May is our Time to Celebrate - 26 Years & Still Going Strong!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to us! Earlier in May we celebrated our 26 years in business with a barbecue. We’ve had an exciting year by expanding our Training Road Show programs to monthly visits in locations throughout the US. Offering the customization services of our product to fit your accounting needs along with providing the training, support and maintenance if you desire.
And looking ahead to our 27th year, we’re excited about our upcoming releases this summer for both our Denali and CMS Professional product lineups.
July will see the release of Denali 2.7 which includes Purchase Order. This new module is very visual, clean and user friendly. Here are just some of the exciting features:
- Vendor-Performance Report— make vendor record comparisons when it comes to pricing, shipping costs, delivery time and an array of other criteria so that you can see who is outperforming or meeting your company’s needs.
- Generate POs from Inventory or Sales History—Create purchase orders automatically based on selected quantity on hand, minimum/maximum quantity, order quantity, or recurring orders—helping to ensure you always have products on hand.
- Multi-tiered Security Rights—Keep unauthorized employees or users from seeing private information or ordering items without your consent.
- Unlimited User-Defined Fields (UDFs) with Lookup options— Allows you to design headers and PO detail so that you can track, sort and filter any information relevant to your business.
- Customizable Entry & Receiving Screens —Set up and simplify the appearance of the information fields based on the role of the buyer/user without sacrificing power and flexibility.
In August we will be releasing our CMS Professional 2009. And when I have information about those features I’ll let you know.
We had a barbecue to celebrate our 26 years in business. Here are just some photographs we’d like to share — cakes, Bob Gossett our founder and Kristine Terrell Senior Account Executive and Queen Barbecue Chef.
THANKS TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS FOR 26 YEARS AND MORE!!!
Published by Terri on May 23rd, 2008 tagged Company, CMS News | 1 Comment »
Voiding a Check in Accounts Payable
First remember that you only want to void a transaction in a module if it was created in the module. This is because Cougar Mountain will ensure the transaction is reversed in all other modules it is integrated with.
Here are detailed steps on voiding the check:
- Go to AP (this is where the check was originally written from. If not, you want to void the check from the module it was created)
- Go to Pay Bills > Adjust/Pay Bills
- Change Transaction Type to ‘Payment Correction’
- Select the Vendor #
- Put in description of what you are doing i.e.: Voiding a check
- Select the Check # by using the lookup
- Select the bank code the check was written from (if not already filled in)
- In the reference to pay box put the check number with a letter code i.e.: 1501V – this is how you will identify it as a void later.
- Enter the amount of the void (look above to make sure the numbers are the same)
- Now Save it, and post.
- Once posted, the original invoice amount will be created as a new bill for the vendor. If you do not want that bill paid, then go back into Adjust/pay bills and do a Balance Adjustment (Decrease Balance) to remove the invoice.
Joe
Marketing
Published by Joe on May 9th, 2008 tagged Tips & Tricks | 2 Comments »
Cougar Mountain Integration
Wonderful news - Cougar Mountain Software stores its data in an ODBC compliant files!
So what, you might ask? What this means is that you can connect other programs to your Cougar Mountain data files and get the information directly from the source. Actually, this is not a new development, the software has always been ODBC compliant. By connecting directly to your data files, you have live access to your customer data, inventory, vendors, and all the rest of it. You save time by not having to first export the data, then re-import it into the second application you are running.
By using an ODBC connection, you can:
- Make barcode labels with the information taken directly from your company data files (we recommend using Bartender for this).
- Pull AR Customer data to create custom labels. (or AP Vendor data, or PR Employee data, etc)
- Create custom reports inside an excel spreadsheet, connect an Access database to your data to manipulate it with that.
So if you are interested, but you aren’t sure how to do this - contact our technical support department for assistance.
And if you are new to working with this sort of thing, we recommend you don’t use your real company data until you learn how to do it without breaking anything–use the demo company data instead, or a copy company. And everyone should always have a current backup of your data too.
