TUG Tip - Sage 300 CRE

Additional Items Available in Grids

When entering information into a grid in PJ (such as the change request entry screen) there are additional items available that you can add to your grid. To view these options right click inside the grid and then click on "Hide/Show Cols". This will allow you to add or remove items in the grid. You can also freeze and unfreeze columns here.

TUG Tip - Sage 300 CRE

Making Deposit IDs more useful!

A lot of people incorporate the deposit date into the deposit ID in AR - Enter Cash Receipts, but we also incorporate the first 4 letters of the customer name as a useful identifier. This helps alleviate possible duplicate entries as well as making it easier to identify a certain deposit or whether a customer has paid through an inquiry.

TUG Tip - Sage 300 CRE

Information Assistant

Does your company have limited licenses on key modules? If so, use the Information Assistant (IA) module for inquiries and reports on all modules without using up a license for that module.

TUG Tip - Sage 300 CRE

Import File Location

Do a lot of importing? Tell Sage 300 CRE where the files are!! Go to Common Tasks > Company Settings > File Locations, scroll to the bottom, there will be "Imports". Put in the path to the correct data folder. Now when you say "Import" and click to select the file, Sage will automatically take you to that folder.

TUG Tip - Sage 300 CRE

Year End Closing

The end of the year is a great time to clean up your current file. As transactions are created, and posted to the current file, they add to the information that Sage must process when any reports or inquiries are run. Moving the old, infrequently accessed, data to the history file will greatly improve Sage’s performance.

Remember closed contracts can now also be moved to history!

TUG Tip - Sage 300 CRE

A Better Way to Send a Report to Excel!

Next time you want to print a Sage report to excel, try this great tip that I learned in a webinar with Dawn Naisbitt. When you select "Print to file", instead of selecting excel as the type, choose text (.txt). Once the report runs, open the text file in excel and it will have a cleaner format.

TUG Tip - Sage 300 CRE

Sage 300 Accounts Payable Vendor Setup - Cost Code Default

Want to save time when entering invoices or commitments? If you normally use the same cost code and/or category for a vendor, enter this information on the Vendor Setup/Terms and Defaults tab. The cost code and/or category will then prefill during the invoice entry and commitment entry screens.

TUG Tip - Sage 300 CRE

Compliance Grid - 2nd Tiered Vendors

To enter Secondary Vendor information, you can click on the link at the top right of the compliance grid. You can also add secondary vendors from the commitment setup using PJ or JC.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Employee Exempt from FWH

If you have an employee that is exempt from Federal Withholding (ex. F1 Visa holders), you only need to go to Employee Setup and click on Taxes. Then click on the FWH Adj Method drop-down and select Exempt.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

How to Search for Keywords in a Crystal Report

• Open a Crystal Report Summary Log • Click on the ‘Find Text’ or ‘binoculars’ in your Crystal Report • Enter a keyword in the ‘Find Text’ space provided • Click ‘Find Next’ (it will continue to search the document for the keyword)

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Sage 300 CRE: Tip to Avoid Posting to a Closed Period

The billing module will not warn you if you post to a closed period. Try adding a condition prior to posting in billing either accounting date equal to the desired period or greater & less than depending on the dates that your company uses. This can help prevent complicated corrections if an invoice had the wrong date and posted to an old period.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Adding a newly created cost code to budget tool in Procore

+Create Budget Line Item Add line +Create Budget code Select from the cost code drop down Select from the Cost type drop down Change the description if needed (this will not update sage!) Create and Create again Check the box in the budget to add

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Recurring Invoices

Using the Recurring Invoice function within the Accounts Payable module is a great tool to set-up and edit invoices that are generated on a regular basis at a predetermined time. This tool can be used to pay such invoices as rent, contract fees, loan payments. It can generate invoices at several different payment intervals: weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, annually and on-demand. These are created from the Setup Menu in Accounts Payable.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Setup Tip

