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ACCTivation! 2006
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It's time to start
thinking about the next ACCTivate! Users Conference.
ACCTivation! 2006 will be held in Arlington, TX
May 4th and 5th
2006. It's not too early
to start making plans to attend.
The conference will
cover a wide variety of topics such as maximizing the use of your
ACCTivate! system and exploring current
technology trends.
More information
will be made available in the upcoming months.
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User Feedback
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We're always
interested in hearing from ACCTivate! Users. You're the reason that we're in
business.
If you have any
questions or comments that you would like to share with us, please
feel free to contact us.
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Software Updates
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The ACCTivate! Software
Maintenance plan is designed to provide subscribers with the newest
version of ACCTivate!.
This plan
includes both web-updates and full-version releases. CYMA users recognize it as SMP,
while QuickBooks users recognize it as part of the new SMS plan.
Either way, it's
the annual subscription that provides you with updates and new
version releases.
Without a
current subscription, users are not granted access to those updates
and releases.
Please contact
the Alterity sales office for more information on your Software
Maintenance plan.
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User
Spotlight: Bags, Inc.
Bags, Inc., of Boulder, Colorado, deploys
Technology to get a Competitive Edge.
 Bags, Inc. (www.bagsco.com), is an
integrated supplier of earth-friendly packaging products for retail,
industrial, food service and promotional businesses.
This business is characterized by intense
Competition. In order to project
a different look and feel to its market, Bags is using technology in an
imaginative and innovative way.
This allows them to give better service to their
customers without greater cost.
During 2005 Bags implemented ACCTivate!,
utilizing many of its special, leveraged features.
 According
to Dick Van Buren, owner and
CEO, "We are well on our way to providing a unique and very special
face to our customers that allows us to stand out above the crowd. Our staff has spent hours learning
and adapting ACCTivate! and they are now
advocates. We look forward to
even greater use of ACCTivate! in the short
term using ecommerce."
Van Buren notes that ACCTivate! has
allowed them to manage their operation efficiently. "We're a small business and we have
capabilities from using ACCTivate! that exceed
the capabilities of our largest competitors."
Some other benefits are derived directly from the Business Activities Management
module and they have even been able to manage several
industry-unique issues with it.
For example, they track the
"chain of custody" for each lot. Using Business Activities Management
they can find the history of any lot starting from the paper mill all
the way to the finished product.
They also use this module to track
sales forecasting and customer
complaints and concerns.
Both of which allow them to stay ahead of the game.
By implementing this forward-thinking concept, Bags has
been able to get involved with larger and more profitable situations in
which big demanding customers have requirements that can't be met by
competitors without technology tools such as ACCTivate!.
Dick Van Buren will be one of the guest presenters at ACCTivation! 2006, the ACCTivate! Users' Conference.
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Keeping up
with Vendor Product Information
 One of the many powerful
features built-into ACCTivate! is the ability
to store pertinent vendor information on a product-by-product
basis. Finding this information
quickly may be easier than you think.
To simplify
things, each product has its own "vendor" tab to hold this
information. Each product can
have any number of vendors available and one can be designated as the
preferred vendor.
 Beyond this, you may enter
the vendor's Product ID, lead time, negotiated price and other notes
for review. It even shows you
the last price that you paid, the date you received and the quantity
received on that date.
To make it even
more convenient to search out the right vendor and price when entering
a purchase order, this information is conveniently available in a
pop-up window in the Purchase Order window. Simply click inside the Vendor
Product ID field, followed by a click to the lookup button.
This feature set
is just another example of the power that is inherently built into
ACCTivate!
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Featured Add-on
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Wireless
Pocket PC Modules
Run
your warehouse or place an order on a Pocket PC
Over the past several years
the ability to communicate data wirelessly has increased
dramatically. For business, this
increase allows for some pretty impressive increases in performance and
flexibility.
ACCTivate!
is on the forefront of this technological boom
and has developed several modules that are designed to be run on
wireless Pocket PC devices.
When
properly configured, you may be able to use these devices in the
warehouse, or even see your inventory levels through a cellular
connection (GSM/GPRS/EVDO) while at a conference. All you need is a wireless
connection.
