Dundee Group Blog

Abra Suite Service Release 1 for the Q4 2011 Product Update Now Available

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:03:00 GMT

Service Release 1 for the Q4 2011 Product Update is now available on the web. This applies to versions 7.9, 9.0, and 9.1. Here is a summary of all the content included in this update.

Tax updates supplementing the Q4 Product Update:

Social Security Employee Withholding Rate Remains at 4.2% until 2/29/2012 due to Payroll Tax Holiday Extension
FSOC Limit set to $110,100
Railroad Tier I Employee Withholding Rate Remains at 4.2% until 2/29/2012 due to Payroll Tax Holiday Extension
Railroad Tier I, Tier II and UI Wage Base for 2012
State Withholding Tax Changes, Effective January 1, 2012 for the following:
- Delaware
- Hawaii
- Massachusetts
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
Tax Changes Effective January 1, 2012:
- Hawaii Employment Training
- Michigan Unemployment Taxable Wage Base Change
- New Jersey Family Leave Insurance Employee Withholding Rate Change
- New York State and Yonkers Withholding
- Ohio Miami East 5504 SD, Ohio Earned Income Tax Based
- Ohio Local Income
Montana Administrative Fund Tax Wage set to $27,000
Ohio Locals Municipality Code for Annual W2 Reporting to RITA for Tax Year 2011
PA Local LST taxes updated to correct rate.
Address field added. Versions 9.0 and 9.1 capture the address for each employment PSD NR code. (Sage Abra Suite version 7.x does not contain PA ACT32 mandated changes. Handle the reporting requirements manually by creating a multi-record custom detail to track the information.)

Electronic File Changes: (Apply the SR1 prior to creating the electronic file.)

· 1099 Electronic File Changes for Tax Year 2011

· Massachusetts W2 File Spec Changes for 2011

· Indiana EFW2 File Changes for Tax Year 2011

· Wisconsin EFW2 File Changes for Tax Year 2011

To download your Sage HRMS product update

1. Visit the Sage Customer Portal

2. Enter your Logon Id and Password (or sign up for a portal logon)

3. Select Payroll Tax Updates on the home page

4. Select the Product Update download specific to your Sage Abra Suite version

5. Right click and Save Target As to the appropriate file location

6. Unzip the files into a new directory

Note: It is necessary to access Abra Suite and run the 'Apply Legislative Update' from within System Tax Tables in order for Service Release 1 changes to take effect.

Please call Sage HRMS Support at 800-829-0170 for further assistance.

Free Webinar: Recent Court Case Rulings & What They Mean for HR

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:03:00 GMT

It's up to HR to ensure that hiring, discipline, and termination practices are compliant with the law. Otherwise, you could put your company at risk of incurring costly fines, penalties, and employee lawsuits. Sage is offering a live one hour webcast on the court rulings in 2011 and how they can affect you and your company. The webinar will be presented by Mary Anne Osborne and is free to attend.

January 24, 2012
11:00AM - 12:00PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
2:00PM - 3:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)

This webcast will review the 2011 dockets for HR related court cases. A brief background of each case will be presented along with the outcome and discussion of the specific implications on the administration within the Human Resources function. Focus will be on federal court findings, although specific state findings that are relevant to HR, setting precedence for future findings, will be covered.

Participants will learn:

Which U.S. Supreme court rulings affect human resources and what you should be doing to protect your company.
Which state case rulings are setting precedence for future rulings that might affect your business.
Which cases will be ruled upon in early 2012, so employers and HR departments can be vigilant in following cases specific to their business practices.

Who Should Attend:

Attendees should include Human Resource Managers and business professionals in the U.S. who desire to become more knowledgeable in how business will be affected by legal decisions passed on during 2011.

HR Recertification Credits:
This webcast has been approved for 1.00 (General) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute (www.hrci.org).

