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TAS tag codes
Thank you for a comprehensive survey of features needed for a job costing function and shortcomings of these packages. I have particular experience with TAS and Quickbooks. I was among those who lamented the the lack of functionality in TAS 2 years ago. I am suprised to learn that nominal and stock postings can now be coded to tag codes. I use TAS books 3 (version 4 plus latest upgrade) and have not found these features. I would be (almost !) excited if you can show me where it is.
I have found that TAS because it has a 3 character dept code and an account code upto 6 digits can be very flexible.
reviewer gets his come-uppance!
Hi David,
You've let me off gently, but of course I haven't actually got a copy of the latest TAS Books and all I did was ring up TAS Technical Support and ask them for the latest situation. Message for reviewer: only ever report what you've actually seen with your own eyes.
Can I ask your opinion on another feature of the latest TAS version? After some agitating from me, at the last minute they put in a facility for exporting nominal transactions to Excel (previously it was only balances).
Is it any good? Do you use it?
David
TAS - nominal export
Reply to David Carter
I can confirm that since version 4 it is possible to export nominal transactions. This is an excellent implementation. In addition to the base nominal data, Customer/ Supplier/ Nominal Analysis/ Nominal Type and Tag Codes are included along with (in separate fields) the full description of these codes. A total of come 27 fields are available and data can be selected by account range, account type date range etc.
Apart from our agreed difficulties with the tag code this software is close to being the best I have come accross for its adaptability.
Another of its great unsung advantages is the ability to make global changes to account numbers, customer/supplier codes tag codes etc.
I have recently re-organised a chart of accounts so radically that any other package I know of would have necessitated a new ledger and a start from scratch ( and the loss of comparative history).
To be fair to TAS they have recently released an upgrade to version 4 which has addressed a number of issues I have had with them over the past 2 years and included several new features. I hope this can give us assurance that the software will be developed further.
Job Costing the way forward
Thanks David. The Nominal Export was to my specification so I'm glad it's OK. TAS is also very good at exporting sales transactions for sales analysis (that's mine too!).
On this global changes aspect - do you mean that you can renumber any account and still keep the history? You can do this if the package also holds an internal code number for the account (which is invisible to the user). You can then change the account code as you suggest.
TAS is too good to lose and we have to keep jogging Sage so that it keeps getting some development funding. To me the way forward has to be for its job costing functionality to be enhanced so that it then becomes a top quality specialist accounting package.
Job Costing, TAS and the way forward
David Smith is quite correct about TAS's great unsung advantages, like the ability to make global changes to Account Numbers, Customer & Supplier codes, Tag codes, Product codes etc. Yes, you can renumber/recode any of these and still keep all the history (without any invisible internal code number for the records)!
We have worked closely with TAS for more than 10 years, both on networking and on application software.
With regard to the former, over the last 6 months or so, we have pioneered wider use of the (backwards-compatible) database engine called Pervasive.SQL at modest cost. This results in other unsung advantages: a massive increase in the scaleability and speed of TAS, both for small 2-5 user networks (with or without dedicated fileserver) and for 10, 20, 30, 50+ user systems - plus new benefits like remote internet access to TAS, use of Linux servers, potential to backup the database(s) while in use etc.
On the software front, I think it is clear that significant investment is being made by Sage in the TAS brand - the last release of Payroll (v4) was the first ever customer and feature-led payroll upgrade and I believe many will be surprised at the enhancements in the upcoming releases of TAS Books and Payroll this year (v5) and next. Our own TAS 'bolt-on' options aim to cover areas of functionality that are more specialist, like full Bill of Materials, multi-site Stock Control, Transaction imports, full Job Costing (inc Timesheets, Fixed Price Agreements, compliance with FRS 5 Application Note G re SSAP 9/IAS 18 and WiP calcs) etc.
All this is facilitated by the mostly excellent structural architecture of the TAS database, the high quality of which is not widely known. Yes, TAS is certainly too good to lose!
