
STELLAR TIMES A monthly newsletter from Orion Business & Accounting Solutions

May 2008 Edition

Sage Insights,

Odds and Ends from Orion:

It's a Boy!!! We would like to congratulate Marie and her husband on the newest edition to their family, a bouncing new baby boy!. Say congratulations to Marie, the next time you talk to her, which should be in a few weeks after she comes back from maternity leave.
Please update your calendars with our summer holiday schedule. Orion will be closed in observance of the following holidays:

Memorial Day - May 26th
Independence Day - July 4th
Labor Day - September 1st
For those on Level 4.1 and Level 4.2. Sage has been consistently releasing a new service update for 4.1 and 4.2 on a monthly/bi-monthly basis. Level 4.1 is on service update number 18 and Level 4.2 is on service update number 15 (both of these are their Microsoft Vista compliant releases). These updates are available to you as part of your Client Care subscription with Sage. If you need help installing any of the service updates or have any questions, please give us a call.

Till next month,

THIS MONTH'S FUN FACT

May is National Barbeque Month
Firing up the old grill or barbeque and cooking outside has become a great American
summer tradition.

But did you know where the word “barbeque” comes from?

The origins of barbecue are in the South and traceable to a
period long before the smiling pig became a fixture on Southern roadsides. The origin
of the term is vague,
but the most plausible theory states that the word "barbecue" is a derivative of
the West Indian term
"barbacoa", which denotes a method of slow-cooking meat over hot coals. Others claim
(somewhat implausibly) that "barbecue" actually comes from the French phrase "barbe a queue", meaning "from whiskers to tail." Proponents
of this theory point
to the whole-hog cooking
method espoused by some barbecue chefs.

Either way, pass the coleslaw and hot sauce, it’s still good eats, to me.

for more info - History of Barbeque

Update from Sage Insights 2008

Just back from the annual partner conference called Insights, with a cold and an inner ear infection (who said business travel wasn't fun).

I thought I would give you my take on the highlights this year. Also, one disclaimer, any future enhancements mentioned here might and probably will change before the next release, but so far this is what has been mentioned.

Level 4.3 will ship sometime in June. If you are interested in what will be included in this release, here's a link to the pre-release guide

Level 4.4 - the next scheduled release will include:
- modules Purchase Order, Inventory, Bill of Material and Barcode upgraded to the new business framework.
- customer field extended to 20 characters
- Inventory Item field extended to 30 characters
- Multi-Bin feature added to Inventory
- This upgrade will be a parallel upgrade -similar to the 3.7 to 4.0 upgrade

Further Out - Looking at an upgrade to the Job Cost Module, will gain more project accounting features.

Other Stuff - Over the past two years, Sage has started becoming involved with many enhancements and services for the MAS90/200 user. From Payroll Services to Credit Card Processing. These are add-on services designed to make your day to day processing easier and more accurate. Don't be surprised if you get a call (OK, 57 calls) from Sage to find out if you would like more information. Please let us know if this bothers you and we'll see what we can do. Also, if you would like more information an any of these add-on modules or services, just let us know and we'll put the information together for you and send it out from our office.

We are anticipating that Level 4.3 will be a clean release and will install and test it as soon as we get it (which is normally about a week before the general release). Once tested, we will give you our feedback on installing it and begin scheduling upgrades.

For questions or more information contact Jim Steele at 248-893-1060 or jimsteele@orionbas.com.

Spring 2008 Promotions!

MAS90 Clients on an expired Sage Software Maintenance Plan – receive a 20% savings when they renew!

Now is the time to get your Sage MAS 90 and 200 back on a Sage Software Maintenance Plan! By renewing now, most customers will be positioned to receive version 4.3*, which will include the tremendous benefit of Paperless Office, in addition to many other customer-requested enhancements. Lapsed customers* * who renew their ClientCare Plan by June 30, will receive a 20% savings off of their renewal cost (discount is applied to entire renewal amount plus late fee).
*Sage MAS 90 and 200 version 4.3 is scheduled for summer release.
**Customers must have had an expiration date of 6/30/07 or prior to qualify for this promotion.

Purchase any one offering from a Sage MAS 90 or 200 module promo pack and save 20% on any of the modules within that pack. The four available promo packs include: Manufacturing, Distribution, Services, Business Productivity.

Sage MAS 90 and 200 customers who purchase any one offering for the following module promo packs will save they buy any other modules within that pack. Customers who already own one of the modules in the promo pack automatically qualify to receive the discount on the other modules in that pack.

Manufacturing Services

1. Inventory Management
2. Bill of Materials
3. Materials Requirements Planning
4. Work Order
5. Business Alerts

Services

1. Job Cost
2. Sage TimeSheet – MAS 90 Edition
3. Business Alerts

Distribution Business Productivity

1. Inventory Management
2. Purchase Order
3. Sales Order
4. Credit Card Processing
5. Return Merchandise Authorization

Productivity

1. Accounts Payable
2. Business Alerts
3. Visual Integrator
4. Credit Card Processing

For more information contact Jim Steele at 248-893-1060 or jimsteele@orionbas.com
Promotions here are valid through June 30th, 2008.

This month's Windows Tip : Windows Explorer Font (Windows XP)

Windows Explorer and My Computer display the same font that Windows XP uses for icon titles on your desktop: Tahoma, 8 point. If you want to change the font or font size used in Windows Explorer, follow these steps:

Access the Display Properties dialog box by right-clicking the desktop and selecting the Properties command.

Select the Appearance tab and click the Advanced button.

Select Icon from the Item drop-down list.

Use the Font drop-down arrow to select a font from the list.

Click OK twice — once to close the Advanced Appearance dialog box and once to close the Display Properties dialog box.

You can see the new font by launching Windows Explorer or My Computer. If you don’t like what you see, repeat the steps and select a different font.

Orion Business & Accounting Solutions
23900 Orchard Lake Rd
Suite 170
Farmington Hills, MI 48336-2513
Phone: 248-893-1060
Fax: 248-893-1063
Email: jimsteele@orionbas.com
URL: http://www.orionbas.com

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