Nonprofit News by Soft Trac

We have all heard a horror story (or two) about a nonprofit that became embroiled in a financial scandal. In addition to the public relations nightmare such things engender, organizations caught up in a scandal are forced to turn their attentions toward the crisis and away from the real work they are meant to be doing.
Here are a few simple procedures you can put in place in your fundraising office to help prevent fraud.
The Maryland Association of CPA’s recommends the following simple steps to help prevent fraud.
1. Spread financial duties, such as processing payments, making deposits, reconciling bank statements and handling petty cash out among several people in your department. If possible, you should rotate these duties between people.
2. Make sure that employees take a vacation of at least one week of consecutive days. This may heighten your chances of discovering irregular activities.

http://www.macpa.org/Content/23704.aspx

Tracy Coenen, CPA, recommends some of the following tips on her website:
• Safeguard physical assets, including data and money
• Implement an anonymous reporting mechanism to allow employees to participate in the reporting suspicious activity
• Monitor access to assets and data
www.fraudessentials.com

Sage recently posted an update to Sage Fund Accounting (formerly Sage MIP Fund Accounting). Version 10.2.11, is now available for download from the Sage MIP Fund Accounting Knowledgebase. The v10.2.11 download link as well as all of the detailed release information and installation instructions can be found within Knowledgebase article #311222.

You may access the knowledgebase article at www.sagesoftwareonline.com. After logging in, simply click the green “SUPPORT” button to be directed to the main support page, which contains a link to the Knowledgebase. If you are not already registered for Sage Software Online, click the “Register now” link on the login page.
As v10.2.11 is a cumulative update, it includes all of the updates (v10.2.7, v10.2.8, v10.2.9, v10.2.10 and v10.2.11) since the October 2010 release of v10.2.6.

The updates prior to v10.2.11 contain:
- The following federal changes:
• The Employee Social Security withholding rate was reduced to 4.2%.
• The Earned Income Credit option is no longer applicable.
• The withholding allowances and the percentage method income tax withholding tables were updated.
• The percentage method nonresident alien calculations were updated.
• The HIRE Act has expired effective 12/31/10; therefore, all HIRE Act benefit codes should be changed to Discontinued.

Changes in state withholding tax information for AZ, CA, CO, HI, KY, ME, MO, MI, MN, NM, ND, OK, OR, PR, RI, VT, IL and Palau.

Feature to credit the 2% excess employee social security withholding back to each employee if your organization ran payroll before installing v10.2.8 which was released on January 4, 2011 and you have not processed the credits manually. Please refer to Knowledgebase article #316443 for more details on how to set up and use this new payroll feature.
- Resolutions to customer reported issues.

The v10.2.11 contains the above updates and:
- New update makes accommodation for the reduction in the FUTA tax rate from 6.2% to 6.0% effective 7/1/2011
- Resolutions to customer reported issues (See aKB 317867 for more information on all resolved issues).

This article by The Associated Press appeared in the Kennebec Journal June 29, 2011.

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage says he’ll sign a bill to allow charter schools, putting Maine among the 40 other states that allow them.

The state Senate on Tuesday evening sent the bill to the governor’s desk after voting to give it final approval.

Charter schools were an issue during last fall’s election. Then running as the Republican candidate for governor, LePage made repeated promises to push for charter schools if elected.

The bill he’s signing, LD 1553, would allow no more than 10 public charter schools in the first decade. It would also limit the number of students who can attend them in the first three years to protect smaller non-charter public schools.

Charter schools are voluntary public schools that cannot teach religious practices and cannot discriminate against students or teachers.

Members of Community Action Agencies in Massachusetts and Connecticut attended this years annual conference on Cape Cod to learn about “Helping People in Turbulent Times”.

The 12th annual conference was presented by MASSCAP and CAFCA.

Soft Trac was pleased to be able to help the Community Action agencies in MA and CT by being a sponsor and attending this conference. Soft Trac’s staff shared information with attendees on how they can increase productivity across their communities by using solutions such as Sage Fund Accounting, Sage Fundraising, ETO by Social Solutions, and EZContentManager by ACOM.

It was a pleasure to sponsor and attend West Virginia Community Action Partnership’s 2011 Education Conference in Charleston, WV this week. Soft Trac provided information on Sage Fund Accounting, Sage Fundraising, ETO by Social Solutions, and EZContentManager by ACOM.

The WVCAP’s had the opportunity to learn more about Facing the Changes of Poverty through Community Action at the conference. This conference offered a little bit for everyone from Administration and Finance to Weatherization and Program Development.

Although the flight into the small Yeager airport was interesting, Charleston is a beautiful city that makes you feel like you are visiting a small rural community. The 84 degree weather was also a welcome change.

