Last month (September 2020), Sage released version 2021 of their Sage 300cloud software. It includes the ability to accept payments through online providers, stronger default security settings, web screen improvements and other general improvements.

Send Invoices and Accept Payments Faster – You can now accept payments through two online providers, namely PayPal and Stripe.  This functionality, available to Sage 300cloud subscription customers, will allow you to add a Pay Now button to your invoices that allows your customers to click and pay using any online provider you have set up for your company in Sage 300 which at the moment is limited to the aforementioned providers.

With this functionality enabled, you download receipts for online payments by clicking Get Online Payments on the A/R Receipt Batch List screen. When you do this, receipts and bank entries are created for any online payments that have not yet been downloaded and a receipt batch is created that includes a receipt for each online payment. The receipt batch is set up to post the receipts to the Payments Acceptance Bank Account specified on the A/R Options screen.

For more information on how to connect to a provider you can visit the Accepting Payments Through Online Providers page in the Sage 300 help.

Stronger Security Defaults – When you install Sage 300 2021 new (rather than upgrading from a previous version of Sage 300), security is turned on by default. User passwords must include both letters and numbers, and be at least 8 characters long.  During initial setup, you must change the password for the Sage 300 administrator user, because the default password will not meet the password complexity requirements.

Sage 300cloud Web Screen Improvements – As we’ve written in the past, since the 2016 version release, the on-premise version (now currently the only version) of the confusingly-named “Sage 300cloud” includes the option to install web screens which allow you to access Sage 300 through a browser like a website.  They run in parallel to the classic Sage 300 desktop screens meaning that once set up, users can choose which interface best suits their needs while working on the same company data.  Sage has been increasing the web screen functionality with each new version.  Here are this version’s new features:

Font Size Adjustment – You now have a new Text Size setting that lets you change the font size on the web screens to smaller sizes than the default. Using smaller text lets you see more fields and controls without having to scroll down. You can set text size for all screens, or for individual specific screens, as follows:

Specify Bill of Materials numbers – When entering a detail for a BOM you can now specify a BOM number in the Kit/BOM field for a transaction that was created from scratch in the O/E Shipment Entry or O/E Credit/Debit Note Entry screens (that is, a shipment not created from an order, or a credit/debit note not created from an invoice).

Customize report printing to keep more web screens open. In web screens, you can have a maximum of ten screens open at a time. By default, each printed report you have open counts toward this limit of ten screens, which may prevent you from opening other web screens. You can now customize web screens so that printed reports do not count as open screens. For more information, see Sage Knowledgebase article 106233.

If you want to see these improvements on screen, watch the 5-minute video below.