Newsletter - April 2009


 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Join Open Systems in Las Vegas at the Customer Excellence Conference

The 2009 Customer Conference will be held in Las Vegas this year.   It will be held on June 9th - 11th at the South Point Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV.

Customers who have attended this conference in the past have discovered new ways to improve business processes. Some reunited with friends they made last year, networked with new acquaintances, met one-on-one with their Open Systems authorized partner, and engaged in lively discussions about our software and services.

Conference FAQ

Session descriptions

Sessions Eligible for CPE Credits

Conference Schedule

 


Worried about the Conficker worm?

The Conficker worm, sometimes called Downadup or Kido has managed to infect a large number of computers. Specifics are hard to come by, but some researchers estimate that millioins of computers have been infected with this threat since January.

What does the Conficker worm do?

The Conficker worm has created secure infrastructure for cybercrime. The worm allows its creators to remotely install software on infected machines. What will that software do? We don’t know. Most likely the worm will be used to create a botnet that will be rented out to criminals who want to send SPAM, steal IDs and direct users to online scams and phishing sites.

The Conficker worm mostly spreads across networks. If it finds a vulnerable computer, it turns off the automatic backup service, deletes previous restore points, disables many security services, blocks access to a number of security web sites and opens infected machines to receive additional programs from the malware’s creator. The worm then tries to spread itself to other computers on the same network

How does the worm infect a computer?

The Downadup worm tries to take advantage of a problem with Windows (a vulnerability) called MS08-067 to quietly install itself. Users who automatically receive updates from Microsoft are already protected from this. The worm also tries to spread by copying itself into shared folders on networks and by infecting USB devices such as memory sticks

Who is at risk?

Users who whose computers are not configured to receive patches and updates from Microsoft and who are not running an up to date antivirus product are most at risk. Users who do not have a genuine version of Windows from Microsoft are most at risk since pirated system usually cannot get Microsoft updates and patches

Learn more about how to protect yourself or how to remove the virus if you have it on your system.

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Economic Stimulus Update      

The 941 update for Traverse and OSAS has been released. If you are current with CES and have not received them by now give us a call and we will get the updated programs to you.      

This update also includes the paper copy of Federal Married and Single and EIC tables that were mailed out several weeks ago.       

The change in the 941 form is so that Cobra payments a company makes on behalf of a layed off employee can be reimbursed back to the company by a reduction of the federal taxes that a company pays in for each payroll. 

When paying your federal taxes you reduce the amount you owe by the 65% that you paid for the employee. When the 941 is filed there is a new line there for you to deduct out the amount that you paid so that you can reconcile back to your actual payroll that was processed for the quarter.

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Emailing & Faxing Forms      

Did you realize that you can now email or fax most any forms. Direct Deposit vouchers, Customer invoices and statements as well as Purchase Orders and ACH vouchers can all be emailed or faxed directly out of your software.      

Setting up the email information itself is done in either Resource Manager or System Manager. Options to indicate whether or not you want to do email or fax are found within the Options and Interfaces or Business Rules.      

In the Customer or Vendor set up you define by document how you want the customer or vendor to receive each document: paper, fax, or email. Then enter the email address or the fax number that will be used for the document delivery.

Documents that are faxed or emailed can also have a second copy that is printed for your files 

As long as you have faxing software and an email with an SMTP server you can set up your software to automatically email and fax. Call us if you need assistance in setting up emailing or faxing.

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Posting to the Master in GL   

I think the item I discuss most with clients is ‘How often do you post to the master?.       

I post to the master on a Daily basis. Why do I post so often? I post because then I can run up to the moment financial statements, I can run Aged Trial Balances quickly to see the balance in each account, and also because as I scan through my Chart of Accounts I can see all the figures without having to drill down to see the entries behind that are unposted. 

Some people prefer to leave GL entries in Edit as unposted because they may need to change a GL account number or period. Remember when you change an entry in GL Edit it does not change the history in the application that it posted out of. For example if I change a GL expense account for a vendor, when I do a look up in the Vendor Detail History it will show the original GL account as entered in AP and not the account number that it eventually ended up in. It will also still show the original period entered. 

Correcting GL entries for inaccurate GL accounts should be done through manual entries. These will not go back to the original application’s detail history but they will leave an audit trail for you to follow.

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Payroll Postings to GL

When set up properly all Payroll liabilities and expenses post to the General Ledger. These include Tax and Other Withholdings from the Employee’s checks as well as Employer tax expenses and liabilities and Employer costs such as IRA matches, etc.       

The liability accounts that your employee tax withholdings will be posted to are found in Codes Maintenance, Federal, State, and Local Codes. The employer tab in these setups define what liability account the employer side of taxes will go to. An example of employer taxes are FUTA, SUTA, EME and EOA.

The liability accounts for Deductions and Employer Deductions are also found in Codes Maintenance, Deductions/Employer costs. For the deductions if you want a deduction to go straight against an expense account you would put the expense account in the place labeled ‘GL Liability Account’. An example of this might be an employee deduction for insurance where you are just crediting the amount deducted against your insurance expense account. Employer costs are also found on this menu selection. If you are matching an employee 401k or IRA you would enter the liability account you want these to credit when posted. Very often this is the same GL account number as the 401K or IRA that was deducted from your employee’s paycheck.

All expenses for labor, employer taxes and employer costs are found in the Department Table in Set Up and Maintenance. Anytime a new earning code, new employer tax, or new employer cost is set up you need to go into each Department and signify what the expense GL account will be for this. If you do not go into the Department Set up to enter the correct expense account for each new item then the system will use the default accounts.

Business Rules in System Manager contain the General Ledger default account numbers for Earnings, Employer Costs, and  Employer Taxes when these have not been added to the Department Files. You should use an account number here that you will readily recognize so you can go to the Department and enter the corresponding expense account for that department. I use an account number that is not used for anything else, so that when I am looking at the General Ledger and see an amount there then I know that something has been added and has not been set up within the Department Table.

When entering Time Tickets in Daily Work and performing the post there is no effect on the General Ledger. When checks are Calculated and then posted is when these entries hit the General Ledger.

In posting payrolls all withholdings from employee paychecks as well as liability accounts set up for employer taxes and costs will post as a credits. All wages, employers costs, and employer tax expenses will post as debits, and finally the Cash account will be credited for the net amount of the checks.

If all liabilities and expenses are set up properly you should never have to make any adjusting journal entries for Payroll.


Contact Us

Maple Business Software Consulting LLC 

59113 Timber Trail

Goshen, IN 46528

574-312-8056 - Office/Cell

 

email: rvandaele@maplebusinesssoftware.com

 

 

 

 
   
  Visit our website at www.maplebusinesssoftware.com                                                                  Phone: 579-312-8056  
   

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