Message From Evron's President

Intelligent Cost Saving for Your Business

Accountant's Corner

Software As Protection: How BV Works Against Fraud

PFW: Tips & Tricks

Using AP and AR Period Close Processes

Your Afternoon Smile

"The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense."

-- Thomas Edison

Message From Evron's President

Intelligent Cost Saving


In these challenging times, businesses are increasingly interested in cutting costs. This can be done intelligently or not, considering where the damage created outweighs the savings.

As business leaders, our objective is usually not to cut costs for the sake of cutting costs, but to cut unnecessary costs and to make us stronger and more competitive. Diminishing oneself into oblivion is not a survival strategy. What we really want to do is to increase or maintain profitability and cutting unnecessary costs is one tactic.

As stated in earlier articles, challenging times (i.e. troubling times) are also times of opportunity. Companies prosper because they have better technology, better people or better processes.

Here are some suggestions.

* Smart companies use technology to compete. Clearly you need reliable infrastructure technology available and performing at peak or near peak levels. If downtime is expensive for you there are protective strategies available that cost far less than the consequences of unexpected failures.

* Evron provides alternative Managed Services options. One component is a low cost remote monitoring service whereby we use advanced diagnostic tools to continually monitor critical network services running on key servers and workstations. Real time alerts are sent to your company so problems are caught early. You are advised so that appropriate steps can be taken and ideally prevent costly downtime.

* Your telephony system is another area with significant opportunity for cost saving and profit enhancement. Most organizations are using phone systems based on ten and twenty year old technology. Evron provides Unified Communications/VoIP solutions that provide the traditional features of voicemail, call-forwarding, hunt groups, automated attendant, conferencing etc. However, you can also get advanced voice, video and data capabilities, including the capability of linking into your back office financial systems. The benefits include lower communications costs, increased employee productivity. Solutions including remote or wireless components are especially effective in improving customer service and increasing sales.

Next month: Other areas of cost saving.

- Larry Noble, P.Eng, MBA
- President, Evron Computer Systems Corp.

Accountant's Corner

Software As Protection: How BV Works Against Fraud

As distasteful as it may be, fraud is a fact of life. A tool of the greedy in good times, it becomes a refuge for the desperate in bad times. Fraud occurs for many reasons. There are thousands of self-justifications and rationalizations.


The ramifications of your enterprise becoming a victim of fraud are far greater than they appear on the surface. Missing money, inventory and other assets are some of the consequences. Accusing employees is a dangerous game. Even if you know of a crime, it is often difficult to prove. Your company may suffer damage to its reputation, and may be perceived as weak by suppliers, customers and your bankers. Management’s focus will be diverted from core business activities to dealing with consequences.


In the great majority of cases the stolen money is long gone. While an offer to cancel prosecution in exchange for financial restitution may be accepted, typically the perpetrator will not be able to comply.


The most efficient way to avoid becoming a victim is to have systems in place that make fraud so difficult that the potential thief will look elsewhere for easy money. If you are using an entry level accounting system because it is “good enough”, you may soon find yourself a victim of fraud. You require a system that incorporates audit trails, and reports that do not allow records of assets, journal entries, and invoices to simply disappear.


BusinessVision is a product with the security that you need in today’s economic reality. Without any modifications BusinessVision is capable of tracing every transaction, regardless of complexity, back to its author. In short, every invoice, credit note, cash receipt or cheque, is not only recorded in the books, but recorded in the logs as well, so you, as the business owner can review which individual did specific transactions. With proof in your hands, you can ask why and how a transaction exists.


In addition to built-in security, BusinessVision will allow you to limit staff to access data on a need to know basis. Some employees may need to view data but do not need to alter or post data. That sort of security is inclusive within BusinessVision at a granular level. Security can be controlled by employee class, by module and even within screens.


Spending money for better locks and security guards my help protect you from external thieves but history shows that the greatest theft threats are from inside. Choosing the right software can help you guard your company’s assets.


Today’s business climate presents opportunities for you to grow your business. Don’t allow your inadequate accounting software systems to cause you to miss your chance.