Presenter's Biography:

Mary Anne Osborne, SPHR

With over 30 years' experience in the HR field, Mary Anne is well prepared to help businesses find solutions to their most troubling HR-related dilemmas. Her HR experiences have elevated her from HR Representative to the VP level in a multi-state healthcare industry leader before beginning her own consulting business. Along the way she spent time honing her skills in Employee Relations, Staffing, EEOC, Organizational Development, Compensation and Training in the telecommunications, financial, automotive, higher education and healthcare industries.

Register Here

New Sage Abra Report - Form 940

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:29:00 GMT

As of fourth quarter 2011, a new form/report will be available for users of Sage Abra Suite using version 9.0x and 9.1x. This is the Form 940 including Schedule A. The form is located in Reports> Payroll>Year-End. There is an option for a Pre-Close Form 940 Report and the Form 940.

The Pre-Close Form 940 can be viewed after Trial Quarter Close has been run throughout the year for interim balancing. It is recommended to print this report each quarter as these totals are cumulative.

A new database, Employer 94011 (PR94011.DBF), will be populated during the fourth quarter of the Final Quarter Close process. This form is also available in Payroll>Processes>Edit Quarter/Year-End Forms. All fields will be available for edit. The following fields must be edited for values to appear on the Form 940:

Type of Return
For Overpayment option of Apply to Next Return or Send a Refund
Part 6—May we speak with your third-party designee?
Part 7—Sign here.

The most important item for this form to be correct is the selection of the earnings and deduction codes for the FUTA tax code. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has specific guidelines on what earnings and deductions should be reported on the Form 940. The information that appears on the Form 940 is based on the customer setup of the FUTA tax code. If these codes are not set up correctly, the amounts on this report may be incorrect.

Year End Training

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:01:00 GMT

As October draws to a close, you may have begun thinking about how soon Year End will be here. Payroll burdens will intensify, tax responsibilities will become paramount. Your Abra Payroll system is fully equipped to bring you from 2011 to 2012 smoothly, but are you confident in your ability to use it? Sage Software and Dundee Group know that the best way to have a smooth year-end transition is to have specific training on how to use the system. Tim will be teaching two confirmed year-end payroll classes this December; one in Boston, MA, and one in Herndon, VA. These classes are currently open for registration, and you can find the sign up forms on our Training Classes page. Sage is also offering a class in Irvine, CA, and although Tim will not be teaching that course, we have provided a registration page for those of you reading from the West Coast.

While these two classes are the only ones confirmed at this point, more can be scheduled. If you would be interested in attending a year-end training class if it were held somewhere else, contact us and let us know where and when you would be interested in. But don't put off contacting us, because the later in the year it gets, the more difficult it will be to schedule a new class.

The class, designed for Abra Payroll customers who are responsible for Year-End Payroll closing and preparing for the New Year payroll processing, will cover these topics:

Follow the year-end closing process flow
Identify year-end forms
Set up Abra for year-end processing and reporting
Utilize and prepare IRS forms and legislations
Update 2011 4th quarter tax release
Update final wages and tax liabilities
Close Abra payroll year 2011
List new year activities for 2012

Sage Abra Payroll Quarter 3 Tax Updates

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:36:00 GMT

Believe it or not, we've already reached the third quarter of 2011, and that means that the next round of tax updates is not available from SupportPlus Online. Here are the steps you need to follow in order to update your Abra Payroll.

Use these steps to download your quarterly tax update

Visit the SupportPlus log on page
Enter your User Name and Password (or register for a new member login)
Select Quarterly Tax Updates Available here
Select the Sage Abra Suite Q3 2011 Payroll Update download specific to your Sage Abra version
Follow the simple instructions to download the tax update

Here are some tips for a successful tax update:

Check your software version.
The Q3 2011 tax update is compatible with Sage Abra Suite v7.8, and Sage Abra Suite v9.0. You will need to select the Sage Abra Suite Q3 2011 Payroll Update download specific to your Sage Abra version.
Set aside enough time for the download.
Most of the time, downloading only takes a few minutes. But customers with a dial-up Internet connection may need to set aside about 30 minutes for the file transfer process.
Install your updates before running your trial quarter close.
The accuracy of your tax reports depends on having the most up-to-date tax tables loaded onto Sage Abra.
Let us know if you need help.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need technical help with downloading the Q3 2011 tax update.

