Transcript Work Smarter With Sage (or how to make better use of some of that stuff you bought but never got round to using!) Cathrin Wharton Technology.

Work Smarter With
Sage
(or how to make better use of some
of that stuff you bought but never
got round to using!)
Cathrin Wharton
Technology Techniques Ltd
[email protected]
www.techtech.eu
Cathrin Wharton
Worked with Tetra/Sage since 1984
Reseller Consultant, Group IT Manager, Project
Manager – been seated at both sides of the desk!
Independent of the reseller channel
My aim is to help you get the best from your Sage
ERP system
and finally; when I don’t know the answer then
chances are I know a man, or woman, who does!
Agenda
• Using document print commands
• Easy Emailing from Sage
• Month end archiving and viewing
• EC Sales List Submission On-line
Document Print Commands
• Make use of the in-built printer and paper
types of Sage to integrate your own process
• Create a new Sage printer with an
associated printer command that executes
a set of instructions at the point when you
press the ‘Submit’ option from the Spool
Submission window
Spool submission window
Examples of document print
types
• filecopy: create a copy of your report as a
flat file suitable to be imported into another
application, e.g. Excel, Word, etc.
• filepdf: create a copy of your report as a .pdf
file suitable for sending on to other
destinations
• or carry out a call to any other non-Sage
application
Example filecopy printer setup
Example filecopy paper type setup
Example filepdf printer setup
Example filepdf paper type setup
The printcmd.ini file
• Each Sage print command is listed in a file
called printcmd.ini which you can usually
find in the C:\csserver\spool directory
Example filepdf print command
setup
• Create a new entry in printcmd.ini with the
name of your new print command and
include something like the following string:
• filepdf = "printfmt %F %Q/%U.%Z %A %P %T %H %L %W
%S %E %C c:\csserver\bin2\filepdf\filepdf.bat
D:\user_file_extracts c:\csserver\bin2\filepdf %F
%Q/%U.%Z %A %P %H %L %W %S %E %C %T“
• (N.B. For an explanation of the arguments to the ‘printfmt’
command, send me an email)
Batch file called from printcmd.ini
• Finally, create a batch file, filepdf.bat, with
the instructions you would like carried out,
e.g. call a .pdf generator program.
filepdf.bat
• set some variables
• get the system date and time
• change directory to the destination folder
• Invoke a third-party PDF generator program with
some parameters and re-write the report to a .pdf
file with the user name, database name, report
name, date and time included in the file name
Locating the .pdf output
• Add an option to the Sage menu using TCR
to point to the destination folder.
• Browse to the folder and you will see your
report as a .pdf file, something like this:
• manager_CS3DEMO_sk_info_maintenance_200901280351-16980.pdf
• The same logic applies for the filecopy
command, except the file will be created as
a .txt file
Easy e-mailing from Sage
• Standard third-party applications that email from Sage rely on
retrieving an email address stored against each customer.
• Quite often the addressee can be different depending upon what is
being emailed, i.e. a statement or a purchase order etc.
• When printing a report or document, choose filepdf in the
printer/paper type of the spool submission window and the .pdf output
will be dropped into a folder on the Sage server.
• A TCR option on the Sage menu can connect to this folder and allow
the user to browse to their .pdf document, right-click on it and send it,
as an attachment, using their e-mail client and substituting an
appropriate email address.
• This has the added advantage that the transmission is recorded in the
email sent items
Month End Archiving and Viewing
• The Finance team spool the month end
reports, defer them and forget about them.
• The Auditors arrive and want to see the
print-outs from 12 months ago and no-one
can find them!
• Use a document print type called monthend
to solve this problem
monthend
• monthend takes the month end report,
converts it to .pdf and moves it to a folder
available to view as a web page from the
Sage menu as a TCR option
Sales ledger month end web page
Month end web pages
• The web page is organised into sub-folders for
company, module, financial year and period and
resides under the existing IIS structure already
driving your Sage Help Files
Month end report as .pdf
EC Sales List Submission
• Assuming that commodity codes and VAT
numbers are correctly entered for all your
stock items, customers and suppliers, (),
then submitting the EC Sales List on-line is
very easy using the filecopy print command.
• You will need to pre-register with HMRC and
have your login name and password
available
EC Sales List Submission
• From the EC Intrastat menu, run the UK Intrastat
listing
• And when presented with the spool submission
box, choose filecopy as the paper type and press
enter.
EC Sales List Submission
• From the Sage menu, choose the option to
browse to the destination folder and locate
your file.
EC Sales List Submission
• Open Excel and then import the file,
choosing to view all files, in order to see the
.txt file
• Sort the data by column headings on the
‘Error’ column, in order to bring any errors to
the top and then print out these rows.
• Correct the data using ‘EC Intrastat Direct
Entry’
EC Sales List Submission
• Create the submission file using the UK
Intrastat EDI option and when the report
has spooled, press F5 to exit.
EC Sales List Submission
• Choose the Text and EDI file viewer option
• Select the file UKISCSV and press F8 to view
Intrastat file viewer
Upload to HMRC
• Select all the text using Control-A and copy
it using Control-C and paste it into Notepad
using Control-V. Save the file to your local
PC C: drive, (because the Intrastat upload
facility does not tolerate folder or filenames
with spaces)
• Locate the following URL:
•
https://secure.hmce.gov.uk/ecom/is2/static/is2.html
• Follow the instructions to upload your file.