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December 2012
Inside This Issue Product Tips for year end—support and service Product Update now available Lose the headache and high cost of cross-border payments! What is MRP? MRP I and MRP II defined Training Opportunities Fresh new name, fresh new training Reminder of changes to Sage Business Care Newsworthy Wrap up 2012 to get a head start on 2013 Sales tax changes for 2013 Why ExcelŽ is such a key component of Business Intelligence (BI) for SMEs Despite tough economy, entrepreneurs are flourishing Uh oh . . . I have a media interview. Now what? Take a break Sudoku Fun facts about accountants Quote of the month
Tips for year end Year end is fast approaching. This time of year brings all sorts of changes to company files in regards to payroll, fiscal closures, and upgrading your edition of Sage 50 Accounting—Canadian Edition (formerly Simply Accounting). Here are a few things that can help you with the transitions. Payroll: Run the year-end review (PIER) report. This report will identify CPP/QPP and EI discrepancies so that you can review and revise your payroll records before you produce employee T4 slips. Basically, the PIER report recalculates the EI and CPP based on the Insurable Earnings and Pensionable Earnings and compares it to the actual EI and CPP taken off. This report is based on the Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) Pensionable and Insurable Earnings Review (PIER). The CRA checks the T4 slips you file to make sure that the CPP/QPP and EI amounts you reported are correct. Employee CPP/QPP and EI amounts are recalculated based on the pensionable and insurable earnings you reported. Any discrepancies between reported and calculated amounts for an employee are noted on a PIER listing. Advance fiscal/calendar year/year-end procedure: Before rolling into the new year, check your data integrity—make sure your accounts balance so you can make adjustments as needed before you change. Secondly, for assistance with which reports to run, you can use the business assistant check list for calendar and fiscal year-end procedures. These can be found under the business assistant menu—checklists. Check off what you’ve done and see a list of what’s remaining.
Lose the headache and high cost of cross-border payments! Large companies have long needed the capability to pay their business partners in other countries using different currencies, and today they have many options. But thanks to the shrinking globe as described in the book "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman, small and medium-sized businesses are finding their business networks span borders. Today's business people may work with a vendor in the United States to develop their company website, or perhaps they are working with a supplier based in Europe or China. Businesses that need to pay their international suppliers are looking for new, secure, low-cost, and convenient services. When evaluating your options, what are some things to consider? It's important to find a provider focused on international transactions offering many years of experience. Your local bank may have the ability to provide this service, but it will require a trip to the bank, is typically very expensive, takes a long time to clear, and you will have no visibility to the status of the transaction or exchange rates. The ability to view exchange rates live is a real advantage, as it provides an opportunity to time your payment to benefit from an optimal exchange rate. Online access allows you to make timely payments from any location that has secure Internet access or to track the status of current payments. Security using techniques such as 128-bit encryption of all transactions is obviously very important. Finally, look for a solution that is more cost-effective than the traditional wire transfer service. Learn More about how your business or organization can benefit from Sage International Payments.
Upgrading to Sage 50 Accounting 2013: There are a few things to remember for this process. One—you don’t have to wait until the new year to do the installation. The version comes with the 2012 tax tables and will be updated in late December for 2013 tables, which will only activate after you change your calendar year. Two— during the installation disable your antivirus and firewall. This will remove the potential for them to block the program from installing correctly and prevent any possible issues. This should be done even if you are only installing the connection manager. Lastly—before converting your file to the latest version, run an advanced database check on your file in the old version (Maintenance menu—advanced database check) and do a backup. The advanced check will clear up any potential file corruption and assure that the conversion completes without concern, and it is always best to have a backup of your file prior to making any significant changes.
Product Update available December 20, 2012 A Product Update will soon be available for Sage 50 Accounting 2013 and Sage Simply Accounting 2012. The Product Update includes the federal and provincial payroll tax changes that take effect January 1, 2013. Only those customers who are running Sage 50 Accounting 2013 or Sage Simply Accounting 2012 and who are valid Sage Business Care Payroll, Gold, or Platinum subscribers as of December 20, 2012, will successfully receive the payroll tax updates. Customers running Sage 50 Accounting 2013 will also receive a number of other enhancements including tax wizards to help update federal and provincial tax changes for B.C., Quebec, and P.E.I. For more information on the Product Update, you may visit our Website.