Sage Extends Support of Abra 7.x for Another Quarter

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:25:00 GMT

As Sage moves into the future with Sage Abra Payroll, tax updates for the older versions of the software will cease. This means that those still using Sage Abra v7.X will need to upgrade to the latest version (v9.1 at the time of this post - read more about Abra v9.1 here). The cutoff date for Abra v7.X updates was previously January 2012, but Sage has now extended that date to the end of the first quarter of 2012. Those extra three months should help make everybody's transitions into the latest version easier. And remember, the upgrade from v7.X to v9.1 is included in your Sage support contract, so there's no new software to purchase.

Here's the official release from Sage:

To provide more opportunity for our customers on version 7.8 to upgrade their Abra product, we are extending the Quarterly Tax Update. Please review the updated schedule below. For users with Sage Abra Payroll functionality, the chart below provides the Quarterly Tax Updates schedule for a given period and supported versions of Sage Abra.

How To Enroll Employees In An ATS Maximus Time Clock

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:21:00 GMT

If you use the ATS Maximus clock, one of the most common tasks you will perform is enrolling new employees into the biometric scanner. In this short video, Matthew Roe, the training manager at EmpowerTime, will walk you through the simple steps of employee enrollment. And if you've been using the time clock for a while, you will find the cleaning instructions helpful for restoring full strength to your biometric finger scanner.

Here are the steps the supervisor must follow:

Step 1: Press the enroll key
Step 2: The supervisor should enter his or her unlock key when prompted
Step 3: Enter the employee's badge number
Step 4: The employee should place his or her finger on the scanner when prompted
Step 5: The clock will confirm enrollment

If the enrollment does not succeed on the first finger placement, the system will allow four more attempts before displaying "Enroll Failed." If you are having trouble getting fingers to scan, try cleaning the sensor as described in the above video. Try to avoid scanning thumbs and pinkies, as these fingers are not optimal for the scanner.

If you want to learn more about Maximus time clocks, or any of our other offerings, including the Optimus and the Prodigy, you can read about them here.

What's New In Sage Abra v9.1?

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:31:00 GMT

Sage has just released the 9.1 version upgrade for Abra Suite HR & Payroll. This upgrade for the Fox Pro version of Sage Abra Suite is included in your yearly support plan. If you are currently running Sage Abra Suite v9.0 or any of the 7.X versions, now is a great opportunity to move to the latest version of Abra.

Sage Abra version 9.1 offers customer-requested quality and usability enhancements in the HRMS, Payroll, and Sage Employee Self Service (Sage ESS) solutions. More key capabilities, including time-off management, advanced customization, and easy import and export capabilities, are now included with all Sage Abra HR installations. Customers who have Abra Workforce Connections (now Sage ESS) will appreciate powerful new features that make it easier than ever for HR professionals, managers, and employees to access information and make routine HR transactions.

The 9.1 upgrade includes a number of new features, including

Support for Active Directory eliminates the need for multiple logons.
Usability enhancements include the ability to to track documents, track documents used to complete an I-9 Form and hide inactive codes.
The employee self-service module, formerly Abra Workforce Connections (AWC) has been given a new, fresh interface, and now goes by the intuitive name Sage Employee Self Service
Manager’s Time Off Calendar in Sage ESS provides managers with a monthly view of their employees’ time off.
Sage ESS Mobility lets employees and managers complete common tasks anytime, anywhere.
Sage Crystal Dashboard Design—an optional, easy-to-use data visualization tool—enables you to create your own dashboards in Sage Employee Analytics.

Sage will be running a free, hour-long webinar to demonstrate the new features of Sage Abra Suite v9.1. For your convenience, this webinar will take place on four dates at 2:00pm EST (11:00am PST). The dates for the webinar are:

Tuesday, August 30th
Tuesday, September 13th
Tuesday, September 20th
Tuesday, October 4th

Click here to sign up for the webinar!

