Sage 100

Potential client coming from PFW - no billing, just doing PO/AP/GL. About 10K AP invoices per month, over 20 companies. MAS 200 or SQL? EXCUSE me - Sage 100 ERP Advanced, or Sage 100 ERP Professional?

I would avoid SQL like a bad rash. But that's me and I'm not speaking from ANY experience but from not reading any positives except it ""meets a checklist item"" in the IT department.

What are they using for the rest of their stuff? Integration, reporting requirements? Personally I think flat files are the bad rash and there are reasons SQL is on all those checklists...

We have a client processing 10k plus AR invoices per month on 100 Advanced with no issues. Shouldn't be any different for AR. I do like SQL for fixing ""big"" errors that can't be handled through regular channels. So much easier to edit multiple records through SQL than through DFDM.

I'm in the anti-SQL camp. (unless there are overriding advantages I haven't found yet)...Given my experience with a current install. It is a shock when you go to use DFDM and you can't see the files. So unless you know the correct SQL syntax you can't fix the records, whether bulk or individually. There is more to install, maintain and that can go wrong. It doesn't appear to run faster (our install is actually slower, but that could just be the network). Pikcing companies using the SI tool also takes some figuring out.

Thanks @KevinWesley - you've given me the comparison I needed... (I'm anti-SQL myself, but reseller I'm working with is OK with it, so I just needed to know if Adv is enough oomph).

Correct me if I am wrong about this, but I am seeing a pattern of resistance to learning SQL. It is really not difficult, and once you know your way around SQL Management Studio it is DFDM that will seem obtuse, especially if you need to fix multiple records at once (like when a customer updates the day's invoices as 3/26/2023). Stack Overflow and Google are full of examples for just about anything you might need to do. The speed difference is due to transactions, which protect you from corrupt data. And only someone coming from Sage 100 Standard or Advanced will notice a difference in speed. Backups can be set up to make point in time recovery possible - set up differential backups every hour and a full backup at midnight, and when someone merges all the customers into one account you only have to roll back at most an hour's work.

I'm with Phil. Once you overcome the learning curve, SQL is a MUCH easier tool to use than DFDM. That said, it's still providex through and through. Moving data from one system to another is more involved. Particularly if you are trying to keep a test sync'd with a production environment.

@BethBowers, we have done more than 20 PFW conversion to both Sage 100 and Sage 500. If you run into issues, have any questions, or just want to knock around best practices, don't hesitate to call. Our largest conversoin involved a 45 user system with 185 companies in PFW. Our second largest was with 80 companies and 10 users. The big one moved to a competetive application but we did most of the data conversion to the new system. The second was to Sage 100. We are working on one now with AP, AR, GL, BR, PO, SO, IN, and JC. They are moving to 500. Regardless, I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

@ShawnSlavin - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

this is a good conversation. I think we can agree to disagree on this. A concrete example is a couple of VI jobs I created on my 4.5 standard system using .xlsx spreadsheets which is an available format on the filetype dropdown in VI in standard. The .xlsx format isn't available on the file type drop down in the SQL 4.5. Result..recreate the VI job because you can't change file types. This customer has an IT staff and other SQL applications so SQL did make sense. I just don't care for Sage's implementation of Sage 100 on SQL.

My vote is SQL in the right scenarios. There are so many more things we can do in SQL especially if a client is processing 10K invoices a month! In 2-3 years down the road they are going to want it. KnowledgeSync runs instantly, custom reports go just about instantly. You can create your own views - such as sales by item for X days or whatever you need. You can update existing data in MAS200 without VI(though you need to understand what you are doing). There are certain areas SQL is no faster the pvx. My 30 user I just converted to SQL 2013 is very pleased with the conversion and speed.

I have a client (GL and AP) they are doing about 100k invoices per month in AP we are running pvx with SQL mirroring. Seriously thinking about SQL in the next year.