Software Answers

Postcode Lookups

For years you have had the ability to use postcodes to accurately retrieve addresses in the UK.  For most companies the  high cost to licence and pain to install and update was such that it was not viable however given that licence costs per annum per user where anything up to £300+. Unless a large proportion of your time was spent entering addresses the return on the cost was simply not there. 

Now however a company called World Address have changed that. First point is that you pay per query as as the pricing table shows below even for small usage its not so expensive.  At between 8p each for less than a thousand per to 7p for ten thousand plus its justifiable to make sure you get accurate addresses entered rapidly.

Secondly there are no installation or maintenance costs, its a service over the web that your systems can just call when they need it. This means that you don’t have to install it on each computer and get and distribute update files from the provider, much better.

Finally the interface we have to link it seamlessly to your existing systems is very good, From CRM, NAV, AX or Pegasus you can just enter a postcode in the normal box and a new window comes up to display the alternatives i.e the house numbers and names in that postcode, you select the one you want and it updates the relevant fields, simple and easy.

Technology Management have been using it both internally and with clients for a while now, it gets our clear recommendation. If you think it could help your business let us know. 

Incorrect Year-End Date in Pegasus Opera II / 3

 

Incorrect Year End Date

One common support call that we receive, particularly at this time of year, is a problem with the year-end date. When the Sales or Purchase Ledger transfer to Nominal is attempted in the final period, the system date is set to the period end date as normal, but a message comes up to say something like:

Unfortunately the period end date is occasionally set incorrectly for the next year when the Nominal Year-End routine is run.

To resolve this issue, you need to access Nominal - Utilities – Set Options and go to the Calendar Tab.

In the Calendar tab, amend the Year End date to the correct date and click OK.

This message will appear.

The Rebuild Periods Routine must be run. This is found in the Nominal Utilities Menu.

You should select “Yes” to Rebuild Nominal Periods and then select “Yes” to continue. It does not normally take much longer than 1 minute. It would be advisable to remove all users from the system before running this process.

Once the Period Rebuild has been done, the Sales Ledger Transfer to Nominal should work fine.

To prevent this problem from happening in the future, please go and check the year end date as soon as you have run the Nominal Year-End Routine.

There is no harm in checking the year end date at any time during the Nominal year, and if you make the change now, it will prevent the warning message in the final period of the year.

Pension Auto-Enrolment………What's it all about? & How does it effect you?

Although new duties come in from 1 October 2012, individual employers' own duties will be introduced gradually over the following years and will be based on the size of the employer, typically by PAYE size.

The following is a table showing the staging dates for employers with 3,000 or more employees.  The Government is revising the staging dates for employers with less than 3,000 employees and further information will appear here early in 2012.

Employer (by PAYE  scheme size)	Staging Date
120,000 or more	1 October 2012
50,000 to 119,999	1 November 2012
30,000 to 49,999	1 January 2013
20,000 to 29,999	1 February 2013
10,000 to 19,999	1 March 2013
6,000 to 9,999	1 April 2013
4,100 to 5,999	1 May 2013
4,000 to 4,099	1 June 2013
3,000 to 3,999	1 July 2013

 

There will be a three month waiting period before employers are required to enrol workers into their designated scheme. During this period, workers can choose to opt in to start saving straight away.

The largest employers who are due to auto-enrol between 1 October 2012 and 1 November 2012 will be allowed to start auto-enrolment from as early as July 2012 to avoid the Christmas period.

Employers will be given the flexibility to re-enrol workers three months either side of their automatic re-enrolment date.

Great Achievement

With many thanks to all customers who have recently upgraded to Pegasus Opera 3, it is very pleasing to announce that Technology Management have exceeded their quarterly Pegasus target with still one month of the quarter remaining.

More and more Pegasus Opera II users are upgrading and taking advantage of the new features and reaping the benefits already. For more information on how it can help your company please e-mail Nick Perry at nick.perry@tecman.co.uk

Pegasus shortlisted in the Payroll World Awards

Payroll World, the UK’s leading payroll magazine, is introducing a brand new awards scheme, the Payroll World Awards 2011 for the payroll and HR industry and its associated stakeholders in 2011. The award ceremony will attract around 300 professionals from the payroll sector, and will reward firms, teams and individuals for their professionalism, pioneering efforts and commitment to improving the reputation of the payroll department.

We are delighted to announce Pegasus has been shortlisted for the Payroll Provider Award. Winners will be announced on 16 November. So watch this space……………..

