Sage News and Discussion

Has anyone received a check yet for March's maintenance? I can see our statement with a credit balance but NOTHING from Sage.

Isn't Sage going to a yearly remittance?

Yearly payment from Sage for maintenance paid to Sage. More incentive to get customers to pay the channel partner rather than Sage.

I can't say if this was in error - but the first payment we seem to have received was actually the full amount in advance.

Per Tom: ""With the final roll out of the Sage business management system at the end of February, we will be standardizing our process for managing the payment of commission credits. This change will significantly streamline the process of administering the payment of commission credits, and will allow Sage to provide commission checks within the first 10-12 business days of the month."" I guess technically, it hasn't been 12 days yet but...

I stand corrected.

We've already received our Accpac check (still two accounts, btw).

Just re-read the memo I received (which was internal and not Sage generated) - it appears that the annual remittance referred to Easy Pay only.

My guess is that Sage is still working to enter March orders.

When I look at our commission statement on Atlas, I think they are combining the remaining Easy Pay's into March's for those customers. It's a bit of a wake up call to see what our month looks like WITHOUT the maintenance. Can't wait for FoTF later this month.

Here's the dilemma (and it happens on the Accpac side ALL the time): I have an invoice from Sage due 4/29 but we have more than enough credits to cover it. Do I not pay them until I receive a statement/check? If it were due 4/1, would we now be late? One more irritant...

Excellent opportunity to review your maintenance renewal process. Do you REALLY want Sage to control YOUR money or would you rather control SAGE's? By working with your client care rep, you can get a list of upcoming renewals (I already have mine for May). Once you have the list, send an invoice to the client (using paperless of course). You can also use the opportunity to call the client if you have touched base for a while. Once you have received the client's money, issue a PO to Sage for renewal. Send the PO (via Paperless) to your client care rep with instructions to renew the day before the client's plan lapses. Do NOT send Sage any money yet! In 30 days or so, contact your AR rep at Sage to request a statement on your account. After reviewing the statement to ensure that you have an invoice for all charges, send an e-mail to your AR rep authorizing them to charge your CREDIT CARD for $X. Do it a day or two AFTER the card cycles. Your rep will love you because they know you will pay about the same time every month and it only takes them a short amount of time to process your payment. In another 30 days or so, you will receive your credit card statement with the Sage charge on it. Pay it (in full) 10 days later. So what does this accomplish? You are in control! Your clients pay you the full amount in cash (sorry no credit cards accepted). You maintain the relationship. You place the order with Sage. You pay Sage via credit card and then pay the credit card 30 days later. Your cash flow increases by 60 days (or more). No waiting on credits from Sage which put YOU in a negative cash flow position. The down side? You have to work the system a bit more. Not all clients will want to pay you in cash nor be responsible for self reporting sales tax if you don't charge them (but then again, some will like it because they won't self report the use tax). And MOST importantly, don't pull a ""HighTower"" and spend Sage's money!!!!! I've been collecting client care for over 10 years and have not experienced any significant issues. I realized early on that Sage was controlling the situation and I was not selling enough to offset the credits. I haven't looked back.

Yeah well, we don't like our client care rep... Very unresponsive.

Time to have the ""conversation"" with them. TJ doesn't spend much time (I think) callling my accounts. He knows I deliver. I am sure your rep will be just as responsive once they understand they don't have to do any work to make his quota.

My experience is that if you don't pay the bill then they put you on hold even if they owe you more than you owe them. It's an exercise in stupidity.

Guess what I just got in the mail? A check and a statement - in two separate envelopes of course.... Now I have to make sure I received all of the maintenance credits I should have coming. The hard part will be reconciling the Easy Pay ones that they have now rolled into one...

We received our check and statement (1 envelope) yesterday. since I now know how to access the Atlas Commissions and download to Excel, it was pretty easy to reconcile. Becky Peterson confirmed to me that Easy Pay commissions are now annualized. As part of the conversion, the took the remaining months on existing contracts (to the renewal anniversary) and that lump sum is paid in commission. should be in March (Ours was). Easy Pay subscriptions commit the customer to 12-, 24-, or 36-month commitments, so they now consider those one contract and pay the commission on it. (although I don't know if multi-year contracts are paid out in only 1 commission.) Contrast to the new Subscription licensing program, in whicch the customer can cancel at any time. Because of that ""cancel anytime"" Sage will pay those commissions monthly.

2 envelopes for us. I liked the big check.

What, no ACH deposits with Vendor ACH remittance advices?????

We'll get there someday, Jeff, someday....