Prepared by The Resource Group

600 SW 39th Street, Suite 250 | Renton, WA 98057 | 425.277.4760 | www.resgroup.com

Sage Intacct New Features

2018 Release 1

Sage Intacct Release Date: February 9, 2018

Document Date: February 6, 2018

Page 2 of 32

Table of Contents

Accounts Payable ....................................................................................................................... 3

My Checks to Complete AP Workbench ........................................................................................... 3

Requirements ............................................................................................................................. 4

Contracts .................................................................................................................................... 5

Promote Healthy Cash Flow by Billing Before a Contract Starts (Watch Demo) .................................... 5

Eliminate the Wait – Post Revenue and Expense Recognition Offline (Watch Demo) ............................. 7

Add a Fair Value Price as a Percentage and Other MEA Calculation Enhancements (Watch Demo) .......... 9

Customization and Platform Services ....................................................................................... 10

Smart Event and Smart Rule Enhancements ................................................................................. 10

Global Consolidation ................................................................................................................ 11

Global Consolidations: Now in Beta (Watch Demos: Demo 1 – Demo 2) ........................................... 11

Inventory ................................................................................................................................. 13

Inventory Costing Improvements for Sharper Financials (Watch Demo) ........................................... 13

Link Inventory Adjustments Directly to Specific Purchases .............................................................. 22

Maintaining Updated Inventory Costs Continues to Improve ............................................................ 26

Projects .................................................................................................................................... 28

Project Enhancements ................................................................................................................ 28

Salesforce Integration ............................................................................................................. 30

Opportunity Ease-of-Use Updates (Watch Demo) ........................................................................... 30

Web Services ............................................................................................................................ 30

What’s New .............................................................................................................................. 30

More ......................................................................................................................................... 30

Additional Changes in 2018 Release 1 .......................................................................................... 30

Page 3 of 32

Accounts Payable

My Checks to Complete AP Workbench

We’ve enhanced AP Workbench yet again. Eliminate errors caused by two people printing the same check

at the same time and improve organization in your Accounts Payable workflow with a personalized view of

printable checks. The My Checks view in the Print Checks page displays a list of only the checks for which

you've processed payment requests.

You can access our new My Checks feature only when you work in Sage Intacct Action.

What's new?

For users working in the Sage Intacct Action user interface, from the Pay bill outbox, you can click on

Print check and you'll go straight to the Print Checks page, where you'll see only the checks which you've

created a payment request for.

Users in our old interface can also filter the Print checks page to view My Checks.

Page 4 of 32

Details

On the Print Checks page, the default check view is My Checks. You'll see only the checks you selected to

print on the Pay Bills page.

Someone out of office? No worries. Any user can view the checks of other payers in the drop-down. A

payer's name will appear in the drop-down if they have selected bills to pay. Their name will disappear

from the list after all their checks have been printed and confirmed. You can also select the All option to

see all checks available to print.

We've also taken this opportunity to rearrange the existing filter options on this screen. Just click the

More filters... link in the Filters section to view the rest of the available filters.

Requirements

Use the following checklist to review the basic requirements for using My Checks in your organization:

Requirement Description

Subscription Requires Accounts Payable

Permissions Requires Run Print Checks

Dependencies or other

requirements

Available in both Sage Intacct Action user interface and Intacct 2012

user interface.

Page 5 of 32

Contracts

Promote Healthy Cash Flow by Billing Before a Contract Starts (Watch Demo)

Billing schedules are the foundation of your cash flow. The earlier you get your cash, the earlier you can

reinvest the cash in your company to boost growth. Early billing can also potentially avoid delays in

delivering your products or services due to misunderstandings, as the customer can review the contract or

renewal terms before the contract starts.

Sage Intacct's new bill in advance feature enables you to automatically create billing schedules that start

before a contract or renewal starts. You can then generate, print, and send out the invoices as per your

company's billing procedures. You can control the bill in advance period for each contract, and set default

bill in advance periods for each customer.

Here's how it works

1. Create a new contract and set the Bill in advance length and period. This is the default number of

days or months before each contract line's start date that you want to start the billing schedule.

2. Add a contract line to the contract.

3. Open the contract line's billing schedule. The billing schedule start date is automatically set to the

contract line start date minus the bill in advance period. In this example, the billing schedule start

date is set to one month before the contract line start date.

Page 6 of 32

Details

Please note the following about using billing in advance:

General

• There is no limit to the number of days or months in advance that you can choose to bill.

• The billing schedule start dates for all contract lines in a contract that has advance billing

parameters defined will default to the applicable advanced billing period. For example, say the

contract start date is January 1 and billing in advance period is one month. You add a contract line

with a contract line start date of March 1. That contract line's billing schedule will default to start

February 1. You can edit the billing schedules as applicable.

• Unbilled AR and Unbilled deferred revenue ("booking revenue") will always post on the contract line

start date minus the bill in advance period, regardless of the billing schedule start date.

• The "Include with every invoice" Flat/Fixed amount frequency option is not supported when the bill

in advance period = "Days." If you need to use "Days" but you want to bill the contract line more

than once during the contract term, you will need to set the contract line's Flat/Fixed amount

frequency to "Use billing template."

• Although you can edit a contract line's billing schedule dates for a bill in advance schedule, you

cannot change the billing schedule start date to a date prior to the default billing start date.

