Service Release 1 for the Q4 2011 Product Update is now available on the web. This applies to versions 7.9, 9.0, and 9.1. Here is a summary of all the content included in this update.

Tax updates supplementing the Q4 Product Update:

• Social Security Employee Withholding Rate Remains at 4.2% until 2/29/2012 due to Payroll Tax Holiday Extension
• FSOC Limit set to $110,100
• Railroad Tier I Employee Withholding Rate Remains at 4.2% until 2/29/2012 due to Payroll Tax Holiday Extension
• Railroad Tier I, Tier II and UI Wage Base for 2012
• State Withholding Tax Changes, Effective January 1, 2012 for the following:
  • Delaware
  • Hawaii
  • Massachusetts
  • Missouri
  • Oklahoma
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont
• Tax Changes Effective January 1, 2012:
  • Hawaii Employment Training
  • Michigan Unemployment Taxable Wage Base Change
  • New Jersey Family Leave Insurance Employee Withholding Rate Change
  • New York State and Yonkers Withholding
  • Ohio Miami East 5504 SD, Ohio Earned Income Tax Based
  • Ohio Local Income
• Montana Administrative Fund Tax Wage set to $27,000
• Ohio Locals Municipality Code for Annual W2 Reporting to RITA for Tax Year 2011
• PA Local LST taxes updated to correct rate.
• Address field added. Versions 9.0 and 9.1 capture the address for each employment PSD NR code. (Sage Abra Suite version 7.x does not contain PA ACT32 mandated changes. Handle the reporting requirements manually by creating a multi-record custom detail to track the information.)

Electronic File Changes: (Apply the SR1 prior to creating the electronic file.)

· 1099 Electronic File Changes for Tax Year 2011

· Massachusetts W2 File Spec Changes for 2011

· Indiana EFW2 File Changes for Tax Year 2011

· Wisconsin EFW2 File Changes for Tax Year 2011

To download your Sage HRMS product update

1. Visit the Sage Customer Portal

2. Enter your Logon Id and Password (or sign up for a portal logon)

3. Select Payroll Tax Updates on the home page

4. Select the Product Update download specific to your Sage Abra Suite version

5. Right click and Save Target As to the appropriate file location

6. Unzip the files into a new directory

Note: It is necessary to access Abra Suite and run the 'Apply Legislative Update' from within System Tax Tables in order for Service Release 1 changes to take effect.

Please call Sage HRMS Support at 800-829-0170 for further assistance.

It's up to HR to ensure that hiring, discipline, and termination practices are compliant with the law. Otherwise, you could put your company at risk of incurring costly fines, penalties, and employee lawsuits. Sage is offering a live one hour webcast on the court rulings in 2011 and how they can affect you and your company. The webinar will be presented by Mary Anne Osborne and is free to attend.


This webcast will review the 2011 dockets for HR related court cases. A brief background of each case will be presented along with the outcome and discussion of the specific implications on the administration within the Human Resources function. Focus will be on federal court findings, although specific state findings that are relevant to HR, setting precedence for future findings, will be covered.

Participants will learn:

• Which U.S. Supreme court rulings affect human resources and what you should be doing to protect your company.
• Which state case rulings are setting precedence for future rulings that might affect your business.
• Which cases will be ruled upon in early 2012, so employers and HR departments can be vigilant in following cases specific to their business practices.

Who Should Attend:

Attendees should include Human Resource Managers and business professionals in the U.S. who desire to become more knowledgeable in how business will be affected by legal decisions passed on during 2011.

HR Recertification Credits:
This webcast has been approved for 1.00 (General) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute (www.hrci.org).

Presenter's Biography:

Mary Anne Osborne, SPHR

With over 30 years' experience in the HR field, Mary Anne is well prepared to help businesses find solutions to their most troubling HR-related dilemmas. Her HR experiences have elevated her from HR Representative to the VP level in a multi-state healthcare industry leader before beginning her own consulting business. Along the way she spent time honing her skills in Employee Relations, Staffing, EEOC, Organizational Development, Compensation and Training in the telecommunications, financial, automotive, higher education and healthcare industries.

As of fourth quarter 2011, a new form/report will be available for users of Sage Abra Suite using version 9.0x and 9.1x. This is the Form 940 including Schedule A. The form is located in Reports> Payroll>Year-End. There is an option for a Pre-Close Form 940 Report and the Form 940.

The Pre-Close Form 940 can be viewed after Trial Quarter Close has been run throughout the year for interim balancing. It is recommended to print this report each quarter as these totals are cumulative.

A new database, Employer 94011 (PR94011.DBF), will be populated during the fourth quarter of the Final Quarter Close process. This form is also available in Payroll>Processes>Edit Quarter/Year-End Forms. All fields will be available for edit. The following fields must be edited for values to appear on the Form 940:

• Type of Return
• For Overpayment option of Apply to Next Return or Send a Refund
• Part 6—May we speak with your third-party designee?
• Part 7—Sign here.

