SBS 2008/2011 and Sage 50 (Simply Accounting 2013)

It seems that Simply 2013 (Sage 50) is going to want to install .NET 4.0 on SBS 2008:

Once the routine had finished it then requested a reboot prior to going further into the Sage 50 – Simply Accounting 2013 Accountant’s Edition install.

After the reboot the Setup.exe started up automatically and:

Once the above install completed we were finally greeted with:

We then had our new Database Manager installed and were able to disable the 2012 version in Services.msc.

Note that the firewall exceptions that we make for the MySQL and accompanying services are still good so we did not need to make any changes to the SBS 2008 Standard/Premium firewall setup.

It was a curious thing that an Internet Explorer security block came up for Google Analytics when the Sage post Setup Configuration Help page popped up. ;)

Also, the service set itself up to the start-up type “Automatic (Delayed Start)” on SBS 2011 Standard but “Automatic” on SBS 2008. We flipped the service over to Delayed Start on SBS 2008 too as we have had some issues with the Database Connection Manager not starting on its own in the past.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer

Sage Simply Accounting Now Collects "Anonymous Information" By Default. How-To Opt Out

The following screen came up after updating a bunch of Simply Accounting systems:

Product Enhancement Program

Sage Simply Accounting has enrolled you in the Product Enhancement Program to help improve our software and services.

Got to like the fact that most folks may or may not pay attention to the above in a busy office or accounting firm. :(

We make sure to Opt-Out by default letting our client's users know that they can opt back in if they so desire.

Under Help click on the About Product Enhancement Program and then tick the I no longer want to participate option. Click OK to complete the process.

We prefer that vendors have OPT-IN by default not opt-out when it comes to monitoring telemetry from systems and/or software.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Simply Accounting 2012 Update Release D May Require a Database Manager Update

We have received some calls from users unable to open their Simply 2012 files on the server after updating their client to Release D.

So, we ran the update on the server to make sure that whatever changes the updated client was looking for could be found on the server:

Note that a Restart Now is NOT needed.

Simply start the Simply Accounting Database Connection Manager in the server's Services.msc:

Once the back end was updated the users still could not use their recently used file list. They needed to go in and open the file manually before the update would pop its information up in the client.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Simply Accounting 2012 Critical Bug: Cheque Run Period End Date comes out wrong!

We fielded a question from a client about their having a problem with Simply 2012.

When they did a cheque run they put in a Period End Date of 12/08/2011.

When they did the cheque run the actual printed cheques had a Period End Date: 12/13/2011!

We verified that the custom Crystal Reports forms had the correct fields in them which they did.

After a few tests we came to realize that Simply 2012 was dropping in the date chosen when the Simply company file was first opened. Most folks open with today’s date so that’s the date that would show up on the cheques.

We called into Simply support and sure enough they knew about the problem. They also knew about two ways to work around the problem until an update fixes it:

1. When opening the company file set the date to Period End Date for a payroll cheque run only.
• Once done the payroll run log off and back on again with the correct day’s date.
2. Use the Calendar button to the right of the date field shown above to set the Period End Date and then Print Preview and it should show the correct date.

The Simply technician indicated that an update is forthcoming to address this problem.

In the mean time our client has run through hundreds of pre-printed cheques with the wrong period end date at a _huge_ cost to them. What do they do? In this case they could let folks know that there was a glitch . . . maybe.

Conclusion

How is it that a software vendor will refuse to publish a bug about this kind of problem? It is not a simple little problem that has very little impact! What about those companies that are doing payroll cheque runs into the thousands?!?

This bug can have a big impact on a company that uses the Sage Simply 2012 accounting product.

We challenged the Simply tech support person on Sage’s not publishing the problem anywhere on their site and they indicated that our suggestion to publish high impact bugs on their Support Site would be brought up at a meeting of some sort.

This situation is very disappointing and really undermines our trust level with Sage. We already take Intuit’s QuickBooks with a first version grain of salt. Now it looks like we will be lumping Simply Accounting into that camp as well. :(

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Inventory Management Using the Wasp WWS500 Barcode Scanner

With the amount of inventory that runs through our business we needed a simple yet effective way of tracking all of the part numbers, serial numbers, and manufacturer’s specific product numbers.