Joe
Marketing
Published by Joe on May 6th, 2008 tagged Tips & Tricks | Comment now »
CMS User Guides Online
Did you know that you can access all of the Cougar Mountain User Guides on the Customer Service Center website? They are in PDF format, and can be saved or printed. We get this question asked alot, even though the documentation is also linked from our main company website. In the documentation area, you can get User Guides for the last two versions of our software (Version 11 and 12), and they include Guides for:
- CMS Professional
- Denali
- Installation Guides
- Payroll Update Guides
- And more!
Joe
Marketing
Published by Joe on May 5th, 2008 tagged Products, Training, Marketing | Comment now »
Bank Transfers When Using Different Funds
Kevin was recently asked this FUND question, “How can I transfer money between Bank Accounts that have different FUND’s listed in the Bank Reconciliation module, so that the transaction will show up in GL correctly?”. Here is how you set up for this situation:
- Usually our nonprofit customers will have only one main FUND that is a General or Administration account. They would NOT need this solution just “due to/due from” on in Module Preferences with there ADMIN code in the GL box: (see below) All accounts would use the “Auto due/to” as the General fund.
Published by Kevin on May 1st, 2008 tagged Training, Tips & Tricks | Comment now »
How to Enter Recurring Transactions
A great time saver in Cougar Mountain is the ability to create Recurring transactions in most of the modules. A recurring transaction is one that can be used over and over, without having to reenter the information each time. Each of the modules are a little different in how they are set up, but basically it is a two step process - you first create the Recurring Template, and then you generate the actual transaction from the template. For instance;
- In General Ledger, you save the recurring transaction into a Recurring Batch.
- In Purchase Order, you can either create the Recurring PO directly as a template in the Options menu, or it can be created while entering a real transaction by clicking the “Recurring” checkbox.
You can check the Help files in each module you are using to find out how to specifically create and use Recurring transactions.
Also there are Frequency Codes used with the recurring transaction, which allows you to run only the transactions you need at specific time intervals. For instance, at the first of each month you could run the MONTH frequency codes and generate all the transactions you have for the month.
As you can see, Recurring transactions can make your operation run more efficient.
Joe
Published by Joe on April 29th, 2008 tagged Tips & Tricks | Comment now »
We’re Loud & We’re Proud!
Sometimes we feel we just need to boast about ourselves. And this is just one of those occasions. Our local paper - THE IDAHO STATESMAN - came in this past week to do an article on us. Not only did they come in and speak with Cary Welsh, our Chief Operating Officer, and Brian Jennings, Director of Product Development, for an hour, and they took pictures as well of our FUND Accounting ‘in session’ training; but they even wrote and printed the article today, Friday, April 18th. Cary’s picture is the front page of the Business Section in the hard copy version, and he’s also one of three of “Today’s Highlights” on the Statesman’s home page today! Not bad. Catch it if you can, today only– 4/18/08 – Idaho Statesman’s “Today’s Highlights.” And in case you don’t get to it today - you can still read the article, “Boise’s Cougar Mountain Software Finds Success Being Slow & Steady.”
And the quote we liked best in the article came from one of our very own local Boise customer (’thank you Sharon’):
“Sharon Morrison, owner of Riverside RV Park in Boise, has been using Cougar Mountain software for more than 15 years. She bought the software on the strength of its features, not knowing it was a Boise company.
“It’s very user-friendly and very easy to get around in,” Morrison said. “It also allows me to customize reports and invoices.”
Other companies have tried to get her to switch, but Morrison but she has never found any company that could match Cougar Mountain’s features and service.
“They’re great to work with and are very helpful and knowledgeable,” she said “Usually within a couple minutes of calling you have the support you need and you’re up and running and not sitting on the phone.*”
*Idaho Statesman,” 4/18/08, by Ken Dey
Published by Terri on April 18th, 2008 tagged CMS News, Marketing | Comment now »
Making a Deposit with a Credit Card
Kevin was asked how to make a Credit Card deposit on an Order Entry Work Order - here is how you do it:
- First, you should know that whenever you are trying out something new - like in this case, setting up work orders and learning how to take a deposit - you have available to you the DEMO company to practice on. Practicing there is always a good idea, as well as making a back up of your data beforehand.