If you are still running a 7.X version, here are some videos of just a few of the features you're missing from Abra Suite v9.0.

A new sharper user-interface

An enhanced search function

Ten Tips For Social Media Action

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:45:00 GMT

Everybody is talking about social media today. Facebook has over 750 million active users, YouTube is the #2 search engine on the web, and Google just launched their own social networking site, Google+. But while it's obvious that social networking is a big deal, it's not nearly so clear how or if businesses and non-profit organizations should be engaging in it. The simple answer is "Yes, you should be," but the complicated answer takes a bit longer to explain. Thankfully, the great people at Sage Non-Profit have put together this free webinar that covers ten tips for getting your foot in social networking door, and what you should be doing once you get established.

Although the webinar was created with non-profit organizations in mind, these are actually general tips apply equally to any organization or business. The first four tips are:

Claim Your Name
Complete Your Profiles, Completely
Listen
Old Etiquette Rules Still Apply

Want to learn the other six tips? Click here to sign up for the free webinar! This is a pre-recorded webinar, so you can view it at your leisure and as many times as you wish.

Upcoming Webinars About Backgroud Screening

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:31:00 GMT

Over the next three days, Sage will be running a webinar called Trust But Verify: The Pluses and Minuses of Background Screenings. The hour-long webinar will be at 2:00 PM EST (11:00 AM PST) on Tuesday, June 28th, and 1:00 PM EST (10:00 AM PST) on Wednesday & Thursday, June 29th & 30th.

Here are the details of the webinar from the Sage website. If you want to sign up for any of the three free sessions, please click here.

Legal challenges, theft, endangerment, and negligent hiring claims are all on the rise. Employers are being penalized by juries for failing to make effective inquiries into candidates' backgrounds while the EEOC is scrutinizing employers for being extreme in conducting background investigations. During this live webcast, HR professionals will learn how to walk the balance beam between the courts and the EEOC, while protecting their business, employees, customers, and the public at large.

Participants will learn:

- Who should perform background checks and why
- What should be included in a background check and under what circumstances
- How to choose a background screening partner
- The impact of the EEOC on background checks

Who Should Attend:
HR Generalists, Recruiting and Staffing Specialists, and Managers responsible for making hiring decisions.

HR Recertification Credits:
This webcast has been approved for 1.00 (General) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute (www.hrci.org).

Certificates of completion will be provided upon request only to individually registered attendees. Attendance for the full webcast hour is required to receive recertification credits (partial credits cannot be provided). Groups of people participating in the webcast together must be registered and attend the webcast individually to receive certificates. Certificates will be sent via email to registered attendees in PDF form within 30 days of validated attendance.

Presenter's Biography:

Mary Anne Osborne, SPHR

With over 30 years' experience in the HR field, Mary Anne is well prepared to help businesses find solutions to their most troubling HR-related dilemmas. Her HR experiences have elevated her from HR Representative to the VP level in a multi-state healthcare industry leader before beginning her own consulting business. Along the way she spent time honing her skills in Employee Relations, Staffing, EEOC, Organizational Development, Compensation, and Training in the telecommunications, financial, automotive, higher education, and healthcare industries.

IRS Increases Standard Mileage Rate to 55.5 Cents per Mile

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:40:00 GMT

Today, June 23rd, the Internal Revenue Service announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2011. Taxpayers may use the optional standard rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business and other purposes.

The rate will increase to 55.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven from July 1, 2011, through Dec. 31, 2011. This is an increase of 4.5 cents from the 51 cent rate in effect for the first six months of 2011, as set forth in Revenue Procedure 2010-51. In recognition of recent gasoline price increases, the IRS made this special adjustment for the final months of 2011. The IRS normally updates the mileage rates once a year in the fall for the next calendar year.

"This year's increased gas prices are having a major impact on individual Americans. The IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the recent increase in gas prices," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. "We are taking this step so the reimbursement rate will be fair to taxpayers."