Mark Ramsay
Infoplex
What about Simply Accounting Professional and Premium
Simply Accounting Professional and Premium 2005 offer excellent job costing features with Bill Of Material and Item Assembly Features included as standard is also Project Management very useful for a small to medium sized construction company. Simply Accounting Professional Professional also comes with Crystal Reposts as standard.Report writing is absolutely fundamental to most accounting software and at £199 for a single user System or £450 for a 5 user system you have exceptional value. The Premium version also allows customization of terminology e.g. customers could become guests for a company involved in the hotel industry or customers could be called clients for service based organisations.Frequently users require additional fields of data depending on their type of business and Simply includes these optional fields to easily customize for a particular type of business.
Time & Fees software for Fixed Price Agreements
I am looking for a Time & Fees (T&F) system that caters adequately for Fixed Price Agreements (FPA), in other words where a fixed monthly amount is paid over 1 year for a fixed set of services.
As well as the standard T&F features, the system I need must also:
- deal with negative WIP on the FPAs
- cater for individual Extra Work Order bills
- serve as a management tool for the FPAs, eg alerting when they are about to expire.
- integrate with Sage Line 50
- allow reporting on various levels:
-Job
-manager
-partner
-department
We use IRIS at present and find it far too inflexible, particularly the reporting.
Can anyone recommend such a system?
Costing Roundup - Productivity
I think as accountants we all seem to be missing the main point concerning all the different features offered by the different software companies costing applications and that is PRODUCTIVITY and TRANSPARENCY in processing accounting information. Sage Line 50 is by far the poorest application in terms of productivity and transparency in processing accounting information and data out of all the applications under review. It offers limited drill down capability when looking at information already processed and requires by far the greatest number of keystrokes in processing information.Also to make changes to data input incorrectly it is the most inflexable.
When Wenger winges?
Sage Line 50 does have one very annoying fault in its Project system - you cant edit transactions to add or alter a Project number later.
So if you do realise at a later date that the dinner you gave to Ashley Cole actually properly belongs to the "Annoy Wenger" project - its too late - unless you cancel and re-enter - and all thoe red entries are bound to invite unwanted attention.
QuickBooks Class analysis
David correctly points out that the job costing in QuickBooks is tied to customers which is where it traditionally belongs. However there is a very powerful independent analysis feature called class accounting which provides first class project accounting. When the feature is turned on, a posting field will appear in all transaction entries including payroll and journals. You can then use the QuickBook benefits of filtered and tailored reports and drill down to present the information the way the Client needs it. Clients also like the time saving option of names instead of numbers which QB permits. Also you can reorganise the structure when necessary by nesting projects and can easily merge or reclassifiy data. This is important when "cleaning" Client's bookkeeping work. I use it to great success with Clients in construction and charities, both of which have a crucial need for project reporting. It can also be used for departmental analysis or, for example, the analysis of fee earners contribution in a consultancy business.
Bloat-ware or Add-ons?
The older Technology / Software posts make you realise how far we have come with software functionality improvements over the last few years but is there such a thing as obesity in the software world?
No matter which software product you read about, it has either grown fat or died altogether. In the case of Sage 50, it has picked up more and more Management Accounting / Job Costing functionality year on year and it has always had its own separate Job Costing module for product-centric businesses but unbeknown to many, Sage Coretime is the networked PSA software / Job Costing module for service sector businesses. Some of its functionality is now also incorporated in the more mid-market Sage 200 Project Accounting WTE module. For small and medium-sized Service Sector businesses such as consultancies, designers or surveyors who already use Sage 50, the Sage Coretime add-on is an affordable upgrade path if they are looking for a real-time, networked business overview and timesheet software tool that replaces their time-consuming manual or spreadsheet-based job / project costing system.
A 'one size fits all' doesn't suit every pocket or type of business, that's why add-ons are maybe not such a bad thing.