What is new in Sage 200 Evolution V9.2

The installation of Sage 200 Evolution can now be done in a few easy steps.

Complete –installs everything available on the installation, including MS SQL server, Server Components, Mobile Service and database scripts.
Typical – installs the most common program features excluding Server Components and Mobile Service. Recommended for most workstations.
Custom – installs items as selected by the user.

Prerequisites for MS SQL Express 2014 installation include:
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
• Windows PowerShell 3.00

The user will have an option to allow the installation to set the Windows Firewall settings. After installation there is an option to run Sage 200 Evolution and a full log of the installation is available. Sage 200 Evolution is compatible with SQL 2017.

At time of creating the database, you will be requested to select a
country. Options are available for South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Malaysia and Other. The country selection was previously captured on installation.

The number of screens to create a database have been reduced. The default Admin password will be displayed to the user and the system will also allow the password to be set. Once all the steps for creating the database have been completed, the Admin user and default password as set up by the user will be automatically filled in on the Log In screen.

You will be presented with a new look in Sage 200 Evolution. A new icon set has been designed to modernize and refresh the interface. Added features to the working area include Process Flows and Related Tasks.

System tree node names have changed when only creating a new database. Accounts Payable is now named Suppliers/Purchases and Accounts Receivable is known as Customers/Sales. Some screens have been logically regrouped. An example is the invoice, it will now be available on the Inventory as well as the Customers/Sales option.

Screens can be easily found with the new Filter added in the system tree. Type the required name, it will filter in your accessible System Tree and list the results. Use Ctrl+Enter to invoke the screen.

Quick links to reports are available in the working area. Simply type the report name and click Run Report.

Use the Recently Used section to easily access recently used areas.

All maintenance and inquiries grids will allow the user to multi select the records and use Ctrl+ C on the keyboard, or use the right click option to Copy to Excel.

On the Inventory Item, Customer, Supplier and General Ledger Account maintenance grids a new type of grid is used to better handle large sets of data.

In form Navigation available on maintenance forms to navigate to the next, previous, last or first records. 

Option also available to create new from the maintenance form by selecting the ‘+’ sign. Tabs displayed on left and no longer at the top of forms. 

New permissions added to limit agent access per lab.

Within System Tools, an option is available to either Backup or Restore the current database. 

You will also use Job Manager to schedule backups.

User Defined Fields on documents now can track changes. Previously the field was added to the document master table, in Version 9.10, the user defined field values are stored in a separate table. Due to the new structure, when document user defined values are changed, the changes can be tracked.

As example, add a user defined field to indicate lead time from the supplier on the purchase order. When the document is created, a lead time of 10 is added. After communications with the supplier the lead time can be amended to 15. Now a report can be created to indicate the initial lead time and the amendments made afterwards.

To make maintenance of Masterfile data easier, new Quick Entry options have been added to Supplier Groups, Customer Groups, Inventory Groups and Inventory Items.

• Use the multi select option on the grid to edit specific records. 
• Enter new records in the grid directly or use copy and paste functions to copy
  data from Excel and paste into the grid.  
• Use the option on the right click menu to ‘Copy Down’ values. To copy from Excel, create records using the exact heading names of the columns in the Quick Entry grid. 
• Changes will be indicated in red. Validations are done for duplicates and valid
  data.
• Save will update or create the new records.

• Use the grid to customise your results, then use Quick Entry to only edit the selected records.
• The Price fields can be changed.

When adding inventory items, normal rules will apply when the record is marked as a Warehouse Item. If the warehouse is setup with the option to always add new items to the warehouse, the Quick Entry will add the items according to that setup.

The tables that store the inventory items have been modernised and enhanced to
improve speed on big datasets. The time it takes to add inventory items that belong
to multiple warehouses have been drastically enhanced. Processing speeds have
also improved due to the structural changes. 

These changes will however, impact on your customised reporting solutions. 

These changes allowed for new features that were added to the module.

Allow the use of Multiple Bin Locations per Warehouse.

• Enable on Warehouse Defaults.
• Per warehouse, set a default selling and purchasing bin.
• Per item, per warehouse, set a default selling and purchasing bin
• Link a bin to a warehouse, to an inventory item.
• Set Min and Max Levels per bin.
• Default Sales Bin and Default Purchase Bin per item, per warehouse. 

A new functionality is added to link inventory items to inventory item categories. Inventory reports can be filtered according to Item Category. For upgrades from previous versions of the product bin locations are now referred to as Item Categories. Bin location values captured in previous version of the application are changed to Item Category values. All links to inventory items will be maintained.

Define attributes for inventory items for more accurate reporting and maintaining of inventory items. Create an attribute group with attribute types defined, thereafter link attribute values to types.

An example to illustrate the capability of attributes: Selling clothing and mobile phones.

Create attribute types for: Colour, Make, Model, Size and Style

Find customer and supplier documents easily. Navigate to Inventory | Transactions | Inventory Document Maintenance. Search either for customer or supplier processed and unprocessed documents. Once the document is located, load the source document.

With Sage 200 Evolution, a new version of Report Builder is shipped. This allows for better formatting when printing to Excel. Column header and column formatting is maintained. Extra options at time of printing to file allows for more capabilities.

An option is available on the General Ledger Accounts to bulk update ledger accounts to set the Allow Journals flag. Filter the ledger accounts and update the filtered records to set the flag to allow journal posting.

New option added to increment the reference number when posting the interest transaction. 

The transactions for interest are now flagged in the customer transaction file to indicate an interest charge. 

You will be informed if an interest transaction is posted more than once for the same customer in the same period.

The multiple nodes within the Utility have been merged. A single screen is presented to the user and changes that are allowed will be indicated. As example, change the Description and Reference values in the grid.

Various enhancements have been made to the Sync Monitor for an offline Branch Accounting environment. 

These include:

The XML file that carries branch and sync information,is now cleared after each succesful import. This will keep the size of the file to a minimum.

A service application is available that can be configured to start up the Sync Monitor at the correct interval, process the files in the queue and close the Sync Monitor when done.

With each synchronisation process, the records between branches and the head office are compared. If any discrepancies are found, records will be synchronised again. This feature is optional.

Separate technical documentation is available for further details.

Modules that will now load in the system tree as an Add-On module using the UIAPI: 

• Voucher Management 
• Inventory Issue 
• Delivery Manager 
• Global Tax 
• Inventory Optimisation