Wireless Pocket PC Order
Picking Module
Imagine
being in the middle of your warehouse and seeing all of the new orders
that need to be picked on a wireless Pocket PC. The Wireless Order
Picking Add-on for ACCTivate! makes this a
time-saving reality.
When
it's time to start the order fulfillment process, simply pickup your
wireless Pocket PC and see a list of orders that need to be picked. No
need for a paper printout, everything that you need is displayed on the
Pocket PC, even if it need a lot or serial
number.
Then
walk around the warehouse and pick the products that are on the order.
Plus, if your Pocket PC has a built-in barcode scanner, you can
increase speed, efficiency and accuracy by just scanning the barcode to
pick the product.
Wireless Pocket PC
Receiving Module
Before
the delivery truck leaves your dock, you can open the purchase order
for the shipment on your wireless Pocket PC and start to compare the
purchase order with what you actually received.
The
Wireless Receiving module allows you to select any open PO by issued date, requested date or supplier. If
you haven't made a PO yet, you can
select the vendor and start receiving product anyway.
Best
of all, if you're using a wireless barcode reader, you have the ability
to quickly scan barcodes to verify that you have the right product.
Wireless Pocket PC
Showroom Sales Module
You
and your customer can walk around your showroom floor together while
you create their order on your wireless Pocket PC, or you can be on the
phone with them while you create the order while scanning products in
your warehouse or catalog.
The
Wireless Showroom Sales Add-on provides you with the power to create
sales orders while you're on the move. When combined with the power of
a wireless barcode scanner, you can be sure that you get the product
you want.
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Our People
Make us who we are
We have a
great team at Alterity!
The success and growth of ACCTivate! is directly related to the outstanding team that has
been assembled. Our people bring
with them a wide variety of abilities that have had a positive impact
in moving our company forward.
Brian Sweat
Brian has
been around for a long time and has skills and talents well beyond his
years. He has been working for
Alterity for five years and is a key player in the overall operations
of the company.
He began with the
company performing tasks like helping to design and program some of the
features and modules that are well-known to all ACCTivate! users. He
also almost single-handedly build the current ACCTivate! support department to what it is today.
It's fitting that
he is the Support Team Manager.
However, he isn't confined by that title as he makes serious
contributions to all aspects of the ACCTivate! product. This includes areas like product
development, testing, SQL database programming and more.
Brian holds a
Bachelor of Science degree from The University of Texas at Arlington with a
focus on Management Information Systems. He and his wife have a soon-to-be 1
year old son and live in Arlington,
Texas.
Erica Sanchez
Erica
joined Alterity in November 2004 as a Marketing Communication Intern.
After the internship ended, she has continued on as a valuable
employee.
Erica assists with a wide variety of marketing communications projects
for ACCTivate!, but a considerable amount of
her time at Alterity has been dedicated to developing and expanding the
ACCTivate! Help Files. Her work
has been well received.
Throughout
her education she has gained skills in a variety of different areas
such as graphic design, web design, journalism and many software
applications, which she brings to Alterity.
She
balances work and school very well and is currently a senior at the University of Texas
at Arlington. She will graduate this May with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Technology.
She
was born in Texas, but as a "military
brat" grew up all across the U.S.,
as well as in Germany.
Her main focus has been completing her college education and her
family, but in her free time she likes to do some photography, digital
imaging and play softball.
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Releases and Updates
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Credit
Card Processing in ACCTivate!
Credit
Card Processing for QuickBooks Users
The ACCTivate! development team has developed an exciting new
feature for ACCTivate!.
The next
web-update will include a special new features that will allow Credit
Cards to be taken and entered for an order inside of ACCTivate!.
This module is
only available for QuickBooks users, as it relies on QuickBooks
Merchant Services to process the credit cards online. You can, however, enter the credit
card information directly into ACCTivate!.
Once the order is
taken, the charges are processed online. All relevant order and billing
information is passed over to QuickBooks during the
synchronization.
Once again, this
feature is only available to QuickBooks customers. However, it is not an add-on
module. It's built into the main
core ACCTivate! system.
For more
information about credit card processing in ACCTivate!,
please read the release notes in the next web update. Make certain to read the help files
as well for step-by-step procedure guides.
Web updates are
only available to customers who have a current SMP or SMS software
update subscription. Please
contact your ACCTivate! representative for
more information.
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