Soft Trac, LLC has partnered with ACOM to bring you a simple, high-impact Document Management solution that will immediately increase productivity in your Non-Profit organization. Never leave your desk to find — or file — a document again! Instantly capture/index/store/retrieve/share documents, remotely or right from Sage MIP Fund Accounting Eliminate paper with a complete document automation solution, including workflow and imaging Automate GL code entry, eliminate manual processes and errors Save Money, Save Time, Boost Efficiency, Go Green Document Management built for your Non-Profit Seamlessly integrates with your Sage MIP Fund Accounting solution Secure, efficient electronic document filing system for all your organization’s documents and records Easy to learn and easy to use — begins generating real value from day one Don’t Miss Our Quick 30-Minute Webinar: Soft Trac and ACOM present: Document Management, built for your Non-Profit! Go Beyond Paperless…right from your Sage MIP Fund Accounting screens! Tuesday, May 10, 2011 1:30-2:15 PM EDT LEARN MORE: Reserve your Webinar seat now at: www1.gotomeeting.com/register/693297216 Request Free information Packet at: www.softtrac.com/contact_us.asp

 

The RIDE UPLOAD UTILITY FOR MIP, developed by Soft Trac LLC for Charter Schools and Collaboratives in Rhode Island, has been enhanced to provide greater flexibility of reporting.

Enhancements include the following:

• Ability to enter the Fiscal Year Begin date. This eliminates the need to close the prior fiscal year before reporting on the current year.
• Option to exclude budget in the upload.
• Ability to code revenues for internal reporting needs while still meeting RIDE’s coding requirements.
• Allows schools to allocate Unemployment and Workers Compensation Insurance same as with other payroll benefits and still meet the RIDE requirement for summarized reporting..
• Allows schools the flexibility to allocate Advertising based on school’s needs, but send data to RIDE per their requirements.
• All Balance Sheet object codes (Assets, Liabilities and Equity) will be coded to meet RIDE’s guidelines.
• Validation (Valid EXP Codes button) verfies accuracy of Expense coding against the Account Code Combination table in MIP.
• Export to Excel – user can now export final file to Excel for ease in reviewing the data before uploading to RIDE.
• Reporting Period and Budget Version have been added to the Report Header

The utility was developed by Soft Trac for the Rhode Island Charter Schools and Collaboratives who use the Sage MIP Fund Accounting Software.

For more information:
Call 207.221.0340
Email darla@softtrac.com

Soft Trac LLC is pleased to announce that it is partnering with ACOM Solutions, Inc. to bring its Sage Fund Accounting clients EZContent Manager.

EZContent Manager is a richly featured, fully web-enabled solution for automating and streamlining all aspects of Sage Fund Accounting document management storage, search/retrieval, distribution and retention processes, enabling the elimination of all or most paper documentation in office workflow.

About ACOM Solutions, Inc.
For over 27 years, ACOM has automated the document and payment processes for more than 4,000 organizations. ACOM’s solutions quickly bolt-on to an organization’s existing Sage/accounting/ERP system to extend that system’s capabilities and dramatically improve that organization’s efficiency by automating their manual, paper-based processes. By incorporating ACOM’s solutions into their product offerings, Value-Added Resellers (VARs) can easily bring this valuable set of additional cost-saving Sage/ERP enhancements to their clients.

About Soft Trac
Soft Trac is a consulting firm specializing in technology for nonprofits and governmental entities. Soft Trac offers a full range of professional services and software solutions to enhance the productivity of nonprofits and municipalities.

For more information:
Call: 207.621.8556
Email: sales@softtrac.com
Visit: www.softtrac.com

Wish you were automatically informed of new release versions of your software? Want to talk with other users? Want to help other users? Sign up for the Sage Nonprofit Community Forums to stay up to date with all things Sage Nonprofit.

1. To sign up, go to Sage Forums

2. Once you have created an account, you will need to visit the ‘My Profile’>’Organization Information’ section to edit your profile. In particular, you will need your organization’s account number, which Soft Trac can provide. Call us at 207.512.2709 or e-mail saadat.susan@softtrac.com to get this information if you don’t already have it.

4. Once you have completed this, go to the tab labeled ‘Community’ and choose the subtab ‘Forums’.

5. Click on the icon for e-mail or RSS Feed next to the forum(s) you are interested in to subscribe to an RSS feed or to have e-mails sent to you directly.

This ensures that you will be kept up to date with information relevant to your software products.
Note that if you are a person who is not likely to voluntarily visit the feed on a regular basis, you might be better off signing up for the e-mail subscription, as the e-mails will come directly to your inbox.