While gasoline is a significant factor in the mileage figure, other items enter into the calculation of mileage rates, such as depreciation and insurance and other fixed and variable costs.

The optional business standard mileage rate is used to compute the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business use in lieu of tracking actual costs. This rate is also used as a benchmark by the federal government and many businesses to reimburse their employees for mileage.

The new six-month rate for computing deductible medical or moving expenses will also increase by 4.5 cents to 23.5 cents a mile, up from 19 cents for the first six months of 2011. The rate for providing services for charitable organizations is set by statute, not the IRS, and remains at 14 cents a mile.

The new rates are contained in Announcement 2011-40 on the optional standard mileage rates, which you can read by following this link. Taxpayers always have the option of calculating the actual costs of using their vehicle rather than using the standard mileage rates.

Mileage Rate Changes

Purpose	Rates 1/1 through 6/30/11	Rates 7/1 through 12/31/11
Business	51	55.5
Medical/Moving	19	23.5
Charitable	14	14

Adding Employees and Supervisors to HandPunch Clocks

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:25:00 GMT

HandPunch clocks from Recognition Systems, Inc. are a popular choice with the EmpowerTime (formerly Unitime) Automated Timekeeping System. Many of our own clients have selected these hand geometry clocks for their EmpowerTime System. There are over 100,000 of these devices in the market today. HandPunch Biometric time clocks scan the size and shape of the employees' hands to verify their identities each time they punch.

In order for employees to punch on a HandPunch clock they must be enrolled on the clock. A clock supervisor is someone that you designate to enroll employees. Note the following instructions can be followed once you have an initial clock supervisor set up and if you haven't changed your password menu. If you're enrolling for the first time or have changed your passwords, touch base with us and we can help.

Adding Clock Supervisors (Individuals who manage the time clock)

The following steps are performed by an existing clock supervisor:

Press CLEAR and ENTER simultaneously
Input Badge #
Scan hand for verification
Input 4 when prompted for Password and press the Enter button
Select NO when the display prompts ADD EMPLOYEE
Select YES when the display prompts ADD SUPERVISOR

The following steps are performed by the new clock supervisor

Input Badge # and press the Enter button
Place the right hand in the reader and make sure no indicator lights are lit
Remove hand when prompted
Repeat hand scan twice more as prompted
You will receive a successful enrollment message

Press CLEAR to exit the enrollment menu

Adding Employees

The following steps are performed by an existing clock supervisor:

Press CLEAR and ENTER simultaneously
Input Badge #
Scan hand for verification
Input 4 when prompted for Password and press the Enter button
Select YES when the display prompts ADD EMPLOYEE

The following steps are performed by the new employee

Input Badge # and press the Enter button
Place the right hand in the reader and make sure no indicator lights are lit
Remove hand when prompted
Repeat hand scan twice more as prompted
You will receive a successful enrollment message

Press CLEAR to exit the enrollment menu

Sage Abra Payroll Quarter 2 Tax Update

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:16:00 GMT

The quarterly tax update for Sage Abra Payroll is now available from SupportPlus Online. Following these steps will help you update your payroll system.

Here are some tips to ensure the success of your update

Check your software version.
The Q2 2011 tax update is compatible with Sage Abra Suite v7.8, and Sage Abra Suite v9.0. You will need to select the Sage Abra Suite Q2 2011 Payroll Update download specific to your Sage Abra version.
Set aside enough time for the download.
Most of the time, downloading only takes a few minutes. But customers with a dial-up Internet connection may need to set aside about 30 minutes for the file transfer process.
Install your updates before running your trial quarter close.
The accuracy of your tax reports depends on having the most up-to-date tax tables loaded onto Sage Abra.
Let us know if you need help.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need technical help with downloading the Q2 2011 tax update.

