migrate to the Extended Enterprise Suite.
Paperless Office
Version 4.3 of Sage MAS 90 and 200 was
released in June and includes Paperless Office.
Paperless Office features provide users with
document imaging and storage, e-mail, and
e-fax capabilities.
t
he order in which modules are closed is
very important. Some modules maintain
buckets of data by year (year-to-date, prior-
year, etc.). These data receptacles are re-ini-
tialized during year-end processing. The
period-end and year-end processes performed
in one module often write data to another
module, so to close the modules out of order
may cause damage to your data.
Note: Before you begin any year-end clos-
ing procedures, ensure that you have a com-
plete and verified back up of your data.
Modules should be processed or closed in
the following order — after you back up your
data:
Bill of Materials
•
Work Order
•
Bar Code
•
Purchase Order
•
Sales Order
•
Inventory Management
•
MRP
•
TimeCard
•
Electronic Reporting
•
Payroll
•
Accounts Receivable
•
Accounts Payable
•
Job Cost
•
General Ledger
•
If you are running modules not on this
list, for example e-Business Manager, one or
more Sage MAS 90 ERP Extended Solutions,
or a third-party product, there may be special
considerations involved in year-end closing.
Give us a call and we will advise you on the
best procedure for closing your year in Sage
MAS 90 or Sage MAS 200 software.
Module Closing
sequence
Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 ERP • 3
General Module Closing For sage Mas 90 and 200
I
n this newsletter we provide general
module closing procedures for the most
common modules.
Note: Please be aware that procedures and
processing may vary depending on the ver-
sion of Sage MAS 90 or 200 that you are
running. Use this document as a guide. If
you are running older versions, some of the
screens and processing procedures are differ-
ent. Also note that significant improvements
have been made to the modules released in
the new framework, including GL, AP, AR,
and SO. These improvements simplify year-
end processing to a great degree. If you are
not yet at Version 4.x, please give us a call to
discuss the benefits of upgrading.
Purchase Order
Ideally, Sage MAS 90 and 200 Purchase
Order Year-End Processing should be per-
formed before any transactions are updated
for the new year. If that is not possible,
remember that the future posting capability
for Purchase Order is limited to one account-
ing period beyond the current period. Failure
to close Purchase Order before the end of that
one future period will cause the summarized
totals for the current or future period to not
match the transaction detail reports.
1. Before closing the Purchase Order module
for the year, be certain that:
All purchase orders for the prior year have
•
been entered.
All receipts, invoices, returns, and issues
•
have been entered and updated.
The current Purchase Order date agrees
•
with the period-end date.
A backup of Purchase Order files has been
•
made.
2. From the Reports Menu the following
reports should be printed and retained:
Open Purchase Order
•
Open Purchase Order by Item (optional)
•
Cash Requirements (optional)
•
Receipt History
•
Purchase History
•
Purchase Order Recap (optional)
•
3. The Purchase Order Full Period and Year-
End Processing performs the following house-
keeping tasks:
Sets the PTD and YTD quantity and
•
dollars purchased fields to zero.
Removes completed purchase orders
•
according to the number of days designated
in the Purchase Order Setup options.
Removes master and repeating orders that
•
have expiration dates on or prior to the
period-end date from the open purchase
order file.
Advances current period in Purchase
•
Order Setup Options to the next period
and year.
Sales Order
Sales Order Year-End Processing should be
performed before any invoices are updated for
the new year. If that is not possible, remember
that for versions 4.0 and earlier the future post-
ing capability for Sales Order is limited to one
accounting period beyond the current period.
Failure to close Sales Order before the end of
that one future period will cause the summa-
rized totals for the current or future period to
not match the transaction detail reports. Sales
orders may be entered with a date of the new
year without adverse consequence.
1. Before closing the Sales Order module for
the year, be certain that:
All Sales Order invoices for the current
•
year have been entered and updated.
The current Sales Order date agrees with
•
the period-end date.
A backup of Sales Order data files has
•
been made.
2. From the Reports Menu the following
reports should be printed and retained:
Open Sales Orders
•
Open Orders By Item (optional)
•
Back Order (if applicable)
•
Customer Sales History (optional)
•
Monthly Recap (optional)
•
3. The Sales Order Full Period and Year End
Processing performs the following housekeep-
ing tasks:
Resets the PTD and YTD Sales, Cost of
•
Goods Sold, and Quantity Sold fields in the
daily and monthly Sales Recap files to zero.
Resets the periods for current year,
•
quantity shipped, dollars sold, and cost of
goods sold; and moves current year Quantity
Sold to Prior Year Quantity Sold in the Sales
Order Customer Sales History file.