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What is MRP? MRP I and MRP II defined Material Requirements Planning (MRP I) Following the strict APICS definition, MRP (more accurately MRP I, read MRP-one) is a system that helps a manufacturer plan his purchasing and production activities and, when necessary, create the required purchase orders and production orders in time to meet customer commitments. This leads to the Great Paradox of Manufacturing: An inventory control system helps you maintain an inventory of your materials. An MRP system helps you maintain no inventory of your materials. Without an MRP system, manufacturers typically react by purchasing material they might need. With an MRP system, manufacturers purchase material they definitely do need. Which do you think is a better use of limited financial resources? Many manufacturing systems combine the distinct functions of MPS (Master Production Schedule) and MRP into one called MRP. It is possible to create an MPS without an MRP but not possible to create an MRP without an MPS. If you are convinced that the software you are considering performs the functions described here, then strict adherence to the terminology is not that important.
December 2012
What is MRP? MRP I and MRP II defined (continued)
Fresh new name, fresh new training (continued)
MISys Manufacturing v5.0
Maximize your business with Sage 50 Accounting—Canadian Edition
MISys Manufacturing is best described as an MRP I system, although it does have a few MRP II-like features, including the powerful Capacity Manager. This tool analyzes the load every active production order is placing on available resources (work centers) and displays where and when capacity overloads are occurring.
This advanced course is designed for experienced Sage 50 users, bookkeepers, and accountants who are looking to enhance their product knowledge, and, as the name implies, maximize their business. Students will learn how to take full advantage of advanced features such as projects, departmental accounting, and database management. The class will also provide valuable time-saving tips and tricks for several product modules, an in-depth look at time and billing, and using the powerful, built-in forms designer.
Using the tool, you can manually reschedule the offending production orders to take better advantage of available resources. For a few hundred thousand dollars more than what MISys costs, an MRP II system might do this automatically, but if you disagreed with the planning decisions it made, you'd think you'd be better off with MISys Manufacturing. Invest the next ten minutes of your time and take the six-step tour. Download the MISys Manufacturing brochure, fact sheets, watch the demo videos, get a price estimate, and more. Visit: www.MIsysInc.com
We’re very excited to bring all our customers, current and new, something that will help them make the most out of how they use Sage 50 every day. For more information on these new classes, visit us at Sage University today! http://SageU.com/Simply/Seminar.html
Reminder of changes to Sage Business Care Fresh new name, fresh new training 2012 has seen a major branding change here at Sage, and as all our customers know, Simply Accounting is now Sage 50 Accounting—Canadian Edition. With this fresh new brand name, the customer training team thought it was the perfect opportunity to update and refresh one of our longest standing and most successful training offerings. Starting in January 2013, our seminar training classes will have a new look, refreshed and updated content, and brand-new study guides and materials. We’ve also enlisted some of the best training partners across Canada to deliver these new sessions and bring decades of “real life” accounting and training expertise to the program. What we haven’t changed for the new series is the highly effective and condensed two-day format that has proven to be extremely valuable to our customers for years. To provide everyone with a sneak peak of the new sessions, we wanted to share a brief overview of the two days of training that will be available: Getting started with Sage 50 Accounting—Canadian Edition This course has been designed from the ground up for new users looking for a comprehensive way to get started with their accounting software. Students will learn all the fundamentals of using Sage 50 to run their business, including how to set up their new Company database properly, creating and managing user groups and users, handling the basics of Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, filing their HST/GST returns, paying employees, looking up reports, preparing account reconciliations, and much more.
NEW Sage Business Care Platinum New for 2013 is the Sage Business Care Platinum plan. This plan is a premium support offering that provides priority phone queuing and a dedicated support team. This means that a team of the most experienced Sage customer support specialists is standing by to answer calls from Sage Business Care Platinum subscribers first. If you wish to speak to a sales representative about this plan, please call 1-888-261-9610. Note: With all Sage Business Care plans, there is a limit to the types of Topics Supported, and support specialists will refer customers to their Sage Accountants Network members for customizations,accounting and bookkeeping assistance, networking issues, andother training issues, as appropriate. Retirement of loyalty discounts The loyalty discounts currently available with Sage Business Care Gold, Sage Business Care Silver, and Sage Business Care Payroll will no longer be offered as of October 1, 2013. These discounts will be honoured for any plans renewed prior to this date.
Wrap up 2012 to get a head start on 2013
Sales tax changes for 2013
As 2012 winds down, it's a good idea to think about the year's successes and failures when devising a strategy for the New Year.
