>Didn't you have the old SBT (pre-Visiobn Point)? Have you used Pro?
>
>It's still a generation behind, but coming forward slowly but surely.
>

I ran VisionPoint in-house, but have lots of experience hacking Pro for clients, going back as far as the initial Pro relase, which I integrated with an AS/400 OE app, and have performed all sorts of unnatural acts since then. I don't like the code style, but as I said, it's all there.

>Accountmate is dog slow.

We've no complaints about performance at our site, but this may be due to the mix of hardware (typical end-user systems are Celeron 333b or better with 64MB RAM and Fast EtherNet on switches rather than plain hubs, and a server that does nothing but handle the VAM data, ARCServe and some print queues, and has plenty of disk and memory.) We have a small number of simultaneous users - perhaps 4-5 people actively using VAM at any given time, with a moderately busy 24 node network handling OE, Customer Service, shipping and warehousing outside of VAM, with batch updating of VAM every hour or two. VAM is used primarily to manage cash application, AR aging, journalization of external AR transactions, AP functions (many of our in-house apps record/generate AP Vendor Invoices and Debit Memos, which post through the text import facility) bank reconciliation, standard GL functions (again, we have systems that generate Journal Entries that are posted through the import facility) and consolidation of divisional GLs into a consolidated company GL.

My instinct have been to keep as much of the detailed day-to-day operations that VAM does not model well outside of VAM, and by keeping the internal mechanisms opaque, this strategy has been encouraged. The one VAM feature we rely heavily on is its multicurrency capability, since we deal internationally, have bank accounts maintained in multiple currencies, and we find it far easier to deal with than we found SBT to be, where we reallyneeded to convert to single currency based on the exchange rate on the date of document generation, and then adjust any gain or loss for exchange on payment through an exchange GL account. We'd like tighter integration, but until the source is made available or we see what capabilities are exposed through the promised SDK, we are able to get VAM to do most of what we expect it to do. We have one awkward issue, where one of our bank accounts used to process credit cards is shared among several VAM "companies", which make bank reconciliation trying at times - we end up separating out transactions by company externally and somehow distribute service charges not tied to a specific company transaction; that's bean counter mojo.

I like the databrowser in the system, although I generally head for the command window when I need to do much, but again, managers and accountants can sometimes track down things using it.