Use these steps to download your quarterly tax update

Visit the SupportPlus log on page
Enter your User Name and Password (or register for a new member login)
Select Quarterly Tax Updates Available here
Select the Sage Abra Suite Q2 2011 Payroll Update download specific to your Sage Abra version
Follow the simple instructions to download the tax update

Three Keys To Growing Donations

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:12:00 GMT

After spending a week looking at five myths that might be holding your organization back from developing a robust online donation strategy, you might be wondering what kinds of proactive steps you can take towards growing your donation pool. Jason Falls, public relations and communications expert, provides some interesting and compelling ideas about helping nonprofit organizations develop a strategy that will grow your network of financial giving. On his blog, Social Media Explorer, he presents 3 keys to nonprofit success that are well worth paying attention to, whether you raise funds online or not.

The Three Keys

In the opinion of the Falls, a good nonprofit strategy must include 3 important components as follows:

Have a compelling story to tell

Make a specific ask or establish a specific goal to reach

Make it astonishingly easy to give

The first of these three key components is the most important so let’s take a closer look.

A Compelling Story

Some of the most seasoned, well-spoken and intelligent advocates talk for hours about the importance of supporting their cause. They are passionate about the subject matter and supply you with fact after fact to convince you to donate. Then they wonder why people don’t immediately pull out their check books.

It’s because their knowledge and facts don’t include a compelling story. A nonprofit needs to find an emotional connection with their audience. When you see starving children on television and the desperation in their eyes, you’re compelled to write a check and help out. When someone shares a personal story about breast cancer and persuades you to think about your mother, sister, wife, or other relative, it can be powerful motivation to make you want to support the cause. Nothing is more compelling than a great story and every nonprofit has one (or several).

Make a Specific Ask

If you’re goal is to “Raise Money,” then it’s difficult for donors to see a tangible result of their contribution. On the other hand if your goal is to provide “1 week of meals that serves 10 people in need within your community,” donors feel like their contributions are being put to good use.

Make it Easy to Give

The third component of growing your donations is where technology comes into play: Making it easy to give. Sage Fundraising Online is one option available to your organization to make sure that your supports can give easily to your cause. Creating custom tailored donation forms for your website may be the most obvious way that SFO can help your donations, but have you considered using those tools to help your live events as well? From having laptops open at your speaking engagements to creating specific forms for smartphones, there are a nearly unlimited number of ways you can use the tools that SFO provides to make things easier and more streamlined for your donors. And remember, the better the experience they have, the more likely they are to tell their friends and to donate in the future.

Keith Ross of Dundee Group hosts monthly webinars explaining Sage Fundraising Online. If you would like to see a live demonstration of this tool and some of the things it could do for your business, click here to see the date of the next free webinar.

Click here to read the full article “Three Keys to Nonprofit Success in Social Media.”

Busting Myths of Online Fundrasing: Myth #5

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:33:00 GMT

Dundee Group is now equiped to help non-profits bring in money as well as slow the outward flow. Sage Fundraising Online, a new software solution from Sage North America, will give organizations the tools to quickly, professionally, and inexpensively raise money using the internet.

We're going to be discussing all that you can do with Sage Fundraising Online in the next couple of weeks, but first we want to address some myths that you may have heard about fundraising on the internet. Check back every day this week for the truth about online fundraising!

Myth #5: Raising 10 percent of all gifts online is a great goal.
In January 2008, the Barack Obama campaign raised $28 million online—88 percent of the total funds raised. In fact, on one day that same month, the campaign raised $525,000 online in one hour. Many political campaigns, like most fundraising organizations, consider raising five to 10 percent of all funds online to be a success. But the incredible results of the Obama campaign should force many fundraisers to rethink those expectations.

Granted, most organizations don’t have the marketing power of a presidential candidate, or the deep financial and staff resources. But, there are two things the Obama campaign does that any organization can do: first, any organization can commit to making the Internet a major point of engagement with supporters; and second, any organization can commit to offering a variety of messages and giving options.

As a final thought, consider this year as an opportunity. The vast social shift happening online will create winners and losers. Organizations that set high goals and truly commit to online fundraising will reach and retain more donors in the coming years. Be one of the winners.

You can read all five myths in a PDF on our website, or learn more about Sage Fundraising Online! Keep reading next week for information about this new software and what it can do for your non-profit organization.