Page 7 of 32

Renewals

• The child renewal contract will inherit the source contract's bill in advance parameters, and all

contract lines will default to start their billing schedules on the contract line start date minus the

bill in advance period. You can edit the child contract and change the bill in advance settings

and/or contract line billing schedule dates, as desired.

• The child renewal contract will be renewed on the date specified in the selected renewal template.

Depending on a combination of the renewal template configuration and the bill in advance period,

this may result in scenarios where the billing schedule start date will have passed before the

renewal is created and/or associated renewal notifications are sent. To avoid this situation, make

sure that the renewal template selected on the contract is defined to create the renewal contract

and send any associated notifications on or before the first bill in advance period.

• If you add a contract line to a source bill in advance contract after it is renewed, the contract line

will automatically be added to the child contract. This "link" is only applicable when you add a new

contract line. Edits to existing contract lines in the source contract will not be propagated to the

child contract.

Requirements

Use the following checklist to review the basic requirements for using bill in advance in your organization:

Requirement Description

Subscription Contracts Core Billing OR

Contracts Usage Billing

Permissions List, View, Add, Edit, Delete Contracts

Implementation (Optional) Edit customer records to define default bill in advance parameters.

Restrictions Flat/Fixed amount frequency = "Include with every invoice" is not supported when the

bill-in-advance period uses "Days".

Web Services New parameters for the Customer and Contract objects:

• ADV_BILL_BY — integer

• ADV_BILL_BY_TYPE — string, valid values = days or months

CSV Import New fields for Customer and Contract import templates:

• ADV_BILL_BY — number

• ADV_BILL_BY_TYPE — string, valid values = days or months

Eliminate the Wait – Post Revenue and Expense Recognition Offline (Watch Demo)

When you post many revenue and/or expense recognition entries online, Sage Intacct sometimes takes a

while to process the request. This ties up your screen by requiring you to wait until the process completes

Page 8 of 32

before you can continue working with Sage Intacct. In this release, we've added the ability to post

revenue and/or expense recognition offline. When the process completes, Sage Intacct sends a

notification email to the user who initiated the request.

BONUS! To better allow you to narrow the focus of the revenue and/or expense schedules that you want

to post, we've added several Dimension/Dimension Group filters. Get twice the bang for your buck with

these dual-purpose filters as you can either enter a single Dimension or a Dimension Group in these fields.

For example, enter either an individual item or an item Dimension Group in the Item/Group field.

Details

Note the following expected behavior regarding revenue and/or expense posting:

• If you submit an online post of 1,000 or more schedule entries, Sage Intacct automatically

converts the process to an offline process. A message will appear at the top of the Manage

Revenue and Expense Recognition page and you will receive an email notification when the

offline job is completed.

• If an error occurs during the posting process either offline or online, Sage Intacct will skip the

contract with the error and continue the posting process for other selected contract schedules. It

will then provide error details at the top of the Manage Revenue and Expense Recognition

page for online posts, or in an email for offline posts. Previously, Sage Intacct stopped the post

process immediately after encountering the first error.

Page 9 of 32

Requirements

Requirement Description

Subscriptions • Contract Standard Revenue Recognition OR

• Contract Advanced Revenue Recognition

• Contract Expense Recognition

Permissions List, View, Add, Edit, Delete Contracts

Web Services Behavior change when posting multiple revenue and/or expense schedule entries:

Previously, when the system encountered an error during post, the process would

terminate and it would not post any of the requested scheduled entries. It will now skip

contracts with scheduled entries with errors and post all other scheduled entries.

Add a Fair Value Price as a Percentage and Other MEA Calculation Enhancements (Watch

Demo)

In our ongoing quest to provide you with the best possible MEA accounting experience, we've added the

ability to determine a fair value price for an item based on a percentage of other items, improved the fair

value price normalization against the contract line flat/fixed amount, and added calculation detail fields to

the allocation table.

Determine an item's standalone selling price based on a percentage of other items

Sage Intacct can now determine an item's estimated standalone selling price based on a percentage of the

sum of the value(s) of specific performance obligations in a given MEA. You can also choose whether to

use the fair value price or contract line price as a basis for the percentage.

Here's how it works

For example, say your company usually sells anti-virus software and maintenance as a package and you

don't have a standalone selling price for the maintenance. You estimate that the fair value price of the

maintenance is 10% of the anti-virus software's fair value price. You want to price the maintenance item

as a percentage of anti-virus software items and let Sage Intacct allocate the transaction revenue as

applicable when the maintenance is included in an MEA that also includes the anti-virus software.

To set up MEA pricing as a percentage:

1. Define the fair value categories that best suit your business.

Sage Intacct uses fair value categories to distinguish products or services included in an MEA that

will be used in the algorithm that determines another item's estimated standalone selling price. You

can create as many fair value categories as desired. In our example, we would create a fair value

category called "Software."

2. Assign the fair value categories to all applicable items.

Page 10 of 32

In our example, we would edit the Item Information page for the anti-virus software item and

select Software as the Contract fair value category.

3. Add price list entries for the applicable items to your MEA price list(s).

In our example, we would add the anti-virus software priced as an amount or price range, and the

maintenance item with a price based on a percentage of the Software fair value category.

Calculation of extended fair value incorporates number of "Include with every invoice" periods

Sage Intacct will now normalize the extended fair value for a contract line by multiplying the fair value

price by the number of "Include with every invoice" periods contained within the contract line start and

end dates. Prior to this release, the system did not use the number of "Include with every invoice" periods

to calculate the extended fair value.

