Nonprofit News by Soft Trac

In the past, outsourcing payroll duties was a good option especially if your organization had limited resources and time. A staff member provided essential information about your organization and employees and the payroll service took care of generating the checks, making the tax payments, filing tax returns and distributing the year-end forms.

If you have a small payroll of less than ten people with few programs or departments, that still remains a good option. However, as payroll software technology has advanced, we are seeing many organizations re-evaluating the benefits of bringing their payroll in-house.

One such organization is a client of Soft Trac with approximately 150 employees. According to their Finance Manager, it made sense to study the differences between continuing to outsource versus bringing their payroll in-house. The study revealed that their payroll service was providing the core payroll services, but their accounting staff was still spending time in preparing the time records, maintaining employee information, reconciling payroll reports and doing journal entries.

On examination, they found that the Sage MIP Fund Accounting payroll module would allow their organization to take closer control over their costs while producing their own payroll. The MIP payroll provided them with options, such as labor hour reporting, integration to Allocations and Bank Reconciliation, and the ability to easily manage accrual entries. The Direct Deposit module allowed them to provide their employees with the same service as their payroll service company. In addition, they found that MIP payroll’s integration with Aatrix Software automated the federal and state tax reporting and eliminated the worries of manually filing tax returns and year-end tax forms.

In the final conclusion, their study revealed an annual cost savings of over $13,000. The cost savings they will realize in the first year alone, paid for them to add the payroll module with direct deposit and a fully integrated HR module.

Annual cost of payroll service (excluding inflation) $15,000
One-time Cost of MIP Fund Accounting Payroll Module,
Direct Deposit and Sage’s New HR Module $10,900
Annual Maintenance & Support Cost $1,300

Want help conducting your own cost analysis? Call Susan Campbell at 207-621-8556 for assistance. For more information about Sage’s MIP Fund Accounting Payroll or the Sage’s New HR Module, call Sandy Sherry at 207-221-6575 or Susan Campbell at 207-621-8556.

I came across a situation the other day where an organization had issued a payroll check to an employee who proceeded to not cash it and the organization had lost contact with the individual. The point of this story isn’t why they didn’t cash it (which in itself is a whole other thought) but rather what do you do when you’ve issued a check to someone and it doesn’t get cashed, you lose touch with the person and can’t locate them regardless of the many attempts.

As tempting as it is to just void the check and forget about it, there are proper procedures that should be followed. Each state will have different rules and you should check with your specific state for details, but in the State of Maine there is the “Maine’s Unclaimed Property Act”.

In Maine, if you have property belonging to another person and you’ve held it for the required dormancy period (which ranges from 1 to 15 years depending on the property) it should be reported as unclaimed property to the state.

For specific details on the required dormancy period or how to report unclaimed property to the State of Maine visit: http://maine.gov/treasurer/unclaimed_property/report_property/index.html

As for what to do in Sage MIP Fund Accounting will depend on whether it is an AP check or a Payroll Check.

If it is an AP check, you would want to void the check, referencing it as a lost check. This will clear it out of your bank reconciliation. This entry will debit cash and credit AP. Now you need to reverse the invoice. Then enter a new invoice to the Treasurer, State of Maine referencing the unclaimed property and the appropriate information about the
original check. When you cut the check to the Treasurer it will clear out AP leaving you with the debit to the expense and a credit to cash.

If it is a Payroll check it’s a little more complicated as you can’t void the check because it will impact your tax reports and those were reported correctly. So you’ll need to create a journal entry debiting cash and crediting a liability such as Due to State. Then when you are ready to send the money in to the state you’ll enter an invoice debiting the Liability “Due to State” and crediting AP. When you cut the check the AP will be debited and cash credited.

Hope this find you well. Here are some Sage Knowledgebase articles regarding tax forms to order and a useful PR Q&A article.

Please note that if you want to use Aatrix to file forms for you, you can set up an account with them. Find their web site in the Sage MIP Aatrix Q&A attached.

Regards,

Sharon Blakeslee
Nonprofit Accounting Specialist
Soft Trac, LLC
207.221.0342

MIP Tax Forms Article 296550

W-2-Red Copy 273286

PR Tax Calc QandA 303703

The utility found in the Administrations module is designed to reduce the size of the database. This is not for the weak at heart. Depending on the size of the database to be compressed it could take quite some time to run. The compress utility can be run at anytime but requires exclusive use of the database. It does not remove any data, but it does remove the empty pages in the tables and also re-indexes the file to make it more efficient. In other words, the SQL script is run to reclaim space that was allocated to the database but not used.

Sage recommends that you at least run this utility when the database gets to around 1.5GB. Run all data integrity checks and make a backup of the database before using the compress
feature. After compressing the database run data integrity checks again. Check in with your IT folks to see what size the MIP database is and to see if your MIP database might need to be compressed. We recommend your database administrator run this utility at a scheduled time.

