Sage 100

Is anyone actively testing the SMI Beta Add-in? And if so what are your thoughts? Is this going to be a bigger help for customers looking to migrate FRX to SMI (usability wise), is it going to be just ok or does Sage still have work to do? I went to the first meeting but have not made the prior two @EricAnderson

Alan posted that someone on his team was checking it out. Doug Deane mentioned that Myron was working with them also. http://www.alchemex.com/blog/business-intelligence/2012/07/reasons-sage-intelligence-sage-summit-2012/?goback=%2Egde_106271_member_130948961

I sat in on the first beta - as I know a lot of others here did. I'm curious if anyone has actually tested. I only viewed the demo.

I have spent only about 30 minutes testing and so far it looks great. @AaronClark also did some testing - I believe pulling in 3-5 yrs of history and was very impressed. From what I can tell this is going to make a drastic difference in how quickly customers adopt SMI. And moving an FRx report over using this new add-in will be very similar to the BizNet process. Just copy the rows into excel, add the columns across the top, create a few formulas using the new function tools, and drag formulas down and across.

I have been testing, and I like it so far. Pros: Speed is there. The excel add-in is native excel, and much more useful than the designer from before. It reminds me a lot of FR from Accpac, except that you don't have to re-run the report every time you change the formula to update the numbers. It's all Excel. There will be very little training for someone who understands Excel. I'm guessing you'll start to see some really eye-popping financial statements. Cons: The built-in lists leave a lot to be desired. I'd like to be able to have both the account, and the group, and the account type. They say that this is coming soon, but we'll see. The functions don't take into account that a balance sheet account is a snapshot and an income statement account is a measure of activity. I'd like to see the balance sheet account balance, and not have to do two formulas to figure that out. I'm happy to answer specific questions if there are any, so bring them on.

Thanks - can we make a post of this info on 90 Minds?

@WayneSchulz, go for it. Another thing I should mention: This is Beta software. @EricAnderson and I have both seen a #bug with the add-in -- once you install the add-in, you can't open an excel file by double-clicking. You have to use File > Open. I've reported the bug to the beta group, and they are looking into it.