April 2023

630.850.9039 Continued pg.2 What’s New If April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring? (Pilgrims). Welcome Spring! Longer days, flowers start blooming, and we can enjoy more outdoor activities. It’s also an opportunity to put away (or throw out?) old things and do some Spring cleaning. I’m sure we all have a household list for this, but you might consider some ‘cleaning up’ of computer files, organizing your computer desktop, and wiping down the monitors. We have a fun idea about your SharePoint site, as well! Time to gear up for a busy Spring and Summer. Having your computers in tip-top shape can keep everyone smiling! Catherine Wendt All new computers ship with Windows 11, and quite a few of our clients have upgraded from Windows 10 to 11. At Syscon, all of our laptops and workstations are Windows 11 (even mine!). In addition to the stunning screen savers, there are a few differences you’ll notice; nothing drastic, but a few changes that if you’re not expecting them, might cause you some frustration. With that in mind, we’d like to share some of the changes and enhanced features. When I’m working in SharePoint, I use right-click a LOT to copy, paste, and rename files. In Windows 11, the drop down for this menu is different and you won’t see the same list of options. However, they’re all there! Across the top there are icons that represent cut, copy, rename, share, and delete. Hover over any of these and the label will appear. The OneDrive menu is now a submenu. If you don’t like this view, click ‘Show more options’ and you’ll see the ‘classic’ view. The most obvious change is the new Start Menu layout. It’s centered on the screen rather than left-justified. Windows 11—Key Differences In this Issue Windows 11…………….............1 Book Review.….……….……….2 Text Phishing Scam………...….3 Shiny New Gadget ……..……..3 Job Site Scheduling……............4 Microsoft 365 Focus...……….…5 How Did They Do It?………….6 Events Calendar ………...……..6 Syscon U April 2023 -- 1 of 6 - Syscon U 630.850.9039 Lots of ‘together’ time this month. The steak house at the Wynn was recommended and delicious; travel to CO to pay final respects to my brother; off to CA for C12. Then celebrations with music for the Easter season! Cathy & Larry Sightings Book Nook I heard Ms. Van Edwards speak at the Global Leadership Summit last Summer. Based on that presentation, I decided to order the book, and I’m glad I did. The opening chapter starts with some visual cues from a Shark Tank episode. There were cues the entrepreneur missed and cues he sent that he probably didn’t intend. Maybe it was just a bad product? Nope—it was Jamie Siminoff, the founder of Ring! Are there cues you’re missing, or cues you’re sending that are standing in your way? In another chapter under ‘How to look powerful,’ she walks through the first ever televised presidential debate between Nixon and Kennedy. The visual messages could not be missed and definitely impacted how the viewers perceived the candidates and their ability to do the job. We all use nonverbal cues, intentionally or not! We also have situations where we may want to show more or less warmth, convey competence, and combinations of both depending on the situation. Turns out we can be pretty intentional with the cues we send, and learn to be more aware of others’ cues. Sections include Nonverbal Cues and Vocal, Verbal and Imagery Cues. These are further broken down with specifics and examples. Each section ends with a recap that includes when to use specific visual cues, when not to use them, along with ‘Fun Tips.’ This book is definitely worth your time! - CMW Cues by Vanessa Van Edwards (continued from page 1) Turns out the ‘centered’ format is really nice for those who are using the ultrawide monitors. A while back it was very popular to move the task bar to the right or left margin rather than the bottom; that’s not an option any more. In Windows 10, in the lower right, you could click on some ‘widgets’ to see the temperature, some news highlights, etc.; now it’s on the far left bottom corner. I’ll often have more than one File Explorer open, maybe one for some local documents and one to our procedures folder. In Windows 11, File Explorer now has tabs, so rather than multiple windows, it’s the tab feature, similar to having browser tabs open. Although I’m looking forward to using this one, I mentioned to the techs that I didn’t like the new spacing, as if it’s 1.5 spacing. Turns out you can choose the Compact View for the old style which I find easier to read; at least there are options! One of the features the techs are excited about is the ability to organize your windows with Snap Layouts and Snap Groups. Hover at the top of your screen and you’ll see various screen groupings; drag your document into one of the groupings and add other documents to lay them out on the screen. This is very handy for those with huge monitors. Another feature the techs are loving is the ability to create and organize virtual desktops. Chris will often have a virtual desktop with specific development programs and documents, then a separate one with internal procedures and projects, and still others for client-specific projects. He can switch between them so only the documents and programs related to the current focus are visible; no more hunting around to find which screen/tab has what you need. At first this was frustrating because he didn’t see our Teams messages, then he realized he could have Teams open in each virtual desktop and never miss an interruption (this was better?)