Information Alerts
To cater for the move by many businesses to increase staff productivity and become more efficient, the Information Alerts module is designed to streamline key processes within the business. Information Alerts allows you to receive notifications based on a set of predefined criteria and take on a more proactive stance in dealing with exceptions in the business. Information Alerts can be configured to send out notifications to relevant users via e-mail or CRM (Contact Management) incidents.
These notifications can be setup to notify you on time based intervals, daily, weekly or monthly. It comes with a set of predefined methods, which the business can utilise to define which criteria they would like to be aware of for example a client reaching their credit limit.
An action can be for example a notification being generated and sent to the financial manager, who can then take action. The module currently supports Accounts Receivable and Payables, Inventory and Job Costing modules.
Procurement
This module offers a three tiered process that allows you to precisely manage the numerous purchase orders in your business and keep control of purchases either for internal purposes or specific projects. The first tier is the requisition process where the purchase of an item or consumable can be requested and routed to a head of department for authorisation. The second tier allows purchase orders to be generated based on configurable rules. Different levels of authorisations can be administered and setup. The procurement process also validates all purchases against budgets setup in the general ledger. The third tier allows the purchase order to be converted into a goods received voucher to receipt the inventory items. Throughout the span of a requisition to purchase order completion, all movements or comments are logged against incidents in CRM Premium. Workflows and Escalations rules can be configured to create efficiencies and automate processes ensuring that purchase orders are actioned on time.
Resolve (CRM)
Traditionally termed ‘CRM’ or “Contact Management”, Pastel Evolution Resolve is core to the Pastel Evolution system’s functionality. Pastel Evolution Resolve has taken the concept of traditional Contact Management much further by weaving it into the very fibre of the Pastel Evolution accounting system, thus elevating accounting software to its next logical state allowing you to not only capture numbers, but also what we refer to as business activities. Activity data is integrated and presented together with the numbers providing a holistic view of your business instead of a numbers only view. This integration provides you with the ability to control not only your financial situation but your relationships with your customers, suppliers and employees. Any issue that takes place in a business, and is important enough to be tracked, is recorded as an Incident in Pastel Evolution Resolve. Pastel Evolution Resolve will track all Incidents to their conclusion or until they are closed off. The Evolution system stores Incidents even after they have been closed, allowing you to track a history of events as they occurred, as far back as you wish.
There are two versions of Evolution Resolve:
Pastel Evolution Resolve Basic contains basic incident tracking. This module must be purchased in conjunction with the core Pastel Evolution accounting system.
Pastel Evolution Resolve Premium contains more advanced features such as Sales Force Automation, Business Gateway, Calendar, Knowledge Base, Workflow processing, Incident Graphs, Escalations and Contract Invoicing and now also Microsoft Outlook Integration. This module can be purchased as a stand-alone product.
Fixed Assets
Company Law requires that you keep a register of your business' fixed assets as part of it’s accounting records. However, managing your company’s fixed assets can be tedious and time-consuming. Fixed assets are physical items such as desks, computers, cars, machinery, etc which you acquire to run your business. As you use assets, they depreciate or become obsolete. You can legally expense depreciation in your accounts for tax purposes.
Managing your fixed assets includes the following tasks:
Tracking each asset’s value, both from a tax and an accounting point of view
Depreciating assets correctly using an appropriate depreciation rate and method
Updating the replacement values of your fixed assets for insurance purposes
Accurately recording any sale, disposal or loss of assets
Maintaining an accurate fixed assets register which records information such as: date of purchase; date of disposal; purchase price; accumulated depreciation; net book value etc.
The Pastel Evolution Fixed Assets module automates all these processes for you. Once you provide the initial information, the system takes over and manages your assets for you. One of the realities of fixed assets processing is that companies frequently change depreciation rules as legislation allows and as company policy changes. Some changes are retroactive to when you purchased the asset. Pastel Evolution Fixed Assets calculates its values dynamically from the start of each asset’s life, which makes retroactive changes simple. Imagine the time required to accurately programme all this yourself into a spreadsheet! Pastel Evolution Fixed Assets can be used in conjunction with the core Pastel Evolution Accounting system or can be purchased as a stand-alone product.
Multi-Currency
With Pastel Evolution Multi-Currency you can process customer and supplier transactions in their currency. It allows you to track foreign currency, customer and supplier values in both the foreign and home currency. You can view balances and transactions in either currency at any time. You can maintain separate buy and sell rates for each currency. Pastel Evolution Multi-Currency maintains a history of exchange rates so that you can process transactions at earlier dates using the most accurate exchange rate. When you process customer receipts or supplier payments, Pastel Evolution uses the current exchange rate to calculate any foreign exchange profit or loss, which is automatically posted. In addition Pastel Evolution Multi-Currency allows you to:
Process and print customer and supplier sales and purchase documents in foreign currency or home currency.