In 2013, three provinces, British Columbia (B.C.), Quebec, and Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) will adjust their provincial sales taxes. For two provinces, Quebec and P.E.I., the changes in provincial sales taxes improve alignment with the federal government’s GST/HST sales tax system. In Quebec, the changes make QST more uniform with GST. In P.E.I., the combination of GST and Provincial Sales Tax (PST) will be replaced by a single harmonized, value-added sales tax—HST, administered by the federal government. But for B.C., the change is to replace HST and to revert back to a combination of GST and PST, where the PST is administered by the provincial government.
Here's a list of suggestions that can help your year end on a positive note: Review and revise your business plans Were you unable to achieve your goals or meet your targets for 2012? As you head into the new year, it is worthwhile to evaluate why and determine if some of your tactics need changing. Purge, purge, purge!
Quebec:
Start the new year off with a clean slate with only the information you absolutely need. Purge old data and run diagnostics to ensure data are in good working order.
As of January 1, Quebec businesses have to update their QST rate from 9.5% to 9.975%. In addition, Quebec businesses have to update the calculation of QST so that QST is calculated just on the selling price and is no longer calculated on the price plus GST. The Sage 50 Accounting 2013 product update includes a QST wizard to help quickly update the QST tax information. The simplest and recommended way to update the QST tax rate is to install Sage 50 Accounting 2013, finish recording 2012 transactions, and then use the QST wizard to update the current QST tax and tax codes. However, if the business requires that transactions be recorded with either the old or the new tax rates, then the QST wizard can be used immediately to create a new QST tax and new updated tax codes. Businesses that create a new QST tax and new tax codes will also need to update new QST tax IDs and the default tax codes for customers and vendors.
Perform computer and software upgrades After you have finalized all your transactions and processes, things will most likely slow down for a few days. Use that time to perform needed computer and software upgrades. Prep for tax season Spend some time getting your financial documents ready for tax season in January. Find out whether there are any changes to tax regulations that you need to take into consideration. Evaluate: renew or cancel Evaluate whether a subscription is something you need. Did you get a good return on investment on it? Season's greetings! Last but not t least, don't forget to send season's greetings and holiday wishes to your customers and clients. It's the little things that can make a difference.
P.E.I.: As of April 1, P.E.I. businesses (or businesses that sell in P.E.I.) have to charge GST/HST at 14%. Businesses registered for GST are automatically registered for HST. The rules for charging, collecting, and remitting HST are the same as those for GST. The Sage 50 Accounting 2013 product update includes an updated HST wizard to help quickly create the HST codes required for P.E.I. Businesses will also need to update the default tax codes for customer and vendors. B.C.:
Your favorite Sage 50 feature . . . tell us for a chance to win a $300 giveaway! It’s that time of the year again—the holidays are just around the corner! The smell of fresh baked goods; the sight of merry, bright lights; and an ever-growing list of presents to buy. This year to help you pay for your shopping and holiday fun, Sage would like to give you the chance to win a $300 Visa® gift card. It’s easy to enter; all you have to do is tell us (in 200 words or less) your favourite Sage 50 Accounting—Canadian Edition feature and how it helps you and your business. It’s that simple! The selected best entry will receive a $300 Visa gift card. In addition, three lucky runners-up will each receive a $50 Visa gift card. You may be the lucky winner! Tell us your story
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Also as of April 1, B.C. businesses will have to charge GST at 5% and PST at 7%. Businesses previously registered to collect PST (or hotel room tax) will need to reregister prior to April to collect PST and get a new PST registration number. Exemptions under the previous PST system will return, and so will the requirement to document the PST registration number of the customer on the sales invoice to support tax exempt sales. Businesses will have to update their records to get the new PST registration number of their exempt customers. The product update includes a B.C. PST wizard to help businesses created since July 2010 quickly create the PST tax and the new tax codes required for B.C. (Before running the B.C. PST wizard, add an account for PST Payable if there isn’t one already.) Businesses will also need to update the default tax codes for customer and vendors. If you need the current version, go here: Sage 50 Pro Accounting and Sage 50 Premium Accounting: www.Sage50Accounting.ca/Fall2012UG Sage 50 Quantum Accounting: www.Sage50Accounting.ca/Fall2012QTM
December 2012
Why Excel® is such a key component of Business Intelligence (BI) for SMEs What is Excel, and what is it used for? Probably the most prolific business tool in the world, Excel is used to create and format workbooks that house data in a format that can be analyzed and used to make business decisions. Specifically, you can use Excel to track data, build models for analyzing data, write formulas to perform calculations on that data, pivot the data in numerous ways, and present data in a variety of professional-looking charts.
