1. Administrative SettingsTO
Avoid Pitfalls

2. Overview General processes and settings that can help avoid problems
Some Do’s and Don’ts
Best practices
Submitting issues to support
Registry settings
Specific Modules
Job Cost Categories
Upgrading/Converting from earlier versions
Specifics on moving up from earlier versions to 9.0 and 9.1

3. Administrative
Backing up your data and specific directories – VERY Important!!!
Typical Installation Directory Structure
You should back up the docs, LIB and Sampro (could be your company name) directories routinely with a backup program. The Staging and Test directories are not critical to be backed up.
If using SQL, you need to either schedule your actual database backups through the SQL Server Management Studio or a 3rd party backup program that is capable. If using Sybase, you will also need to set up database backups.

4. Administrative
Schedule reports and utilize DBAnalytics to stay up to date with your data
Monitoring services – error messages need to be dealt with on a timely manner
Restarting services – Make sure if services go down that someone knows how to restart them
Updates – Those that require notification prior to an update should send with contact information to Data-Basics
Don’t leave pop up messages on your screen for extended periods of time. This can lock the data you are dealing with and hold up other users from accessing this data. (Quotes for example)

5. Administrative continued
Make sure all users have the same:
Mapped Drive – S: or T: or anything else – it must be the same for all PCs/Workstations/Terminal Service sessions, etc…
32-bit ODBC DSN name
32-bit ODBC driver if using SQL – There should be a “native” one for the version of SQL you are running OR you can run the latest ODBC Driver with any version
SQL Server Native Client 9.0 ODBC Driver was released with SQL Server 2005
SQL Server Native Client 10.0 ODBC Driver was released with SQL Server 2008
SQL Server Native Client 11.0 ODBC Driver was released with SQL Server 2012
SQL Server Native Client 13.0/13.1 ODBC Driver was released with SQL Server 2016
Do not use the standard Windows SQL driver provided with the operating system

6. Current ODBC Drivers for Microsoft® SQL
The Microsoft ODBC Driver 13.1, 13 and 11 for SQL Server are stand-alone ODBC drivers which provide an application programming interface (API) implementing the standard ODBC interfaces to Microsoft SQL Server.
The ODBC Driver for SQL Server supports connections to Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2014, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2005.
Shortcut to the latest ODBC Driver

7. Administrative continued
Only make a select one or few users a “notes administrator” – Too often people accidentally delete ranges they didn’t mean to
No user should have rights to change, add or delete ANY History entries
Test database is a great place to first make any changes to see the results
Make required fields stand out with bright colors – original default should have been yellow
Keyboard shortcuts available – they can save time – search on keyboard in help

8. Contacting Support
Read the on-line help before contacting support – it truly can help in some instances
Have you tried or logging off and logging back in or try to completely reboot by turning the device off and back on again?
Did you exit SAMPro normally or did you Ctrl+Alt+Delete after the issue you had? If the problem still exists, let support know if you had to use Task Manager to force close the program
Provide as much detail as possible! (More = Faster Resolution)
Journal/Viewer you were in and the transaction ID
Time/Date/UserID is important that we know who and when this issue occurred
Screenshots of error messages can be very helpful – if not able to screenshot, as accurately as possible type in the error message
The exact issue of what the user was doing, what were the expected results and what you are now actually getting

9. Registry Settings Registry
Don’t make changes to the registry settings unless you know what you are doing – Call Support if unsure or you want us to create the settings!
Upper and Lower case DO make a difference in the setting value
Book Viewer feature – If this is going to be used, Registry setting must be created for default file location first
sys-viewer-vbk
Setting Key: pdfdirectory Setting Value: path (this is the directory for the folders created by the system for your PDF Books)
Prevent using Unvouchered AP and Other to GL in the Accounting Period
sys-viewer-vaccntngprd
Setting Key: UnvoucheredAP Setting Value: false
Setting Key: OtherToGL Setting Value: false
Registry option for various journals (AP, PO,etc) to eliminate BLANK entities on the Income Statement
sys-viewer-XXXXXXXX (vapjrnl, varslslst, vgljrnllst, vinvntryadjstmnt, vprchseordrlst and vrcrrnggljrnl)
Setting Key: validateGLEntityIE Setting Value: error
Prevent Blank PM Invoicing descriptions – blank descriptions can cause some problems
Sys-start-scrtepmbllng
Setting Key: InvoiceDescription Setting Value: your description (i.e. PM Contract)

