Confused ...should we update??

[mystifying]

I've read some posts to hold off on updating to 7.6.2 (we don't use the payroll module, so we are ok there). Is that still the case? We received a CD a couple weeks ago.

Also, does anyone have any news on ES? Is it still buggy? What about migration of data? Still issues there? Any updates would be appreciated!

Stacy

 

[dgillz]

I am advising all of my clients not to update to 7.6.200 unless absolutely necessary. At this point that would include payroll users and a couple of other situations where a bug in 7.6.100a was addressed in 7.6.200.

On Macola ES, the data conversion is almost non-existent. If you can live with your vendors, customers, items, bills of materials, etc converted, then go for it. There is no conversion of Open POs, Open SOs, Open Shop or POP Orders, Open AP or AR, etc.

The accounting side of Macola ES is completely different and it is like learning a new product altogether. There is nothing you have learned about Progression that will help you at all in Macola ES on the accounting side.

On the distribution and manufacturing side, this is all very mature code and works very well.

Also in regards to ES accounting, be prepared to lose your F9 spreadsheets, any crystal reports that run on the accounting modules' files, as well as any screen designer or flexibility in those modules.

I wish the situation with ES was prettier, but it isn't. Maybe next year.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Exact Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.trianglepartners.com

 

[vbajock]

When first sold Flex, we were all told that one of the advantages of buying it would be that clients would not lose their custom code in upgrades, as they typically did with Cobol code. So much for that promise!

 

[mystifying]

Thanks for the advice. I'll hold off on 7.6.2.

As far as ES goes, that is a dissapointment. When researching what accounting system to upgrade to a little over a year ago, we selected Macola partly because of how great ES was supposedly going to be, especially for our needs. We had the option of giving it a shot then, or doing a simple upgrade by early summer (2003). I do hope they get things on track again soon. We don't have Flex or F9, but would really hate to lose our Cyrstal Reports.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[vbajock]

Macola now has serious competition with Great Plains. If I were them, I would avoid giving their existing base reasons to look at another product. Killing all Crystal and Flex apps would affect any long time user in a very negative way, especially the Crystal stuff, which has become entrenched everywhere these Macola 7.x is used, and would represent a serious loss of investment dollars to a lot of people.

 

[chrism1]

On the 7.6.2 update -- If we hold off, will we have a problem printing A/P 1099's?

 

[maccrystal]

You will have to update to 7.6.200 if the Fed makes changes that effect the 1099's "AND" you print the 1099's using Macola. Sometime the changes only effect a certain catagory, so if you are not using that catagory, you may be safe. Your only other solution is to print 1099 with Crystal Reports or manually type them.

Many of the issues associated with the eariler releases of 7.6.200 have been resolved with the CD that was mass shipped NOV/DEC 2004. This CD includes the new print engines that was released after the May CD was cut. 7.6.200 also uses Crystal 8.5 so that needs to be considered as part of your upgrade plan. You should discuss this issues with your business partner and have them assist with the update incase you encounter problems. This update replaces all the MicroFocus LBR files with DLL's and is a major update.

I'll be glad to address your questions.

http://www.appstratinc.com

 

[MacolaHelp]

I just installed 7.6.200 for the first time & it seemed to go well. There are some broken things, as always.

As for ES: I thought crystal was still viable by using the views they created for the accounting database with the funky name. Are you talking about integrated crystal reports? Are they gone from both accounting & distribution? I thought that flex was still being considered for the accounting as well, just isn't there yet. Since the distribution is still essentially what we have today, I would think that any reports you've already created or customized should be able to be massaged & used w/the ES database without a great deal of effort. The screen design loss is really unfortunate. Can't someone convince the powers that be that this is going backwards instead of forward? It doesn't seem like the development of this feature should be such a hard thing to accomplish.

 

[stravis]

Is Macola really considering Flexibility for Accounting? I would appreciate any information you have, because I have been looking in to hooking in my own scripting engine in to the Accounting modules, to overcome this ES shortfall. It sure would be a pain to develop this not so simple application only to Exact release Flexibility for Accounting.

Thanks,
Scott
NEXO Systems, Inc.

 

[kscheeler]

I have some 7.6.200's both new and upgraded and things have been going fine. From what I've read, there have been no changes to the 1099 from last year from the IRS so if they printed fine last year, they'll print fine this year.

As for ES and Crystal, I would either rewrite the reports with the "new" table/field names or create my own views to match up with the legacy names; more for the control over them than for anything else.

Kevin Scheeler

 

[Macoladownunder]

I am aware of a few sites here in Australia that were upgraded to 7.6.200 and they had problems. They seem to relate to larger sites. But it has since been discovered that they were given an 'old' CD by the reseller down here. We are to upgrade to 7.6.200 in February. A firm from California (dgillz is familiar with them) is coming down here to do it. We will be doing some major testing before going live. We have 50 users and will 'stress test' for a day or more.
On a recent visit to the USA, I saw ES and I am aware of all the issues that dgillz has raised. They are working on it though.
I will call dgillz to get his opinion also on this issue before February.

MacolaDownUnder
Exact Down Under Users Group - EDUUG
Getting systems that work in Australia and NZ

 

[MacolaHelp]

So far, I'm finding that sql seems to be going ok, but many more problems with btrieve sites. I have several unresolved issues and broken items currently & I'm only dealing with 6 sites that I've upgraded or have in test mode. It sure does seem like state of the art hardware on servers & workstations & the most current OS & service packs definitely help a site wanting to update to the latest version.