If you have multiple Sage databases but only use one most of the time, you can use Common Tasks-Tools-Customize to set your system to “Use last folder at startup”. Once this option is checked, your system will log in to the last database you opened after entering your username and password, instead of requiring you to select a database before continuing.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

How to Refund an Overpayment from an Owner/Customer

Enter an AR invoice for the overpayment that hits a clearing account (suspense for example). Apply the cash receipt overpayment to this dummy AR invoice. Then enter an AP invoice to the same clearing account as the AR invoice. At this point the clearing account will zero out. You can then cut a check to the customer/owner out of AP to refund them the overpayment.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Adjusting Invoices In A Prior Period

In order to create a better audit trail when adjusting AR invoices and changing AP invoices that are in prior periods, is to enter a $0 adjusting invoice with +/- distributions lines for the adjustment. If it's an AP invoice, you'll also want to process a zero EFT/check so that it doesn't show open on your aging reports.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Send Less Detail From Payroll to Job Cost

In order to prevent those with access to job cost details from potentially seeing confidential payroll information, you can send the necessary cost information as a summary instead. Go into Payroll Settings and then JC Entry Settings and make sure the check boxes for including more entry detail are unchecked.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Year-End Checklists

Did you know you can head to Sage's Community Hub and find checklists for year-end? I find them to be very helpful.

https://communityhub.sage.com/us/sage_construction_and_real_estate/sage300cre-yearend/w/sage300cre_yearend/1503/year-end-checklists

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Zero Cash Receipts in AR

AR does not allow zero receipts but you can get around it by doing a cash receipt for a penny. Enter the cash receipt for a penny, apply the negative and positive invoices that zero to the penny cash receipt. Allow the penny to be a customer cash receipt. Then go into Adjust Receivables for that customer and void the penny customer cash receipt that is showing.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Year-End Upgrade Notice

If you are on Sage 300 CRE version 23.2 or later, there is no need to upgrade to version 24 to handle the 2024 year-end or 2025 tax updates. The 2025 tax updates are compatible with version 23.2 or later.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Sage 300 CRE - Billing Retainage in AR

In Accounts Receivable, select Tasks > Bill Retainage. Enter the customer ID or use F4 to select from a list of customers. If you are billing retainage by contract, enter the contract and contract item. If you are billing retainage by job, leave the contract and contract item fields blank and enter the job, extra and/or cost code. Use F4 to select from a list of contracts, items, jobs, extras and cost codes. Accept the prefilled invoice ID, accounting date and transaction date, or enter the ID and dates you want to assign this invoice. Enter the percent of unbilled retainage you want to bill, or enter a flat amount to bill. Click [Bill]. When you have entered all retainage invoices, click [Close]. At the Print Selection window, click [Printer Setup] and specify the printer or print file name for the invoices and invoice journal. Click [Start].

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Sage 300 CRE - How to Hide or Show Columns

Did you know you can add columns that are not currently displayed using Hide/Show Cols. You can also use Hide/Show Cols to prevent columns from being displayed. Simply right click on any column or cell in any task that has a grid and select Hide/Show Cols, select the check boxes for the columns you want displayed in the grid, click OK.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Sage 300 / Procore Data Mapping

If you're new to Procore and the integration, I highly recommend the detailed data matrix. You can also view this by clicking on the website below. 

https://support.procore.com/products/online/user-guide/company-level/erp-integrations/sage-300-cre/sage-300-cre-contractor-detailed-data-mapping

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Tip to Avoid Posting to a Closed Period from Billing

The billing module will not warn you if you post to a closed period. Try adding a condition prior to posting in billing either accounting date equal to the desired period or greater & less than depending on the dates that your company uses. This can help prevent complicated corrections if an invoice had the wrong date and posted to an old period.

TUG Tip -- Sage 300 CRE

Titles in Report Designer

If you highlight your titles in Report Designer and "unbold" them, they are much easier to work with.  After you have them correct, make the font bold again.