New fields in MEA allocation detail

We've added new fields to the Allocation table in the Contract MEA Bundle page to help you better

understand the elements involved in the revenue allocation.

Requirements

Use the following checklist to review the basic requirements for using the new Fair Value Price feature in

your organization:

Requirement Description

Subscription Contract Advanced Revenue Management

Permissions List, View, Add, Edit, Delete Contracts

Customization and Platform Services

Smart Event and Smart Rule Enhancements

We've enhanced Smart Events and Smart Rules to give you more flexibility.

New operators for Smart Events and Smart Rules

You can now use two new logical operators in your Smart Events and Smart Rules. These operators let

you test whether an expression matches (or does not match) any value from a list of values.

• IN — Shorthand for multiple OR conditions. Allows multiple values or conditions.

Page 11 of 32

• NOTIN — Allows the exclusion of multiple values or conditions.

For example, you could write a condition that checks whether the currency for an AP Bill is specified in

USD or INR:

IN({!APBILL.CURRENCY!},['USD','INR'])

Increased allowed characters for API calls in Smart Events

When using Smart Event API calls, you can now provide as many as 5000 characters when composing

your call. Previously, only 500 characters were allowed.

Global Consolidation

Global Consolidations: Now in Beta (Watch Demos: Demo 1 – Demo 2)

Global Consolidations is available in Beta in our Action UI. We added brand-new features to make using

Global Consolidations easier than ever. The Action UI provides a cleaner, more streamlined way to set up

and run consolidations.

You might have already noticed that in some browsers, Global Consolidations doesn't appear the way it

should. Moving to the Action UI fixes those issues.

For this and other reasons, we'll be end-of-lifing the current version of Sage Intacct Global Consolidations

later in the year.

Using the new Global Consolidations Beta is the way to go.

You can access the Global Consolidations Beta only when you work in Sage Intacct Action.

What's new?

• For multi-currency companies and organizations that perform global consolidations, the first thing

you'll notice is that Global Consolidations now has the same look and feel as other Sage Intacct

applications.

Page 12 of 32

• We've added the ability to duplicate a consolidation book with the click of the Duplicate button.

Just give the book a new name, and you're ready to go.

• Setting up multiple override accounts is much easier to use, with a new bulk override page. Select

the accounts and click Change rate table for selected accounts. Select the type, table, and

optional end date, click OK, and all the selected accounts are changed at once.

• Online help has been incorporated onscreen, making it easier and faster to get help.

Details

This release of Global Consolidations enables adding, editing, and deleting consolidation books as well as

running consolidations.

This version is completely compatible with all supported browsers, and runs faster than the existing

version. You can set up, edit, and delete books, run consolidations, and get information about past

consolidations. All the consolidation reports are available from the left nav menu, easily accessible. Moving

around in the Global Consolidations application will seem familiar and comfortable.

However, there's no Organization chart (Corporation view) yet. The org chart will be included in an

upcoming release.

Ready to go

To access Intacct Global Consolidations in the Action UI, all you need to do is to turn on the Action UI Beta

from the top of the page.

Page 13 of 32

After the Beta is enabled, click Global Consolidations from the main menu.

We encourage you to start using this improved version as soon as possible. However, if you aren't ready

to use the Action UI just yet, you can turn it off at any time to return to the existing Sage Intacct Global

Consolidations. You'll still be able to run consolidations and add consolidation books, but editing and

deleting them won't be supported.

Requirements

Use the following checklist to review the basic requirements for using the new Global Consolidations in

your organization:

Requirement Description

Subscription Multi-entity console, Global Consolidations

Permissions • General Ledger, Multi-entity, Global Consolidations: List, View,

Add, Edit, Delete

• Business user

Dependencies or other

requirements

• Multi-currency must be enabled

• Beta for the Action UI must be enabled

Migration No special action is needed

Inventory

Inventory Costing Improvements for Sharper Financials (Watch Demo)

We've made several costing improvements to increase the accuracy of your inventory valuation and

COGS. With better financials, you can manage and increase the profitability of your operations more

effectively.

The following table summarizes where we've changed costing behavior and which cost methods are

affected. Use the links to learn about each change and the actions you might need to take, if any, to take

full advantage. The improvements include logic changes for setting up costing layers and calculating the

COGS to post.

Application Costing improvement Average FIFO/LIFO Standard

Purchasing

Quantity and value effects split across transactions x x x

Quantity and value effects split across transactions

with partial conversion x x x

Standalone value-only transactions (not converted) x x x

Apportioned costs x x

Page 14 of 32

Application Costing improvement Average FIFO/LIFO Standard

Order Entry Last purchase cost for negative inventory x x

Standalone returns (not converted) x x x

Zero-value COGS journal entries x x x

Backdated transactions x

COGS validation in transactions x x x

Inventory

Control

Stockable kits - component items x (FIFO)

Stockable kits - non-inventory items x (FIFO)

Value-only inventory adjustments x x x

Purchasing

Order Entry

Inventory

Control

Decimal precision and rounding x x x

Transaction definitions - validation of inventory totals

effect x x x

Best practice: Regardless of your environment and SCM workflows, perform inventory valuation

maintenance on a regular basis, which ensures inventory costs are updated to reflect transactions being

entered in transaction-date order.