For my Sage MIP Fund Accounting Friends and Family. Wanted to share a neat new trick to deal with MIP v9’s printing issue: print to screen minimizing (drives us all nuts). So when you print to screen and the report minimizes, just double click on the blue bar on top of report and it will enlarge to full view. Thanks Paul.

Or you can wait for your IT folks to install version 10x.

As we watch the nonprofit software choices become more limited with yet another acquisition by Blackbaud we worry about nonprofits feeling as though they are being herded into what appears to be a company who thinks “one size fits all”. Last year it was GiftMaker Pro and eTapestry, now it’s Kintera along with their accounting product Fundware. If history continues to repeat itself, these nonprofits will be forced to make yet another change in software.

As these organizations begin to evaluate their choices we want to remind folks that one size does not fit all and it’s important to have software that fits your specific needs. As the market space changes we continue to reassure our clients that they are with an organization that puts the client’s needs first and foremost.

Sage Software is a world class software publisher understands that part of providing good customer support is having local experts to service their customers. Soft Trac has been specializing in nonprofit technology for over a decade and continues to partner with Sage Software to provide their Sage MIP Fund Accounting and Sage Fundraising solutions. With Soft Trac you are not just another name on the list. We work with you on a day to day basis, understand your mission and goals and are here to support you.

Based on Soft Trac’s years of experience Sage MIP Fund Accounting, Sage Fundraising and Sage FAS Nonprofit, provides the information you need to make decisions to keep your nonprofit organization functioning smoothly and to keep you focused on your mission.

Starting with the release of Sage MIP Fund Accounting v10, Sage recommends that customers upgrade their database engines to SQL Server 2005. This can be either the full version or the Express edition (included on the MIP v10 CD). SQL Server 2000 and MSDE 2000 will still be supported database platforms in v10. However, they are encouraging customers to upgrade to gain the following benefits:
• Better security
• Better performance
• Longer support life (from Sage and from Microsoft)
• Express edition includes SQL Server management tools that were previously only available in
full SQL Server.
Upgrading the database engine will require uninstalling MIP and SQL Server 2000 (or MSDE 2000) first. Instructions for upgrading will be included in the v10 installation instructions booklet. You may also view article #282603 in the knowledgebase at www.sagesoftwareonline.com or contact Soft Trac support atfor more information.

Under Reports>Vendor Activity there is a neat report capability that some of you may already know about. But for some of you Sage MIP users, who have not heard of it, read on.

If you select the canned report under Reports>Vendor Activity called you will see that it looks like a Check Register with the expense coding and the related invoices associated with the payment. The Filter Tab has the settings all set up but please feel free to make customizations. Also feel free to add in the Content Tab a page break by Program or Dept or both or maybe put Program in the body of the report! Have fun getting the report to look the way you want it to, or better yet, the way the auditor would like to see it.

I called my report “Check Register with Expense Coding” – not very original, I know.

Sage Software recently released version 9.0 of Sage MIP Fund Accounting, the latest version of its award-winning accounting software for nonprofit financial management. Enhancements to the product include: new tax forms and eFiling by Aatrix®, new recurring and reversing entry management functionality, enhanced fixed assets tracking and reporting, streamlined navigation and enhanced user interface, and additional payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and reporting functionality. For 25 years, Sage MIP Fund Accounting has been helping nonprofit and government organizations of all sizes track and report on multiple funds, across multiple budget periods; plan and manage budgets; maximize grants; and produce accurate, customized reports.
“The latest release of Sage MIP Fund Accounting includes several features, such as an easier-to-navigate interface and the Recurring and Reversing Entry Manager, that we told Sage Software would simplify our accounting processes,” said Rebecca Trevino, CPA, director of administration for The Railroad Commission (RRC) of Texas, an Austin, Texas-based regulatory organization. “We have been a Sage customer since 1996, because Sage MIP Fund Accounting is an outstanding fund accounting package. The software can handle any government structure that I have encountered.”

Krista Endsley, senior vice president and general manager for Nonprofit Solutions at Sage Software, said, “Sage MIP Fund Accounting, version 9.0, features stronger core functionality, while preserving the stability and reliability expected by our loyal nonprofit and government customers. This release debuts the product’s new user interface, and offers more tools designed to save time and effort for customers at all experience levels.”

New Version 9.0 Features

• New tax forms and eFiling by Aatrix® enables users of the Payroll module to quickly and easily produce W-2 and W-3 forms for employees, or eFile federal and state reports. Users can also review and file more than 250 federal and state tax forms and payments, which are automatically completed with their payroll data.

• Streamlined navigation and an easier-to-navigate interface enhance the user experience.

• New Recurring and Reversing Entry Manager can help save users time by allowing them to set up, edit, and manipulate repeat entry tasks.

• Enhanced tracking and reporting capabilities in the Fixed Assets module can help strengthen users’ audit trails.

Additional payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and reporting functionality, as well as audit controls were added to Sage MIP Fund Accounting.

“The new Recurring and Reversing Entry Manager will go a long way in making our repetitive processes easier and faster,” said Trevino. “It expedites many of the data entry functions, thereby enabling us to process more transactions with fewer staff.”

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