The Social Housing User Group for Sun Systems (SHUGSS) is planning a new series of (free) meetings and will be covering useful topics for you as a user of SunSystems.

SHUGSS is organised by Phillip Hunter, Philip Jude and John McNeilly to help users of Sun in the Social Housing Sector.

A key purpose of the user group is to provide an exchange of knowledge between users of SunSystems and ensure that users are aware of the latest events in relation to Infor FMS SunSystems. We want to encourage an open forum in a non-sales environment where the agenda will be driven by members of the user group.

For further information or to find out more about the next event please contact Phillip@hunter-consulting.co.uk or call him on 07973 839935.

There have been many developments in the Sun arena since the last SHUGSS meeting. We have selected the following topics for consideration over the next series of meetings. We are always interested in finding other areas that attendees want to address, so if you have a burning issue you would like some help with, please let us know.

Topics

1. A look at the newest version of Q&A/Vision. The name is a bit of a mouthful, but what does it do better and what doesn’t it do (yet?)?  BI Q&A 11
2. If you have a responsive repairs system and Ipos (the Professional Advantage purchase ordering system), you may be able to process commitments and accruals using Ipos, and post purchase invoices through Ipos rather than your housing system. We will discuss the availability of an Interface from Housing Responsive Repair systems to Ipos, and consider other purchase ordering systems if attendees suggest interest.
3. Assembling the budget entirely through Excel can lead to some very complex and sometimes unreliable linked spreadsheets. A better way is to build up the budget by storing the data in one of the ten Sun budget ledgers and revise it there. There are some large and powerful Budget Forecasting tools, including from Infor, but for simple budget re-forecasting and upload to Sun you can use a clever combination of Q&A, Excel and Sun. The meeting will consider two approaches: -
1. Using the tools you already have – Q&A and Sun (with some macros)
2. Looking at a sophisticated tool – such as Infor’s Infor dEPM or Adaptive Insights
4. The latest version of Sun, 6.3, looks different to earlier versions. We will show you how different it is and whether it will be easy for your users to use without extensive training on the new look and feel.
5. At the Housing Finance Conference in Liverpool, there was interest in Risk Management and whether Infor had a product. It does and is called Approva. Are the User group members interested in finding out about it?
6. Some RPs are considering Web Hosting for their Finance and other systems. We will consider two common approaches –
1. Your systems and software you have already licensed running on someone else’s hardware or
2. Software as a Service where you rent the software which is hosted by the software author.
7. Many Housing users of Sun also use some of the companion products from Professional Advantage. We will invite PA in to update us on the latest developments.
8. How to amortise Grant if you have the Sun Fixed Asset register – outside the depreciation calculation.

What is SHUGSS?

The Social Housing User Group for Sun Systems was started by Phillip Hunter, Philip Jude and John McNeilly, all accountants, to provide a free opportunity for Housing Finance professionals to learn about developments and Tips and Tricks to help them in their use of the Sun Finance system. Sun is very widely used in the Housing sector and the intention is to improve its use so you get more out of it and the companion products.

Phillip, Philip and John are consultants, very experienced in setting up Sun and Q&A/Vision reporting and related products for purchase ordering, bank reconciliation, sales invoicing, emailing remittances, electronic payments and inquiries.

How do I join?

You don’t have to join, you just say you are interested in coming along to a meeting by responding to this email, with “interested” in the message. If you think someone else in your organisation may be more appropriate to attend, please forward this email to them.

When and where is the next meeting?

The next meeting will be held towards the end of May/Early June at the offices of a Housing Association in the South of England with good transport links. We have held meetings in the Midlands and will do so again if there is interest.

Typically, the meetings last until lunch time, when a buffet lunch is provided allowing attendees to network and ask additional questions one to one.