Here are my top five take-a-ways from my first experience representing Soft Trac at the New England Community Action Conference:

1. Our customers are awesome. I already knew this one but I loved the opportunity to meet many of our customers in person. It was a nice chance to introduce myself and talk to them about how things are going with their software. It’s always fun to meet people you’ve only talked to by phone previously. They never look like what you expect. And, I’m sure they thought the same about me.

2. People are friendly. I found the crowd to be engaged and interested in hearing about Sage Fund Accounting, Intacct, Sage Fundraising and Orange Leap. I enjoyed the chance to hear their stories and learn of opportunities for Soft Trac to help them achieve their mission.

3. Rush hour is hectic. Because our time with the participants was mainly during specific slots around their training sessions, our booth had super “busy times” and keeping up was challenging. I’m counting on my scrawled notes to trigger my memory so I can do all the promised follow up.

4. It’s a big group. It can seem small when you’re having one on one conversations but sitting in the banquet hall for lunch listening to the keynote speaker, David Bradley, Executive Director of National Community Action Foundation, with the entire group of conference attendees was eye opening.

5. Bring more candy!! While I did splurge on the warehouse club size bag of candy, I should have gone for two bags. My stash didn’t last until the end of the conference.

Thank you to all those participants who took the time to come by the Soft Trac booth and say hello. I enjoyed meeting you all!

It’s been a crazy busy week, but a good one. I had the opportunity to call many of our customers about our recent F9 webinar. I always enjoy the opportunity to talk to our existing customers to see how things are going with their software and discuss additional ways that Soft Trac can help them achieve their goals.

I’m going to have another opportunity next week to meet both existing customers and potential new ones. This opportunity will be in person and will be a new experience for me. I will be representing Soft Trac at the New England Community Action Conference. If you’re going to be attending the conference, please stop by our booth and introduce yourself. Most of my contact is through phone and e-mail so it will be a nice change of pace to meet people face to face. I’m excited for the conference and hope to see you there!

If you’d like more information on the New England Community Action Conference, please visit this link: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e74pduyb8ed23116&llr=dkuq6geab

I love my CRM. It’s not the specific CRM that I use that I hold in such high affection, it’s the ability it gives me to keep in touch with you, our customers to follow up as promised on the various requests and information you need from us to keep your organization running efficiently. We all need our productivity tools and for nonprofit organizations one that allows you to keep in touch with donors, past and future, on a consistent basis can make things run more smoothly. The right e-mail marketing program can really streamline staying connected with donors by automating your communications. And, with predefined templates as well as the ability to quickly import your own designs, getting up and going with e-marketing is a breeze.

As I write this, the lake has finally thawed and it’s raining not snowing outside my window so I know the warm days will start outnumbering the cold ones. And with spring comes opportunities to move fundraising events outside. It has never been more important for nonprofit organizations to have multiple tools in their fundraising arsenal and it’s critical to go beyond the “donate now” button and reach donors in new and creative ways. Organizations that reach out to donors through events and campaigns have considerably greater success in generating support. I’m curious as to what types of outdoor events your organization hosts. My brother is always looking for a reason to head to the golf course.

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.

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

Soft Trac, a consulting firm that specializes in providing software and services to nonprofits and governmental agencies, is seeking a self-directed, ambitious individual for the position of Nonprofit Software Consultant.

The Nonprofit Software Consultant will be responsible for providing implementation services, consultation, training and support for Sage Fund Accounting and other related software. The Nonprofit Software Consultant performs all aspects of a project, including but not limited to:

• Conducting discovery and planning meetings
• Providing quality training in a variety of settings including web, classroom and in person, often customized to meet the client’s needs.
• Providing consultative services to assist client with implementing best practices.
• Providing ongoing technical support on the software
• Planning and executing data conversions and integrations
• Providing Installation and upgrade assistance, as needed.

General Expectations:
The Nonprofit Software Consultant will work as part of a closely interconnected team to meet both customer and company goals. The Nonprofit Software Consultant is expected to be a valuable contributing member to Soft Trac’s team where sharing of knowledge, ideas, resources and best practices is a must.

Work Environment:
• The Nonprofit Software Consultant may work from Soft Trac offices in Falmouth, ME, with work-from-home flexibility as approved by management.
• Some travel is expected where projects require.
• The position is an “at will” position, and is classified “exempt” from hourly work rules.
• This is a full time position that may require more than a standard eight hour work day to meet customer commitments and internal billable targets.

Preferred Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or equivalent with 3-5 year’s work experience (or 5-8 year’s work experience if no Bachelor’s degree)
• Software implementation consulting experience
• Experience with Sage Fund Accounting and or equivalent as either an end user or consultant/trainer
• Nonprofit accounting knowledge or experience

Please submit resume and cover letter to executives@softtrac.com

Officially in June 2012 we’ll have written blogs for five years; yet we never really talked about who is Soft Trac and why we’re here for organizations like you.

At Soft Trac our mission is to make a positive difference in our community by focusing on the need of nonprofits, because we want your organization to do good, better. As a leading provider of knowledge in the nonprofit sector, we offer a verity of helpful services to help your organization do good, better. Also at Soft Trac our purpose is to help your organization operate more effectively with powerful tools such as: software, training and 24-hour support. It’s not just about doing good anymore – you have to do good better. And that means you have to make every dollar count and count every dollar.

In the next few weeks we’re going to have a series of blogs to show you the compassion it takes to grow a nonprofit to be more efficient, profitable, and transparent.

I wanted to share with you what I have learned about my new laptop and compatibility with Sage Fund Accounting. Earlier this year I got my new laptop, new MS Office, and new operating system. After playing around and getting used to the new interface, I found that I could not print in Sage Fund Accounting. It would close the application each time I tried. So I called Sage tech support and got the front line person and we tried all kinds of things. First we uninstalled my Cute pdf and Sage internal drivers. That didn’t work so we went to Change the User Account Control Settings to reduce to Never Apply (permissions stuff). That didn’t work either. We then set up a print driver call AMYUNI and applied it to our newly installed Sage Internal Printer driver. That was interesting but didn’t work.

Sage 2nd level support called me back and this is what worked: We went to Devices & Printers>Select MIP Internal Printer driver>Right click and chose Printer Properties. Go to Ports Tab, scroll down to AMYUNI and click on that port (if there is one) then click Apply.

I asked my new favorite 2nd level support person if there was a Sage KB article on this issue and he said ‘not yet.’

So the first tech person was really close to solving my mystery. He got me an AMYUNI print driver. But it was the 2nd tech person who knew that all we needed was to change the port on Sage Internal driver. Apparently, the new operating system doesn’t want to share the same port (i.e.: LPT1), so there was a conflict. Bet that happens a lot.