! There are some visual changes such as rounded corners; improved touchscreen and pen support; Notepad now has tabs; and more! - CMW “The distance you can go in life comes down to the amount of pain you are willing to endure to grow there.” — Darren Hardy April 2023 “Everything looks more polished. I love the new Start Menu.” - Chris “I didn’t notice much difference. Just little things like the Taskbar looks different.” - Megyn -- 2 of 6 - 630.850.9039 Syscon U Referred to as an ‘intriguing light sculpture,’ the cube contains 64 LEDs that display 4,096 colors. They boast 51 light patterns (a new one almost every week of the year!), with 10 different special effect transitions. The cube is intended for home or office and creates a tranquil mood, displaying a variety of colors and patterns. No programming is required; just plug it in and turn it on. At $139.99, it seems a little pricey. It’s 5” L x 5” W x 7” H with a clear acrylic case weighing in at 1.8 Lbs and plugs into an AC outlet. Shiny New Gadget Of The Month: Office Background Colors I logged into Office one morning and the background colors were all dark! Excel, Word, Email—all in ‘dark mode’ but I hadn’t changed anything. Turns out there’s a setting in the Office Suite that had changed (not by me, though), and it was easy for me to change it back once Chris found it for me. Choose File, then Account—there’s a line called ‘Office Theme’ and here were the options: Dark Gray, Use System, Colorful, Black, or White. I chose ‘Colorful’ so the Excel docs had a green banner, and email had the traditional blue banner. This makes it easier for me to see which window I’m moving or minimizing since these are the colors I’m familiar with. I think all our tech team members are using Dark Mode. What’s your favorite? - CMW Phishing Attempt as a Text Message This scam came as a text message to Larry’s personal cell phone. He’s been very diligent about robo calls, blocking the numbers and reporting them, but this was a text message. You may not pick up a phone call, but if you check your text messages, you can’t help but read the beginning of the message, and the bad actors know it! About three weeks earlier, Larry had replaced his broken phone. Then he received a text message with a link saying that our Verizon account was just charged $1,920 for the purchase of a new phone and the text included the exact model he chose. Right before he was ready to click the link he noticed the text originated from a gmail account with a random name and that didn’t seem like something Verizon would send. Many times we’ve warned not to click on links in email messages; now we have to extend that to text messages! Larry didn’t click this one, but it could have been something to gather personal info, install malware on the phone; who knows! The FCC says robo calls have declined, but expect text message scams to increase. Seems they’re adopting some aggressive regulations around these text scams. Mobile service providers may be required to help with these efforts. —CMW SentinelOne— Congratulations! Gartner is a well respected research publication. The Gartner 2022 Critical Capabilities for Endpoint Protection Platforms report is now available. SentinelOne earned the highest scores across the Type A, B, and C customer use cases. We don’t blame SentinelOne for shouting this news from the rooftops! We moved all our endpoint (computers) protection to SentinelOne and our techs couldn’t be happier with the results. So glad to see confirmation that this is an amazing product. We are dedicated to providing the best and most appropriate tools for our clients’ computer safety. Glad to have this one in our tool belt. - CMW Teams Phones (VoIP) If you missed our Teams Phones (Teams Voice) webinar, we would be happy to send you a link to the recording. This service can meet the core needs and has enough flexibility to keep your field, remote workers, and office connected. Give Liz a call or email CustomerSupport@syscon-inc.com and we’ll send it over right away. Great Q&A in this, as well! - CMW Tech Talk Hypnotic Light Cube April 2023 -- 3 of 6 - Syscon U 630.850.9039 Construction Corner Calling All F.I.T. Users! The core of our Field Integrated Time (F.I.T.) system is electronically collecting time through cell phones (Android and iOS), tablets, or from a browser. And yes, we have the ability to punch in and out; have a picture; geographic location confirmation; enter for yourself or for your crew; approval process; and most importantly, a one-button fully integrated move of the data to Sage 100 Contractor! But that’s only the beginning! We thought we’d share a few of the add-on modules and see if any of these might make your life easier as they’ve done for others. Here’s the first one: Job Site Scheduling Manage the Job Site schedule right through the F.I.T. system:  Assign and manage crews to jobs Daily/Weekly  Notify crews of their schedule including job details (address, map/ directions)  View a Weekly Dashboard of the entire company’s schedule  Easily view and manage manpower, make adjustments on the fly, and communicate to the field teams at the push of a button No more endless phone calls or text messages or a big whiteboard back