** This article was originally sent to our Bennett/Porter clients via email on 4/9/2020 **

There has been no shortage of information in the last couple of weeks regarding COVID-19 and the Federal mandate about paying employees who are sick with the virus, have been ordered to stay home to self-quarantine, or have a family member who is affected by the virus and who the employee must take care of. Despite all of the information, there are still many outstanding questions employers are encountering as they administer the processes around this mandate.

In recent weeks, we’ve learned about multiple companies in the Portland area that have confronted some kind of embezzlement in their business. Embezzlement certainly isn’t unique to the type of software we sell and support – it can happen anywhere at any time.

Years ago, I was asked to testify to a Grand Jury about embezzlement at a public utility company. “How could that happen?” was the biggest question jurors wanted an answer to. Without explaining to you everything I explained to them, let me just assure you that it can and does happen. So, rather than telling you how to embezzle, this article seeks to provide information that might help prevent embezzlement.

Years ago, when software manufacturers would telephone our clients trying to sell them something they had not originally purchased, or a new item that had just been produced, we would tell clients, “Just ignore the man behind the curtain and call us if you have questions. We know how your system is configured better than anyone else, so please call us and just ignore the man behind the curtain.” (You know, The Wizard of Oz - in which the man behind the curtain was pulling all kinds of levers and pretending to be something else - someone much more knowledgable - than he actually was?)

We were recently notified that Sage Software will be directly calling our clients who have not yet converted from Sage 100 to Sage 100cloud, letting them know that Sage 100cloud is a “superior” product and has many features that Sage 100 does not.

And so again we say to you: “Just ignore the man behind the curtain.”

Sage Software will only be updating Sage 100 version 2018 and Sage 100Cloud version 2018 to accommodate the new, statewide Oregon Transit Tax, which goes into effect on July 1 of this year. As we mentioned in our preview last month, the Transit Tax is 0.1% of each and every Employee’s Withholding Wage, is to be reported quarterly, and is reported on a separate form that is not part of the Oregon OQ Quarterly filing. For Sage Payroll clients on versions 2014, 2015, 2016, or 2017 (or even older versions!), we’ve had to be creative to accommodate the new tax. For clients using Sage Payroll version 2018, you’ll receive the update automatically through the new 2018 Tax Engine at month end.

Bennett/Porter turned 30 years old in February of this year, and I certainly have seen a lot of changes in the last three decades. Our first Customer Conference was in 1996, and its centerpiece was the announcement that State of The Art (the original manufacturer of MAS 90 and now Sage 100) was moving their DOS program to a Windows-based one. It was a half-day conference held at the Lloyd Center Double Tree Inn, and I remember it like it was just yesterday. (Note that I was only 12 years old at the time, which is why I remember it so well.)

Even though it has been two years since Mollie crossed the Rainbow Bridge, we still refer to the calendar we send out each year as . And we’ve incorporated Mollie into the calendar once again this year; still as a tribute to her for the hundreds of photos she sat for to promote our business over the years.

My husband often tells me, “I can’t win.” He says that normally after we’ve had any kind of lively discussion when we have a difference of opinion. Not that it happens a lot. (You know, maybe four or five days a week or so.)

Here at Bennett/Porter, we recently changed service providers for one of our systems, and while I occasionally have clients that are upset with me for some reason or another (I know, I know – I’m shocked too!), I don’t think I’ve ever had a provider (a.k.a. ‘vendor’) that was upset with us. But it happened this month.

There are quite a few Payroll changes coming in 2017 – and you need to know about two major ones right away. The first is a fairly major change to the due date for employers to file:

• W-2’s and their accompanying W-3 forms, and
• 1099’s and their accompanying 1096 forms

In previous years, the deadline has been January 31 ^st for mailing the employee/vendor copy, and then the employer had until the end of March (if you were filing electronically) to file their copies with the Federal Government. The new due date for the employer to get their copies to the Federal Government is now January 31^st – regardless of whether you’re filing electronically or not. The IRS has been proposing this change for years, and it actually does make sense. Many employees file their tax returns before the Federal Government can cross check the employee figures with the employer figures. Apparently, the historical two-month delay between the two due dates has resulted in tax fraud and identity theft.

You’ve no doubt heard of The Cloud. You know…that invisible place where companies from Apple to Oracle want you to move all your digital stuff? Unfortunately, it can be difficult to separate marketing about The Cloud from cloud computing itself, and so it’s hard to decide if using the technology will benefit your organization. So let’s start with this question: What is cloud computing?

We started selling MAS 90 software in 1988 – when the manufacturer was State of The Art Software and before Sage Software acquired it. There was a DOS version and a Unix version, and you either purchased a single user license or a network license. We didn’t have "user licensing" in those days; you either had a network license or you didn’t. MAS 200 (which was a client/server version of MAS 90) was released in the mid-90’s, and that’s when the thought of licensing the software "by user" was introduced. And there were no annual maintenance agreements! If State of The Art came out with new features you were interested in using, you simply paid an upgrade fee to get that version.