Timberline Forum

Many Sage Timberline users received the following error today
“The instruction at #### reference memory ####. The memory could not be read.”

The culprit is a Microsoft Automatic Update.   Here’s how you can fix it…

Special Considerations or Warnings
Defect ID: 530799

Solution or Workaround

Turn off automatic updates and remove the updates with add/remove programs.

To turn off automatic updates:

1. From the Start menu, select Run, type sysdm.cpl and the press Enter.
2. On the Automatic Updates tab, select the option Turn off Automatic Updates.
3. Click OK.

To uninstall updates

1. From the Start menu, select Control Panel.
2. Select Add or Remove Programs.
3. Select the box to Show Updates.
4. Sort updates by date.
5. Remove the following updates, if installed:

• KB976576
• KB956250
• KB982519

1. This will require a reboot.

Hope this helps!

We’ve got great news for Estimating Standard and Extended customers! The Sage Construction and Real Estate group has entered into an agreement with Tech Unlimited, Inc., to distribute PlanSwift and PlanSwift for Sage 2D construction takeoff solutions. Tech Unlimited, Inc. is a leading provider of electronic plan takeoff for construction industry professionals.

PlanSwift allows builders to calculate and takeoff dimensions electronically using digital plans. PlanSwift for Sage, offered only through Sage, integrates exclusively with Sage’s Estimating Standard and Extended products to provide you with enhanced productivity and cost-savings.

Learn more about PlanSwift by clicking here. 

I am posting the press release issued by Sage Corporate.  If you would like to know more please contact Ed Ledgerwood or Daren Baldwin.

Sage Timberline Office Estimating and PlanSwift, Help Builders Swiftly Streamline Processes
Integrated solution helps builders improve efficiency, enhance collaboration and control construction costsAtlanta, Ga., June 8, 2010 – Sage North America announced today its Construction and Real Estate group has entered into an agreement with Tech Unlimited, Inc., to distribute PlanSwift and PlanSwift for Sage 2D construction takeoff solutions.  PlanSwift allows builders to calculate and takeoff dimensions electronically using digital plans.  PlanSwift for Sage, offered only through Sage, integrates exclusively with Sage’s Estimating Standard and Extended products giving Sage customers enhanced productivity and cost-savings.  Tech Unlimited, Inc. is a leading provider of electronic plan takeoff for construction industry professionals.  Sage Construction and Real Estate product lines have been recognized as the most widely used applications for construction estimating, job costing, accounting, payroll, and project management, according to the Construction Financial Management Association’s (CFMA) 2010 Information Technology Survey for the Construction Industry.

“As the construction industry fights to regain its lost footing from the economic downturn, builders need every opportunity to drive efficiency into the business. The combination of  PlanSwift and Sage’s Estimating Standard and Extended products creates a powerful offering that provides builders with an easy to use, cost effective and streamlined process from plans to estimate”, said Jim Walter, vice president of development, Sage Construction and Real Estate. “Today’s announcement further communicates our commitment to the construction industry by offering a wide range of estimating tools designed to help increase accuracy and productivity.”

PlanSwift and PlanSwift for Sage help construction industry professionals:

• Save time and increase productivity using electronic plans and digital takeoff tools
• Reduce costs by eliminating the cost of duplicating and shipping paper plans
• Improve collaboration using comparative overlays and the ability to share and email plans and supporting job details

“Our customers continue to look for ways to leverage technology to cost-effectively and efficiently address industry challenges,” said Jon Newsom of Contractor Business Solutions NW, a Sage CRE Business Partner. “The integration of PlanSwift and Sage’s suite of construction-specific solutions allows us to present a unique offering to our customers that will empower them to bid projects faster, more accurately and take their estimating processes to the next level.”

By offering PlanSwift and PlanSwift for Sage, Sage Construction and Real Estate continues its commitment to provide construction industry professionals cost-effective solutions that support mission-critical operations such as estimating. These powerful tools help estimators bid and win more work without adding overhead.

“At PlanSwift, our number one objective is to streamline the estimating process and we feel that our ultra tight integration with Sage Timberline Office Estimating provides contractors with the complete solution,” said James Purpura, PlanSwift’s President/COO.

Spring 2010 Enhancements:  Simplify your day…every day  

You should have already received your update.  If you haven’t or need help installing the updates please feel free to contact us.  Myrna@LedgerwoodAssociatesUSA.com.  We’d love to help.

Here’s a look at what those enhancements are…

We all know, the more efficiently your business management system allows your team to locate and act upon key information, the faster and easier they can do their jobs. That’s why we’ve enhanced Sage Timberline Office to provide everyone on your team with a wide range of automation, workflow and process improvements to make it easier to get more done in less time, including:

1. Simplified reporting and data analysis with new tools that are familiar and easy to use.
2. A higher degree of work process automation so your team  has the freedom to focus on other tasks
3. Easier ways to share documents and manage internal approval processes making your entire team (and business) more efficient.

Simplified Installation
Why waste hours of your personal time upgrading workstations?

Laying the groundwork for future updates, the new Sage Installation Manager will make the task of installing and updating accounting workstations much more efficient. Getting your team up and running on the latest software advances for Sage Timberline Office will be quicker and easier than ever. That’s because the process is easily administered from a central location saving you unnecessary legwork and the need to manually install on individual workstations. The result is a dramatic reduction in the time you spend performing workstation installs and updates.

Document Management Rules-based Routing
Now you can ensure documents are reviewed by the right people in the right sequence every time with Document Management Rules-based Routing.

1.  Should all reviewers receive a document simultaneously or should documents be sent to reviewers sequentially?
2.  Would you like to designate an alternate recipient if the original reviewer is unavailable?
3.  Who should be notified when a process is completed?