- Irwin Pinsky, B.Comm., CGA, MCP

Irwin Pinsky is the manager of our small business division and focuses on our BusinessVision practice. Irwin's experience includes that of a public practitioner focused on emerging companies, as well as financial controllership.

Using AP and AR Period Close Processes

It is recommended that companies use the AP Period Close and AR Period Close processes in Sage PFW. These processors are found in the ‘Utilities’ submenu of both AP and AR in Sage PFW.

The running of these processes at the conclusion of each Period will lead to having ‘cleaner’ and more efficient Current Transaction files in AP and AR. The main reason for this is that the AP and AR Month-End processors move all ‘closed’ transactions to the AP and AR Historical Transaction files.

If these month-end processors are not run, the closed transactions will remain in the Current Transaction files that will become increasingly larger as time goes on, a situation that can lead to inefficient processing during daily or period-end activity. In addition, not running these processors, will lead to incorrect values accumulating in the Vendor and Customer Activity Files that maintain Period-To Date and Year-To-Date summary totals by Vendor and Customer.

1) AP Period End Closing
The following describes the AP Period Closing process:

After the Distribution to General Ledger has been run and interfaced to GL and AP has been reconciled, the AP Period End Close utility should be run.

The AP Period End Close utility does the following:

All fully paid vouchers move from the Transaction Current (APTRAN) to the Transaction History (APTRANH) file. The debit memos, adjustments, and payments transactions associated with the voucher are also moved to the Transaction History file. In addition the Period-To-Date and Year-To-Date fields in the Vendor Activity File (APVENDH) are updated.

The Last Period End Close Date is updated (APONE). The update to this Date will allow companies
To use the ‘Require Posting in Current Period’ feature (see screen shot below).

Require Posting in Current Period

Select this field to force posting in the current period only for all vouchers entered in Voucher Entry. If you select this field, a voucher, entered in Voucher Entry, cannot be saved with the receipt and Age Date earlier than the first day of the AP current period. In Voucher Entry, if a user tries to save a voucher, a message allowing them to accept the first day of the current period or to manually adjust the receipt and Age Date will be displayed. The first day of the current period is one day after the Last Closing date in the Auto Number Setup menu item. This latter field is updated when the AP Period Close is run at Period End.

If the 'Require Posting in Current Period' is not selected then you can enter an Age Date prior to the current date. This lets you enter a voucher into a prior period.

2) AR Period End Closing
The following describes the AR Period Closing process.

After the Distribution to General Ledger has been run and interfaced to GL and AR has been reconciled, the AR Period End Close utility should be run.

The AR Period End Close utility does the following:
All fully paid invoices move from the Transaction Current (ARTRAN) to the Transaction History (ARTRANH) file. The credit memos, adjustments, and cash receipts transactions associated with the invoices also move to the Transaction History file. In addition the Period-To-Date and Year-To-Date fields in the Customer Activity File (ARCUSTH) are updated.

The Last Period End Close Date is updated (ARONE).

New AR Feature in Sage PFW5.7:
Some companies have intentionally not run the AR Period Close process because they wished to have a means to run 'Historical' AR Aged Receivables reports and could not do this if the 'closed' transactions had been moved to the AR History Transactions file by the AR Period End Processor. This situation
Has been addressed with a new feature now available in Sage PFW5.7, described below:

Historical AR Aged Receivables Report:
Get the information you need on your aged receivables. The new Historical Receivables report allows you to view aged receivables information as of the date you specify. When you close a period in Sage PFW, paid invoices are moved to a history file, which, until Sage PFW5.7, had prevented you from running the Aged Receivables report for a previous period. Also, Sage PFW5.7 now optionally allows you to post to a previous period. This new report allows you to view your receivables as of the specified period end date. The new report does not affect the system's aging brackets. Now you can close your period and still have the information you need for auditing purposes

- Nonny Beckerman
- Senior Consultant, Evron Computer Systems Corp.

About EVRON: EVRON is a leading provider of financial systems and network infrastructure solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. We have a history of success with thousands of implementations since 1983

T: 905-477-0444 | E: info@evron.com | W: http://www.evron.com.

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