Removes master and repeating orders from
•
the open sales order file that have expiration
dates on or prior to the period-end date.
Advances current period in Sales Order
•
Setup Options to the next period.
Inventory Management
Ideally, Inventory Year-End Processing
should be performed before any transac-
tions are updated for the new year. If that is
not possible, remember that the future post-
ing capability for Inventory Management
is limited to one accounting period beyond
the current period. Failure to close Inventory
Management before the end of that one
future period will cause the summarized totals
for the current or future period to not match
the transaction detail reports.
The Inventory year-end process should
occur immediately after Purchase Order and
4 • *info Newsletter
Sales Order year-end processing and before
Accounts Receivable year-end processing.
1. Before closing Inventory for the year, be
certain that:
All adjustments have been entered and
•
registers updated.
Current Inventory date agrees with
•
period-end date.
A backup of Inventory files has been
•
made.
2. From the Reports Menu the following
reports should be printed and retained:
Inventory Trial Balance (should tie to the
•
inventory accounts on the G/L Trial Balance
for the same period)
Stock Status (quantities reflect day
•
printed)
Inventory Valuation (should tie to G/L
•
inventory account as of the day it’s printed)
Inventory Negative Tier Adjustment
•
(from Period-End Menu). Be certain to
update this report
Note: Any negative tiers should be resolved
before closing and making any new year
entries.
3. The Inventory Full Period End and Year
End Processing performs the following house-
keeping tasks:
Calculates beginning average cost (by
•
item by warehouse) and average on-hand
quantity.
Resets PTD and YTD quantity sold and
•
issued, quantity returned, dollars sold, and
cost of goods sold.
Moves current year information to prior
•
year fields in the Inventory Item Warehouse
Detail file.
Removes any zero quantity costing tiers
•
for LIFO, FIFO, Lot, or Serial items (if
applicable).
Advances current period in Inventory
•
Setup Options to next period and year.
To perform year-end processing, select
the option Full Period End Processing. This
ensures that the ending period is the last
period of your year.
Payroll
The Payroll module is based on a calendar
year. There is no future period in Payroll. You
cannot post a payroll in process with a check
date in a future quarter until the current quar-
ter is closed by selecting Quarter and Year
End Processing from the Period End menu.
Before proceeding with year-end process-
ing, make sure the Quarterly Governmental
Report, Quarterly 941 Form, and employee
W-2 Forms have been printed. Consider cre-
ating a company to archive your 2008 infor-
mation (see page 2) and review year-end
update information (see page 3).
1. Before closing the Payroll module for the
year, be certain that:
All payroll cycles have been entered and
•
updated for the quarter.
All checks written during the quarter
•
(including manual) have been entered and
updated.
Payroll System Date is set to the last day
•
of the calendar year.
Proper year tax tables are installed (2008
•
for 2008 Year-End Processing).
W-2s are printed and verified.
•
Electronic Reporting files, if applicable,
•
are processed and created.
A backup of the payroll files has been made.
•
Check and double-check the backup.
2. The following reports should be printed
and retained:
Quarterly Tax
•
Payroll Check History
•
Quarterly Pay Period Recap
•
Earnings
•
Deductions
•
Quarterly Governmental
•
Quarterly 941 Form
•
Benefit Accrual
•
Workers’ Compensation
•
3. Be certain to reconcile QTD and YTD
totals on all reports.
4. Payroll Period-End Processing performs
the following housekeeping tasks:
Resets the QTD and YTD employee fields
•
to zero.
Increments the current year to the next
•
year.
Changes the current quarter from 4 to 1.
•
Resets employee benefit limits according
•
to Payroll Options Setup.
Resets Pension Plan, Cafeteria Plan
•
Deduction, Allocated Tips, Fringe Benefits,
Non-Qualified Plan, and Dependent Care
Benefits fields to zero.
Sets all quarterly/yearly reports to zero.
•
Removes check history and perpetual
•
history depending upon your system
settings.
Purges terminated employees.
•
Purges standard deductions that have met
•
goals.
Note: Once you have completed year-end
General Module Closing For sage Mas 90 and 200
Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 ERP • 5
General Module Closing For sage Mas 90 and 200
processing for Payroll, be certain to install the
Q1 2009 TTU (tax table update) for 2009.
Accounts Receivable
Ideally, Accounts Receivable Year-End
Processing should be performed before any
transactions are updated for the new year. If
that is not possible, remember that for ver-
sions 4.0 and earlier the future posting capa-
bility for Accounts Receivable is limited to
one accounting period beyond the current
period. Failure to close Accounts Receivable
before the end of that one future period will
cause the summarized totals for the current
or future period to not match the transaction
detail reports.
