Sage Upgrades/Enhancements

Sage Upgrades and Enhancements

In late December, Sage came out with version 22.3.30 for 100 Contractor. This release had the Federal tax tables and quite a few states. In late January, Sage came out with another minor release that included a few more states. The list of states that were part of the release were included with the release email they sent.

When Sage sends a release update announcement, they include highlights of things that have been changed. Not all releases need to be installed. You have some options, so here are some guidelines:

If the release has a feature you’ve been waiting for, a ‘fix’ to something that you regularly use, a report you’ve been waiting for, or a tax update that impacts your payroll, go ahead and contact your IT group to arrange the upgrade.
If it is a new major release, the first number will be higher. For instance, in 2019, we were all running version 21, then mid-year, Sage released version 22 and wanted us all to be on it in 2020 (which is why the tax tables were only released in version 22).
Sage only supports that last two major releases.

When updates are announced, we usually get a couple of panicked calls. Sage is very aggressive about getting everyone on the latest release. It’s easier for Sage to support one or two releases, rather than having to have all their support people proficient on multiple versions of the same program; completely understandable. It’s also helpful to have as many users as possible on the latest release in case there are any problems that didn’t come up in their testing; very common.

In mid-January, we had a call from a client who got the very dire-looking warning saying they had to upgrade their Sage 100 Contractor. The new warnings are large, red and black, and look very dangerous if you don’t comply. She panicked and started installing the upgrade. Unfortunately, she was installing it on her local workstation, which created some new problems that required emergency IT intervention. Don’t “Just Do It,” as the slogan goes.

If you’ve elected to install the update, there are a couple of things to keep in mind here, too:

Before you start, check the space on your server. Once installed, the upgrade takes additional space, and upgrading the datasets also requires extra space.
Plan ahead. Everyone will need to be out of the software, so a little planning will ensure everything goes smoothly for your staff.
An upgrade requires Exclusive Access, so you will not be able to be in the software during this process.
All datasets, including archives, need to be updated as well.
For those of you with local workstation/laptop installations of Sage 100 Contractor, the new release is “pushed” from the server rather than the old way of installing on each and every machine; a great time-saver, but an extra step during the upgrade process.
Some of you have a separate SQL instance with the old archives; be sure the datasets on that separate instance are also updated; all datasets/archives need to be updated.

Lastly, there is a new Product Enhancement feature. Sage indicates that this helps them learn how their user base works within the software and what modules they use. With release 22.3.30, this feature automatically opted you ‘in’ for this tracking. We noticed it because we saw a Sage “user” when we wanted Exclusive Access and traced it back to the Product Enhancement feature. It was turned on, although we did not check the box. It’s under the Home & Resources icon, then second from the bottom. You can take a look and see if you’re marked as “Opt In” and if you’d rather not participate, you can uncheck the box (which is what we did). Food for thought. – CMW