Print customer and supplier statements, age analysis and transaction reports using foreign currency or home currency
Process foreign currency cashbook transactions
Bill of Materials
Designed for the manufacturing and assembly environment, this module allows you to create assembly sheets (or Bills as they are commonly known) detailing each component making up the completed item. Completed items can be manufactured before they are sold or you can simply invoice the completed item and Pastel Evolution will manufacture the item on-the-fly, where-upon the sub-components will be drawn from stock.
You can manufacture items in a single operation or, for more complex manufacturing and for processes that occur over a significant time period, you can work on an open manufacturing process over time.
Manufacturing
This module is an extension of Pastel Evolution Bill of Materials. It separates the manufacturing process into time periods where items being manufactured are transferred into Work In Progress and then into Finished Goods. In addition this module allows you to:
See a full audit trail of each manufacturing process
Draw stock at the beginning of the manufacturing process, and reverse any unused stock once the process is complete
Change a Bill of Materials without affecting an ongoing manufacturing process that uses the same Bill of Materials
Replace one or more components in an existing process if you need to, and then continue manufacturing with the new components
Create by-products in addition to your main manufactured item
Forward plan with the material requirements feature
Lot Tracking
Lot Tracking allows you to track several units of a stock item using the same lot or batch number. Expiry dates and user-defined status allow you to further control stock items. Users can determine what can be purchased or sold by Lot Status. You cannot sell stock items that have expired. You can track items simultaneously by Lot Number and by Serial Number.
Annuity Billing
Pastel Evolution Annuity Billing integrates with both Receivables and Inventory and provides for repetitive or recurring invoices on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. You can specify contract periods, design recurring invoice templates or simply set up base amounts to be charged to your customers periodically. It is a flexible module that allows you to customise it according to your businesses specific requirements.
Serial Number Tracking
Pastel Evolution Serial Number Tracking allows you to individually track items. For example, if you sold an item that carries a warranty, you will need to know when you sold the item, to whom you sold the item so that you know if the item is bought in for repairs, if it is still under warranty or not.
Integrating with Pastel Evolution’s Inventory module, Pastel Evolution Serial Number Tracking keeps detailed information on specific inventory items. From purchase to sale, to returns, each item is tracked uniquely providing you with absolute control over individual inventory items.
With Pastel Evolution Serial Number Tracking you can receive Serial Number Listing reports that provide you with key information regarding your items, such as where the current location of the serial numbered item is, the item code and description, the date of its last movement, the current general location in stock and the customer it was sold to.
While the Serial Number Transaction report will show you all the transactions for a Serial Number, by reflecting one transaction per line. Each line will report on the following information the Serial Number, item code and description, transaction date and reference, the customer/supplier account code and its originating module.
Job Costing
This add-on module lets you invoice jobs to customers. A job card is more powerful than an invoice, because you can link more types of items besides inventory items in a job. For example, you can purchase an item directly for use in a job, and you can allocate employee hours from the Payroll module into a job. You can also invoice a job on a partial basis.
You can allocate costs and measure the profitability of short to medium term jobs. Create an unlimited number of job cards, with the ability to archive these for future estimates. Track labour costs from payroll time sheets in Pastel Evolution Payroll and calculate transactions on a rate, lump sum, or percentage basis.
You can allocate jobs to projects on a job card basis or a job line basis.
Multi-Warehousing
This add-on module allows you to keep inventory items in discrete areas, or warehouses. You can use warehouses for many types of situations:
• Physical warehouses in different geographic areas.
• Keep raw materials and/or internal parts separate from items you sell.
• Keep track of consignment stock/samples in a separate warehouse.
• Separate obsolete items into a separate warehouse.
• Track demo stock allocated to sales representatives.
• Track costs per warehouse.
Inter-branch Transfers (IBT)
This feature has been designed so that you are able to transfer items from the dispatching warehouse directly into a “goods in transit” (GIT) warehouse. The inventory will remain in this warehouse until the receiving warehouse does a receipt from the GIT warehouse.
Two additional warehouses are created by the program: a damaged goods warehouse and a variance warehouse. This allows you to allocate and account for the receipt of inventory items by allocating them into the receiving warehouse. Any items not accounted for, will either be allocated to the damaged goods or variance warehouse where reconciliation can later be processed. Documentation is printed through the different stages to accompany the delivery of goods, and reports can be printed to indicate the location of stock at any given time within the system.
Point of Sale
Pastel Evolution Point-of-Sale integrates with both Receivables and the Inventory add-on module, while addressing the practical issues you may encounter within the retail Point-of-Sale environment. It contains the following features which can assist you with:
Security parameters
Tender types (cash, voucher, credit card and cheque)
Flexible pricing
Discounting
It supports peripheral devices such as pole display units, cash drawers, slip printers and a bar code scanner. It is user friendly, while offering you flexibility by allowing for per-till configuration and giving you powerful reporting features.
Mobile
The need for mobility, and the ability to access and send information on-the-fly, has significantly increased over the last decade. Workers travel more, work from home more, and spend more time out of the office with suppliers and customers. These workers often need access to company information when at home, with clients or suppliers. With Pastel Evolution Mobile, Pastel Evolution users can access information directly from their handheld devices – another way we’re helping you take your business beyond accounting.
