October 2012News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline Office Software

Survey Shows More Users Taking the

Paperless Plunge! ........................1

Paperless Office Tip – Print to File

in STO ...........................................3

Snowed Under an Avalanche of Paper –

How One Company is Digging Out

with Mobile Handheld

Technology ...................................4

TUG Online WebEx Training and

Open Forums ................................5

eFiling – More Than Just a Trend......... .6

Freedom from the Tyranny of Paper .....8

TUG Year-End Webinar Series ...............9

Don’t Go Paperless...

Just to Save Paper .....................10

Paperless Payroll and Free Field

Reports in the Cloud ...................11

Save the Date – 2013 TUG National

Users Conference .......................12

Document Management

Issues Solved .............................14

Real-Time Efficiency ...........................15

Survey Shows More UsersTaking the Paperless Plunge!

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by: Eire Stewart

JP DINAPOLI COMPANIES, Inc.

o Continues

Just how “paperless” are TUG’s members?

Compared to last year’s TUG Paperless

Poll, more of us are embracing paperless

technologies this year, with an overall growth

of 28 percent in users that reported being at

least 50-precent paperless in their office. In

fact, this year, two percent have hit paperless

nirvana, giving themselves a 100-percent

mark when rating their paperless practices!

What went paperless first? More than 50

percent of you started the process with

Accounts Payable followed by 25 percent

who are circulating and archiving non-

STO documents such as Bids, Qualification

Documentation and Leases. Moving Project

Management to a “paperless” process was

a popular third, followed by General Ledger

closings and Accounts Receivable. Users

offered some terrific examples of electronic

archiving, along with the benefits. “Paperless

invoicing is the best! No more trading phone

calls – they respond with e-mail questions

and we get paid quicker,” offered one user.

Another remarked, “Being able to look at

the actual invoice, rather than going back to

whoever coded and trying to ask questions is

just so much easier.”

Most TUG members invested in a third-

party solution to assist with the paperless

process. My Assistant led the pack in this

year’s survey, with a full 40 percent of

the respondents taking advantage of its

integrated e-mail and tracking abilities.

Other winners include automated invoice

processing systems, such as Construction

Imaging and MICR check printing, and EFT

solutions like Create-a-Check. “I hope Sage

brings EFT and ACH online soon,” quipped

one user. “That would be a boat load of paper

gone.” Automating outgoing invoices took

hold this year as well, with 26 percent having

implemented solutions as opposed to only 16

percent last year. Other third-party software

included a variety of third-party timesheet

and HR solutions, PDF printer software and

using the fully featured Adobe Acrobat to

manipulate PDF files.

When asked if users had adopted a

“Document Management” system to organize

their documents, the split was even with 49.5

percent answering affirmatively while 50.5

percent hadn’t yet made that leap.

ANNUAL PAPERLESS

OFFICE ISSUE

News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline Office Software

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September 2012

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News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline Office Software

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October 2012

o Continues

While the consumption of paper has been on a steady decline in

many aspects of our lives over the past several years, the goal of

a paperless office remains an elusive dream, one that may not

be realized in our lifetimes. Indeed, an argument can be made that there

will always be a role for paper in the office. Therefore, a more realistic

goal is to take control of paper rather than having it control us.

Anyone who has been in an organization with a paper-based

invoice entry and approval system is familiar with the problems and

inefficiencies attendant with such a system. That is why in 2004 Core

Associates created TimberScan to automate this process and overcome

this tyranny of paper. Now that we have conquered the paperless

approval process, we are expanding TimberScan to further reduce the

need for paper by handling all document types with its Advance Image

Management (AIM) module, available first quarter 2013. We are also

planning to expand our program to support mobile and cloud technology.

This month we are releasing TimberScan 3, which is a complete re-

write of our software utilizing the latest Microsoft programming and

development tools. TimberScan 3 is the culmination of more than two

years work and we are very excited about the final product. We’ve

added many innovations to give our clients more freedom from the

tyranny of paper.