Quantity and value effects split across transactions

Some organizations set up their Purchasing workflows such that one transaction has an ONHAND quantity-

only effect and another transaction has a value-only effect. For example, consider the following workflow

where the transactions are converted in the following order and the transaction definitions increase the

ONHAND quantity on the Receiver and the ONHAND value on the Vendor Invoice:

Before, separate cost layers were created for the quantity-only transaction (Receiver) and the value-only

transaction (Vendor Invoice). Independent cost layers for quantity and value required that transactions

needed to be kept synchronized and processed in the correct sequence to prevent accounting errors.

Page 15 of 32

Now, we use a single cost layer to link the value directly back to the quantity. When the Receiver is

posted, we create a cost layer with the quantity and a zero value. (Remember, for standard cost items,

the purchase value is calculated from the cost of the item per warehouse—just as it’s always been.)

The date on the cost layer stays as the date of the Receiver and is the effective cost date when an order

entry transaction is posted.

What you need to do

In the past, keeping the ONHAND quantity and value effects on the same transaction, typically the Vendor

Invoice, was the preferred best practice to avoid the possible costing errors caused by splitting quantity

and value effects. The cost layer changes now make splitting quantity and value across transactions a

valid option.

Review your setup and use workflows that properly reflect your processes and generally accepted

accounting principles. For example, if your vendor invoices arrive well after you receive goods into

inventory, you might want to split the quantity and value effects across those transactions. If you almost

always receive the goods and the vendor invoice together, you might want to put the quantity and value

effect together on the vendor invoice.

Quantity and value effects split across transactions with partial conversion

Where Purchasing workflows are set up such that one transaction has an ONHAND quantity-only effect

and another transaction has a value-only effect, the configuration might allow for the quantity-only

transaction to be partially converted several times into multiple value-only transactions.

For example, you might receive 50 widgets and partially convert the quantity into two Vendor Invoices:

Before, separate cost layers were created for the quantity-only transaction (Receiver) and for each value-

only transaction (Vendor Invoice). In addition, only the converted units were available for sale as ONHAND

quantity.

Now, we create cost layers that keep the value of each Vendor Invoice directly linked to its associated

quantities. When the Receiver is posted, we create a cost layer with the quantity and a zero value. For the

first partial Vendor Invoice, we update that cost layer with the purchase value and set the quantity to the

number of converted units. Then, we create a new zero cost layer for the unconverted quantity and follow

that logic for each successive partial Vendor Invoice.

For example, assume you receive 50 widgets and partially convert 40 to a Vendor Invoice on Monday and

then 10 to a Vendor Invoice on Friday. You end up with two cost layers that link the value on each partial

Vendor Invoice linked back to the associated quantities:

Page 16 of 32

• On the Receiver, we create a cost layer with a quantity of 50 and a zero value.

• On the partial Vendor Invoice for 40 widgets, we change the quantity in the cost layer to 40 and

update the value. Then, we create a new cost layer for the unconverted widgets with a quantity of

10 and a zero value.

• On the partial Vendor Invoice for 10 widgets, we update the value in the second cost layer.

Just like for full conversion:

• For standard cost items, the purchase value is calculated from the cost of the item per warehouse.

• The date on each cost layer stays as the date of the Receiver and is the effective cost date when an

order entry transaction is posted.

What you need to do

Be aware that all units are available for sale. The COGS amount for any units that haven’t been converted

to a Vendor Invoice is:

• For average, FIFO, and LIFO cost items, the last purchasing cost previously recorded.

• For standard cost items, the effective standard cost per item per warehouse

Standalone value-only transactions in Purchasing

Some organizations might have a Purchasing workflow where an ONHAND value-only transaction, such as

a Vendor Invoice, is not converted from a related transaction and is created as a new transaction:

Before, a value-only purchasing transaction never affected the ONHAND quantity. Now, when you create

such a transaction as new and don’t convert it from another purchasing transaction, we use the quantity

to calculate costs and to increase the ONHAND quantity. Essentially, we treat the transaction as if its

transaction definition had been defined as an ONHAND Quantity & Value increase.

What you need to do

If you have related quantity-only transactions, you create the possibility of having the ONHAND quantity

counted twice. To avoid double counting, change your workflow so that value-only transactions must be

converted from quantity-only transactions (edit the transaction definition associated with the value-only

transaction and in the Create policy drop-down on the Security configuration tab, select Convert only).

Apportioned costs in Purchasing

Your organization might apportion subtotals across all the lines in a purchasing transaction. Before, the

Inventory Valuation report didn’t include the apportioned amounts, which meant the COGS posted for a

sale excluded the apportioned subtotals.

Page 17 of 32

For example, assume you purchased 50 widgets for $100 with $20 of the subtotals being apportioned for

that line in the purchase transaction. Later, you sold the 50 widgets for $300.

• On the purchase, we debited inventory for $120 ($100 extended total + $20 apportioned subtotal)

but used $100 as the valuation.

• On the sale, we credited inventory and debited COGS for only $100, perhaps leaving you spending

time tying out the $20 difference in inventory between the general ledger and valuation.

Now, use apportioned subtotals knowing that the general ledger and valuation will tie out. We changed

the Inventory Valuation report to include the apportioned subtotals amounts, ensuring the posted COGS

includes both the extended total and apportioned subtotal amount per purchase line.

The above example now works like this, leaving the general ledger and valuation balanced:

• On the purchase, we debit inventory for $120 and use $120 as the valuation.

• On the sale, we credit inventory and debit COGS for $120.