Through Pastel Evolution Mobile your sales force will not only gain instant access to customer information but will also be able to view inventory levels and even place an order while visiting the customer, ensuring you continue to meet the level of service your customers have come to expect.
Once an order has been placed via the handheld device, Pastel Evolution Mobile will automatically notify data capturers back at the office of the changes. The order will then be tracked by means of the Order Entry module.
All you need to take advantage of this solution is Pastel Evolution (Version 4 and up), any cell phone or PDA that supports web browsing, a means of connectivity (3G, GPRS, HSDPA) and Microsoft Internet Information Systems (IIS 5+).
Pricing Matrix
This module adds great flexibility to Pastel Evolution’s standard pricing feature. With this module you can not only create volume-based or time-based price breaks you can specify discounts by customer or group of customers. In addition you can design unlimited discount variations, such as multiple discounts per customer per stock item, and discounts per stock group while having the ability to override discounts on processing invoices.
Account Consolidation
Integrating with Receivables, this module allows for the separate invoicing of branches, but with the added functionality of printing one customer statement at a consolidated head office level. This is particularly useful when you wish to keep track of a group customer with a head office, or where you need to capture sales made to the individual branches, but then present a consolidated statement to your customer's head office.
Credit Risk Management
Integrating with Receivables, Pastel Evolution Credit Risk Management helps you manage your customer credit risk through a step-by-step process. Your customer will complete a credit risk application form in order for you to assess his/her potential credit-worthiness before granting them any credit. It will generate the credit application form and run the data through a scoring system giving you a credit-worthiness result on your potential customer. A passing score will see a new account being opened. A failing score will request guarantees or security against granting credit.
It will also generate standard legal documentation based on the type of business you are operating. The following documentation, amongst others, is included:
Terms and conditions of sale
Credit application forms
Both ‘soft’ and ‘final’ demand letters
Power of attorney forms
Business Intelligence Centre – Standard & Advanced
We have combined South Africa’s leading accounting software with Microsoft® Excel and have produced a reporting tool that revolutionises the way you make decisions in your business!
BIC is an add-on module that dynamically links to your Pastel accounting data, taking your business beyond standard reporting functionality. You can generate spreadsheets by simply extracting Pastel Accounting data and converting it into an easy-to-read, graphic format. Pastel’s BIC retains report formats and makes them available for future use. You also have instant access to ‘live’ information and that last minute journal no longer impacts your Excel reporting. Monthly financials account for a large percentage of manual Excel labour.
Pastel’s BIC offers a customisable pack which provides drill-down functionality. You can customise the standard set of reports and templates, and create new ones. It gives you flexibility with the combinations of financial data you choose to report on.
BIC ships with Management Packs (Balance Sheet, Income Statement), Sales Master (Sales Reports), Inventory, Purchasing options, and more.
OLAP Cubes
OLAP Cubes is an extension to the Business Intelligence Centre. The new OLAP module (Online Analytical Processing) caters for multi-dimensional analysis of your data. It answers the questions ‘what if’ and ‘why’. It analyses trends over months and years from a set of predefined cubes for Financials, Sales and Inventory. You can modify and build your own cubes based on your business requirements, rank customers and suppliers in order of importance and drill-down to the level of detail you need. OLAP is predominantly powerful in analysing large volumes of data where traditional End User Query Reporting may not be appropriate.
Online Web Reporting
This module is an extension of the existing Business Intelligence Centre module. It provides worldwide secure access to your business reports through a standard web browser. This is an excellent platform to share information with partners, suppliers and customers. All you need is Internet access from your web browser and then authenticate yourself and the reports will be made available to you.
You will have access to critical information about your business from anywhere in the world at any time you choose. Online Web Reporting supports secure access so you receive your reports in a variety of formats across the web for example Microsoft® Excel, PDF or HTML.
E-Business & E-Billing
The internet has fast become a necessary extension to the traditional manner in which business is conducted. Pastel Evolution’s E-Business module enables you to open an online web store quickly and easily, with seamless integration between your online store and Pastel Evolution. For example, you can draw product and price information from Pastel Evolution into the online store. In turn, online orders can be automatically downloaded into Pastel Evolution for processing.
As mentioned with Pastel E-Business being fully integrated into Pastel Evolution, you can benefit from:
Seamlessly drawing customer, product, pricing information from Pastel Evolution directly into your website thus enabling you to sell products online.
With full order integration, orders automatically flow back from your E-Business web store into Pastel Evolution.
You can even sell your products while Pastel Evolution is offline.
Pastel E-Billing will allow your customers to view their detailed statements, with drill-down into source transactions over the internet. You will however need to supply your customer with a password. The benefits from this module are as follows:
Get paid faster
Customer self-service
Customer account access 24/7/365
Uniform electronic remittance advice
Mobile sales representatives with up-to-date information
Detailed account research
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