**Current Version** Sage BusinessVision 2010 (7.4)
Significant improvements in new version released summer 2010
In June 2010, Sage released the newest version of Sage BusinessVision, version 2010 (7.4).
There are literally hundreds of improvements in this version, and clients are reporting it to be robust, stable and
impressive.
While the number of new features and improvements in version 2010 aren't quite as dramatic as in version 2009,
the new version is definitely noteworthy.
Most Notable New Features - Version 2010
The features that clients report being the happiest about are these:
Most Notable New Features
- Bank Reconciliation - this module has had an overhaul that makes bank recs much simpler;
many of the columns are sortable, allowing easy searching for cheque numbers, GL memos, dates, etc.;
new "select all" button; bank rec report now clearly indicates whether an account has been
fully reconciled or not
- Accounts Payable - a new prompt after printing a cheque - "was the cheque printed properly";
if not, it allows you to reprint using either the same cheque number OR the next one; works
as well in the instant cheque and batch payables modes
- New "Report Groups" - will be able to set up a list of commonly used reports for each user;
example: a group called "Month-end reports" might include every report that the accounting staff
need to run at each month end; simplifies finding and remembering to run specific groups of reports,
and reduces the number of reports people have to sort through to find what they need
- New report - Inventory Historical Value - basically, works backwards from today's inventory
levels back to a specific date, allowing for both inventory receipts and sales history, to arrive
at inventory levels that existed at some point in the past
- Browse customization - Ability to add even more fields to your customized browses;
for example, in browsing Customers, you can see all their contact info, addresses, etc.
- Find Module - now allows you to quickly Find customer-specific pricing (CSP) and
vendor-specific pricing (VSP) information
- Notes tabs - the title on the Notes tab in each module will now indicate the number of
notes that exist, which is an easy way for a user to know whether there are notes they need
to be sure to review before contacting a customer, vendor, etc.
- Workbook setup - when using Date fields in the Workbook (part of the Custom Pack module),
can now allow a new entry to use a blank date, or default to it; if you need this feature,
you probably already know it
- Payroll - employees have a new checkbox indicating CPP exemption, rather than just relying
on the employee's birth date to trigger the exemption
- Purchase Orders / Sales Orders - line item Required Date field has been added, which allows
you to indicate for each line item when it is required; allows for scheduled deliveries of
product over a period of time, without having to resort to using Workbook fields on each line item
- Fully compliant to work with Windows 7 - as of today, version 2009 works under Windows 7,
but there are a number of fairly minor
functions that are known to not function (a workaround is to run it in "XP Mode")
- Data Validation - essentially an integrity checking utility for your BusinessVision data
to ensure any problems can be identified as soon as possible
- General Ledger - this version reinstates an older feature that was left out of other 7.x versions,
namely that as you enter a GL Journal Entry, the system will present you with amounts to balance
all previous lines in the entry. This simplifies entry of Journal Entries, particularly short ones
- And many more - of course, there were many other small changes that will be included
that will continue to make using BusinessVision that much better....
Features coming soon in Version 2010 Service Packs
At some point fairly quickly after the initial release of version 2010 (some are already available), there will
be a number of additional, incremental changes that will be added. The main ones follow.
Features To Come After Initial 2010 Release
- Credit card processing - new regulations come into effect in July 2010 regarding
credit card processing, relating the encryption, privacy and security; the current
credit card add-ons for BusinessVision will not be fully compliant with these new
regulations, so BusinessVision will now integrate with Sage Payment Solutions; the result
will be better integration with BusinessVision as well as proper compliance with the new regs.
If you accept credit cards either in Point Of Sale or in AR, you will need to be
compliant with these changes, which will greatly simplify a lot of things, and keep you
in line with the new regs; there will be support for credit and debit cards, PIN pads, etc.,
and we're told it will work properly in a Terminal Services environment
- Compatibility with Microsoft Office 2010 - Office 2010 will be released somewhere
around July 1, 2010, and once it's out, BusinessVision will quickly be compatible with it
- Software Assurance / Payroll Update Plan - there will be new options available to give
you more flexibility and choices in adding support to your basic Software Assurance plan
- And more.....
All in all, clients agree the new features all look excellent, and Sage have done a really nice job of focusing their
development efforts on things that end users and partners have told them we need, rather than just what they think
we'd like. If you have product suggestions for Sage / BusinessVision, you can e-mail them to: enhancements.bv@sage.com.
Third-Party Software
Note that the third-party developers will always be a little behind Sage in releasing new versions, so it you
use any of these products, always make sure they're compatible before you upgrade your BusinessVision software.
Although there are literally dozens of third-party vertical applications that integrate with BusinessVision,
here are just some of the ones our clients have traditionally been most interested in (click here for more on third-party solutions):
Third-Party Software
- Data management - clean up your customer / vendor / inventory data including merge / purge / change codes using PowerTools
- Document management - eliminate mailing / document preparation costs and do easy direct marketing to your BV customer list
using DocuFire
- Order / inventory management - e.g., backorder management, warehouse management including OE+, BVImport, InBridge
- E-Commerce - Add your BusinessVision data to your own web store (or multiple web stores) or website(s) using ZeckoShop
Sage are doing a very good job in encouraging the development of third-party tools, utilities and applications, and the developers
of these tools are certainly producing some great work. If you need to streamline or expand your use of BusinessVision or the
management of your BusinessVision data, please give us a call to discuss how some of these tools can
actually save you money or make you money.
Give us a call and let's discuss what upgrading to Sage BusinessVision 2010 can do for your business!