Welcome to Chortek's Technology Newsletter!
In this issue we cover:
Happy New Year
Users' Group Meeting Update
Sage City
Sage Product Updates (Sage 100, Sage BusinessWorks and Sage 50)
After Hours Support
Future Events
Windows 2003 Server Support Ending
Sovitzky Blog
We hope this newsletter finds you reviewing a successful 2014 and looking forward to 2015 with optimism for increased revenue, reduced costs and improving your use of technology to increase customer satisfaction, efficiency and productivity.
2. Users' Group Meeting Update
Many thanks to those that attended our Users' Group Meetings on December 10th and 11th and gained knowledge and insight on performing year end, new features in current and upcoming releases and gained some tax insight for not only 2014 but 2015. By far 2014 was one of our most highly attended Users' Group Meetings in Appleton and Waukesha due to participation by you, Avalara and Sage. We look forward to sharing with you more insight and knowledge on the Sage products you use in 2015.
3. Sage City
As noted in the Users' Group Meeting, Sage City is the most common way to get answers to questions compared to the Knowledgebase and calling Sage since its release in mid 2013. If you haven’t already visited, We highly recommend a visit to www.sagecity.na.sage.com for users of Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage CRM, etc.
4. Sage Product Updates
Sage 100 –
Support for version 4.4 ended on 9/30/14 and support for 4.5 will end on 9/30/15. Please prepare during 2015 to upgrade your software to continue to receive the benefits of the current versions of the software. Version 2015 is expected mid year (a list of features was shared during the Users' Group Meeting).
For those using Payroll, the IRD (Interim Release Disk) was made available on 12/19 to assist with Payroll year end W2’s. You must be on 4.50.0.0 through 4.50.0.7 or 2013 PU (Product Update) 7 (5.00.7.0) or higher or 2014 PU 3 (5.10.3.0) or higher to install this IRD. If you are using JobOps and Payroll, please contact us for details for applying this IRD.
Sage BusinessWorks -
2013 PU9 and 2015 PU1 contain the tax tables for 2015. Tax tables are not available for any other version (versions 2013 and 2015 are supported versions by Sage).
Version 2015 was released on November 4, 2014 which contains minor fixes and new reports in Payroll and Order Entry. Please contact us to review the features to determine if you should download and install this new version.
Sage 50 -
Sage 50 U.S. Edition 2015 is the latest version of this product. PU1 contains the first quarter tax tables for the year 2015. Tax tables are not available for any other version.
The obsolescence policy at Sage is to support the current release of a product. Product support includes access to Sage Business Care, product updates, payroll solutions, and other add-on products or services. Sage will provide support for an obsolete product until a customer’s support plan for that product expires. However, access to product and payroll updates, and other services will not be available.
You must be on the latest version of Sage 50 and have a current Sage Business Care plan in order to have access to any payroll features or functionality. Please review the dates below for obsolescence of the following releases:
Sage Peachtree 2012 – July 31, 2014
Sage 50 U.S. Edition 2013 – June 30, 2014
Sage 50 U.S. Edition 2014 – November 30, 2014
Sage 50 U.S. Edition 2015 – June 30, 2015 (current release)
Please contact us to review the features to determine if you should download and install this new version.
5. After Hours Support
Effective January 1, 2015, support provided outside of our normal office hours (generally 8am to 5pm central time) Monday to Friday will be billed at 1 ½ times the standard billing rate. Our consultants will use discretion when billing for this time during the evening, weekends and holidays as a convenience to you if you are not able to perform certain updates, upgrades, etc. during normal office hours.
6. Future Events
Sage Inspire Tour – Customer meeting in Chicago on April 7, 2015
As announced by Microsoft, support for Windows 2003 Server (and Small Business Server 2003) will be ending on July 14, 2015. Sage will also be discontinuing support for the Windows 2003 Server platform on that date as well. Please work with your hardware/network provider to plan on upgrading your server operating system prior to this deadline to avoid any Sage support and system issues that may arise. As always, please contact us for the Windows Operating Systems that your software supports before performing any server and workstation operating system changes.
8. Sovitzky Blog
For those that are interested in keeping tabs on Rick Sovitzky and family move to Czech Republic, their family blog can be found at:
