Sage 100: How To Delete Standard Journals from General Ledger

If you’ve got a long list of Standard Journals built up in General Ledger that are no longer used, the steps for deleting them are simple.

• General Ledger, Main, General Journal Entry
• Enter the original Source Journal
• Click the Save Standard button
• Key in the Standard Journal code or click the lookup and choose from the list of Standard Journals
• Click Delete button
• Click Yes at the question ‘Do You Want to Delete Standard Journal xxxx?’ (Where xxxx is the name of the Standard Journal)
• Repeat the above steps for every Standard Journal that needs to be deleted

These steps are a good way to clean up obsolete Standard Journals in Sage 100.

 

 

East Tennessee’s Smokiest Treasure!

Located in Madisonville, Tennessee, Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams offers slow-cured country hams, bacon and prosciutto.  In 1947,  Albert Hicks, a dairy farmer by trade, started curing and selling his country hams.  In 1973, Allan Benton and his father took over the business and began running it out of a ramshackle cinder block building located on Highway 411 North.  Benton uses a mixture of salt, brown sugar and sodium nitrite which is rubbed onto fresh hams in a maple box.  The hams are aged at least 9 to 10 months, sometimes longer.  Benton also smokes hams in a wood-fired smokehouse out behind the shop.  In addition to ham, he also produces bacon and prosciutto.

On a recent trip down to Madisonville to acquire a few packages of the bacon that is much-loved in our family, I had the awesome pleasure of meeting Mr. Benton in person.  I had always heard and read about how personable the man is, and I have to say Mr. Benton lived up to his reputation!  Mr. Benton is one of the most down-to-earth, affable and sincere gentlemen I’ve met.  Underneath the country man, though, I detected a definite connection with and understanding of what’s happened with the explosion of his awesome products into the realm of gourmet cooking.  Mr. Benton graciously spent time talking with me about his business, his experiences and just his take on life in general.  I left the store armed not only with the bacon, but with a greater appreciation of the genius behind the smoky richness of his products. 

Although Benton’s products are very popular today and used by chefs all across the country, Mr. Benton told me he struggled for the first 20 years in business!  He began by selling to restaurants in the area and also to tourists and locals who made their way down to the building.  For years, he lost money.  But, he told me, despite the slow start he was determined to keep going and take his business to the next level.  There was one particular incident that he considers the lucky break along his journey.  He was continually looking to expand the business, and in 1991 took a ham and some bacon down to Blackberry Farm, a noted resort located in Walland, Tennessee.  At the time, John Fleer was executive chef at Blackberry.  Fleer used the ham and bacon, then called Mr. Benton and told him he’d like to develop an entire menu around the products.  After that, Fleer began to let other chefs around the country know about Benton’s.  Benton’s popularity took off from there.

Following the Fleer boost, in 2002 the Southern Foodways Alliance hosted a ham tasting event attended by hundreds of chefs and food writers.  Mr. Benton received an invitation to and attended this event, and says this was another pivotal moment for his business.  Mr. Benton told his wife after the event, “I think I’ve seen the promised land.”  He gathered his 3 employees around him the following Monday morning and told them there would be some changes to his business plan.  The rest, as they say, is bacon and ham history!  

Hundreds of restaurants across the country use Benton’s products.  You’ll find dishes with Benton’s products in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Napa, New Orleans, Charleston.  Chefs like Thomas Keller, John Fleer, Emeril Lagasse and Sean Brock, to name a few, use Benton’s products in their creations.  Mixologists have even begun using Benton’s in their drinks.  A favorite of mine is the Bacon Old Fashioned at Patterson House in Nashville.  Mr. Benton said that 75% of his business goes out the door via UPS trucks – that’s a lot of ham and bacon being shipped to chefs and customers around the country.  He modestly states that the gourmet chefs around the country who use his products so creatively are the ones to whom he owes the success of his business, but anyone who meets Mr. Benton can see that he himself continues to be an integral part of keeping the Benton name at the forefront of gourmet cooking.

Today, in the same cinder block building but now with 14 employees, Mr. Benton contributes daily to the fundamental success of his business.  On any given day, he can be found working in and around the store, fielding calls from customers, chefs and food reviewers and sharing stories with walk-in customers.  Even though I only spent 30 minutes with Mr. Benton, I came away enriched and thankful to have shared the time with him.  When I got home that afternoon and picked up my 9 year old daughter from camp, I told her about my adventure.  She actually got angry that she wasn’t along that day!  She loves Benton’s bacon and told me next time I went, I’d sure better plan on taking her.   All ended well, though, she got her favorite food in the whole world for dinner that night…..

 

Gateway to a Healthy Start

I reread Frederik Pohl’s Gateway a few days ago, for the second or third time. Okay, for the fourth time, I admit it. In a nutshell, the premise of the book is that anyone who can afford passage to Gateway (a space base built into an asteroid that was abandoned a million years ago by an alien race, the HeeChee) can choose to climb into one of the still operational intersteller vessels made by the HeeChee and go prospecting for alien artifacts. The discovery of artifacts, in turn, makes you rich. The catch is that the ships run on autopilot; no one knows how to operate them. They might fly into a black hole, or the trip might last longer than the food supply, or a ship might dock somewhere without breathable air. It’s a desperate gamble, but one people choose to take because so-called normal life on Earth is desperate. People survive on artificial food synthesized from fossil hydrocarbons. One of the things successful prospectors do if they strike it rich is buy ‘Full Medical,’ ridiculously expensive medical care that can virtually guarantee a long, youthful life. The main character, Robinette Broadhead, strikes it rich on Gateway, but even though he has Full Medical, the emotional cost of his voyage is so terrible it threatens his sanity. Anyway, this article isn’t a review of Gateway or any attempt at describing how much I like the book! I want to comment for a few lines about the importance of exercise and fitness in today’s fast-paced world, since we don’t have ‘Full Medical’ here on our current Earth. During the past 20 or 25 years, I rarely exercised or paid attention much to what kind of food I was eating. As a result, at 47 I found myself uncomfortable, unhealthy and needing to do something about it. I woke up one morning and decided, literally that day, that it was time to start moving. I began an exercise program at D1 Sports Training last January; it’s a boot camp-type exercise program where instructors work with small groups on all aspects of conditioning: cardio, weights, strength, etc. It’s well worth the money I spend every month; I’ve gotten stronger, have more stamina and feel better than I’ve felt in years. In addition, almost daily my family uses the many greenways around Knoxville to bike and walk. There are over 50 miles of paved greenways available in and around the City of Knoxville, with some of our favorite trails found at Ijams Nature Center. Ijams is a 275-acre wildlife sanctuary with 10 miles of natural surface trails plus a stretch of paved greenway. It’s one of Caroline’s and John’s favorite areas for biking. Recently, good friends of ours had twin babies. The babies were born here in Knoxville, one boy and one girl. The boy was diagnosed immediately after birth with Tetralogy of Fallot, a rare heart condition that was undetectable in utero. The baby was rushed to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, where he currently remains in the PICU. He’s already had one open heart surgery, 5 days into his short life. We’ve stayed in touch with our friends as they continue to watch over him at Vanderbilt and are confident he’ll have a complete recovery. The reason I mention our friends’ experience here is that we should never take our good health for granted. I’m thankful every day that my daughter is healthy and strong. Her dad and I encourage her to exercise daily. She plays softball for two seasons during the year. Also, and most importantly, we exercise with her. John takes her biking; I take her swimming; we go on lots of hikes. I think it’s pretty darned important to not only encourage exercise and fitness, but to do it with your kids. What better way for children to learn the lesson of good health than to watch their parents become healthier too. So, get out of the house and start moving!

 

Sage 100: How The Purchase Vendor Transfer Feature Works In Accounts Payable

Use the Purchase Vendor Transfer feature in Sage 100 to make transfers on invoices for credit card vendors.  This feature allows you to transfer a dollar amount from a credit card vendor (Visa, Amex, etc)  to a regular (purchase) vendor to record the amount if it was paid by credit card.  Also, you can transfer an outstanding invoice from a purchase vendor to the credit card vendor to pay off the open invoice.  Finally, you can combine invoices to create one invoice for the credit card vendor.  Remember, in order to use the Purchase Vendor Transfer button, you must mark the credit card vendor and the purchase vendor a ‘credit card vendor’ in Vendor Maintenance.

Described below are steps for recording a credit card purchase using Accounts Payable Invoice Data Entry, and subsequently transferring that dollar amount to the regular (purchase) vendor.  This feature allows for the transaction to be stored with not only the credit card vendor, but the purchase vendor as well.

1. Accounts Payable, Main, Invoice Data Entry
2. At the Vendor No. field, enter the credit card vendor number
3. Enter a new invoice number
4. Enter applicable invoice information on the Header tab
5. On the Lines tab, click the Transfer Information button.  The Purchase Vendor Transfer window appears
6. At the Vendor No. field, enter the purchase vendor’s GL account number.  This field defaults to the GL account number entered for the purchase vendor in Vendor Maintenance
7. At the Transfer Amount field, enter the purchase amount to apply to the purchase vendor
8. Enter 1099 data, if applicable
9. Click Accept and update all registers

The transaction is recorded and retained with the credit card vendor, and the transaction is recorded and retained with the purchase vendor.

Following are steps to transfer an outstanding invoice for a purchase vendor to the credit card vendor if the vendor’s invoice was paid by credit card.

1. Accounts Payable, Main, Invoice Data Entry
2. At the Vendor No. field, enter the credit card vendor
3. Enter a new invoice number
4. Enter applicable invoice information on the Header tab
5. Click the Lines tab, then click the Transfer Information button
6. At the Vendor No. field, enter the purchase vendor number
7. At the Invoice No. field, enter the purchase vendor’s outstanding invoice number (Note:  the GL Account field is not available because the outstanding invoice has already been recorded and updated previously)
8. The purchase vendor’s invoice balance appears in the Transfer Amount field.  Keep the amount there to transfer the full balance, or enter another amount to transfer a partial balance
9. Enter any other applicable data, such as 1099 information
10. Click Accept and update all registers

Finally, here are the steps to combine invoices to create one invoice to be paid by the credit card vendor.

1. Accounts Payable, Main, Invoice Data Entry
2. At the Vendor No. field, enter the credit card vendor number
3. At the Invoice Field, enter a new invoice number
4. Enter applicable invoice information on the Header Tab
5. Click the Lines tab, then click the Transfer Information button
6. At the Vendor No. field, enter the credit card vendor number again and click Select
7. In the Select Vendor Transfer Invoices window, select the invoices to be combined into the current invoice, then click OK
8. In the Purchase Vendor Transfer window, click OK
9. Click Accept and update all registers

You’ve now combined selected invoices for the credit card vendor.  Note:  If multiple invoices were selected in Select Vendor Transfer Invoices, MULTIPLE appears at the Invoice Number field in the Purchase Vendor Transfer window. The total amount of the invoices appears at the Transfer Amount field.

 

Local Goodness at the Market Square Farmer’s Market

Us Knoxvillian’s are lucky to live near so many small towns — towns that are home to thriving farms and local craftsmen.  These farmers and craftsmen bring many delightful goodies to the area’s farmers markets.

Saturday we visited the Market Square Farmer’s Market, located in Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville.  Everything at the market is grown or made by farmers and craftsmen in the East Tennessee area.  At the MSFM you can find an abundance of produce, eggs, herbs, plants, locally-raised meats, artisan crafts, coffee and much more.  This visit, we first had breakfast at Tupelo Honey Cafe before wandering through the market to see what goodies we could find to prepare fresh, tasty meals for the upcoming week.

