Sage 100

This is old news but worth revisiting as it is very frustrating. Client desires a simple drop down UDF in sales order header. They want it to be a required selection. The list is specific to this company code. After implementing it users entering orders in OTHER companies get a ""program code required"" message (the UDF name is ""program code""). To get rid of the message a default value must be specified in Advanced Field Settings in User-Defined Field and Table Maintenance for the companies that DO NOT have the UDF active in sales order data entry. Sage's response is that this is how the required field is designed to work. If there are 6 live companies and another 5 test companies, creating 1 required UDF means setting up default values for 10 companies.. all for 1 required field for 1 company if this is the intended design then it is a very poor design. TGIF.

Yep, tis sad but true. Field is required even IF the udf isn't set up on the panel. Learned this about three months ago.. And get this, if you set up a UDF field in the CI_Item table for an IM item, youi have to add the field to the miscellaneous item panel.................

It just doesn't make any common sense. If the UDF isn't on the panel for the company then all of the UDF attributes should be ignored. Should not be a tough programming concept,

Wouldn't you think at some point Sage would continue working on this and enhance some of the behind the scenes workings? It is as if many feature get ""good enough to ship"" and are then never improved upon.

It is Sage's modus operandi. Ship something, declare it to be the greatest since white bread and then never improve it. Sad. We are now seing it in the CRM product.

But then again, with a programming staff of three, it is hard to be a world leader!!!

50% of solving any problem is first recognizing there IS a problem. Sage believes this is working fine... that's the problem.

I believe the entire Sage issue was first summed up quite nicely by Mark Chinsky when he observed that they were more of an investment holding company. The company offers a nice stable annuity of predictable revenues. Most customers (90%) don't go anywhere for a number of reasons - not the least of which is the pain of switching solutions.

At one point I had implemented a solution for someone that included a UDT with the UDF name, company code, default values and whether the UDF was required or not so that a simple script could enforce this kind of functionality.

@WayneSchulz, Mark had a great observation. I might add that this is a short term approach. Eventually, as customer frustration escalates, they will switch solutions and trash talk Sage along the way. @DanBurleson , Please contact Sage and have them roll your solution into 100 ERP 2014.

I like Dan's method, but for this specific case, I think a user-defined script with a Header Pre-Write event that would set a dummy default value for all companies other than those that actually have the UDF on the screen would work. It's pretty easy to have the script check the company code and just escape out if needed.