End of Life for Microsoft XP and Windows 2003

Its time for you to take action!

Microsoft Windows XP SP3 and MS Office 2003 are going END OF LIFE on April 8th 2014.

If you still rely on Windows XP, as many Irish companies do, we strongly recommend that you start planning immediately to move to either Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Technical Assistance for Windows XP will not be available after this date so if you are considering replacing your Windows XP Operating System, please drop support@advent.ie an e-mail before purchasing a new operating system so that we can confirm whether your current version of Sage 200 or Sage 50 will be compatible with it.

If you continue to use Windows XP after Support ends, your computer will still work but it will become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses.

You may also encounter a greater number of applications and devices will not work with Windows XP.

For more details on updating your operating system, including notes and exceptions regarding Windows 8, please do not hesitate in contacting us.



SEPA - Latest Statement from Central Bank of Ireland...

 

 

 

Central Bank of Ireland has noted the proposal by the EC to maintain the 1st of February deadline for transition to SEPA (Single European Payments Area) but has welcomed an extra transitionary period of 6 months in which payments may still be accepted in the old format.

 

 

For more information on this from Central Bank, Click Here or you can contact Advent directly.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas from Advent!!

Management and Staff here at Advent would like to wish everyone

 a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

We look forward to working with you again in 2014.

 

For a reminder of our Christmas Opening Hours, please see below.

Closing: Monday 23rd December 2013 @ 5.00pm.

Re-opening: Thursday 2nd January 2014 @ 9.30pm.

 

 

 

e-Day is here - Be prepared for business change with Sage.....

September 26th 2013 marks the announcement of the e-Day initiative by Dept of Finance but what is it all about and why is this one of the most significant changes in the Irish business landscape in the last number of decades?

e-Day is one of a number of forthcoming initiatives under the National Payments Plan that aim to drive a significant increase in the usage of 

e-Payments in the Irish economy over the coming 2 years.

Click Here for more information on this initiative and to see how Sage can help. 

Sage 50: Benefits of Sage 50 V2014 - Webinar

 

 

Join our informative webinar to see the benefits of Sage 50 V2014!

 

Date: 18th October 2013

Time: 12pm to 12.30pm

 

 

 

 

For further information or to register, just Click Here.

Fish processing made easier with Emydex and Sage 200....

Take some perfectly processed Fish, then add a little Sage.....

 

 

 

....Stir it up and there you have the key ingredients to run a healthy and successful business: Fish Processing Software from Emydex expertly combined with Sage 200 Accounting Software to help you tackle inefficiencies and administration bottlenecks and help you grow your business.

 

Emydex are specialists in providing software solutions for food production companies and in particular, data capture, production reporting and traceability systems for the Fish Processing Industry.

 

 

For more information on Emydex, Download Here or to watch some videos, click here

For further information on Advent and Sage 200, please Click Here.

 

 If you would like to speak to one of our staff or get more information, please do not hesitate in contacting us.

 

Get SEPA Ready with Sage 50 Accounts V2014!!

Sage 50 Accounts Version 2014 has now launched! Read on for full information on the accounting package and for information on the enhancements since the older versions......

 

• VAT: Fully Compliant with legislation changes in the VAT3 form
• SEPA: You MUST be running Sage 50 Version 2014 to be compliant with SEPA!
• Sage 50 Mobile: Instantly view or e-mail PDF Sales Invoices, Orders and Quotes

Click here for further information and details on Sage 50 Version 2014: http://www.advent.ie/resources/images/0/1/410.pdf

 

 

To see the additional enhancements following on from each older version of Sage 50, click on the link below beside your current version of Sage 50:

 

• Sage 50 Version 2009: http://www.advent.ie/resources/images/2/1/412.pdf 
• Sage 50 Version 2010: http://www.advent.ie/resources/images/7/4/447.pdf
• Sage 50 Version 2011: http://www.advent.ie/resources/images/5/4/445.pdf
• Sage 50 Version 2012: http://www.advent.ie/resources/images/9/4/449.pdf
• Sage 05 Version 2013: http://www.advent.ie/resources/images/0/2/420.pdf

If you have any further queries on this, please do not hesitate in contacting us.

 



 

SEPA for L100 Customers

SEPA (Single European Payment Area) for L100

 

 

From 1st February 2014, customers are required to become SEPA compliant.

 

What is SEPA? Click Here for more information.

 

 

Unfortunately, Sage L100 is NOT SEPA compliant and therefore, you will be required to upgrade software in order to keep with SEPA regulations.

 

Please contact our sales team to discuss upgrades and SEPA in more detail.

 

 

                                                                        01 8223200

sales@advent.ie

 

 

@wwwadventie

SEPA for Sage 200 Customers

SEPA (Single European Payment Area) for Sage 200

 

 

From Feb 1st 2014, customers are all required to become SEPA compliant.

 

What is SEPA? Click here for more information.

 

What impact will SEPA have on Sage 200? Click here to find out.

 

 

 

We will provide additional information to you as it becomes available from Sage. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate in contacting us.