Why Excel® is such a key component of Business Intelligence (BI) for SMEs (continued) Profit and loss information is easy to analyze in Excel Why is Excel a key component of BI for SMBs? BI has traditionally been the preserve of big business. Small businesses face tighter budgets, less sophistication, and fewer people and have, in the past, tended to steer away from BI because of the cost and complexity involved. In the last few years, however, newer generation BI has been built specifically for SMBs, as opposed to complex tier-one products' being scaled down to create SMB offerings. BI systems must be agile, allowing users, not programmers, to change reports in a few minutes. Excel is a familiar user interface, and it allows users to create new reports easily and quickly. Excel has many spreadsheet functions, solving capabilities, and the ability to contain virtually any data. PivotTable® reports provide an interactive way to quickly summarize large amounts of data, allowing you to query, filter, sort, subtotal, drill down, and group large amounts of data in many user-friendly ways. Why Sage 50 Business Intelligence? For many years BI vendors have been building front-end tools to try to replace spreadsheets for querying, reporting, and analyzing data results. However Excel spreadsheets are still the most universal and leading tool for business reporting. Sage 50 Business Intelligence delivers data from a Sage ERP or accounting database through a structured and secure environment into Microsoft Excel report templates. The power of Excel can then be leveraged to analyze and share the data and make informed business decisions.
Scatter plot graphs are one of the most common types of graph used in Excel, easily displaying Top Five Vs. Bottom Five items. So what is Business Intelligence (BI)? BI is the methodical use of information about your company and its business environment to analyze reports, predict, and manage business performance. Is this not what Excel has always done for business? Microsoft Excel arguably provides more power for general business management than any other system, but its unstructured use can cause spreadsheet chaos in an organization. The importing of data into Microsoft Excel and manual spreadsheet creation and maintenance is both time-consuming and open to human error, as is the insecure sharing of this information among colleagues. Excel as a stand-alone application, therefore, does not suffice as a BI solution, but it is a powerful decision support tool when integrated and used within a structured framework. What makes Excel so dominant? It’s globally used; it’s on practically all PCs; there are no extra costs; it’s easy to learn; it provides the data manipulation, analysis, and graphical representation tools required for most reporting. Excel is already the universal tool of business and accountants, so much so that many people would still use spreadsheets for much of their reporting and analysis tasks even if they had access to “high-end” BI software. But lack of control over spreadsheets—and the accuracy of data they contain—can risk the quality of decision making. Sage 50 Business Intelligence is an example of a BI tool that eliminates this “loose” Excel spreadsheet use by delivering a single version of the truth in the familiar environment of Microsoft Excel at the click of button, with no manual intervention.
Since it is a module of your Sage accounting package, no new relationships or extensive IT investments are required, which makes for rapid deployment without any hurdles. It can seamlessly draw trusted data directly from the database of your accounting system and deliver it automatically into the tool you are already compiling static reports in today, Microsoft Excel, making it very easy to adopt and use. You don’t have to be a programmer to get the data, and you don’t need to be an accountant to interpret the data. Join us for complimentary webcasts to see the module in action, get started with Sage 50 Business Intelligence, or learn how to use it to create powerful reports.
Trend lines enable you to grasp the trend of your data. With this data visualization tool you can help your audience to understand the crux of the datasheet by visually conveying what data actually means and more importantly help them to comprehend the trend of your datasheet.
Despite tough economy, entrepreneurs are flourishing When economies flounder, one of the first populations to be affected is small business owners. Often during these times of turmoil, enterprises have to scale back their offerings, lay off employees, and put off any potential expansion. Since the 2008 recession, a number of economies around the world have experienced their fair share of downturn. The Canadian financial situation is no different. In fact, the nation is still seeing somewhat dismal numbers even four years after the recession. Despite this fact, small businesses in Canada are actually performing well currently, driving much of the economic growth that is slowly but surely turning the fiscal climate around.
Uh oh . . . I have a media interview. Now what? You’ve been trying to find opportunities to get some positive PR around your offering or product all year. Your hard work has finally paid off, as a reporter has reached out and wants to do an interview with you. First reaction: excitement. Now that the news has sunk in, you’re asking, “How do I prepare for this interview?” Here are some dos and do nots to keep in mind leading up to the interview that will help you succeed. Do: Ask the reporter for more information. In most cases, the reporter will not give you the exact list of questions he plans on asking. However, he may give you a couple of example questions that will give you a good idea of what direction he may take the interview.
