Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event Recap

acu-connect gets you the info you need about the Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event

Right on schedule, Acumatica launched their latest release of the powerhouse Cloud ERP software at their Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event. As you would expect from the cloud innovators, this was yet another massive release. Packed with features and updates to the industry editions and the UI, Acumatica proved all over again that they truly listen to their customers and quickly deliver innovative, useful solutions to meet their customers’ needs. Let’s jump right in to our Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event recap, shall we?

Flying High with Acumatica in the Clouds

Flipping the script on the typical virtual event setup, Acumatica began their 2020 R2 Launch Event with CEO Jon Roskill transmitting live from the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Roskill took a few moments to introduce us to some of the aeronautics industry’s top firsts throughout the hour-long Launch Event keynote, where we learned about how big innovations in the past required thought leadership, seamless collaboration, and innovative thinking. Not only were the stories and venue fascinating, the message came through loud and clear in these unprecedented times we are living in right now. With Acumatica as their toolkit, companies across the globe have successfully achieved the thought leadership, seamless collaboration, and innovative thinking that helped them thrive in the new normal. And we mean thrive; according to Roskill, at least one Acumatica client grew over 3,000% in a matter of weeks! So, what do innovative, collaborative Acumatica customers need? Acumatica’s always-upbeat product demo duo, Doug Johnson and Jessica Gadbois, were there to introduce the latest features, many of which were drawn from customer feedback.

The Latest from Acumatica Cloud ERP

The latest release touched every aspect of Acumatica Cloud ERP, as you can see:

For the keynote demo in the Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event, we got to see, live, how Acumatica 2020 R2 has implemented new:

• Usability updates
• Commerce edition functionality
• Construction and Field Service functionality
• Cross-company sales functionality
• Workflow configurations
• AP workflow automation

Usability Updates

At Acumatica Summit 2020 in January, the Acumatica team presented a dashboard update that helped dashboard tiles update faster when a user refreshed their screen. In 2020 R2, the Acumatica team upped the ante by setting dashboards to auto-refresh, even if the user hasn’t updated their screens. This can help with displays on kiosks, sales floors, or shop floors, as we can see here with this auto-refreshing dashboard seen “in the wild”:

In addition, the Cloud ERP team delivered a new Address Lookup and Enrichment tool that helps you enter in addresses for leads quickly and easily, so you can ensure you have accurate, up-to-date CRM data.

Frequently distracted in your WFH environment? Acumatica 2020 R2 includes a new tool that helps users return to their most recent task: the Recently Viewed tool. To find it, simply click the new button that looks like a timer, located to the right of the Search toolbar in Acumatica. All recent work will be displayed in reverse chronological order, with categories listed on the left side for better search.

Also new to 2020 R2: Easier Generic Inquiry creation! In the latest release, creating a new Generic Inquiry is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Click “Add New Record”

2. Select tables you want to include using point-and-click functionality that takes care of all the table relationships for you. (These self-joining tables are a game changer!)

3. Adjust your displayed fields and columns using the new Preview function that instantly updates as you make changes. (In the image below, the preview of the new query is on the right.)

Commerce Edition Functionality

At Acumatica Summit in January 2020, the Cloud ERP team announced big news: native eCommerce integration with BigCommerce. Now the team has extended that functionality to include a Shopify integration, plus additional third-party connectors, so your Acumatica ERP can be the control hub for all your online sales platforms. In other words, you no longer have to log in to multiple sites to update your eCommerce listings – you can do it all right from inside Acumatica!  Here’s a small sampling of what that means for you and your workflow:

• You can view online sales on dashboards in real time in Acumatica.
• You can edit product prices, discounts, descriptions, video, and images in Acumatica.
• You can view KPIs and other critical sales, shipping, trends, and other data in Acumatica. 

In addition, the Commerce Edition now offers integration with the new Acumatica Point of Sale (Acumatica POS) tool, which delivers the complete omni-channel experience by tying together online, over-the-counter, and phone ordering for retailers. Acumatica is the first ERP company to deliver a fully native solution like this for retailers with:

• Real-time inventory availability
• Multi-location capabilities
• Back-end warehouse management tools, such as barcoding
• Easy returns handling, anywhere your customers are
• Customer-specific pricing support
• Advanced inventory management for seamless stocking
• Customer management tools that can help boost sales

The new updates have also improved shipment tracking, refund processing, and buyer notifications, helping to ensure that you have happier, better informed customers every day. We agree, the new Commerce Edition updates announced at the Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event are incredible.

