Inventory Management is the lifeline for your business.  Are you getting the most out of this module?  Are Physical Counts a nightmare or a breeze?  Does Negative Inventory cause you to lose sleep at night.  Is average cost out of whack?  Tired of all the inventory adjustments that you have to make?

Be very careful in the next few weeks when entering dates.  Most users in Sage 100 ERP will enter dates with the month and day only.  For example, 1231 for Dec 31.  Keep in mind, though that the year will default to the current year.  So, if you enter 1231 after Jan 1, the date will become 12/31/2015 -- you probably intended to make it 12/31/2014.  So, if you're in the habit of entering dates with the month and day only, be sure to get in the habit of entering the year, too, for the next few weeks until everything has been entered for 2014.

To ensure that you don't post to a future date (ie 12/31/2014), you may want to update Library Master | Main | Company Maintenance, Preferences tab to Restrict Accounting Date to Current and One Future Period.  Of course, this will only work if you have are up to date on closing your period ends in GL and all other modules. 

A word of caution on making copies of your data -- be sure that you have enough disk space on the server.  More and more, we see server disk space being an issue, so be sure that you have adequate hard disk space on the server before making any copies of your company data. 

The above will prevent you from posting to the future, but remember to check invoice dates, check dates, transaction dates, etc, too. 

There are times when you would like a test company with data that looks similar to your real company to try something.  You can create or update a test company code in v4.00 or higher using the steps below.

If the test company code, let's say TST in our example here, does not already exist in MAS, you need to create the company code.  Go to Library Master | Main | Company Maintenance and enter TST in the code field and enter a name such as Test Company - Dec 31 2014.  Accept the screen.  This creates the company code, but no data in it.

Go back to Library Master | Main | Company Maintenance and type in the company code again (eg TST in this sample).  Click on the COPY button on the top right of the screen.  You'll be prompted for the SOURCE company.  This is important, since this is the company code you're copying FROM (eg your live company code, PAT, SCA, etc).  NEVER EVER make the destination your live company data; your live company should only be the source.  Click on the Select All green check mark icon on the right hand side of the screen to select all modules and then click Proceed.  This will create the copy for you.  Keep in mind that there is no undo button, so be very careful!

Use File | Change Company to select the TST company to process your test transactions; be sure to change back to your live company before processing any live transactions.

Note -- this tip is quite helpful at year end time when you might want to create a copy of your inventory system as at the year end date.  

Just a friendly reminder that if you have any Sage 100 ERP (MAS 90 / 200) support issues or general questions, please email us at WebSupport@munjalwhite.com and we'll respond as soon as we can.  Our support agreement includes a 3 hour response time and we'll do our best to respond within this timeframe.

Even if you primarily work with a single resource, it's best to use the WebSupport@munjalwhite.com email address as that allows others to help if your usual resource is not available.  This email address is monitored by all of us and will ensure the fastest response for you.