1. Before closing the Accounts Receivable
module for the year, be certain that:
All invoices and cash receipts have been
•
entered and updated.
Finance charges have been run and
•
updated (if applicable).
Customer statements have been printed
•
(if applicable).
The Accounts Receivable System Date is
•
set to the last day of your fiscal year.
A backup of the Accounts Receivable files
•
has been made.
Any AP from AR Clearing has been
•
processed.
2. From the Reports Menu the following
reports should be printed and retained:
Aged Invoice
•
Trial Balance (this amount should agree
•
and be reconciled to the General Ledger
account before completing
year-end processing)
Customer Sales Analysis
•
Cash Receipt Report
•
Sales Analysis by
•
Salesperson
Salesperson Commission
•
Sales Tax (if applicable,
•
this report should be printed
and cleared each month)
Monthly Sales Analysis (optional)
•
Monthly Cash Receipts
•
Accounts Receivable Analysis
•
3. The Accounts Receivable Full Period and
Year End Processing performs the following
housekeeping tasks:
Purges AR Monthly Cash Receipts file.
•
All PTD and YTD fields in the Customer
•
Masterfile are reset.
Purges PTD and YTD COG in AR
•
Analysis by Salesperson. Moves current year
information to prior year. PTD and YTD
sales, gross profit, and commission amounts
are reset in AR Salesperson masterfile. YTD
information is moved to the prior year
field.
Purges all temporary customers with zero
•
balances.
Purges paid invoices from the Open
•
Invoice file and the Transaction/Payment
history file according to the number of days
to retain history in Accounts Receivable
Setup Options. You may retain a maximum
of 999 days of paid invoices.
Sets current fiscal year to
•
next sequential year and the
current period changes to 1.
Accounts Payable
Ideally, Accounts Payable
Year-End Processing should
be performed before any trans-
actions are updated for the
new year. You don’t need to
print 1099 forms before proceeding with the
Accounts Payable year-end processing because
Sage MAS 90 and 200 has a separate 1099
calendar year in Accounts Payable options.
Note: Please check with us for instructions
if your 1099 information is not correct before
proceeding with year-end closing.
1. Before closing the Accounts Payable mod-
ule for the year, be certain that:
All invoices have been recorded in both
•
the Accounts Payable and Purchase Order
modules.
All checks are printed and updated.
•
All manual checks written during the
•
month have been entered.
The current Accounts Payable date agrees
•
with the period-end date.
Accounts Payable files are backed up.
•
AP from AR clearing has been processed.
•
1099 data for the calendar year is
•
verified.
2. From the Reports Menu the following
reports should be printed and retained:
Aged Invoice
•
Trial Balance (this amount should agree
•
and be reconciled to the General Ledger
account before completing period-end
processing)
Vendor Purchase Analysis
•
Monthly Purchase
•
Check History
•
Accounts Payable Analysis
•
1099 printing to paper (verification only)
•
3. The Accounts Payable Full Period End and
6 • *info Newsletter
General Module Closing For sage Mas 90 and 200
Year End Processing performs the following
housekeeping tasks:
Resets the PTD and YTD purchases,
•
payments, and discounts fields in the
vendor master file to zero. Moves current
year information to prior year fields.
Removes all temporary vendors, and any
•
associated memos, with zero balances from
the vendor master file.
Purges paid invoices and check history
•
according to the number of days to retain
history in Accounts Payable Setup Options.
You can maintain a maximum of 999 days
of paid invoices and 99 months of check
history.
Sets current fiscal year to next sequential
•
year and the current period changes to 1.
General Ledger
Sage MAS 90 or 200 allows you to post to
unlimited future periods/years; however, you
can only print accurate financial statements
for one future year.
1. Before closing General Ledger for the year,
be certain that:
The current General Ledger date agrees
•
with year-end date.
Balance Sheet is in balance.
•
Budget revisions are entered through
•
Budget Revision Entry and Update the
Budget Revision Register is run.
All activity and adjustments in modules
•
integrated with General Ledger are complete
in the year to be closed.
Recurring Journals have been printed and
•
updated.
Allocations have been posted if necessary
•
and the Allocation Journal has been
updated.
General Journal adjustments have been
•
entered.
Note: The General Ledger Worksheet is a
useful tool in determining which adjustments
to make.
Daily Transaction Register is printed and
•
updated.
A backup of the General Ledger files has
•
been made. This is even more important for
General Ledger than the other modules. Do
not neglect this step. Label and store the
backup for safekeeping.
A second backup has been performed.
•
Label and store the backup for safekeeping,
once year-end processing is completed.
2. From the Period End Report Selection
menu confirm the list of reports you wish to
print during year-end processing. The reports
you select here will print automatically dur-
ing year-end processing if you check the
Print Period End Reports box on the Period
End Processing window. At a minimum,
the following reports should be printed and
retained:
General Ledger Detail (the reports for
•
periods 01–12 should be printed and
retained)
Trial Balance
•
Standard Financial Statements
•
General Ledger Analysis
•
General Ledger Worksheet
•
Balance Sheet
•
3. Full Period-End and Year-End Processing
performs the following housekeeping tasks:
Sets current fiscal year to next sequential
•
year and the current period changes to 1.
Clears all income and expense account
•
balances and posts net profit to the Retained
Earnings account.
Creates next year’s budget based on
•
your setup options in the Auto Budget
feature in General Ledger Options.
Note: Options determine how you create
next year’s Current Budget. The options
are: create a Zero Budget, copy this year’s
Actual, copy this year’s Current Budget,
copy this year’s Revised Budget, copy this
year’s Budget 3, or finally an option to do
nothing to next year’s Current Budget.
Transaction
•
history may be purged
depending on how you
have set the Number of
Years to Retain General
Ledger History setting
in the General Ledger
Options. It is advisable
to retain at least seven
years of history.
To perform period-
end processing, select the option Period-End
Processing from the General Ledger period-
end menu, ensuring that the period number
displayed is your final period of the year.
Please call us if you have any questions or
concerns regarding year-end processing — we
would be happy to assist you.
Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 ERP • 7
R
esearch has shown that smaller busi-
nesses are often more vulnerable to fraud
than their larger counterparts because they
have fewer employees. With fewer employ-
ees, there is often less segregation of duties
and fewer internal accounting and auditing
controls. You can protect your company by
making employee fraud prevention a priority.
The following guidelines, assembled by Sage
Software, are fundamental steps in creating a
fraud prevention environment in your small
business.
Implement An Automated Accounting
•
Solution. By using an accounting and
operations software solution like Sage MAS
90, with its strong user security controls and
clear audit trails, you can help mitigate fraud
risk. User security ensures that employees
only have access to the areas of the business
within their specified responsibility, leaving
them with less ability to cover up fraud
schemes.
Understand Your Company’s Specific
•
Fraud Risks. Conduct a thorough audit
of your company’s specific vulnerabilities
in order to design and implement internal
controls and fraud prevention programs to
minimize your risk.
Conduct Employee Background
•
Checks. Verify educational and employment
history, as well as references, to ensure there
is no previous history with fraud or other
illegal activity. When filling positions that
will handle company assets, it is especially
important to require a background check.
Control Your Bank Statements.
• When
reconciling bank statements, look out for
missing checks, out of sequence check
numbers, unknown payees, checks that
appear to have been altered, checks not
signed by authorized signatories, or any other
unusual items. Consider using a Positive
Pay service if your bank offers one. Perform
timely bank account reconciliation.
Review Approved Vendor Listings.
•
Management should routinely check the
list of approved vendors and look out for
unknown vendors, vendors’ names that are
similar to other known vendors, vendors
without a physical address or phone
number, and a vendors’ address that matches
an employee’s address. This can help fight
schemes involving phony invoices.
Provide For Separation Of Functions.
• It
is always a good idea to separate financial
tasks within an organization. When no
single person has control of, for example,
deposits, accounts payable, check printing,
and bank reconciliation, you create a system
of checks and balances that will discourage
fraud.
Create A Fraud Policy.
• Design, publish,
and implement a fraud policy that sets forth
expected employee conduct, what actions
are prohibited, how fraud can be reported,
and the consequences for noncompliance.
Train Your Employees In Fraud
•
Prevention. Employees serve as the eyes
and ears of a company and by ensuring that
your staff knows at least some basic fraud
prevention techniques, you’ll establish a first
line of anti-fraud defense.
Conduct Routine And Unannounced
•
Audits. For high-risk areas of your business,
including the finance and inventory-related
tasks, perform both routine and surprise
audits to look for vulnerabilities and possible
fraudulent activities.
Make Vacations Mandatory.
• Employees
involved in fraud may avoid taking time
off because they are afraid someone will
discover their fraudulent activity.
There is no 100 percent solution for pre-
venting fraud, but by taking action you can
reduce your risk.