Mostly, we visit the market to acquire fresh vegetables, meats and herbs.  Today, however, our first stop was at long-time vendor Mary LeClair’s booth, Color Ur World.    Caroline is a fan of tie-dye, so we stopped to browse through Mary’s creations.  If I shop by myself I work from a list and am 99% successful at picking up just what I need.  Alas, this time I caved and Caroline went home with a new sundress.  Mary is a super nice lady and gave us tips on how to care for the dress, as well as how to make fitting adjustments as Caroline grows.

Next stop was the Crosswind Farm booth.  Owners Michael and Donna began farming and selling to the public 30 years ago, growing produce such as lettuce, squash, onions, cauliflower and much, much more.  We picked up enough lettuce for a week’s worth of salad, plus some yellow & zucchini squash.  It’s not the first time I’ve purchased produce from Michael & Donna and it’s always extremely fresh and flavorful.

After buying our produce, we headed over to Pop Culture’s cart to say hi to Jason.  Jason has been making a variety of gourmet popsicles, like strawberry lemonade, orange cream, Nutella, oatmeal raisin and many other fantastic and unique flavors, for the past several years.  Caroline’s favorites are orange cream and Nutella!

Next stop was Brewer’s Mushrooms.  Brewer’s Mushrooms is located in Dandridge, TN; they grow a variety of fresh oyster, shiitake and lion’s mane mushrooms.  We picked up a small quantity of the lion’s mane and oysters….awesome flavor!  We’ve sauteed them for a burger topping and chopped them into a salad.  Sauteeing them in plain ol’ butter in an iron skillet delivers a rich, flavorful side dish.

Jackson Straights Farm was next on the list of stops.  A family-owned 100% organic cattle farm located in Thorn Hill, TN, Jackson Straights Farm is run by Tom Cate and his son, Jordan Cate.  We talked quite a bit with Jen & Jordan Cate, two very friendly, knowledgeable people who gave us good information about their product.  We picked up some ground sirloin and an arm roast.

Finally, we stopped at Flour Head Bakery’s booth and picked up a cinnamon roll treat for Caroline, as well as a homemade rhubarb poptart!  Flour Head is owned by Mahasti Vafaie, who also owns The Tomato Head Restaurant, a favorite of Knoxvillians for flavorful, made-from-the freshest-vegetables-produce-and-herbs pizzas.

All in all, lots of good finds for not too much money and we get to enjoy fresh vegetables, meat and other items all week long!

 

Sales Tax Automation: Making It Easier With Avalara

Navigating the world of sales tax can be time-consuming and frustrating.  However, there are many reasons why understanding how sales tax works in your state is undoubtedly one of the most important functions of your accounting department.  Federal legislation regarding remote and on-line sales tax is pending and will impact most businesses.  There are hundreds of rate and taxability changes every year.  Many states are hiring more auditors and increasing audits & reviews because of needed additional revenue.  It’s definitely an area where there is potential for significant error and business risk.  Transactional tax compliance is the responsibility of your business.  Sound scary?  It is.

Introducing Avalara.  Avalara is a Software-as-a-Service, cloud-based, transaction-tax solution that integrates directly into existing workflow processes.  Avalara products can eliminate the tedious work and complexity of calculating, collecting, reporting on, and remitting taxes across multiple jurisdictions.  Their products integrate with more financial, e-commerce, point-of-sale systems and mobile applications than any other transactional-tax solution on the market.  Avalara integrates with many, many accounting and ERP solutions, including Sage products.

Their flagship products include:

• AvaTax Calc – Cloud-based, real time sales tax decision engine
• AvaTax Certs – Online exemption certificate management
• AvaTax Returns – Stress free returns processing

For more information on Avalara and their products and services, visit their website or contact Darcy Boerio at darcy.boerio@avalara.com.