Last purchase cost for negative inventory and more

When a sale is posted and the quantity on hand is zero or negative, a current cost value for average,

FIFO, and LIFO items doesn’t exist. In the past, we’ve recommended configuring Inventory Control to turn

off negative inventory to maintain reliable COGS journal entries.

Now, you can allow negative inventory and capitalize on more sales opportunities with the changes we’ve

made to use the last purchase cost previously recorded to calculate the COGS amount.

Specifically, here’s how the use of the last purchase cost has evolved and in which situations:

• In the last release (2017 R4), we introduced the use of the last purchase cost previously recorded

when you recalculated inventory costs and the quantity on hand was zero or negative.

• With this release, we now use the last purchase cost previously recorded when the sale is initially

posted and the quantity on hand is zero or negative.

In addition, we also use the last purchase cost when the ONHAND quantity and value effects are

split across purchasing transactions and the units on the Receiver are sold but have yet to be

converted to a Vendor Invoice, meaning the cost layer is yet to be updated with the value.

In the rare situation where the very first transaction for an inventory item is a sale and not a purchase, a

last purchase cost doesn’t exist and the COGS would be zero. However, when Inventory Control was

implemented, an inventory adjustment that affects quantity and value was most likely used to set up a

beginning balance for the item, which then acts as the last cost.

What you need to do

Consider allowing negative inventory.

Page 18 of 32

Standalone returns in Order Entry

Some organizations might have an Order Entry workflow where returns are not converted from a sale and

are created as new transactions:

Before, the COGS and the valuation of the inventory subledger did not reflect these returns correctly

because costs from the date the items were sold are unknown. Now, when you create a new return and

don’t convert it from a sale, we use the current costs to post the COGS and inventory subledger valuation,

just as if a new sale was made that day. The item costs are based on the cost method, using the date of

the return:

• Average. We calculate the average cost as of the date of the return.

• FIFO/LIFO. We calculate the cost across multiple cost layers.

• Standard. We use the standard cost entered for each item and warehouse combination.

Creating returns without converting them from a source transaction is particularly helpful in high-volume

environments where you don’t know the source transactions or in a Salesforce integration where you can’t

specify a source transaction.

Zero-value COGS journal entries

Before, when a COGS amount wasn’t found, we didn’t post any journal entry. Now, we create a zero-value

COGS journal entry (Debit = 0.00; Credit = 0.00).

Having a zero-value journal entry makes diagnosing configuration issues easier. For example, if you want

COGS posted on your Sales Invoice, you can check the journal entries. If you don’t see a COGS journal

entry, you can investigate and correct your configuration and Order Entry transaction definitions. If you

see a zero-value journal entry, you can determine if it should really be zero.

Backdated transactions for average cost items in Order Entry

Previously, when a sales transaction that value (Value-only or Quantity & Value) was backdated, we used

the average cost from the Item header for inventoried items. Now, we’ve hidden the Average cost field

in the Item header and retrieve the Average cost per item per warehouse to calculate the COGS and

update the inventory valuation.

For example, for a backdated Sales Invoice to sell 50 widgets, the Average cost per warehouse is

retrieved:

Page 19 of 32

What you need to do

Don’t use the average cost from the header in custom reports. Edit any existing reports to remove its use.

COGS validation in Order Entry transactions

We’re continuing our mission to bring posting under control for Order Entry transactions. In the last

release, we introduced a validation to Order Entry transaction definitions so that if you define the

transaction definition to affect ONHAND Value or Quantity & Value, you must add at least one debit/credit

account pair to the COGS account mapping table to save the transaction definition.

In this release, we’ve introduced a new validation for saving Order Entry transactions. You won’t be able

to save transactions that affect inventory value if they contain Inventory or Stockable Kit items and the

associated transaction definition doesn’t have an applicable entry in the COGS account mapping table.

What you need to do

Continue to ensure that existing and new Order Entry transaction definitions that affect ONHAND Value or

Quantity & Value include the required account mapping in the COGS account mapping table for all

applicable item GL groups.

Stockable kits - component items

Now, build and sell stockable kits with the confidence that the general ledger more accurately reflects your

inventory by Item ID and your COGS, particularly if you track COGS for the sales of component items

separately from stockable kits.

When you build a kit, you take the component items out of inventory and put the stockable kit into

inventory. Using a custom bicycle shop as an example, you might take wheels, peddles, and frames out of

inventory to assemble a bike—the finished good—that is put into inventory.

During the process to build the kit, we now create a journal entry that debits the GL account of the Item

ID of the stockable kit and credits the GL accounts of all the Item IDs of the components. Thus, the GL

accounts of the component items and the stockable kit are properly decreased and increased.

Similarly, the journal entry for disassembling a kit is simply the reverse of building it. We now create a

journal entry that debits the GL accounts of all the Item IDs of item components and credits the GL

account of the Item ID of the stockable kit.

Page 20 of 32

With these journal entry changes, inventory reports that are run by the Item dimension provide correct

results for kits that are built and disassembled starting with this release.

What you need to do

In the past, you might have tried using different inventory accounts for your component items and your

stockable kits for the COGS mapping in the Build Kits transaction definition. With this change, you can use

the same inventory account, if that suits your needs better, and remove any other workarounds you might

have used in the transaction definition and elsewhere.

Also, with the debits and credits using different Item IDs, you won’t be able to balance the general ledger

by Item ID. So, on the General Ledger Setup page, ensure the checkbox to Enforce JE balancing is

cleared.

