Happy Holidays from Chips Enterprise Solutions
With the New Year just around the corner, we want to take this opportunity to thank our loyal customers, partners and colleagues for your continued support of Sage 200 Evolution and our services in 2020.
2020 has been quite a year and I am sure we have learnt some important lessons and gathered some new insights from it about ourselves and our businesses. Whilst COVID is far from over we have all adapted and getting on with our lives and business. An important question we must all be asking is “what would we do different if we had lockdown 2 ?” Should you require our assistance in this area such as enabling remote workers etc , please don’t hesitate to call.
Our offices will remain open during normal business hours throughout the holiday period except for the official public holidays being the 22nd, 25th and 26th December 2020 and the 1st January 2021.
We wish you and your families good health, great joy and an even better business year in 2021!
Fiscalisation
During the recent Zimbabwe 2021 National Budget speech it was proposed to interface VAT registered operators’ systems with Zimra server. Zimra have since issued a public notice that states that the 2021 tax clearance certificate will only be issued to clients who are compliant in terms of full fiscalisation i.e. configuring the fiscal machines so that they record and produce correct invoice and receipt as per tendered currency as well as interfacing with the ZIMRA servers. Please note that deadline for fiscalisation is 31st December 2020.
We ask clients to engage their Fiscal service provider as early as possible if you have not done so already to prevent a last-minute rush. The requirements for interfacing Sage 200 Evolution vary depending on the fiscal device supplier. Should you require our assistance interfacing your fiscal device to the Sage 200 Evolution or with Multi-currency please log the request with or help desk – helpdesk@pastel.co.zw
Sage 200 Evolution 10.1.2
The latest version of Sage Evolution is 10.1.2 which was released on 15th October 2020. All Sage Evolution customers who are paid up on their annual renewal are entitled to this at no additional charge. The next release is expected in May 2021.
Customers may download this version themselves from our website under the customer zone – software. Alternately customers may request a CD from our offices.
Customers may carry out upgrade themselves or engage us to assist at our prevailing hourly rates of US$ 50 per hour or the equivalent in ZWL.
We have also uploaded a list of new features in 10.1.2 to the customer zone.
Sage 100 Evolution, formerly branded” Evolution Standard” end of Life- Free Upgrade Offer to Sage 200 Evolution
The special upgrade offer whereby existing clients still on Sage 100 Evolution can upgrade at no charge to Sage 200 Evolution expires on the 29 January 2021. Please contact our sales on sales@pastel.co.zw for further information if you are still on Sage 100 Evolution and wish to take up this offer.
New Modular Training Courses for Sage 200 Evolution
In an effort to reduce the cost and time required for you to get new staff trained in specific roles such as General Ledger/Cash Book, Debtors , Creditors , Invoicing , Purchasing and Inventory, we have introduced new modular training courses whereby instead of having to undergo the full 4 day course customers may send their respective staff members on the modular course in line with their function. To date we have developed courses of one day each for General Ledger, Debtors, Creditors, Purchasing, Sales Orders/Invoicing and Inventory. The cost is US$ 100 or ZWL equivalent per module/per person. For example, General Ledger/Cash Book would be classified as one module, so to send someone it would be US$ 100 for the days’ training.
Cloud options for Sage 200 Evolution
Covid has not gone away. In the event we have lockdown 2, the following remote access options are available that were previously communicated in our September 2020 Newsletter.
o Microsoft Azure – This means you may host your Sage 200 Evolution on Microsoft Azure which is available in Zimbabwe through Liquid Telecom. Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers.
o Virtual Private Server Hosting – There are a couple of data centers offering Virtual Private Server hosting services. Users would connect to the server using a VPN and Remote Desktop. There are a number of clients who have adopted this model.
o Remote Access to on premise server – With this option the server would be managed by yourself and you would configure the system to allow for Remote Access by users who require it using Remote Desktop or Remote Apps. It is important that you ensure the users are connecting via VPN or alternate secure connection. It should be noted that without VPN or an alternate secure connection you are vulnerable Cyber Security risks.
When engaging service providers regarding these options please ensure you have clarity on who is responsible for the following:
Windows operating system and database licensing
Cyber security protection
Anti-Virus Protection
Data backup
Disaster recovery
Year End Procedures
For those customers whose yearend is December we have uploaded guides to the Chips website to guide you through the yearend process. Please note that there are different procedures if you use Online Branch Accounting, Offline Branch Accounting or Sage 200 Evolution without Branch Accounting and these are also available on the website.
Control Account Reconciliation – One of the key checks to make at yearend is to ensure the control accounts are balancing to the subsidiary ledgers. Sage 200 Evolution has an option that assists you with comparing the General Ledger Control Accounts to the subsidiary ledgers for Inventory, Debtors and Creditors. To find this option you would go to – General Ledger | Transactions | Control Account Reconciliation. We have uploaded notes for using this utility to the customer zone on our website under year end procedures.
Bank Reconciliation – The Bank Reconciliation utility allows you to match the entries as processed in your cashbook, per individual bank account, with the physically received bank statement, for the same General Ledger (GL) bank account. We have uploaded notes explaining this process on Sage Evolution to the customer Zone.
Diagnostic Tool – The Diagnostic Tool is a powerful utility that helps you to identify the exact reason for various posting anomalies as observed in the Sage Evolution company, it consists fundamentally out of the System Information – and the Health Checks components. Just some of the typical queries that this utility should be able to assist with are:
Identifying the reason for Ledger vs Sub-ledger discrepancies. For example, the total Receivables Control account balance differs with the total Customers Age Analysis as at a specific period end.
Validating company setup configurations.
Customer and supplier transaction allocations issues. We again have uploaded a document covering this to our website.
Inventory Valuation and Inventory Control account differences – We have uploaded a trouble shooting guide to the website under yearend procedures to help you diagnose why the Inventory Control and the Inventory Valuation may have differences.
Inventory Valuation by Date Utility – Whenever there are any back dated transactions in the company, the Valuation by Date report should rather not be used and the user should make exclusive use of the Valuation by Date Inquiries utility. This is found under Inventory | Inquiries | Valuation By Date. We have uploaded an explanation of this utility to the customer zone on our website.
Vat Control account and Tax Report – We have uploaded an article that help trouble shoot any differences between the VAT Control account and the Tax Report.
Backups – It is important to retain a master backup at Yearend and this should be retained in duplicate on separate media i.e. not on a hard drive connected to your main server, for at least the statutory period defined in the tax act. We have published backup procedures on the customer zone of our website.
Should you be unable to access any of these documents please email helpline@pastel.co.zw and we shall send them to you by email.
Thank you again for your support in 2020 and we wish you and you your families a happy Xmas and the very best for 2021.
Please do not hesitate to request assistance from our support department on email helpline@pastel.co.zw or 0242 773809, 086 77003888
3 Lezard Avenue,
Milton Park,
Harare,Zimbabwe
Tel: 086 77003888, 086 77020366, (024) 2773809 / 26 / 45
Email: sales@chips.co.zw