Current Version Information

The latest version of Sage 100 Contractor is version 19.6.54, the release of which was announced on October 1, 2015. In addition to getting the most up to date tax tables, there are changes to the program to accommodate compliance with the Affordable Care Act.

Fall Maintenance

Look at the calendar! The end of the calendar year is fast approaching. There are a few things that Sage 100 Contractor users should start working on so that the end of the calendar year goes smoothly.

Affordable Care Act Compliance
Make sure you know what your responsibilities are for reporting and compliance with the Affordable Care Act. Check with your tax accountant and your benefits provider to get the best information about your responsibilities. Current versions of Sage 100 Contractor will generate the data and forms required.

Form W-2 Wage Statements
Make sure that your employee data is up to date. Verify employee addresses and social security numbers. Make sure your payroll account bank reconciliations are current and complete (and thus all payrolls are recorded), and investigate why payroll checks are still outstanding long past the time you would expect. Run the Payroll Audit (menu 5-3-7) and ensure that all errors are corrected. Discuss with your tax accountant what payroll calculations should be shown in which boxes on the W-2s.

I am a huge fan of the built-in Aatrix E-File feature, especially for W-2s. Aatrix will print and mail all employee copies of W-2s and will submit electronically the data to the Federal and State governments. All you need to print is the employer copy for your records and that can be printed to plain paper. With Aatrix E-File, you don’t have to order preprinted forms and special envelopes. The cost of the Aatrix E-File W-2s is so reasonable when you consider the cost of acquiring the forms, applying postage, and the manual labor of stuffing special envelopes, I strongly endorse E-Filing.

If you do not wish to use the Aatrix E-File feature, you should order now the forms and envelopes required from Sage Checks and Forms. DO NOT plan on getting your forms from Staples or other office supply stores as the paper (4-up perforated paper) and envelopes are not typical.

Form 1099 Statements to Recipients
Make sure that your vendor data is up to date. Obtain W-9s from all vendors so that you can verify addresses, federal identification numbers and legal status, such as corporations, individuals, limited liability companies, partnerships, etc. With this information, you can then ensure that each vendor has the correct 1099 Type assigned. Use report 4-1-1-61 Vendor 1099 Report to see the 1099 Type of each vendor and whether or not you have a federal identification number for those vendors to whom you may be required to provide a 1099.

The built-in Aatrix E-File feature also works for 1099s! As you might guess, I’m a big fan of this feature as well. The comments above about W-2 E-Filing also apply to 1099 E-Filing.

If you do not wish to use the Aatrix E-File feature, you should order now the forms and envelopes required from Sage Checks and Forms. DO NOT plan on getting your forms from Staples or other office supply stores as the paper (4-up perforated paper) and envelopes are not typical.

If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to send us a note or give us a call.

Current Version Information

The latest recommended version of Sage 100 Contractor is version 19.6.54, the release of which was announced on October 1, 2015. Give Mathieson Consulting a call if you have a current support contract and want assistance with the update.

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.

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.

A Little Bit of Imagination!

Recently, a client asked what they could do to solve a longstanding problem for their business.  They are an equipment sales and service organization, and have a high volume of materials purchases and returns.  Management was concerned that they either were not returning defective and or warrantied materials, or the suppliers were not giving them credit for their returns.

At first glance, there is no module or menu item labeled “Materials Returns” in Sage 100 Contractor, so the easy answer was “sorry, there’s nothing to help you in the program”. But let’s look a little closer at the problem. In reviewing the request with the client, we found that they needed to be able to keep records of what items were returned to their vendor, how much of a refund or credit they expected to receive as a result of the return, and whether or not they had actually received the credit from the vendor. With just a touch of imagination, you might see that this problem is an exact opposite of how purchase orders work. Purchase orders communicate to a vendor what you want to purchase, how much you expect to pay for it, and whether or not you have entered an AP invoice as a result of the purchase.  A purchase order record with negative quantities (a positive quantity is an item purchased and to be paid for, a negative quantity is an item returned for a credit) does just what an materials return record should.

To make this work effectively, we made a few changes in the system To keep the materials returns records separate from the materials purchases, we defined a purchase order type for returns, repurposed a user-defined field for the vendor’s RMA or returned material authorization number, and repurposed the purchase order grid line user-defined field for the reason the item was returned.  We created a specific report and report form, which we called a Materials Return Transmittal to effectively document the return to the vendor, specify what was expected of the vendor, and the amount that was expected to be received as a credit from the vendor.  When the credit memo is received from the vendor, the entry in accounts payable invoices should reference the order number so that the open record could be marked as closed. A Materials Returns List report was also created that shows the current status of materials returns.

This is just a brief synopsis of what can be done with a little imagination.  If you want more information about how to implement a materials returns tracking system, give us a call or send us an email!