Stockable kits - non-inventory items

Stockable kits can include non-inventory items, which are often used to account for the labor costs to

build or disassemble kits.

Previously, when kits were built or dissembled, we posted general ledger entries for the non-inventory

items to include their costs in the stockable kit costs. Now, we don’t post and exclude their costs when

you build or disassemble kits.

What you need to do

To add labor costs for assembling a stockable kit, create a value-only inventory adjustment for the

stockable kit. Stockable kits use the FIFO cost method, and starting with this release, you can create

value-only adjustments for FIFO items. Learn more about linked value-only adjustments.

Value-only inventory adjustments - Quantity and Cost

When you create a value-only inventory adjustment transaction, you need to enter a value for the

Quantity and Cost fields. However, the amount in the Extended cost field is the only field that matters

in the cost calculations for the adjustment.

For example, for an average cost item, the value in the Extended cost field is added to the total value,

which is then divided by the current quantity on hand to calculate the current average unit cost.

(Previously, the amount in the quantity field had been added to the current quantity on hand for

calculation of the average unit cost.)

Page 21 of 32

So, to increase the value of an item by $200, you can use either of the following entries in the inventory

adjustment transaction or any other quantity and cost combination that results in a total amount of $200:

Decimal precision and rounding

You want your COGS to be precise and so do we. To get the most exact values possible, we’ve made the

following changes:

• We now use full precision of 10 decimal places in all cost calculations and then round the costs to

two decimal places for posting instead of rounding to two decimal places before doing the cost

calculations.

For example, you sold 20 widgets and the quantity came from more than one purchase transaction.

The COGS for the sale needs to be calculated from one or more cost layers. Regardless of the

precision defined on the Configure Purchasing page, we round the purchase cost layers to 10

decimal places, aggregate the layers to retrieve the total cost, then round that value to two

decimal places for the COGS journal entry.

• We now also use full precision of 10 decimal places instead of 4 for base unit conversions. Quantity

and costing for an item are tracked in the item’s base unit. If you buy or sell an item in one of the

related units of the unit of measure group, the quantity needs to be converted into the base unit.

Increasing the precision for converting the quantity to the base unit reduces the possibility of

ending up with a zero quantity, especially when the related units are very small fractions of the

base unit.

For example, if you buy 50 megabytes of an item and the base unit of the item is terabytes, the

quantity is converted to 0.0000476840 terabytes.

• We removed the Default decimal places field from the Inventory Configuration page because the

default will always be 10 decimal places for all inventory transactions.

Page 22 of 32

Transaction definitions - validation of inventory totals effect

Purchasing and Order Entry workflows are commonly set up to convert from one transaction to another:

To reduce errors in workflow configuration, we now validate the inventory effect defined for a transaction

against its predecessor transaction. When you create or change the transaction definitions for converted

transactions, they can’t specify the same inventory effect.

For example, in the Purchasing workflow, if the transaction definition for the Receiver increases ONHAND

Quantity, we’ll prevent you from defining the transaction definition for the Vendor Invoice to increase

ONHAND Quantity or ONHAND Quantity & Value.

Link Inventory Adjustments Directly to Specific Purchases

Have you ever paid for items and then discovered you need to adjust the quantity, value, or both? Now,

when you create an inventory adjustment, you can specify the exact purchasing or inventory transaction

to link the adjustment to. Linking provides:

• More accurate costing results for FIFO and LIFO items—in fact, you must now link value-only

inventory adjustments for FIFO and LIFO

• A better audit trail for all cost methods—easily see the adjustments to your purchasing or inventory

transactions

Value-only inventory adjustments for FIFO and LIFO

Previously, when you created a value-only inventory adjustment transaction for FIFO/LIFO items, the

change in value couldn’t be tied back to an existing FIFO/LIFO cost layer. Instead, a new cost layer was

created with a quantity of zero, leaving the valuation of the items and COGS understated.

Now, you must select a purchasing or inventory control transaction to link the value-only adjustment to.

We adjust the existing cost layer for the linked transaction with the change in value, which maintains the

integrity of the underlying accounting.

Example: Assume you purchased 500 computer monitors—300 units of Monitor-T1 and 200 of Monitor-

T2. The value of the monitors has declined because of the availability of newer models. You want to write

down their purchase value:

Page 23 of 32

1. Determine the total value by which the monitors have decreased. Say $5,000 for Monitor-T1 and

$3,000 for Monitor-T2.

2. Go to Inventory Control > All > Activities and click the + sign beside the appropriate value-

only inventory adjustment transaction.

3. Use the Link to existing transaction to adjust drop-down menu to select the purchasing

transaction for the monitors. Only purchasing and inventory control transactions with a Value-only

or Quantity & Value inventory effect are listed.

The Transaction date defaults to the date of the selected transaction, and the line items in the

Entries table are populated with inventory items from the line items in the selected purchasing

transaction. The Quantity field defaults to 1 and the Cost field defaults to 0.

Page 24 of 32

4. Change the cost to 5,000 for Monitor-T1 and to 3,000 for Monitor-T2. The Extended cost field is

automatically updated.

5. Click Post.

6. Run inventory valuation maintenance to re-sequence transactions in transaction-date order. The

costs need to be updated so subsequent COGS journal entries are accurate. Ask your system

administrator for assistance. Ideally, your organization has scheduled inventory maintenance to

run on a regular basis so you don't have to run maintenance manually. Learn more about running

inventory valuation maintenance.