Enter the Wasp WWS500 Bluetooth Barcode Scanner:

This little device is _so_ handy. It operates as a keyboard so we can scan volumes of product numbers into our bookkeeping system thus avoiding any typos. Because it operates as a keyboard the device is software agnostic.

We just uploaded a control sheet that we use for the barcode scanner to get it to work consistently as it can be a little finicky

• PDF Document: WSS500SetConnection.

The key barcode to scan if the scanner is having a hard time reconnecting its Bluetooth is the Disconnect Bluetooth code. Then run through the pairing process again. Note that the Terminator needs to be set to None otherwise scanning in the pairing code will fail.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Sage Simply Accounting Support Chat Links

We have a client that had an issue with a Simply Accounting order and none of the phone calls they made were getting anywhere.

After clicking through Simply’s support site we came to the following page:

• Chat with Sage Simply Accounting Analysts

Since we were having an order/registration problem we clicked on the Chat with a registration analyst. Our connection was made in less than a minute to analyst Ryan A. He had the answer we needed within a minute or two and we were on our way.

Total time taken to find the chat support page, connect with Ryan, and get our answer was less than then minutes. Any further needs should be pretty quick since we now have quick access to the chat links page! :)

All in all, our experience was a very positive one.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2011 – Simply Accounting Firewall Exceptions Needed for Db Manager and MySQL

It seems that Simply Accounting’s database manager will need to be allowed through the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security:

When we look in the Windows Firewall log we see lots of dropped packets:

The base connection port required is 13531:

While that port is listed in the dropped packets list, there are also others. So, we need to make an exception for the Simply Database Manager program as well as others.

• Simply Connection Manager
• 
• Simply Tray Icon
• 
• Simply’s MySQL Daemon
• 
• Simply’s MySQL Admin Service
• 

Once the rules were created we restarted the Simply Accounting Database Manager in Services.msc we were able to make a successful company file connection to the server.

We will also be setting this configuration into our GPO linked to the Computers OU so that any workstation or Remote Desktop Server will not get hung up on Simply connections.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

CaseWare Working Papers 2010 – Network File Locations Errors

Just lately we have been seeing a lot of problems with CaseWare Working Papers 2010 and the files associated with the program being located on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (including SBS) file shares.

CaseWare has this to say:

• File corruption when using Windows Vista/Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 with SMB2

CaseWare International highly recommends disabling SMB2.

Specifically, the problems have reared their head with the Working Papers R2 and R3 updates applied.

This situation really gives us cause for pause.

Why, you might ask?

Because CaseWare’s recommendation to disable SMB2 (the network sharing protocol that gives us 100MB+/Second file copies on the network) takes us a huge step backwards in network performance.

Now, for a small accounting firm this may not be a big deal . . . depending on how many QuickBooks and Simply clients they are bookkeeping for. Or, how many large files are moving around on the network.

As soon as we disable SMB2 we are at a disadvantage for any large data sets moving around on the network. So, for our larger accounting firm clients with quite a number of QuickBooks files open simultaneously plus their regular network traffic we may start to hear complaints about poor network performance.

In our opinion, the suggestion to disable SMB2 comes at too high a cost for most accounting firms.

With the just released R7 for CaseWare Working Papers 2010 we are hoping that we will see things settle down to the same level RTM had (virtually no issues).

If not, we may be looking at setting up a small NAS appliance with a folder share _just for CaseWare files_ so as to not impact the overall performance of the network.

BTW, our last attempt to contact CaseWare support took 5 days before their initial response which was to e-mail another department and then _another_ 3 days before the answer finally came through. Eight days to straighten out an activation issue with CaseWare Working Papers 2010 . . . ouch.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Simply 2009 simply disappears with multiple monitors?!?

All of our accounting office clients have multiple monitor setups on their desks. All it took was to convince one of the partners to try it, for free, for a couple of weeks. Pretty soon there were extra monitors on all of the partners and bullpen worker's desks.

While this situation works really well for improving productivity, we have seen a few hiccups here and there. Strangely, many of the hiccups seem to be with Simply 2008 and 2009.