 

 

01 8223200

                                                  
                                                          sales@advent.ie

@wwwadventie

Open New Doors with Sage CRM for Sales

Join our Sage CRM webinar for Sales and see how you can Open New Doors!

Date: Friday 12 July 2013
Time: 11am - 11.30am

Click Here for more information and to join in!

Open More Doors with Sage CRM for Marketing

 

Join our Sage CRM webinar for Marketing and see how you can Open More Doors!

Date: Friday 12th July 2013
Time: 10am - 10.30am

Click here for further information and to join!

Local Property Tax (LPT) Update for Micropay

The Micropay Professional v14.4 update is now available to download. This update implements the Local Property Tax (LPT) deduction in the system.

Please contact our Support Team for information on where to download the update.

Our Support Team can be contacted in the following ways:

                                      01 8223200

                                      support@advent.ie

                                      @wwwadventie

Sage CRM and LinkedIn...

Sam is carrying out some research in mid-sized companies on their use of Linkedin. He meets up with Jane, who is the sales manager in The Green Company Limited, based in Galway.


                              Sam                                             Jane

                                                       

S: So, Jane I see you’re on LinkedIn. What are you using it for?

J: Yeah, it’s great. I use it for profiling my customers and potential customers. Our marketing team use it to promote products and services and advertising and our HR department use it for recruitment and profiling potentially suitable candidates.

S: Do you find it helps you get more sales?

J: I have definitely got a few referrals from it and it helps to keep your name and your brand out there. I now use it on my iPhone, so I can keep up to date with everything while I am out and about.

S: I notice that you are accessing your LinkedIn through Sage CRM. Tell me how that works?

J: Yeah, it’s great. I can go to my interactive dashboard – click on the LinkedIn icon beside my prospective customer and I am immediately brought into LinkedIn – this definitely speeds up productivity as I don’t need to leave Sage CRM to search for contacts in LinkedIn.

S: So, it seems that you are seeing benefits of using Sage CRM and LinkedIn. Would you recommend this integrated approach to other businesses?

J: Absolutely. Sage CRM and LinkedIn is great for identifying qualified prospects and generate leads, research prospects prior to sales calls, establish company and employee LinkedIn presence and much more. It’s great!

S: Thank you for your time, Jane.


Interview over

For more information on Sage CRM and Linkedin, Click Here...

Sage CRM and Drip Marketing...

With Sage CRM e-marketing, you can create drip campaigns.

What’s a drip campaign?

It is basically a drip effect, which allows you to target specific messages to customers and prospects at specific times. This means you can drive your message home harder and more accurately.

By managing the content and timing of your messages in emails or direct mail, you can ensure your messages are dripped in a series that you define.

Press the button below to check out the video for more on Sage CRM and Drip Marketing...

Sage CRM and E-Marketing...

Be creative

With Sage CRM e-marketing, you can create professional looking email campaigns. You have 90 templates to play around with and customise to suit your own style and company branding.

Check Results

Using Sage e-Marketing, you can get proper analysis on your campaigns,  so you can see what works/doesn’t work. It means you can focus your time and effort into getting the best results.

You can easily track email opens, clicks and bounce rates from within Sage CRM. You can even see what links people are clicking on and then you can segments groups even further based on the opens and click of the previous email. So, you don’t need to leave the software to get the analysis you need.

Using Sage CRM e-marketing and drip marketing means you can execute targeted campaigns to the right target audience at the right time to give you maximum impact .

Always Integrate

Some companies use separate e-mail marketing tools that don’t link to their CRM system.

That’s all well and good, but what happens when customers or contacts come and go or e-mail addresses change?? The potential for customer lists going out of sync is huge. This can get messy and can lead to spending additional timemaking sure that they databases are synchronised before sending out a campaign.

With Sage CRM, you don’t have to worry about this because the e-marketing tool is fully integrated, so there is only one database that you need to keep updated.

Monitor Return on Investment

Gathering the analytics means you can calculate an accurate Return on Investment, so you know where best to focus your resources for future campaigns.

Press the button below for more information on Sage CRM and E-marketing

Sage CRM and Twitter...

Jim and Bob catch up on Monday morning...

         This is Bob 
He is Customer Service Manager for a mid-sized business based in Cork - he uses Sage CRM and Twitter to do his job                                                         

               This is Jim

He is also Customer Service Manager in another company in Cork - he doesn't use Sage CRM or Twitter 

Jim – hey what you doing?

Bob – just working on some stuff…hang on, let me just send this tweet…

Jim – working? so what you doin’ Tweeting then?

Bob – that’s my job – Customer Relationship Management

Jim – Yeah I know, we have the same job, but that’s not really how we do things over here. I don’t think we even have a Twitter account and I doubt we use any other forms of Social Media.  Come to think of it, we don’t really use any proper systems - I am not saying we don't provide a great service, I think we do, but it is all a bit "traditional" if you know what I mean – but that's another story! So, anyway back to you, so you actually get paid to send Tweets all day? I like the sound of that!

Bob – ha, ha- no I don’t send Tweets all day. I interact with our customers and keep an eye on interesting conversations that are happening within our client accounts. A few months ago, we were still using pen and paper – it’s amazing the difference it makes. I am so into my job now – much better than before.

