Nonprofit News by Soft Trac

The payment of vendors by credit card will require a clearing account with a Cash (CSH) type account, the use of Cash Disbursements to record receipts as expenses for vendors and finally recording AP invoices to vendors offsetting the credit card clearing account.

Set up Credit Card Clearing Account
1. From the Navigator select Accounting Setup.
2. From the Task Window select Chart of Accounts.

3. Click on New to create the new account.
4. Make sure the Segment is GL, Account Type is Cash and the Designation is APO.

Record cash receipts as expenses for vendors
To record the credit card receipts as expenses for your vendors you will need to use a manual Cash Disbursement (Transactions>Enter Cash Disbursements) session. This transaction will act as pseudo AP invoice by associating the vendor with the expense. In the cash disbursement transaction select the appropriate Vendor for Payee ID, debit the appropriate expense and credit the new Cash type Credit Card clearing account. When the credit card statement is received, you will record the Accounts Payable Invoices to the appropriate vendors, debit the Credit Card clearing account and crediting the expense.
1. From the Navigator select Basic Transactions.
2. From the Task Window select Enter Cash Disbursements.

3. Create a new session selecting the Credit Card Cash Account.

4. Record the document information including the appropriate vendor. Debit the expense and credit the Credit Card Cash Account.

When the credit card statement is received, record the vendor invoice in Accounts Payable. Debit the credit card clearing account and credit the appropriate accounts payable account.

You can then pay your credit card company with a check and you will be able to track your expenses by vendor using the Vendor Activity Report.

Are you trying to create Supplemental Pay Calculations for 2012 this week? If so, be sure you create your 2013 pay schedule for each processing group in the calculation.
To create pay schedules for 2013, go to Maintain/Processing Groups.
• Open the processing group.
• Go to the Pay Schedules tab.
• Type “2013” in the Year field.
• Fill in the first pay day for 2013, and the first period end date.
• Click Save.
Do this for each processing group that has a supplemental pay calculation to run.

If you need help please call Soft Trac at 207-221-0342

If you answer yes to any of the below questions, this resource article is for you!
   • Wishing you could save your organization money during your next audit?
   • Does the mere mention of Form 990 preparation leave you dazed and confused?
   • Does the thought of Form 990 exhaust you even before you take your first step?
   • Do you use Sage 100 Fund Accounting software?

The attached resources will provide you with easy to use steps that will result in a savings of time and money when working with your auditors or preparing for the submission of your Federal 990.

Sage FA 100 Report Groups is an easy to use tool that will aid you in assigning IRS 990 Line Numbers for Parts VIII, IX and X. Rather than assigning these line numbers individually to General Ledger accounts, Report Groups allows you to group multiple accounts and assign the appropriate 990 Line Numbers. Once this information is entered, use 990 Worksheet reports in the Accounting Module to print this information in preparation for the completion of IRS Form 990.

   • IRS 990 Form

   • Report Groups to create IRS 990 Line Numbers

   • Sage Form 990 Lines

   • 990 Worksheets in Sage 100 Fund Accounting

   • IRS Form 990 Instruction

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).

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.