Danica fishing with her cousins.
Some of the unique complexities which make up the daily business practices of a fishery can and did result in many manually-maintained data sets for reporting. For this particular fishery, the question was “Do we spend the time and money on upgrading our no longer supported version of MAS90 (now Sage 100)?” The alternative was not promising – the risk of not being on supported software and the cost of manually maintaining data and as well as the resulting lost business growth opportunities was enough to initiate a call for help.
Upgrading aside, the challenge lay within discovery of these unique fishery business complexities and how best to configure an ERP solution to streamline processes, centralize data, and provide the required reporting capabilities. Unlike most businesses, product purchases (seafood) also require recording and accrual of taxes due and fees normally held by the vendor such as: “Assessments”, “Crab Buyback”, “Salmon Tax”, “wet” product, and “Boat” dues. We found that the most effective and flexible solution was within reach via resourceful use of existing functionality within Sage 100.
The result? Purchase orders for product are entered per usual; then the VB scripting is fired by the click of an on-screen button. This automatically adds in new lines for the accrual items, 
calculating based on the poundage ordered and rate parameters! Some additional modifications are made to the printed PO (now dubbed a “Settlement Sheet”) for the fishermen/boats.
What was a cumbersome and time intensive process is now streamlined, less prone to data entry error, accounting for the same is automated and validated real-time and business-critical information is readily available for a wealth of reporting.
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