Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Don’t Forget to Audit Payroll!

All too often, I find that clients forget to run 5-3-7 Payroll Audit before preparing to pay their payroll tax liability or preparing payroll tax returns.  Payroll Audit is a handy utility that compares amounts actually withheld and accrued for FICA and Medicare Taxes with what should have been withheld.  It also identifies payroll records that have not been completely processed or processed with conflicting payroll quarters compared to payroll check dates. If you use the Repair option, the system will reconstruct the control totals on the employee records – this will correct any misposted or partially posted payroll records before it actually audits the payroll records. The Repair option takes longer than just running the Payroll Audit (this makes sense because it performs both the reconstruction of control totals and the auditing of payroll), but the extra time is usually worth it.  Always run the Payroll Audit with Repair and resolve any issues indicated, before computing the amount of payroll taxes to deposit or preparing payroll tax returns.
Since we’re talking about preparing payroll tax data, remember to always run your payroll tax reports by check date, not by period ending date.  The tax authorities want all of their payroll data reported by check date.

If you find that payroll audit errors exist, contact Sage Tech Support or call Mathieson Consulting at 480-471-5305 for assistance.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Current Version Information

The latest “recommended” version of Sage 100 Contractor is version 19.6.41, the release of which was announced on May 28, 2015.  Since then, there have been two “Optional” updates that contain payroll tax table updates for North Dakota, Connecticut, Ohio and Idaho, plus a couple of minor report fixes. You may want to consider the optional updates as well.

What’s Your Type?

Last month I wrote about creating a user-defined Purchase Order Type to help track and control materials returned to suppliers for credit.  Now, I’d like to review ideas for Types in the many areas where users can create their own:
  • 3-5 Jobs – Types can be created to categorize the work (e.g. painting vs drywall for an interior finishes subcontractor) or billing method (e.g. time and materials billing vs progress billing) of jobs. Less desirable uses of Job Types might be to use types to identify the salesperson, project manager or department as fields already exist for these purposes.
  • 3-6 Receivable Clients – Types can be created to categorize the clients for an organization. Options may be numerous, and input from management is often sought so that we can respond to data requests by client type. Options may include commercial vs. residential, multifamily property manager vs commercial general contractor, homeowner vs investor – anything management may find useful.
  • 4-4 Vendors – Types can be created to categorize the vendors for an organization. Vendor Types can be simple (e.g. suppliers, subcontractors, overhead vendors) or more detailed (lumber yard, plumbing supplier, excavation subcontractor, plumbing subcontractor, insurance, banking, employees, etc.). Consider how detailed vendor types can help an estimator, purchasing agent or project manager find “all the plumbers we have used in the past” when seeking quotes.
  • 6-4-1 Change Orders – Since change orders have several roles in Sage 100 Contractor, use Types to help separate them into their various roles – prime contract changes, internal budget adjustment changes, subcontract change order only, etc. Then use the Type as a report selection criterion when running a change order list report so that you only get the types of change orders you want in the list.
  • 6-6-1 Purchase Orders – In addition to a type for materials returned, types can be used to separate job materials purchases, overhead purchases and stock or inventory purchases.  If purchase orders are also used for subcontracts (rather than the 6-7-1 Subcontract module) a separate type for those may also be in order.  Types can be used as report selection criteria to ensure that job materials purchases print to a specific materials purchase order report form, and subcontract purchase orders print to a separate, subcontract-specific report form.
  • 6-7-1 Subcontracts – Types can be used in the subcontract module to relate specific specialized report forms to types of subcontracts. For instance, you may want to use different report forms for subcontracts that only provide subcontract labor, subcontracts that provide labor, installation materials and customer selected fixtures, or subcontracts that are for professional services like architectural and engineering services.  In each case, the report form may have different terms and conditions that are important to the user.
  • 6-11 Document Control – Types can be defined for several documents to relate them to specialized reports and report forms:
    • 6-11-1 Requests for Proposals
    • 6-11-2 Requests for Information
    • 6-11-3 Transmittals
    • 6-11-4 Submittals
    • 6-11-8 Correspondence
  • Each document has the option of creating user defined types that may be useful to your specific business.  For instance, you might have separate request for proposal forms for materials purchase quotes and subcontract quotes.  Requests for information might be categorized as those to an architect or engineer, versus those to the owner or owner representative. Correspondence might be categorized as to format – memorandum vs formal letter.  The possibilities are many.
  • 8-3 Equipment – Users of the equipment management module can create their own list of equipment types to categorize their equipment for reporting purposes.
Sage 100 Contractor is designed to be adaptable to most clients’ unique needs.  Take advantage of these options to make it work for you.  Contact Mathieson Consulting, LLC (480-471-5305) for more information or assistance.

About Master Builder Notes

Master Builder Notes is maintained by Walt and Gerry Mathieson, Sage Master Builder Certified Consultants. We have provided implementation, training and report writing services and general business advise to users of Sage Master Builder since 2000 and have over 30 years of real-world accounting and business management experience. While based in AZ, we use Internet tools and telecommunications to work with clients across the country. If you have Internet access, we are instantly available to assist you! To reach us, email to info@mathiesonconsulting.com or info@spcconsultants.biz.