10. General Ledger GL GL Reporting Periods
Don’t skip any dates – Feb 29th is a common issue
Don’t overlap any dates. This will lead to the same transactions happening in two different periods (doubling)
Make sure your year and periods are correct and filled in – this can lead to issues
Have one of the Accounting periods marked as default at all times
Accounting Periods – make sure you are selecting the appropriate Boxes – Unvouchered AP and WO Other to GL are normally not checked. A registry entry (see Registry section) can be put in to prevent them from being checked.
Mark old Accounting and Payroll Periods as inactive – will help speed up viewers and choices

11. Specific Modules AR AP Payroll Purchasing
Don’t check the ‘Use Authority Rules’ on the Sales Tax Authority records unless this is for Canadian taxes. Let the Tax Group control what items are taxable AP
AP Check printing – Do NOT out of window after printing checks – either post, void or re-use them
When printing checks, if you see a message about skipping checks and then another message about skipping checks again without cancelling, don’t call support. Call the mental health hotline.
If using Vendor Insurance, make sure they are up to date – Quotemaster can fail to make PO
Payroll
first remove problem lines then fix source info (earnings, deductions, fringes, etc.) This is the best method
Compute payroll and print – if delayed between computing payroll and printing Pay checks, any changes to employee labor lines will cause the employee check not to print until re-computed
Purchasing
Best practice is to not receive items on the purchase order viewer
Inventory Receipts Journal – see Inventory

12. Specific Modules continued
Invoicing
Reversing PM Contract Invoices cannot be done via the function of Invoice Reversal (due to contract and amortization issues) – a line must be added to the PM Billing Tab that is the exact reverse of the line that was invoiced that was wrong. It will produce a negative invoice (like a Credit Memo). This will handle all the GL entries along with AR. Make sure that both of those lines do not have the “OK to Renew” box checked.
Inventory
Don’t use the Inventory Adjustment journal to add parts to the WO – just add the parts directly on the WO
Don’t re-use the Inventory Receipts journal – You can go back to correct it if it is wrong, but use a new journal for a new receipt
WO/Jobs
No manual costs in Other Tab – will make job costing vary from GL costing since there is no GL activity for costs manually entered – can be disabled through registry
Don’t change Cost Category after using – rename ID and re-create new one
Make current Rate Schedules End Dates on Jobs way out into future – prevents mark up issues

13. Job Cost Categories
Posting Cost Type – This is the category it posts under in job history
Selection Cost Type – This where it appears on a work order
Labor only shows on the Labor tab
Material shows on both the Inventory and Other tab
Subcontract shows only on the Sub Tab of the PO
Other shows under the Other tab
Job Use – you can limit it to All, Direct jobs or Indirect (Overhead) jobs

14. SAMPro Versioning, Upgrading and Conversion
Typical version of SAMPro –
9.1 – The first two numbers are the SAMPro version (i.e. 8.0, 8.2, 9.0)
611 – The next 3 numbers is the database version
When new fields are added or changed, the database version will change – changes include new fields or changing the attributes of a field such as length (i.e. increase from 20 to 40 characters)
If the database version is different when upgrading, a conversion is required – basically all data is emptied out of the database, tables deleted, tables with new fields created and data is re-inserted
026 – Last 3 numbers is the build number
No conversion is required if the database version is the same when upgrading
Builds contain programming changes that do not need either new fields or database changes

15. Moving up to SAMPro 9.1 from earlier versions
Quotes – Due to the introduction of Quote Manager in 9.0, a report (RQTESCPEERRORS.rpt) needs to be installed and run to identify any irregular entries that were made in Quote Master. If there are any found, the report will note them. You can try to manually fix them. If this is not possible, you will need to contact support. In order for support to run a function (which is not available to normal users) you will need to be updated to the latest version of 8.2. before upgrading to 9.0. **Not fixing the bad quotes prior to upgrading to 9.0 can result in a corrupt database.
Rate Schedules – New material markup methods will change how it is calculated – Registry setting required to use old methodology

16. Markups using New and Old methods
Cost
Revenue
$50.00
$110.00
$50.01
$110.02
$100.00
$90.02
Using the Old method in this example, one penny in additional cost
can equate to $9.98 loss of potential revenue (20%)