What's New - Sage Pastel accounting 2007

We are proud to release the Sage Pastel 2007 range – Xpress and Partner. This new release offers a host of exciting new features and benefits that can make a real difference to your business.

Research and development

Our research and development (R&D) team have been hard at work, ensuring that the Sage Pastel 2007 Accounting range goes even further in addressing the comprehensive needs of your business, building on our philosophy to provide you with the business tools that take you beyond accounting.

Once again, a critical component of our R&D process has been to incorporate the valuable feedback, from our thousands of end users who contact our call centre each month, into our future product releases. This process has resulted in the 2007 range being even easier to use with greater business benefits.

In the 2007 range, we have simplified a host of processes to make many of your tasks a mere mouse click away! Some of the added features in Sage Pastel 2007 include the new Explorer, being able to ‘Jump To’ another user’s open batches with the simple click of a button, reprinting customer and supplier documents directly from the Drill Down option, new filters in Exporting and one and two cent rounding, which is now part of Invoice Calculations. These are just some of the new features available.

So with the release of the Sage Pastel Accounting 2007 range we are confident that Sage Pastel will continue to form the foundation of your business. After all, more than 180 000 businesses across the globe rely on Sage Pastel Accounting.

What's new in Sage Pastel Accounting 2007

Welcome to all the business efficiency features and benefits of Sage Pastel Accounting 2007 (Xpress and Partner). Below are the key new features and important information that you need to know about your upgrade.

New Explorer

The Explorer is a major interface enhancement in Xpress and Partner 2007.

The Explorer will equip the user with a completely new working experience. They will be able to see their data, filter the data to display only the required information and process, edit or run account enquiries directly from the grid. Processing options relating to the task you have selected is now available with a simple right click of the mouse. It is a user-friendly way of allowing the user to get around the system and access Customer, Supplier, Inventory and General Ledger accounts. In addition, the Explorer in Pastel Partner 2007 also offers some Pastel Control Centre functionality from within Partner and the company. 

Users are able to switch between the Explorer and the ‘old’ Navigator without going into the user setup option. This means that a user can now customise their own setup with limited supervisor involvement. 

1 & 2 cent rounding now part of Invoice Calculation

Previously, one & two cent rounding was done only in the Point of Sale (POS) add-on module. Rounding can now be included in the calculation of the total amount on customer documents.

‘Jump to’ another user’s open batches

In previous versions, when a supervisor needed to work in another user’s batches, the supervisor would have to jump to the relevant user and then go to the specific batch. 

In Sage Pastel Accounting 2007 we have streamlined this process by adding an option on the View Open Batches screen to Jump To a user’s specific batch. This means a supervisor can jump straight to a specific user’s Invoice Batch, update the batch and return directly to the Open Batches screen to jump to the next user.  An additional benefit is that the user is also given the option of printing the Open Batches list.

This feature will increase the efficiency of the supervisor’s processing.It will be far easier for a supervisor to navigate through the Open Batches and update the batches for users that do not have the authorisation to do so.

Reprint customer and supplier documents from Drill Down

Users now have the option of reprinting customer and supplier documents from the Drill Down. 

Our Drill Down functionality allows a user to:  

• See all balances per period for specific Customers, Suppliers, General Ledger accounts etc. 
• Drill Down on the balance to view all transactions which constitute the balance. 
• Drill down to source document (should a transaction be an Invoice or Credit Note for example)

All the above functionality has been available in previous versions, however a Print button has been added to allow the user to reprint the document.

New Filters added in Exporting

When exporting master file information, filters have been added to allow a range of information to be exported instead of the entire data file.

Backup: Create new folder option and save last backup location

The option to Create a New Folder has been added whilst in the backup screen.  Sage Pastel Accounting 2007 also remembers the last location of the backup when restoring data or returning to do another backup.

Cashbooks and Journals

Each line in the Cashbooks and Journals now has a line number.  The option to go to a specific line in the batch has also been added.

The year-to-date bank balance now also appears on the Cashbook screens.

Period 13 functionality

Partner 2005 users have benefited from this Period 13 functionality, which allows the user to process in Period 13 and use this as the first period of the next year. This feature has now been extended to Xpress 2007 users.

New only in Sage Pastel Partner 2007

Receipting Module Enhancements

The following enhancements have been made to the Receipting module:

Analysis Codes have allowed the user to realise income at the time of receiving customers’ payments.  Tax processing using Analysis Codes have been added along with the ability to add multiple analysis codes per receipt.

In addition, the following features are now available:

• Discounts can now be processed on receipts.
• Cost Codes can also now be allocated to the receipts.
• An EFT Payment Method has been added.
• A Deposit Reversal Assistant has been added.

Price List Report:  Print selection

The price list functionality has been enhanced, allowing users to print only those price lists they wish, rather than choosing to either print 1 price list or all price lists.

Option for customer invoices to be placed on hold by user

In previous versions, all users had the rights to put invoices on hold. In Pastel Partner 2007 there is a new option which allows a supervisor to specify which user may place an invoice on hold.

Block Customers and/or Suppliers Assistant

This new assistant aids the user in blocking a range of customers and/or suppliers quickly, based on certain criteria. In the past, a user would have to block each account individually and work out the criteria for blocking manually.

The criteria used for blocking accounts are:

• Block if the creation date is earlier than a specific date.
• Block if the last purchase date is earlier than a specific date.
• Block if the credit limit has been exceeded.
• Block based on payment terms and/or where the outstanding value is greater than a specified amount.

You may choose any combination of the criteria listed above to determine the range of accounts to be blocked.

Inventory Transfer Report and Reprinting Transfer Documents

In previous versions, if a user processed an Inventory Transfer between stores, the transfer document printed at the time could not be reprinted. In Sage Pastel Partner 2007, these documents can now be reprinted.

Sage Pastel Partner 2007 also features a Transfer Report, which allows the user to print a report per store or item, for the store transfers processed.

Picking Slip printing from BOM

When manufacturing, the system now allows you to print a Picking Slip so that the items can be drawn from stores. The Picking Slip also provides you with a source document, authorising the movement of goods.

Adjust Selling Prices automatically when using the Copy Recurring Invoice Assistant

An option to automatically adjust selling prices on recurring invoices has been added. Recurring invoices are created as “templates” that can be re-used each month. Therefore, when copying the templates, the system will automatically go through the pricing hierarchy to adjust the price on the invoices.

Important product information

Please note the following important notices regarding Sage Pastel Accounting 2007

Server Based Registrations

The Pastel 2005 and 2007 range both have Server Based Registrations functionality. This means that you only register the server and all other workstations access the server for registration confirmation. Should a user work from home or be on the road and therefore be disconnected from the network, they will require a separate registration.

Btrieve

Sage Pastel Partner 2005 and 2007 are no longer Btrieve compatible. By finally moving away from this legacy database system, we are able to enhance the security and the speed of database operations.

System requirements and external applications

Please note that Sage Pastel 2007’s minimum system requirements are Windows 2000, XP Pro or higher. Your upgrade may not run as smoothly on Windows 98. See your What’s New brochure for more about hardware, RAM and screen resolution requirements. Also, if you have any reports written using external tools e.g. Crystal Reports, be aware that you may need to modify these reports to ensure compatibility with Pastel Accounting 2007.

With the exciting new releases and other exciting developments, we look forward to supporting the growth of your business and developing an ongoing partnership, because at Pastel, we always go beyond accounting.

For more information about our new product range, contact us on +27 11 290 2925 or email info@sagepastel.com.