 

Ukulele

Two weeks ago, with it being the first week of summer vacation and having not planned properly, my wife and I found ourselves without childcare for our 6 year old son, Alex. Fortunately, we have family nearby (but not too nearby) and I made arrangements with two of my aunts who live two hours away to keep him.

He had lots of adventures, including going to the Glazier Museum in Tampa. They played chess on a giant chess set at the library in SPC (St. Petersburg College).   The pieces were nearly as tall as he is and he is a pretty good chess player, considering who is teacher is.

How does all of this relate to the ukulele, a Hawaiian guitar-like instrument?

On one of his adventures, my aunt took Alex to visit one of my cousins in Tampa and she had a ukulele.  Alex fell in love with her ukulele. She taught him the basic strumming method in the time they were there. Her roommate has a baritone ukulele. He didn’t like that one as much. He wants a tenor ukulele like my cousin’s. He wanted guitar lessons but he really wants ukulele lessons now.

Coincidentally, my friend Bill Kizer got a ukulele for Father’s Day. The book I just started reading on rapid learning protocols has a chapter on ukulele. And less coincidentally, my friend and colleague, Kevin Conlin, pointed me to this video of Jake Shimabukuro playing Bohemian Rhapsody on ukulele in a TED Talk from 2010.

Jake Shimabukuro playing Bohemian Rhapsody on ukelele

The video is pretty awesome! I never thought anyone could play Bohemian Rhapsody on the ukulele…or would.

Now I have to figure out how to get ukulele lessons in Ocala, FL. It’s a good thing there are hundreds of videos on how to play the ukulele on YouTube.

 

How Can Sage Inventory Advisor Make Your Business More Profitable?

Sage Inventory Advisor is a cloud-based, subscription-priced add-on for Sage 100 (fka MAS 90 and MAS 200), Sage 300 (fka Accpac), and Sage X3 that provides detailed insight and analysis of your inventory.

By extracting inventory, product supplier, location, purchasing, sales, and bill of materials information, the Inventory Advisor module helps to:

• Control costs by reducing excess inventory.
• Increase customer satisfaction levels by reducing stock-outs.
• Boost profitability by reducing your capital investment in stock.

It is designed to be a complementary product that enhances the functionality already present in your Inventory Management, Sales Order, Purchase Order, and Bill of Materials modules. And since it processes in the cloud, its calculations are transparent to you.

Currently, it is compatible with Sage 100 versions:

• 4.4
• 4.5
• 2013 (aka version 5.0)
• 2014 (release date TBD)

Here is a more detailed overview of the what and the how of Inventory Advisor from Sage 300 partner, Plus Computer Solutions in Vancouver, BC:

 

 

The Affordable Care Act Explained at Sage Summit in July

 Sage Summit is the largest gathering of the year for Sage customers and business partners.  The conference will take place July 21 – 26, 2013 and is being held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a United States federal statute signed into law on March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama.  It’s also referred to as Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act.  PPACA represents the most significant government expansion and regulatory overhaul of the U. S. healthcare system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.  PPACA is designed to increase the affordability and rate of health insurance coverage for Americans, as well as reduce the overall costs of healthcare for individuals and the government.  It provides a number of mechanisms, including mandates, subsidies and tax credits, to employers and individuals to increase the coverage rate and affordability of health insurance.   The PPACA requires insurance companies to cover all applicants within new minimum standards and offer the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions.  Additional reforms aim to improve healthcare outcomes and streamline the delivery of healthcare to Americans.

On Wednesday, July 24, Sage is offering an all-day learning track that will unravel the complexities of the PPACA.  Speakers will break down the health care reform by topic, including key provisions, insurance carriers, small business tax credits, and compliance requirements.  Attendees at this special track will learn:

• What the Affordable Care Act means for your business.
• What your responsibilities as an employer are.
• How it will impact your bottom line.
• Steps you should be taking now to prepare for provisions that start in 2014.

Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institute will be a keynote speaker at the session.  A noted healthcare expert, Mr. Aaron will talk about the fundamental issues and challenges of health care reform and the impact on small and midsized businesses. Mr. Aaron will also address questions from attendees received during the registration collection process.    Also speaking will be Bernard DiFiore, president and CEO of BenefitMall.  Mr. DiFiore will lead a panel of insurance carrier experts. This question and answer session will dive into the realities of the Affordable Care Act.

Breakout session topics include:  The Affordable Care Act Explained, The Complexity of Healthcare: Balancing Costs and Benefits and The New Era of Healthcare:  How It Impacts You and Your Employees.

This will be an excellent track for business owners, executives, human resources managers, entrepreneurs and anyone seeking a nonpartisan, informational overview of the health care reform.

Visit Sage’s Summit website for more information on how to register.

 

‘Girls’ Night Out’ Weekend in Franklin, NC

This past weekend, my daughter Caroline and I decided to do a girls’ weekend and chose Franklin, NC as our destination.   About a two and a half hour drive from our home in Knoxville and nestled in the Smoky Mountains,  the town of Franklin was incorporated right before the Civil War in 1855.    Our goals for the weekend were to mine for gems, visit a waterfall and visit the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville.

We set out Friday right after her last day of summer camp for the week, on my promise that we’d jump right into the hotel pool upon arrival.  We got there around 6:00 p.m.  and the rain promptly began to fall.  So instead of the pool, we hopped back into the car and headed to downtown Franklin.  As in most small towns, many of the businesses were closed for the day so we didn’t have any luck shopping downtown.   Instead we went to WalMart, picked up a couple paperbacks and headed back to the room for  a ‘girls’ night in’ of delivered pizza, reading and arguing over Law & Order:  SVU or Selena Gomez in Another Cinderella Story.  (I won.)

The next morning we drove to Rose Creek Mine in Franklin.   Rose Creek Mine is one of the three state-licensed gem mines in Macon County.  The owner, Tom, also known as “Dr. Rock,” said the license allows them to continue to dig deeper into the ground than the other area mines.  Neither Caroline nor I had mined for gems before, so really had no idea what to expect.  What we ended up with was tons of fun and lots of shiny, colorful stones!

There are two ways to mine at Rose Creek.  You can purchase a bucket, go to the mine pit, and shovel your own dirt into the bucket.  Or, you can buy various levels of enhanced, or ‘salted,’ buckets.  A salted bucket is prepacked with dirt by the mine owner and includes lots of shiny, colorful gems, ensuring good finds for the kids.  We chose one bucket of each.  Armed with our buckets of dirt, Caroline and I prepared to get dirty at the flume.  In the real dirt, we found mostly rocks….although we did find an emerald stone.  In her salted bucket, Caroline found rubies, sapphires, garnets, topaz, smoky quartz and moonstones.   She was excited and we both thoroughly enjoyed the morning of mining.

After the mine, with the sun finally out, we took advantage of some pool time for a couple hours, then headed to Dry Falls.  Dry Falls flows on the Cullasaja River through the Nantahala National Forest.  Dry Falls flows over an overhanging bluff that allows visitors to walk up under the falls and remain relatively dry.  Hence the fall’s name.  Caroline and I were duly impressed!  Saturday after our visit to Dry Falls, we were able to enjoy several more hours of pool time.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and drove to Asheville to visit the North Carolina Arboretum.  The North Carolina Arboretum is located in the Pisgah National Forest and is operated under a special use permit issued by the National Forests in North Carolina.  Established in 1986 by the General Assembly as an affiliate of the University of North Carolina, the Arboretum was founded nearly a century after Frederick Law Olmsted, the ‘Father of American Landscape Architecture,’ first envisioned such an institution near Asheville as part of his legacy to the Biltmore Estate.  The gardens were bursting with color and the bonsai garden was especially intriguing.  

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend in North Carolina.  We’ll definitely make this trip again.  We didn’t have nearly enough time to experience all the area has to offer.  When we return, we’ll visit, to name a few places, the The Nantahala Outdoor Center and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.