If you want the inventory adjustment to create a new cost layer and not update an existing FIFO or LIFO

cost layer:

• Change the transaction definition for the inventory adjustment to affect Quantity & Value, and

• Don’t link the inventory adjustment to a source transaction

An audit trail

Linking your inventory adjustments enables you to not only explicitly select the source transaction to

update but also see an audit trail. From the History tab of the source transaction, such as a vendor invoice

for a purchase, you can see and drill down into the adjustments made to the items in the transaction.

Remember, while you need to link value-only adjustments for FIFO/LIFO items, you can link any inventory

adjustment to a source transaction.

Summary of costing logic

The following table summarizes the costing logic used when you link an inventory adjustment back to a

source transaction. Except for value-only adjustments for standard cost items, we update the cost layer

for the source transaction you select. If you don't link, we automatically select the cost layer for you. For

value-only adjustments for standard-cost items whether you link or not, we create a journal entry (no

subledger effect).

Inventory effect Cost method Costing logic

Quantity & Value FIFO or LIFO Update cost layer for linked transaction with adjustment amounts.

Page 25 of 32

Average Update the cost layer for linked transaction with the adjustments

amounts. The average cost changes (Total valuation / Total quantity).

Standard Update the cost layer for linked transaction with the quantity. The total

valuation changes (Total quantity * Standard cost).

Value-only FIFO or LIFO Update the value in cost layer for linked transaction.

Average Update the value in cost layer for linked transaction. Because the total

valuation changes and the total quantity remains the same, the average

item unit cost changes (Total valuation / Total quantity).

Standard Create a journal entry (no subledger effect).

Quantity-only FIFO or LIFO Update the quantity in cost layer for linked transaction.

Average Update the quantity in cost layer for linked transaction. Because the total

valuation remains the same and the total quantity changes, the average

item unit cost changes (Total valuation / Total quantity).

Standard Update the quantity in cost layer for linked transaction. The total

valuation changes (Total quantity * Standard cost).

Requirements

Use the following checklist to review the basic requirements for linking inventory adjustment transactions

in your organization:

Requirement Description

Subscription Requires Inventory Control

Permissions Requires:

• Admin user privileges

• List, Add, Edit, View, and Delete Inventory Transactions

Dependencies or other

requirements

• Value-only inventory adjustments for FIFO and LIFO must be linked to a

source transaction.

• Source transactions can be Purchasing transactions or Inventory Control

transactions that aren’t transfer outs or adjustments linked to other

transactions.

• Source transactions must have a Value-only or Quantity & Value

inventory effect.

Page 26 of 32

Web Services The Web Services API support for inventory adjustment transactions requires

your company to be subscribed to Web Services.

Other Multiple inventory adjustment transactions can be linked to the same source

transaction.

Maintaining Updated Inventory Costs Continues to Improve

A few releases ago, we introduced functionality to recalculate and update inventory costs based on your

existing transactions being processed in transaction-date order. We’re continuing to make enhancements

to improve usability and increase the accuracy of the updated costs.

What's new?

Specifically, here’s what we’ve changed:

• Renamed the functionality in the menus and on product pages from Recalculate Inventory Costs

to Maintain Inventory Valuation. We want to reinforce that keeping your inventory costs

updated, based on transactions being processed in transaction-date order, should be part of your

organization’s normal processing.

• Added an Inventory start date field on the Configure Inventory Control page. This field controls

the date from which we start processing existing transactions in transaction-date order to

recalculate costs for both the Analyze and Update options. Previously, we started with the very

first transaction in your system.

If your organization was already live on Sage Intacct before implementing Inventory Control, set

this date so that only the transactions that were created after you started using Inventory Control

are processed, which improves the accuracy of the recalculated costs.

• Redesigned the Maintain Inventory Valuation page (previously called the Recalculate Inventory

Control page) to improve ease of use and add more functionality when updating costs:

o Moved the controls for selecting whether to analyze or update costs from buttons at the top

of the page to radio buttons in the Maintenance section.

o Expanded the options for updating costs. While you’ll typically want to update all the costs

(internal cost tracking tables, Inventory Control subledger, and general ledger), you can

now skip posting to the general ledger. Not posting allows you to clean up your subledger

reports without changing the general ledger. But remember, this will leave your inventory

valuation and general ledger out of balance, requiring adjusting journal entries.

o Renamed the Update from date field to As of.

Page 27 of 32

Best practice

Use an approach like the following to keep your inventory costs in good shape:

1. On the Configure Inventory Control page, enter the date your organization started using Inventory

Control in the Inventory start date field.

2. Assess and resolve the costing issues in your historical data, using the following steps:

a. Analyze the costs and review the results in the system-generated CSV files, which highlight

where the recalculated costs differ from the originally recorded costs.

b. Make any necessary adjustments for the issues you found in the results of the analysis,

such as changing misconfigured transaction definitions, and analyze the costs again.

c. Keep analyzing and making adjustments until you're ready to update the costs.

d. Update the costs to fix any costs where the recalculated costs differ from the originally

recorded costs and review the results in the system-generated CSV files to ensure the costs

were updated the way you anticipated.

3. After you've brought your historical costs up to date, schedule the costs to be updated on a regular

basis, such as every day or at the end of each fiscal period.

Requirements

Use the following table to review the basic requirements for maintaining the accuracy of your inventory

costs:

Page 28 of 32

Requirement Description

Subscription Requires Inventory Control

Permissions Requires:

• Admin user privileges

• List, Add, Edit, View, and Delete transaction definitions if workflow problems

are found in Order Entry, Purchasing, or Inventory Control

Dependencies or

other requirements

Costs can only be updated in open periods.

