Sage 100

Practical question: Are there items which are difficult or impossible to test during upgrades? I am talking mostly about integrations like Starship, Credit Cards, etc. I just finished an upgrade where V-Technologies was handling the Starship portion (aka - they login and if they can't make it work they blame Sage/Partner) and there are a few issues that work against us fully testing Starship during an upgrade (and this applies to other integrations as well). a. With Starship you often find the server is on some band-aided hand-me-down computer. In my latest upgrade this computer wouldn't run PVXCOM or REGCOM and appeared to be some type of user rights issue. b. When customers are using some of these integrations in production - it's not a simple thing to duplicate/test - without possibly sending test data. How is everyone handling some of these third party testing scenarios? For the time being I have (thankfully) carved them out and made them the responsibility of the third party publisher/vendor unless the customer specifically asks us to handle them. However ultimately when the publisher/vendor cannot resolve issues it tends to fall back on our shoulders in some fashion. Any way that you've developed to test some of these - or is it just hope for the best?

One that comes to mind is PC-Charge. You can do a few test transactions, but can't really ""settle"" for the day. This bit me in a big way several years ago, when client processed orders all day, but couldn't settle the batch (which included previously processed pre-auth's as well as new ones). This spirals out of control quickly when clients cash flow is interrupted and the transactions must be settled within 72 hours (give or take). No matter what, these issues will find their way back to the partner. When I hire a GC to build an addition, I'm not going after the plumber because my faucet leaks.

We have run into similar situations, particularly with Starship. To an extent, I don't understand why this has to be an issue. Others have come up with ways to provide a test environment. Sage Payment Services comes to mind. They will provide you with dummy card numbers which validate as VISA or MASTER CARD numbers but will not process through to the bank or clearing house. You can run transactions and view them through the portal to ensure they were processed correctly through MAS. I think Avalara has something similar during initial set up. However, once you go live, you have to go into the portal and delete your test transactions or they will be included in your totals transmitted to taxing authorities. You would think it possible for them to provide a test account to use for a limited time so you can confirm proper calculation and transmittal without effecting live data. It seems simple but ice skating looks easy when Scotty Hamilton does it and experience taught me that's not the case.

@ShawnSlavin Avalara allows for a test company to be set up. I usually create a ""copy"" company that we set up in MAS and Avalara as just that - a test. We also set up the live company but don't process anything in it until the actual go-live date.

Therese, thanks for the clarification on Avalara. I will keep that in mind as we use them in-house. My point is that if Avalara and SPS can do this, surely others can to. I'm with Wayne, it's frustrating to be prevented from conducting proper testing prior to deploying an upgrade. It's bad enough eating crow when you find an error without having it served to you by the client when going live. I like to eat that particular dish in private with a nice bottle of whine!