Ent. Mgmt.: My friend the Online Help Center

3 minute read time.

I consider the Online help center my friend. It provides me with loads of version specific information 24/7 to assist me in using Enterprise Management. Beginning with v7, the Help function went online. Updates to Help are automatically available, so no waiting for IT to work Help updates into the schedule. The types of information included have expanded too. Let’s explore the Online help center and look at some of the often-overlooked areas.

How do we get to the Online help center? Click the question mark on the Toolbar. If you are in a function in v12, clicking the question mark will reveal options for the Online help center, Field help and Function help. From the main menu, clicking the question mark will reveal the menu for the Online help center.

After clicking Online help center, we have tabs: Home, What’s new, Technical Help, Product Help, Quick Start, How to, Tutorials and Knowledgebase.

 

 

Home

This tab has a History section so you easily find the articles you were just reviewing and return to them. There is a section for your Favorites so you can click and access the articles you identified as Favorites. The Home tab contains listings of the newest how-to guides and tutorials.

What’s New

Here you will find release notes for your specific version describing new features and changes. There are also links to the Readme documents.

Technical help

Looking for the relationship between tables? Check out the Data module. It is a great help when you are creating reports.

The Table dictionary lists each table and has links to the Menus. When you find ”3” in the DISCRGTYP (Discount / charge type) field of the SINVOICEV table, you are just one click away from discovering that the 255 Menu value means “% series.”

Product Help

We are probably most familiar with Product help. The function help explains the overall purpose of the function, what tables it uses and what the fields are. Did you know that some functions have an Errors section? This provides answers for why we are receiving certain common errors.

If you click on Generic messages, you will find there is a group of generic messages that are likely to be displayed as a result of an entry error. These generic messages are presented, together with a description of the contexts in which these messages can be displayed.

Quick Start

Quick starts are short guides with print screens and numbered steps. Need to set up a Sales Rep? There is a one page guide. There are quick starts for running inquires. These are great reviews if you haven’t used the task in a while or for examples if you are training someone new.

 

How to

Here you can find more in-depth guides for such topics as implementing Sage Sales tax, using Project Management, implementing Sage Payment Solutions or developing a new legislation. There is even a document on Stock Valuation. These are version specific and up-to-date. New ones are being added regularly. The new articles are listed on the Home tab.  Always, use these as opposed to the one you have been saving for years so that you can be sure you are using the latest and greatest information.

Tutorials

Short videos on a range of topics such as PJM and Asset Inventory. New topics continue to be added. The new additions are listed on the Home tab. 

Knowledgebase

These are mainly procedural knowledgebase articles.

 

I hope I’ve gotten you interested in checking out the Online help center.  Soon you can think of the center as your friend too as you are researching issues on Enterprise Management.