Construction and Field Service Functionality

Sometimes work projects don’t go the way you planned them. At Summit 2020, Acumatica announced key new field service functionality that made it possible to schedule work and track travel time easily but — you guessed it — the Cloud ERP has added even better functionality since then. This new functionality makes it a snap to adjust to the unexpected from right in the field. As their example, Doug and Jessica took on the roles of project manager, accountant, and field employee showing up to a construction site to begin a multi-day satellite installation. The field employee tracked his travel time and his crew’s before reaching the site… but once they were at the site, it became clear that they didn’t have the necessary parts to complete the job. This is where the magic comes in.  Normally in these situations, work would be disrupted until the parts could be ordered but, with Acumatica Construction and Field Service editions, the construction worker or field tech has the power to:

• Drive to the hardware store to get additional parts (and expense gas costs direct from the field using the Machine Learning expense capture function debuted at Summit)

• Find a new satellite part directly from mobile; and

• Create a PO for the satellite part, direct from mobile 

Once all those tasks have been completed, the construction worker (or field tech) can pause work while waiting for a response from HQ. With Acumatica’s real-time updates, work doesn’t have to be paused for long. Since everything on the cloud ERP is fast, HQ can instantly access the construction worker’s PO and expense receipt in real time and approve the new parts.

Once approved, work can start back up, so the project can stay on track. Additionally, the new R2 2020 helps ensure accuracy of contract caps with retainage allocation enhancements in the Construction Edition.

Cross-Company Sales Functionality

Perhaps your company has discovered an increased need for cross-company transactions in the new normal? At the Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event, the Cloud ERP team debuted new functionality that helps companies with multiple branches complete cross-company sales in record time. With 2020 R2, your business can:

• Provide a service from one branch to another
• Sell goods cross company
• Invoice bills internally, with markup, taxes, and audit-ready documents accounted for

This flexibility is due to the new option in Acumatica 2020 R2 that empowers you to make a cross-company entity a customer with a quick click, and then create AP and AR invoicing easily from that update. The new cross-company functionality also delivers centralized account management for improved streamlining of sales and operations.

Workflow Configurations

Building on the success of the workflow configuration tool introduced at Summit 2020, Acumatica 2020 R2 adds more power to the configuration process with a new visualization feature that makes it a breeze to find and change states and transitions for your workflows.

In the following example, watch how the original Sales Order screen is quickly and easily modified to display a different default status and hide VAT information that is unnecessary in the U.S. Here is the original Sales Order screen. The status is “Open” and two VAT categories are visible:

After accessing the easy-to-visualize and colorful workflow configuration setup, the Acumatica demo team was able to quickly change the default status…

… and hide the VAT sections.

In the following image, you can see how the new Sales Order screen displays the default status of “On Hold” and hides the VAT sections:

AP Workflow Automation

If you’ve attended an Acumatica event before, you know they always save the best for last. The Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event delivered on this expectation by unveiling new machine learning and AI capabilities that can save companies hundreds of hours on manual AP billing entry. As Doug and Jessica demonstrated live, Acumatica 2020 R2 users can send PDFs of AP bills directly from their email to Acumatica using the Outlook plugin, where the ERP will leverage the machine-learning-powered recognition tools to auto-detect vendor names, dates, quantities, amounts, and other relevant information contained in the bill.

If the automated process fails to identify relevant information, AP users can simply click the area on the bill to fill in the data (in most cases), after which it only takes a quick visual scan to validate that the captured informationis correct before clicking to enter it into AP. If the bill is a paper bill, only one extra step is required: users must scan the bill into their system first. So simple!

Additional Enhancements to Acumatica 2020 R2

After the keynote, the Acumatica 2020 R2 Virtual Launch Event separated into multiple breakout sessions with additional release announcements, such as:

• Quality Management for Acumatica – Manufacturing & Distribution

2020 R2 users can now track production outputs and move products to market faster with embedded, third-party Quality modules. Also, the Manufacturing and Distribution Editions now include improved money management capabilities: