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Newsletter 2009-01   Go Back
November 16, 2009
Highlights:
 
  • User News
  • Holiday Schedule
  • New Features


User News:
 
Due to the recession, it has been a bit of a slower year news wise. No new branches opened and few major new projects. But, there have been sites that started taking advantage of recent features to become more efficient.  
 
BJ Electric has been aggressively using the Unisys EOM software (formerly called DEPCON) to reduce paper usage. More and more reports are sent to the EOM, which is installed on several users' PCs. There they can view the report and, optionally, print it on their local printer. Reports can also be emailed to outside sales reps, customers and vendors.  

BJ has also been using a new program to automatically post cash receipts from customers who send their remittance info in an Excel file. One customer in particular, would remit on a few hundred invoices at a time, which was a time consuming process to properly apply. Now, it's just a few minutes to open and save the Excel file in the proper directory, and run a WFL to process it. And, yes, the customers make a few mistakes, like sending incorrect invoice numbers. Typically, this is about 1% of the records sent. These fall out on an exception report, and must be applied (from unapplied cash) manually using AR03.  

Speaking of Excel, LaSalle Company has been using the new G/L Import – Export menu to import most of their journal entries. This can be very helpful if you have a new accountant or controller who is much more comfortable with Excel than the Power Plus system.  

Idlewood Electric and Laconia Electric are processing payables via EDI with several vendors. The feedback seems to be that it's not as much of a time saver as one might expect, but some of the trade groups are providing financial incentive to do it, which makes it worthwhile.  

Edison Equipment and Marshall Electric are both automatically sending order acknowledgements to selected customers through a third party vendor called MMI. MMI pools the data from distributors, and then translates it into the appropriate format depending on the customers' software, e.g. Timberline, Estimation, etc.  

Edison also recently began using plain paper rather than forms for invoicing. The jury is still out on how well received this is by their customers.

Tip for multi-branch sites. This issue just came up recently at one of our sites. You can automatically receive whatever it is the sending branch says they shipped by entering an X followed by the transfer sales order number in the ASN field on the IA31 receiving screen. ASN stands for Advanced Shipping Notice. This field was originally intended for vendors who send you ASNs. However, it can also be used for interbranch transfers.  

For this to work smoothly, the sending branches need to promptly perform any shipping feedback that is necessary to reflect the correct quantity shipped.

Holiday Schedule
 
We will be closed on Thanksgiving, November 26th, and sort of closed on the 27th.  

We will be closed December 24th – 25th for Christmas, and January 1st for New Years.  

Happy Holidays to All!

A recap of the year's new features will be published in the next newsletter in a few weeks.