The most important item for this form to be correct is the selection of the earnings and deduction codes for the FUTA tax code. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has specific guidelines on what earnings and deductions should be reported on the Form 940. The information that appears on the Form 940 is based on the customer setup of the FUTA tax code. If these codes are not set up correctly, the amounts on this report may be incorrect.

 As October draws to a close, you may have begun thinking about how soon Year End will be here. Payroll burdens will intensify, tax responsibilities will become paramount. Your Abra Payroll system is fully equipped to bring you from 2011 to 2012 smoothly, but are you confident in your ability to use it? Sage Software and Dundee Group know that the best way to have a smooth year-end transition is to have specific training on how to use the system. Tim will be teaching two confirmed year-end payroll classes this December; one in Boston, MA, and one in Herndon, VA. These classes are currently open  for registration, and you can find the sign up forms on our Training Classes page. Sage is also offering a class in Irvine, CA, and although Tim will not be teaching that course, we have provided a registration page for those of you reading from the West Coast.

While these two classes are the only ones confirmed at this point, more can be scheduled. If you would be interested in attending a year-end training class if it were held somewhere else, contact us and let us know where and when you would be interested in. But don't put off contacting us, because the later in the year it gets, the more difficult it will be to schedule a new class.

 The class, designed for Abra Payroll customers who are responsible for Year-End Payroll closing and preparing for the New Year payroll processing, will cover these topics:

• Follow the year-end closing process flow
• Identify year-end forms
• Set up Abra for year-end processing and reporting
• Utilize and prepare IRS forms and legislations
• Update 2011 4th quarter tax release
• Update final wages and tax liabilities
• Close Abra payroll year 2011
• List new year activities for 2012

 

Believe it or not, we've already reached the third quarter of 2011, and that means that the next round of tax updates is not available from SupportPlus Online. Here are the steps you need to follow in order to update your Abra Payroll.

Use these steps to download your quarterly tax update

1. Visit the SupportPlus log on page
2. Enter your User Name and Password (or register for a new member login)
3. Select Quarterly Tax Updates Available here
4. Select the Sage Abra Suite Q3 2011 Payroll Update download specific to your Sage Abra version
5. Follow the simple instructions to download the tax update

Here are some tips for a successful tax update:

• Check your software version.
  The Q3 2011 tax update is compatible with Sage Abra Suite v7.8, and Sage Abra Suite v9.0. You will need to select the Sage Abra Suite Q3 2011 Payroll Update download specific to your Sage Abra version.
• Set aside enough time for the download.
  Most of the time, downloading only takes a few minutes. But customers with a dial-up Internet connection may need to set aside about 30 minutes for the file transfer process.
• Install your updates before running your trial quarter close.
  The accuracy of your tax reports depends on having the most up-to-date tax tables loaded onto Sage Abra.
• Let us know if you need help.
  Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need technical help with downloading the Q3 2011 tax update.

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As Sage moves into the future with Sage Abra Payroll, tax updates for the older versions of the software will cease. This means that those still using Sage Abra v7.X will need to upgrade to the latest version (v9.1 at the time of this post - read more about Abra v9.1 here). The cutoff date for Abra v7.X updates was previously January 2012, but Sage has now extended that date to the end of the first quarter of 2012. Those extra three months should help make everybody's transitions into the latest version easier. And remember, the upgrade from v7.X to v9.1 is included in your Sage support contract, so there's no new software to purchase.

Here's the official release from Sage:

To provide more opportunity for our customers on version 7.8 to upgrade their Abra product, we are extending the Quarterly Tax Update. Please review the updated schedule below. For users with Sage Abra Payroll functionality, the chart below provides the Quarterly Tax Updates schedule for a given period and supported versions of Sage Abra.

 

If you use the ATS Maximus clock, one of the most common tasks you will perform is enrolling new employees into the biometric scanner. In this short video, Matthew Roe, the training manager at EmpowerTime, will walk you through the simple steps of employee enrollment. And if you've been using the time clock for a while, you will find the cleaning instructions helpful for restoring full strength to your biometric finger scanner.

Here are the steps the supervisor must follow:

• Step 1: Press the enroll key
• Step 2: The supervisor should enter his or her unlock key when prompted
• Step 3: Enter the employee's badge number
• Step 4: The employee should place his or her finger on the scanner when prompted
• Step 5: The clock will confirm enrollment

If the enrollment does not succeed on the first finger placement, the system will allow four more attempts before displaying "Enroll Failed." If you are having trouble getting fingers to scan, try cleaning the sensor as described in the above video. Try to avoid scanning thumbs and pinkies, as these fingers are not optimal for the scanner.