Tips • The Analyze option does not change any data. Costs are simply recalculated

starting from the Inventory start date on the Configure Inventory Control

page. Use the results of analyzing the costs to determine the effect of

updating them.

• The Update option changes the costs. Existing costs that differ from the

recalculated costs are updated for transactions that occurred on or after the

As of date, using the values that are recalculated starting from the

Inventory start date. (See the next row for details on which costs are

updated.)

• Fix the costs in your historical data. Then, schedule the costs to be updated

on a regular basis to maintain the health of your inventory costs.

Other When you use the Update option, the costs are updated as follows:

• Inventory valuation. We change our internal cost tracking with the

recalculated costs.

• Current item costs. We change our internal cost tracking with the

recalculated costs.

• COGS in transactions. We change the Inventory Control subledger and

update the COGS journal entries. You have the option of not posting the

COGS to the general ledger, which will leave the inventory valuation and GL

out of balance.

Projects

Project Enhancements

What's new?

More Project enhancements, coming your way! We've got two enhancements to improve usability, project

management, and data entry control.

Page 29 of 32

Details

Control timesheet entry dates falling outside of open periods

Eliminate timesheet errors and improve accuracy with a new configuration option in Projects which gives

admins greater control over timesheet entry dates. When a user tries to submit a timesheet, or save one

as a draft, and is including dates occurring within a closed period, admins can configure the system to

either:

• Allow the timesheet to post automatically to the next open period.

• Warn the user about the dates. The user can either correct the dates, or submit the timesheet and

have it post automatically to the next open period.

• Issue an error message and prevent the user from submitting the timesheet until they correct the

dates to fall within an open period.

Preview invoice ability for Project Manager Users

Now, Project Manager Users can run and view the Preview mode of Generate Invoices to preview an

invoice. This gives Project Manager Users insight into what exactly will be on the proposed invoice, invoice

totals, and budget averages and overages.

When Project Manager Users access the Pre-Bill report from the navigation menu, there is now an option

to also view a preview of an invoice for a customer or project.

To preview an invoice:

1. Go to Projects > All > Pre-Bill report.

2. On the Pre-Bill report page, select a Customer or Project, then click Preview.

Requirements

Use the following checklist to review the basic requirements for using the new enhancements in your

organization:

Page 30 of 32

Requirement Description

Subscription Projects Costing and Billing module

Permissions Generate Invoices: Run

Salesforce Integration

Opportunity Ease-of-Use Updates (Watch Demo)

The Sage Intacct Advanced CRM Integration makes it easier for you and your sales team to manage

information on the opportunities in Salesforce.

Focus on closing the deal

The financial details required for a contract can be complex, but they don't have to slow your sales team

down. When your sales reps add products to an opportunity, the Sage Intacct Advanced CRM Integration

can now add information needed by finance at the same time, including defaults for fixed flat fee amount

frequency and billing methods, as well as validation for information that was entered.

If products are added to the opportunity in other ways, for example using Salesforce CPQ, you can define

custom default values for Sage Intacct-specific fields, reducing the time it takes to review and accept the

additions to the opportunity.

Update all contract opportunity products at once

Contracts can change in an instant, so we've added the ability to quickly update your contract opportunity

products all at once! With the new bulk update you can select the specific records and fields to change

across multiple opportunity products, allowing you to keep up with the changes in your contracts.

Other updates

A new billing method has been added to the opportunity product billing method pick list: Project time &

materials. Existing users should update to the newest Sage Intacct Advanced CRM Integration package to

enable the use of this new value.

Web Services

What’s New

In this release, we've added:

• A new USERRESTRICTION object allows admins to access information about which users are

restricted to given entities or departments.

More

Additional Changes in 2018 Release 1

Each quarter we release features and enhancements, and we also release small changes, changes that

enhance Sage Intacct, which can have an impact on your company environment. Here's what we've

changed in this release:

Inventory Journal report

You can now filter the results of your Inventory Journal report by warehouse. Use the new From

warehouse and To warehouse fields to display the results for a specific warehouse or a range of

warehouses. Or, leave the fields blank to return results for all warehouses.

Page 31 of 32

Order Entry, Purchasing, and Inventory Control transactions

Created and modified dates

More easily see who created and modified transactions with the changes we made to date fields on the

History tab. The new Created Date field is the date the transaction was created and the new Modified

date field is the last date and time the transaction was modified.

Save without posting

You can now edit non-accounting fields in a transaction, click Post, and Sage Intacct will not recreate the

journal entries. Non-accounting fields include Payment terms, Reference, Ship via, and so on.

Contracts

Renewal failure notification emails will now be sent to the email address defined in the Main contact

section of the Company Information page. Previously, renewal failure notification emails were sent to

the email address of the user who created the contract.

Clarification on selecting bills across pages

In our 2017 4.2 release note we reported on our new ability to select or clear bills across a page or across

all pages. However, currently, the feature enables you to select or clear bills only as follows:

• Individually - as always

• Only this page to automatically populate all the checkboxes for appropriate bills on the current

page.

• Clear this page to automatically clear selected bills on the current page.

This feature doesn't currently include the ability to select or clear bills across all pages. We've updated our

2017 R4.2 release note to accurately reflect the feature options.

Page 32 of 32