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.

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.

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.