If you want to learn more about Maximus time clocks, or any of our other offerings, including the Optimus and the Prodigy, you can read about them here.

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Sage has just released the 9.1 version upgrade for Abra Suite HR & Payroll. This upgrade for the Fox Pro version of Sage Abra Suite is included in your yearly support plan. If you are currently running Sage Abra Suite v9.0 or any of the 7.X versions, now is a great opportunity to move to the latest version of Abra.

Sage Abra version 9.1 offers customer-requested quality and usability enhancements in the HRMS, Payroll, and Sage Employee Self Service (Sage ESS) solutions. More key capabilities, including time-off management, advanced customization, and easy import and export capabilities, are now included with all Sage Abra HR installations. Customers who have Abra Workforce Connections (now Sage ESS) will appreciate powerful new features that make it easier than ever for HR professionals, managers, and employees to access information and make routine HR transactions.

The 9.1 upgrade includes a number of new features, including

• Support for Active Directory eliminates the need for multiple logons.
• Usability enhancements include the ability to to track documents, track documents used to complete an I-9 Form and hide inactive codes.
• The employee self-service module, formerly Abra Workforce Connections (AWC) has been given a new, fresh interface, and now goes by the intuitive name Sage Employee Self Service
• Manager’s Time Off Calendar in Sage ESS provides managers with a monthly view of their employees’ time off.
• Sage ESS Mobility lets employees and managers complete common tasks anytime, anywhere.
• Sage Crystal Dashboard Design—an optional, easy-to-use data visualization tool—enables you to create your own dashboards in Sage Employee Analytics.

Sage will be running a free, hour-long webinar to demonstrate the new features of Sage Abra Suite v9.1. For your convenience, this webinar will take place on four dates at 2:00pm EST (11:00am PST). The dates for the webinar are:

• Tuesday, August 30th
• Tuesday, September 13th
• Tuesday, September 20th
• Tuesday, October 4th

If you are still running a 7.X version, here are some videos of just a few of the features you're missing from Abra Suite v9.0.

A new sharper user-interface

An enhanced search function

Everybody is talking about social media today. Facebook has over 750 million active users, YouTube is the #2 search engine on the web, and Google just launched their own social networking site, Google+. But while it's obvious that social networking is a big deal, it's not nearly so clear how or if businesses and non-profit organizations should be engaging in it. The simple answer is "Yes, you should be," but the complicated answer takes a bit longer to explain. Thankfully, the great people at Sage Non-Profit have put together this free webinar that covers ten tips for getting your foot in social networking door, and what you should be doing once you get established.

Although the webinar was created with non-profit organizations in mind, these are actually general tips apply equally to any organization or business. The first four tips are:

• Claim Your Name
• Complete Your Profiles, Completely
• Listen
• Old Etiquette Rules Still Apply

Want to learn the other six tips? Click here to sign up for the free webinar! This is a pre-recorded webinar, so you can view it at your leisure and as many times as you wish.

Over the next three days, Sage will be running a webinar called Trust But Verify: The Pluses and Minuses of Background Screenings. The hour-long webinar will be at 2:00 PM EST (11:00 AM PST) on Tuesday, June 28th, and 1:00 PM EST (10:00 AM PST) on Wednesday & Thursday, June 29th & 30th.

Here are the details of the webinar from the Sage website. If you want to sign up for any of the three free sessions, please click here.

Legal challenges, theft, endangerment, and negligent hiring claims are all on the rise. Employers are being penalized by juries for failing to make effective inquiries into candidates' backgrounds while the EEOC is scrutinizing employers for being extreme in conducting background investigations. During this live webcast, HR professionals will learn how to walk the balance beam between the courts and the EEOC, while protecting their business, employees, customers, and the public at large. Participants will learn: - Who should perform background checks and why - What should be included in a background check and under what circumstances - How to choose a background screening partner - The impact of the EEOC on background checks Who Should Attend: HR Generalists, Recruiting and Staffing Specialists, and Managers responsible for making hiring decisions. HR Recertification Credits: This webcast has been approved for 1.00 (General) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute (www.hrci.org). Certificates of completion will be provided upon request only to individually registered attendees. Attendance for the full webcast hour is required to receive recertification credits (partial credits cannot be provided). Groups of people participating in the webcast together must be registered and attend the webcast individually to receive certificates. Certificates will be sent via email to registered attendees in PDF form within 30 days of validated attendance. Presenter's Biography: Mary Anne Osborne, SPHR With over 30 years' experience in the HR field, Mary Anne is well prepared to help businesses find solutions to their most troubling HR-related dilemmas. Her HR experiences have elevated her from HR Representative to the VP level in a multi-state healthcare industry leader before beginning her own consulting business. Along the way she spent time honing her skills in Employee Relations, Staffing, EEOC, Organizational Development, Compensation, and Training in the telecommunications, financial, automotive, higher education, and healthcare industries.