To stay competitive, you need your accounting software and business productivity software to work together and offer indispensable functions like graphical reporting, integration, customization and drill down functionality. The Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Custom Office module provides the solution with a suite of tools composed of Visual PostMaster, Customizer and the MS Office Link, that integrate with the Microsoft Office® suite.

MS Office Link

Since the MS Office Link provides a direct connection between a Sage MAS 90 or Sage MAS 200 task or record and the desired Microsoft Office application, it is perfect for one-time, one-record integration. You can launch the MS Office Link from a button on the appropriate screen.

A set of template documents is included for each Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 module, such as letters in Word and standard e-mails in Exchange software. The MS Office Link also allows you to access the template documents specific to the task displayed. For example, in customer maintenance you can automatically create a welcome letter, credit limit advisory letter and dunning letter, while in vendor maintenance you can create a letter requesting a price quotation. Similarly, you’ll have access to add and view attachments that are specific to the displayed data record.

For Accounts Payable transactions, this might be a scanned-in image of the original invoice; in Inventory Management, it could be a picture of the item.

Visual PostMaster uses open database connectivity (ODBC) to integrate Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 data directly with Microsoft Word, providing mail-merge functionality. Custom mailing lists (databases) can be integrated, allowing you to create mailing jobs that include information external to the accounting system. With its capability for using custom databases to track prospects, Visual PostMaster can become your personalized lead prospect management tool.

Using Microsoft Word’s advanced word processing features, you can freely create and edit documents to be merged with the information in the database. Export information into an ASCII file which can be sent to a mailing house, printed directly onto label stock or exported to an e-mail address book. Since Visual PostMaster allows you to pull data from more than one file at a time, you can also add the business date and current period to the merge documents (e.g., general ledger compilation reports).

You can also automatically reformat the data for a more professional appearing mail merge by changing all upper case names to title case and specifying a default to be used if a data field is blank. You can even assign special formatting to certain letter/word combinations (e.g., PC not Pc) and format options for numeric fields (add .00 to dollar amounts, mask dates and phone numbers, etc.).

With Customizer, you can change the appearance of your Sage MAS 90 or Sage MAS 200 screens to match the way you prefer to work, helping to increase productivity by improving data entry speed and accuracy. For example, you can specify default values to reduce keystrokes (e.g., default to your local area code in the phone number field). By customizing the screen to ignore unused fields and change tab sequences, you can change the screens to follow the exact order of the fields on an input form. You can also change the default field labels; for example, in a medical practice, it may be more appropriate to use "Patient" than "Customer."

User-defined fields allow you to add your own data fields to masterfiles, even if you have no programming skills. These fields can carry over seamlessly to your reports, orders and invoices. For example, an extra field you’ve added for shipping information to your customer masterfile can be included on sales orders and invoices using the integration of Crystal Reports software for printed forms.

Expand the functionality of your system by adding a button to screens that will launch application tasks or bring up the Microsoft Windows calculator when you need to add a quick column of figures. You can even create a button with links to a DDE script, which can launch Microsoft Word, and automatically produce a dunning letter with the customer’s name and address. Your custom button can also play back sound annotations to the screen or the record currently displayed.