at the office! Pay Calc Numbering Quite a few of you are adding benefits for your employees. Whether they’re Employee-paid, Employer-paid, or a combination, additional payroll calculations will need to be setup. When setting up new payroll calcs, it’s as important to consider the numbering convention as it is to get the calculation rules and rates correct. For instance, if you already offer a 401k plan and have a pre-tax employee deduction, you may want to add a ROTH option (post-tax). It would be ideal to put this new employee deduction calc near the existing 401k calculations. For many of our clients, these might be in the 90-range. When we help with the paycalc setup, we usually leave numbers in between so when new options are added, there’s room to keep them together. Similarly, you may find that you need additional garnishment or child support calcs; maybe someone has more than one child support order, or all your others are dollars/week and now you have a percent/week. Having these deductions in a specific range such as the 40’s would allow you to add a calc within the group. For those of you with unions, when adding a new union, we recommend choosing a new number range and keeping the employer calcs together, leave a little room, then the employee deductions. Again, leave room; unions are notorious for adding new categories with their own special rules! -CMW Transferring Cash Between Accounts This has been a recurring conversation for years. When you make a journal entry between two cash accounts, the record can only hold one status—Open or Cleared—which impacts both cash accounts during the bank rec process. All our procedures address how to do this successfully. An alternative has been two entries to a clearing account, but we encounter issues fairly often. Sage has come up with a Transfer Option. From the 1-2 screen choose Options, then Transfer Cash. Fill in the fields and the two records will be made for you; might be worth a try. -CMW April 2023 -- 4 of 6 - Microsoft Edge Syscon U 630.850.9039 M365 Education Station MFA Number Matching—It’s Here! Partner April 2023 After a metered roll out over several months, on February 27th Microsoft began enforcing the new two-digit code for Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). This additional step addresses a couple of things: MFA Fatigue; the ability to see the location source of the request; and accidental approvals. Most Common Microsoft 365 Licenses M365 Basic M365 Standard M365 Premium Great for email-only team members; includes basic MFA, SharePoint, Teams When that Basic user needs Office (Word, Excel, etc.) along with email, basic MFA, SharePoint, and Teams Our favorite! Everything from Standard AND Advanced MFA (yeah!), Cloud Server Access, Encrypted email, Enhanced Security Options, and Intune for amazing automation and security -- 5 of 6 - Syscon U 630.850.9039 We love this stuff! We are committed to helping businesses use technology to run their organization successfully and profitably. This monthly publication provided courtesy of Catherine Wendt, President of Syscon Inc. Proud Members Proud Partners How Did They Do It? Certified Masonry In 2004, Rich Steineke incorporated his Dad’s masonry business, taking over the company. Shortly thereafter, Rich and his father-in-law setup the accounting and project management with Sage 100 Contractor (S100C). As a union masonry company, S100C was a great fit to run payroll in house and have all the necessary reporting. Certified Masonry has had some great General Contractor relationships over the years. Projects include various schools as well as commercial buildings throughout the Chicagoland area. Rich credits his amazing foremen as the reason for the many years of success and loyalty from the GC’s. These faithful men run a tight crew with great production rates. They can take great pride in the work they’ve done over the years. Turns out, one of Rich’s foremen worked for Albert Wendt Construction many years ago, as well; quite an interesting coincidence! They’ve had some great estimators over the years, as well. With their additional project management skills, and the strong work ethic of the field, the work goes well and when problems arise, it’s all hands on deck! A number of years ago, Rich thought he needed some help in the office, so Syscon started coming in one half day a week, growing to two half days. The addition of the Syscon Waiver Generator report saved time creating partial and final waivers. When Rich was ready for full-time help, Syscon did the training and continues to assist with union audits and payroll reporting. Through his Dad’s illness, his wife’s successful fight with cancer, and his kids’ many sports, Rich has stayed active in his industry and is well known and respected by vendors and peers alike. Rich enjoys the outdoors and a great steak! CMW Read more at www.syscon-inc.com/how-did-they-do-it Rich Steineke, Owner April 2023 Are you interested in having your story featured? Let’s talk! Event: Field Time Collection the Easy Way, webinar Date: Thursday, June 8th Time: 1:00 p.m. Central Register: www.sysconinc.com/events Upcoming Events Industry Events If you’re attending any of these May events, let’s connect! C12 Currents, CO TUG Conference, AZ Sage Summit, NV Fast Facts Location: Schaumburg, IL Specialty: Masonry Affiliations: Mason Contractors Association -- 6 of 6 -