Sage 100

SPS Apparently there is a new policy at Sage that has not been communicated to the channel. Previously credit card processing with SPS could be activated even if the customer was not on a current Sage 100 maintenance plan. That is no longer true. The result, of course, will be that resellers and customers will reach out to APS, Century and other providers that are happy to get their business.

So if I signed someone up to use SPS and they are NOT using Sage 100, they are unable to use SPS unless they sign up for 100c???? Seems a bit odd.

Brilliant! Go APS!!! There are very few policies at Sage that excite me. Obviously, this is one of them. ;-)

No, they just need to be on a current maintenance plan, not necessarily 100c.

How's that? If the client isn't current on Maint then they wouldn't be able to get the ccp module.

CCP is built-in. They just can't activate a SPS account if they aren't current. Right John?

Correct.

Is there a good emoji of Sage shooting themselves in the foot?

Even though the ccp module is built into the A/R module, you still need to ""purchase"" it ($0 - if you activate an SPS account I believe) which in turn provides new unlockers. And without the new unlockers you can't use the ccp module functionality.

This seems like it would make sense for 100c since if you stop paying the software somehow stops working. PU2 seems to have built in a mechanism to phone home and check license keys. In essence, this means is the Credit Card module can't be activated if the customer is off maintenance. No different than the customer wanting to stay off-plan but active AP or AR only. Don't worry - I'm sure Sage is hard at work thinking how they can close any loopholes for APS, etc.

And, just for clarity, Sage is indeed still promoting Sage Payment Center as capable of writing back to Sage 100 (this is via the SPS website this morning)

Here's another interesting tidbit -- apparently the new Sage Payment Center is nothing more than an embed of the SPS virtual terminal. If anyone can spot an NEW feature in here (aside from integrating it into the Sage 100 security) please let me know.

I was on the call when @BrettZimmerman asked this question directly to the Sage product management and nobody seemed to know. I think Brett followed up after the webinar to a similar lack of feedback from Sage.

If they're now pulling back on the write-back feature, then the only apparent differences between Sage Payment Center (SPC) and the existing Virtual Terminal (VT) is: - different interface - can be accessed directly inside Sage 100 - can apply for SPS directly inside Sage 100 And from the other thread (https://90minds-com.socialcast.com/messages/30708182?ref=stream), the only information I was able to obtain re: the write-back feature was this brief overview video: https://youtu.be/IISRDzTMRYs. I'm reaching back out to Tom at Sage this morning for further clarification, specifically re: the two above screen-shots Wayne posted.

I actually don't know if software publishers should be credit card processors, similar to CPA firms not directly providing investment advice. It's always seemed like a conflict to me.

I think the current analogy is insurance companies selling financial products or banks being investment firms...

We have a Sage 100 customer using SPS on v2013. They dropped maintenance a year ago, and have no problem using SPS now. So, this must be tied only to the 2016 upgrade I guess.

The big issue I see is that you need to have the Credit card enabled in order to use 3rd party processors so this will require an off plan customer to get on plan in order to use credit card processing of any kind if they didn't have the Credit card module enabled. In other words if an existing customer has never use SPS and is offplan they are out of luck if they want APS or Century until they go on plan and get the Credit Card Processing module.

@JimWoodhead, you do not have to install or activate the credit card processing module to use APS. I was unaware of this as a potential issue until this thread was pointed out to me. We have at least one customer, and probably more, who have been using third party processing (APS) and have been off plan for a while. It is not OUR choice that they be off-plan, but that's the way it is. Unless Sage has changed something in 2016 that I am not yet aware of, not being on plan does not affect APS working. If I found out differently when I analyze the new product update, I will let you know.

Thanks for the clarification. Although that wasn't my understanding. I had been told that in order to have the CC processing the product key must include CCP. My understanding that without the Proper product key the credit card tab is disabled in company maintenance. Is that not the case @PhilipWhirley ?

@JimWoodhead, I will certainly investigate this. It has never been a problem before, but that doesn't mean that it won't be a problem sometime in the future. If I find that I am misinformed, I will add to this thread.

@PhilipWhirley what's your take on this -- it's in the what's new section ([here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0kbju1fe4grw45/Sage%20100%202016.2%20Release%20Notes.pdf?dl=0)) for 2016.2

Sage talked a lot at MOTM about their entitlement tracking - I am thinking that this ^^ is that process coming online.

That was my understanding as well, @JimWoodhead, per my above posts, although I've only dealt with SPS thus far. I'm not privy to whether it's a different situation with APS (or Century or whomever) as @PhilipWhirley mentioned. However, I thought the ccp functionality is the ccp functionality, and that regardless you'd need the ccp module related unlockers. I'm very interested to hear what Philip can further find out.

I am too!!!

@WayneSchulz, this sounds like they are updating the product key automatically every 28 days. If they are, indeed, blocking credit card processing somehow with the product key, then this could be a problem in future. However, in my experience the product key does not affect whether APS credit card processing works. As long as A/R is installed and activated, the APS addition works. I am always careful to hedge my answer because one never knows what changes have been made in the latest product updates. This is of great concern to me, so I will carve out some time to investigate next week when I'm back at my desk.

I'm convinced Sage has a secret committee that is tasked with developing programs and changes that are specifically designed to piss off the channel and customers.

Ah, conspiracy theory, @JohnHoyt. I like it!

Perhaps Pascal never actually left and he's the chair of the committee. He's out to fucus!

@JohnHoyt, you're on a roll.

I sometimes think these comments will get out and Sage will nullify my Spirit award, but they never did that with @PeterWolf and think about some of his comments.

Just the concept of Sage having a spirit award after how they have treated the channel the past five or so years show how deep a cerebral rectal inversion Sage management has.

In all fairness, my Sage Spirit was high until they decided to completely abandon ship in North America. Pascal was awful, but tolerable. To be in a situation where there is absolutely zero direction and the average tenure is measured in weeks, not months or years ... well, really who can defend this?

It won't need a conspiracy theory for this new ""feature"" to piss people off - the usual lack of QA will do just fine as systems get disabled due to bugs...

The cynics have spoken!