Take a look at Opera 3 Payroll & HR, it simplifies your key tasks and is fully accredited by HMRC so you will always have peace of mind. It is available as a stand alone application or integrates with the other applications available for Opera 3; linking seamlessly to Personnel and P11D Organiser.

Opera 3 shortlisted in SSA11

We are delighted to announce Opera 3 has been shortlisted in 2 categories in the Software Satisfaction Awards 2011:

• Accounting and Finance
• Payroll & HR

Watch this space for the results………………..

Pegasus Briefing at Technology Management

For those that have not yet had the opportunity to book a place at our Pegasus Briefing on Wednesday 19th October starting at 9.30am there is still time. The event will be held in our Wolverhampton office.

Please call Steve Brown on 01902 578300 or e-mail stephen.brown@tecman.co.uk

The event is focused on Reporting and Analysis but will provide an ideal opportunity to also view the benefits of upgrading to the latest version of Pegasus Opera 3.

Pegasus shortlisted in 2 categories in the Software Satisfaction Awards 2011

Pegasus Software announced that it has been shortlisted as a finalist in two separate categories in the annual Software Satisfaction Awards.  Opera 3 and its predecessor, Opera II, feature in the Enterprise Accounting and Finance, and Enterprise Payroll sections.  Competing against Advanced Business Solutions, Netsuite, PS Financials, Xero and Sage, Pegasus Software makes the final for the fifth year running, and hopes to achieve the double success it achieved in 2009.

Established in 2006 to recognise the highest standards achieved by software providers serving UK businesses, the Software Satisfaction Awards, in association with the Business Application Software Developers Association (BASDA), represents an independent guide for organisations looking to purchase software systems.  Over 10,000 users and purchasers of software are asked to rate their business software products on four key attributes: ease of use; functionality; reliability; and value for money. This year’s winners will be announced at an event on 18 October at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square.  

“To have our products rated by customers, and recognised by independent industry body BASDA for the fifth year running, is a huge achievement,” comments Stuart Anderson, Director, Sales & Marketing, Pegasus Software.  “Customers’ expectations of business software are increasing all the time, and this accolade really is testament to the level of work channelled into exceeding these expectations with our latest solution, Opera 3.

Phase III Of Opera 3 (V.1.30) Due Soon

Development and testing for phase III of Opera 3 is well under way, with release scheduled for the end of October. The new functionality and enhancements planned evolve the product proposition including:

• Landed Costs
• Retrospective Aged Debtors and Creditor Reporting
• Repeat Invoices for Scheduler
• Improvements to Stocktake
• 15 additional enhancements and more

Spotlight on Retrospective Aged Debtors and Creditors Reporting

Currently the Debtors and Creditors reports within Opera 3 allow you to view the associated outstanding debt 'as at today'; you cannot view the debt retrospectively, to look back at how the debt was at a date in the past.

The ability to produce retrospective Debtors and Creditors reports has been an enhancement request by Partners. Taking your feedback on board, additional Debtors and Creditors reports will be introduced in Opera 3 (1.30) to allow retrospective reports to be produced.

These new retrospective reports allow you to run the reports 'as it would have been' if it had been run at a specific date in the past. For example, to run the Debtors report as at the end of last month but importantly to show the outstanding debt as it was at the end of last month. This is commonly referred to as 'historical reporting' or as a 'historical date report'.

Benefits

Auditors, accountants and users can all see the exact debtors and creditors balances at any time in the past, but would most likely be used at period end or year end.

The existing Opera II and Opera 3 data structures already provide sufficient information to be able to reconstruct retrospective Debtors and Creditors reports, so Opera II and Opera 3 customers who upgrade to Opera 3 (1.30) can benefit from this functionality straight away. Please note, this depends upon how long the customer is currently retaining their Sales Ledger and Purchase Ledger transaction data for.

We will keep you up to date with the confirmed release date, watch this space…………

TOP OF THE CHARTS

Payroll World Software User Satisfaction Survey 2011

We are delighted to report that Pegasus is highly rated as a top supplier in the Payroll World Software User Satisfaction Survey 2011. The extensive report provides analysis for software suppliers and reveals the ratings given to each supplier.

Pegasus is one of the top 3 suppliers across a number of attributes such as flexibility to integrate with other systems, quality of project management, ease of configuration and use, price, and overall performance and value for money, to name a few!