Jim – really, that sounds cool.

Bob – yeah it is cool, but the best part is that I use this software called Sage CRM. It holds all of my customer’s information. I can post or reply directly to a Tweet from within Sage CRM and view Twitter feeds for specific companies and then I can save the contents of these Tweets to Notes within Sage CRM - it's called Social CRM– it’s magic.

Jim – I think our company could do with something like that – tell me more about this Social CRM thing…?

Bob – okay let’s meet up for lunch and I will fill you in. It’s a piece of cake, but somehow it has changed my world – I love it! See you at 1….


To find more about how Sage CRM could change your world, Press the orange button 

Sage 200 Mobile Sales Orders

Diary of a sales person.....

Day 1 - starting new sales job. Very excited. Looking forward to processing my first few sales orders today.

 Day 1 over - Good day at the office. Got a few sales in the morning. Headed back to the office in the afternoon - lots of paperwork :-(

 Week 2 over - Not feeling great. Administration is killing me. Very time consuming - complete waste of my time. Need to sell more to earn more. I am thinking that we should be using mobile devices for putting up sales orders - much handier.

Week 3 over - Okay that's it - had enough. This job is killing me. Really think we could be working much smarter. Changing = benefits for me and for the company. Must speak up - honestly, things have to change and soon.....

Week 4 over - Whoo hoo! boss agreed to buy Web SO for Sage 200. It works on my smart phone and on my tablet. No more mountains of paperwork, no more late trips back to the office to process orders. Already ahead of target for this week :-) :-)

Web SO integrates with Sage 200 software. It is SO easy to use, can be implemented quickly and it delivers a fast return on your investment.

If you attend the the webinar you will get a 10% discount off your purchase of Web SO software. So, book here for our April Webinar, which we promise will be very quick and to the point.

Date: 10th of April 2013 & 12th of April 2013

Time: 2pm to 2.30pm

For more information, Download our brochure here

Call us today on 01 8223200

Advent Easter 2013 Opening Hours

We would like to take this opportunity to inform you of our opening hours for Support services over the Easter period.

Closing: 5:00pm Thursday 28th March 2013

Re-opening: 9:00am Tuesday 2nd April 2013

Please see contact details below:

 

Tel: 01 8223200

support@advent.ie

@wwwadventie

From all at Advent, we would like to wish you a very
Happy Easter.

Let Sage CRM do the business

Join our Sage CRM Webinar for Sales Automation

 

On Tuesday 12th of March from 11am to 11.30am

 

Click here for more information and to register

Fixed Assets: Appreciate your time, don't Depreciate it...

Maintaining a Fixed Assets Register can be a tedious task especially if the register is held externally to the main accounts system. This typically involves the following: building lists of assets, ensuring the asset is depreciated over the correct number of periods and with the correct depreciation method, ensuring all new assets are included and all disposed-of assets are excluded, tracking serial numbers and warranties and finally, posting a manual journal every period for the depreciation value.

The main problem with keeping a manual register is that all information might not be included and therefore mis-calculations can happen. This becomes particularly relevant at year-end when pressure arises from the demands of month end. The last thing you need is to be trawling through a manual register when there are plenty of other tasks to be done at the year-end.

The solution for this is to have a Fixed Assets Register that is fully integrated with your Sage 200 software. The Fixed asset Register sits on your menu with the other Sage 200 standard modules. It is fully and seamlessly integrated with the nominal, sales and purchase ledger and is suitable for organisations with a large volume of low value assets or a small quantity of high valued items or a mixture of both.

The Fixed Assets module comes with the following features:

• Caters for the most recognised Depreciation Methods: straight line, reducing balance and sum of the digits.
• Expected life of the asset.
• The ability to categorise assets to enable effective reporting.
• Automatic posting of depreciation to the nominal ledger on a periodic basis.
• It holds the original cost value, accumulated depreciation, period depreciation and net book value.
• Forecast depreciation over the life of the asset.
• Integrated with purchase ledger when assets are purchased. It is possible to post the assets purchase invoice and create the asset record at the same time.
• It is also possible to dispose of an asset and enter the sales ledger transaction all in the one transaction.
• Easy asset tracking. Maintenance, warranty, insurance and serial number details can be maintained on the asset record.
• Attach all relevant documentation to the asset.
• Enquire on the history of transactions on the asset.
• Attach the location of the asset and the person responsible.
• Flexible and complete reporting on asset transactions and details.
• Revalue and re-life existing assets.
• Import asset details from a spreadsheet to build your asset register.

Nowadays, where time is very valuable and at a premium, the Fixed Asset register will give the Finance team back some of that valuable time. It will also increase efficiency and accuracy. So, my question is why keep manual spreadsheets when there is a much better way of doing things? We call it joined up thinking...........

Why not join one of our webinars to find out more......

16th of November @ 9.30am
23rd of November @ 9.30am
30th of November @ 9.30am
5th of December @ 9.30am

The webinar should not take more than half an hour. To confirm your place, please email sales@advent.ie and let us know which date suits you. We hope you can join us.....