These are just a few of the processes that Rules-based Routing can automate for you. And, the flexibility doesn’t end there! A number of other conditions are possible including:
1.  Which recipients can approve, reject, or forward documents.
2.  The types of documents recipients can approve (e.g. invoices, purchase orders, . . .).
3.  The dollar amounts (min and max) each recipient is allowed to approve.
4.  How many days are allowed for document routing.
5.  Due dates and alerts for documents.

Document Management Rules-Based Routing
Now you can ensure documents are reviewed by the right people in the right sequence every time with Document Management Rules-based Routing. Rules-based Routing also lets you automate the routing and approval processes that best suit your particular business needs. This means increased productivity and accountability. Avoid unnecessary delays, mistakes, and get paperwork approved faster. The best part is it’s all electronic.

Technology Updates
Keeping current with the latest technology, Sage Timberline Office now supports Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and includes an upgraded Pervasive 10 database. Our goal is to ensure your investment stays current and competitive as well as support the requirements most used by our customers.

More Comprehensive Tax Filing Capabilities & Improved Payroll Management
Now with over 250 additional US State and Federal government forms included, you’ll be able to complete tax filings, new hire reports, and more. Electronic forms are pre-filled using data from your Sage Timberline Office software.  You can then review, edit, or fill-in more completely if desired. And, to automate the process even further, we’ve partnered with Aatrix Software* offering you a number of additional services, including the option to eFile your forms. Of course, you’ll still have the option to print and mail the forms as you always have if you prefer. All new forms are printable as part of your regular service plan.  However, should you choose to take advantage of the eFiling capabilities, those services are offered for a modest fee through our partnership with Aatrix.

BIM–Estimating Quantity Takeoff Integration
With this release, estimators can now take full advantage of both 2D and 3D Building Information Models (BIM) when creating estimates. Thanks to our partnership and development work with Autodesk, estimators can enjoy powerful integration between Estimating and Autodesk’s Quantity Takeoff 2010 product. Using Autodesk’s Revit platform for BIM, object quantities and dimensions for items such as doors, windows, and walls can be stored within the Model and then extracted using AutoDesk’s Quantity Takeoff. Then, simply drag and drop items to map the Model objects and their dimensions to the estimating database for a one-time integration setup.

Advanced Assembly Databases
Databases are some of the most complete Estimating databases we’ve ever offered. Are you not yet taking advantage of Sage Timberline Office estimating? Or, are you interested in bidding different types of work outside of the normal types of projects you do? If so, these databases will significantly reduce the amount of time you spend getting your estimating system up and running or bidding new types of projects. The latest versions include a significant increase in the number of items with the ability to price labor in three different ways: turn-key, man-hour, or labor-only unit price. Plus, assembly items are now organized by trade with over 60 trade specific labor costs supported.

Excel-based Reporting—Office Connector Starter for Sage
Do you wish you had an easier way to analyze and report on data in a familiar format? Now you can leverage the benefits of Microsoft Excel to work with your Sage Timberline Office data using Office Connector Starter for Sage, included as part of your maintenance and service update.** Developed by Event 1 Software, Office Connector Starter for Sage is a reporting and analysis tool that allows you to use workbook templates created in Excel to key data housed within Sage Timberline Office. It provides you with a fast and easy way to look at your Sage Timberline Office data in a whole new light. Extract and perform analysis on a wide range of data through six workbook templates, including:

1. Sage Timberline Office Dashboard
View high-level summary totals from different Sage Timberline Office applications on one worksheet. This includes a financial summary, summary of jobs in-progress, summary of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Property Management, and Billing. The Dashboard also allows you to identify a number of un-posted entries by application.

2. Sage Timberline Office Search
This helpful report lets you quickly find items in Sage Timberline Office based on arbitrary pieces of information you may have, such as a fragment of the description, number, date range, or amount. A separate worksheet also shows you the results returned from each application. Sage Timberline Office Spring 2010 Enhancements

3. Account Ledger with Detail
This report provides you with an excellent auditing tool. Identify a specific account, a set of accounts (using an account mask), or report all accounts. Select a desired date range and other criteria, such as whether to include entries associated with closing the fiscal year. And for each account, a summary of information that shows the beginning balance for the date range, net activity, and ending balance for the date range can also be included.

4. Cost To Complete
Simply specify which job, and this useful report lets you quickly produce a cost to complete worksheet that includes the estimate values, commitments, and actual cost to date. A data-entry column is included where you can record your expected cost to complete. And, calculated columns show you the resulting cost at completion and over/under values in real-time.

5. Job List with Maps & Weather
View a simple list of open jobs that can be quickly filtered or searched, which include two columns with hyperlinks. One takes you to Google Maps providing you with a map of the job location; the other takes you to Weather.com so you can easily see weather conditions at the job site.

6. Lease Expiration List
See every lease that’s about to expire within a timeframe that you identify. You can select all properties or a specific property, enter a cut-off date, and number of days until lease expiration. You can also quickly filter and sort the list using auto-filter and sorting features within Excel.  Customers on a current service plan receiving the Office Connector Starter for Sage will also be granted “a 5-day trial access period” to the full version of Office Connector. The full version includes an additional 20 standard reports/templates and the ability to create your own custom reports and templates using the Designer Tool should you decide to upgrade.

Also, as a special bonus, the trial version of Office Connector Starter for Sage also includes a FREE Anytime Learning session offered on Sage University. This short, online presentation describes the products functionality as well as a number of useful tips and tricks.

For more information or details on purchasing the full version of Office Connector, click here.
Download this  information in a printable PDF format.