If a file is shared between two people at different times, and they have different monitor configurations, such as the extra monitor on the left instead of the right, and either one will open the file the Simply window will flash by and "disappear".

The user will see a button on the toolbar, but will not be able to do anything with it.

To get that window back on the screen do the following:

• Right click on the Simply button on the Task Bar and click on Move.
• Tap on any one of the direction arrows (-->) on the keyboard. (This locks the mouse to the window's header)
• Move the mouse around and the window will eventually appear.

Now, some programs will remember the window position when it gets closed. But, as we are seeing with Simply Accounting, this may not be the case with any kind of consistency.

In some cases, there will be no right click option when the Task Bar button is clicked on. When this happens do the following (note that there will be no feedback that the process is working until the mouse is moved about and the application window appears):

1. Click on the Simply button to make it active.
2. On the keyboad press the following key combination together and release: ALT+Spacebar.
3. Press the M key on the keyboard for Move.
4. Press the -->or any of the direction arrows on the keyboard. The mouse cursor should "disappear".
5. Move the mouse about until the missing application window appears.

Once this situation has happened once or twice, then the remedy becomes second nature.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Windows Vista - Simply 2008 EFT Module Issue

We have already chronicled some of our challenges with the new version of Simply Accounting 2008 on Windows Vista and SBS.

We have a new client that uses the Simply EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) module.

In this case, we installed a new Vista Business workstation and configured everything to run with the exception of the EFT module.

Because our client carried forward the Company File EFT settings from the previous system, we were not expecting any issues. However, when they went to run their payroll, the EFT file creation failed every time the process ran.

The EFT module installs to: C:\Program Files\SimplyEFT with the data being created in a subdirectory called C:\Program Files\SimplyEFT\Data.

The problem we were running into was the EFT program did not have permission to create the EFT file in the Data directory.

Our options were the following:

1. Create a new Company EFT setup and have the output written to an EFT folder under the user's Documents folder
2. Change the NTFS permissions on the Data folder to allow Write/Change

Our client did not want to go through with recreating their company's EFT setup, so we went with option two.

After the permission change, they were able to run the EFT process and upload the file to their bank with no issues.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS - Windows Vista - Simply 2008 Install Quirck

It may seem that Sage has taken a step backwards in their Simply Accounting setup for version 2008.

Simply 2007 installed with no issues on Windows Vista with the data hosted on a network share.

Simply 2008 on the other hand does not install as simply as that.

The first problem was on the Windows Vista workstation.

Whenever we went to run Simply Accounting we would get:

Error: Cannot connect to Simply Connection Manager

On a properly running setup we should see:

Simply Accounting Connection Manager Service

The little icon was in the System Tray, the service was installed and listed under services.msc, but it was not running.

This is what we had to do:

1. Open Windows Explorer (logged in as a local admin) or elevate Windows Explorer
2. c:\Program Files\Winsim\ConnectionManager
3. Right click on the SimplyConnectionManager.exe file & properties
4. Compatibility Tab
5. Run this program as an administrator
6. Apply
7. OK
8. Close Windows Explorer.

This is what we would see during the above process:

Setting Admin Rights to the Connection Manager

Once we did that, we hit the start button for the service and it started with no issues.

But, we encountered the same error again!

This client's data is located on a company share, so we were not sure what the next step was.

Since this is a brand new install, we put in a call to Sage to see what they had to say.

Well, apparently we need to do a "Data Only" install on the server. Once we did that, made sure the Simply Connection Manager service was started - it did not start up after the install - they were in business.

There are two workstations connecting to this database. One of the two needs to be running as a restricted user.

And we may be in a bit of a bind as the service is not wanting to start while logged in as the restricted user. We even set the service to run as admin via an elevated Windows Explorer and subsequent UAC elevation using a local admin rights user to access the "Run as Admin for All Users" properties.

It is the end of the day for them, and for us, so we will work on it again in the morning to see if we need to set compatibility mode for the service in order to get it to run under a restricted account. But, so far we have struck out.

Sage ... it is not looking too good for you at this point. :(

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.