Exchange rates, optimism, overall climate down According to the Vancouver Sun, the current economic landscape is not particularly lush in Canada right now. The source cited a very poor exchange rate, a relatively low amount of business confidence by owners, and unstable politics as factors that continue to keep the Canadian financial situation somewhat dismal.
Don't: Think you can wing the interview. No matter how good of a public speaker you may think you are, you should always prepare and practice for an interview. Jot down your key speaking points and say them in the mirror. The more you practice them, the more refined your message will be.
These elements make it hard for companies in nearly any industry to flourish properly, the newspaper suggested. However, smaller firms seem to be the ones making their mark on the fiscal climate.
Do: Use real-life examples in your answers.
"Ninety-eight percent of businesses in Canada have 100 or fewer employees and less than $5 million in revenues," KPMG Enterprises partner Frank Boutzis told the Sun. "At the same time, their contribution to the economy is in excess of 30 percent of Canada's GDP, and they account for 48 percent of the labor force in the private sector."
Don't: Be too self-promotional.
Small businesses continue to grow Though the odds are currently stacked against company growth in the northern nation, enterprises with fewer people on the payroll are doing well and many are even looking to expand. The Calgary Herald, citing the 2012 RBC Small Business Survey, reported that 29 percent of small business leaders are planning on hiring more employees within the next year, representing a 4 percent increase from the same sentiments in 2011. Many entrepreneurs conceded that finding experienced help was hard, however. An additional 68 percent said they plan on investing more capital into their firms over the next 12 months. The survey also noted that 94 percent of Canadians say that these smaller enterprises play a large part in the growth of the economy, while 88 percent called them vital job creators. Moreover, the Canadian Press said that a number of owners are optimistic about the growth of offerings in a number of industries around the country, citing a survey by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters association. Many respondents said that they expect their markets to expand to Europe, China, and Brazil but noted that the Canadian and American markets will continue to remain the most lucrative.
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Reporters love anecdotes, as they not only help bring your story alive, but they also add colour to their articles.
Yes, one of the main purposes of media relations and public relations is to get your company and/or offering some media coverage, which in turns will hopefully raise your company’s profile. However, if you are too promotional, there is a good chance the reporter will write off the interview, and you won’t even be mentioned in it. What’s worse is that he will likely not reach out to you for a comment again. Do: Anticipate the tough questions. Even if the reporter tells you that he or she is writing a lifestyle piece, it is better to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. There have been situations where a reporter may tell you that he or she is planning on taking an article in a certain direction and then does a 180 after interviewing someone else. It’s better to have a response prepared for a question than to stutter and try to make one up on the spot. Don't: Provide “off the record” comments. There is no such thing as “off the record.” Whenever you are within earshot of a reporter, you are always on the record. Never say anything to a reporter that you would not want quoted in an article. Always be careful of any off-hand comments you make, whether or not you are in an official interview situation.
December 2012
Take a break
Key contacts
Sudoku
Customer Sales: 1-888-261-9610
Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains, the numbers 1 though 9.
Inquire, purchase, or renew Sage 50 Accounting Product or Version upgrades Sage Business Care Add-on products and third-party services Training courses Customer Support: 1-888-522-2722 One free support case within 60 days of product registration Technical support for customers currently on a Sage Business Care plan. Pay-as-you-go (offered as required) Customer Service: 1-888-222-8985 Product updates (includes tax table updates) Returns Customer inquiries and complaints Order follow-up Credits and disputes Student version registration Issue payroll IDs to verified students Remove customers from mail and call lists
Fun facts about accountants Fun Fact 1: Every year since 1935, a team of CPAs has spent an average of 1,700 hours prior to Oscar night counting the Academy Awards ballots by hand. Two tuxedoed accountants from the Academy’s accounting firm traditionally make an appearance during the live broadcast. Fun Fact 2: Bubble gum was invented in 1928 by an accountant named Walter E. Dimer.
Quote of the month " Don't worry about how you're going to pull it off. First lock on to what you're pulling off. Then how gets clearer." —Danielle LaPorte
Key Web Resources: www.Sage50Accounting.ca http://Partners.SageNorthAmerica.com www.SageU.com This material is for general information purposes only. As market conditions are always subject to change, the information contained herein shall not be interpreted as any commitment from Sage or as legal or financial advice. Please consult with a qualified legal or financial professional if you have questions about your specific circumstances. Sage makes no warranties, expressed or implied, in this material. ©2012 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, the Sage logos, and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. SPK 12-02687 12/12