As stated in Digital Dryshack #56, we’ve been working with the new Sage SQL Estimating 13.2, (on both Windows 8 and 7 remote desktop servers), and generally liking its new format and more modern look and feel. And the MS-SQL back-end is a huge advantage as well. We have a few early adopter clients, and while not without some problems, they too are generally upbeat about this new release.
The main issues are related to estimate files becoming locked, primarily due to a program crash. The odd thing is that some workstations rarely if ever experience the problem, while others fight it often. Talking with our clients’ IT departments who’ve installed 13.2, they’re struggling to find a common thread to pinpoint why some workstations work well, and some don’t. In our testing so far, we’ve been lucky to experience problem-free installs.
We like the smoother front-end screens to create estimates and entries in the new Address Book. However saving and printing spreadsheet layouts and reports is more challenging and time-consuming than in prior versions. For the last simple budget I created, I ended up exporting to Excel to get the look I wanted, which was disappointing at best.
We’ve started our Custom Toolkit for Sage 13.2 Estimating, with a WBS tool that allows you to build an estimate’s WBS structure in Excel, and import it to an estimate. This is available for free download, simply by sending us an email request to info@cassellconsulting.com. Rob is rolling out a web page to simplify the download, we’ll publish that link here as soon as it’s ready.