- Ok, to begin taking Work Orders, you first have to turn Work Orders on. Open Order Entry module, click Options > Module Preferences. Check both the “Allow Work Order” checkbox, and the “Allow Deposit” checkbox:
Published by Kevin on April 8th, 2008 tagged Training, Tips & Tricks | Comment now »
Copy Company Utility
The Copy Company Utility, also referred to as the End of Year Company Converter, is a great little tool available with Cougar Mountain Software. It allows you to create an exact duplicate of your company in just moments, allowing you to open this newly copied company seperately from the original (the only thing it does not copy is any Inventory Stock images you have set up).
Why would you want to make a duplicate company?
- Make an end-of-year copy of all your company data, so that later you can come back and run reports, or whatever. (or how about a copy each month?)
- Make a copy of your company to test with
- Make a copy of your existing company, to use as a template for a second similar company (purge all the company info out of the copy company and keep all the codes)
What are the steps to make the copy company? First note that the Copy Company Utility is not found within the CMS program itself - it is a stand-alone program. Follow these steps to run it:
- Click Start > Programs > Cougar Mountain Software > Copy Company Utility - you will see this window:
- Select the company to be copied (if you have more than one already)
- Enter the New Company Code to be created
- And then click the Process button
- The new company is copied usually within a minute - and you’re done!
Open Cougar Mountain Software program, and note that you now have this newly created copy company available to be opened.
Joe
Marketing
Published by Joe on April 2nd, 2008 tagged Products, Training, Tips & Tricks | Comment now »
Part X — Do You Know Where Your Vendors Are?
And finally concluding our 10-part series of “10 Ways Inventory Management Can Make or Break You” we’d like to close with:
#10: Do You Know Where Your Vendors Are?
Who are your vendors? How many vendors have you purchased your inventory items from? Are they late delivering orders? If so how often? Do quoted prices differ from prices listed on an invoice? These are all questions you may have about your vendors. Based on your business and business needs—delivery timeliness, availability of items and service—may vary in importance. For example, you may be more interested in timely and quick supply of items, or you may want the cheapest price and you can handle late shipments or poor service, or you may be somewhere in the middle, or you may have some items you need shipped on time and others that you don’t.
Managing your vendors and tracking what they provide and how they meet your needs is critical to your business. In many industries cultivating good relationships with vendors often provides a competitive advantage that can make your business excel. With a good integrated system you can collect and gather the information you need to make good decisions about your vendors. In addition, with a complete, integrated, Inventory Management system you can also provide your Vendors information to help them better serve you.
The Cougar Mountain Software Solution
The bottom line—proper management of your business’ inventory starts and ends with a customizable, robust, fully-integrated software setup that outputs reports outlining the information you need to see on a daily basis.
For over 25 years Cougar Mountain Software has designed and produced solutions to help small- and medium-sized businesses better manage their inventory and improve their bottom line. Unlike software that merely interfaces, our programs are truly integrated and a change made in one aspect of the system (a sold item for example) is automatically reflected in every other facet of the system. You never have to enter the same information twice and always know your business’ numbers are up-to-the-second and accurate.
Not only do we have a myriad of tools and features that comes with each of our packages, it’s the amount of information available in our reports—and the fact that they are customizable—that has been the subject of praise from our customers since the beginning. We provide multiple report options from within the Inventory, Sales, and Purchase Order modules—and since Cougar Mountain Software is tightly integrated, business owners and managers can track details about the movement of Inventory from receiving to the sale. Two other reports, the Monthly Movement report and Snapshot report are just two more we recently created for the release of our most updated software, CMS Professional Version 12.
The Monthly Movement Report in the Inventory module provides detailed information about the movement of your Inventory items over a 12-month period. With this you can track movement in detail and identify trends in your sales, then adjust your strategy and purchasing based on this information.
We also added a Snapshot Report in each module. Where, for example, in Inventory the Snapshot report shows outlines information such as the top 10 best and top 10 worse selling items, along with other information that helps highlight big movers and identify any dramatic changes in sales. This report helps you make good business decisions that take advantage of opportunities or avoid pitfalls as patterns change.
Cougar Mountain is dedicated to helping small- and medium-sized businesses improve their bottom line by better managing inventory. If you would like more information about any of Cougar Mountain’s products, reports or features, please don’t hesitate to visit our website at www.cougarmtn.com or call (800) 388-3038.
Read “10 Ways Inventory Management Can Make or Break You” in its entirety.