One exceptional innovation is our Dashboard. Traditionally, dashboards

provide graphic links to data; click on an item and you get a report. We

have taken the Dashboard to a whole new level by providing a graphic

link to the document plus the data. With our system, the document is

part of the equation and not an afterthought.

Our Dashboard is efficient and effective because it enables users to

view data graphically and then easily find pertinent documents. It’s

designed to be user-specific utilizing various widgets for data entry

operators, approvers and managers. Here is how it works:

Data Entry WidgetOne of the challenges of data entry is being able to prioritize invoices

by importance. With paper invoices you have to flip to each page to

get to the required document. Our Data Entry Widget makes this task

much easier.

It allows users to sort through all invoices and select the ones they want

to process first, like flipping through albums in iTunes and creating a

play list.

Widgets for Approvers and ManagersTypically, approvers have a folder of invoices that they flip through in

order to select the ones they wish to approve. The Dashboard eliminates

a lot of this flipping because it categorizes invoices by significance. For

example, there are widgets that allow a folder of invoices to be viewed

graphically by vendor, job, company, payment data, discount date and

by the date the approver received the invoice. Managers can view all

invoices in these categories or by specific approver or reviewers.

The various graphs have a hyperlink to the underlying images as well

as data.

For example, selecting the red segment of the pie chart

filters invoices that were assigned to the approver four or

more weeks ago. By clicking on that segment, TimberScan

displays thumbnails of all the invoices fitting that criterion.

Hovering over a thumbnail image expands it for easy

readability. The approver can approve individual invoices or

all invoices with one keystroke. It’s easy to see how this tool

increases productivity.

Freedom from the Tyranny of Paperby: Frank Grenci

Core Associates

News and Information for Users of Sage Timberline Office Software

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October 2012

Our Dashboard is a powerful and innovative

productivity tool that helps our clients work

smarter. Core Associates is focused on

improving our existing software by continually

innovating through new features, as well

as new workflow automation products.

Innovation is one of our core values with

the aim of delivering higher value to our

customers. There are many other examples of

innovation in our latest release of TimberScan

3. To learn more, please visit our website and

sign up for one of our weekly webinars at

www.core-assoc.com.

Join TUG on December 6th for aDay-Long Webinar on Year End

Want to hone your year-end closing skills? Here’s a chance to

learn from the experts what to archive and how. You can become

confident about where specific information goes in the closing

process, what fields are updated and why. Register today for

this six-hour Webinar event, which will be offered in one-hour

installments over the course of the day on Thursday, December

6, 2012.

Last year’s event, TUG’s second annual, was an astounding

success! Over 170 TUG members registered for a total of 588

hours of free education. As if that weren’t enough, even more

actually attended with co-workers sharing desktops to get in

on the opportunity. PLEASE NOTE: Each one-hour module is

limited to the first 100 users that register.

Mix and match! Attend only the sessions that apply to you or

have individual staff members attend those modules that they

work with. Kick off the holiday season with TUG’s gift to you and

register today.

Thursday, December 6, 2012*

11:00 a.m. – Accounts Payable – Lenni Witt

12:00 p.m. – Accounts Receivable – Pam Daly

1:00 p.m. – Job Cost/Project Management – Pam Daly

2:00 p.m. – General Ledger/Cash Management – Lenni Witt

3:00 p.m. – Property Management – Eire Stewart

4:00 p.m. – Payroll – Kathy Lewis

*All times are Eastern Time.

Webinars on each module will cover:

the following year.

data checking procedures.

as 1099s and W2s.

end process is run. This will include fields populated in the

Master file records.

at a manageable size while retaining the ability to

retrieve information.

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to groom your

year-end skills by attending one, two or TUG’s entire Year-End

Webinar event.

To register, please e-mail

attendee name, e-mail

address and which

session(s) to me@tugweb.

com. You will need to enroll

for each module you want

to attend. You will receive

an e-mail confirmation along with connection instructions once

you are registered. Questions? Please contact the TUG office at

me@tugweb.com or 404.760.8171.