Service Releases For Sage Abra Suite Version 9.0

Sage is following up the its release of Sage Abra Suite Version 9 with two Service Releases. The first one, released in June, contained changes required for the HIRE Act. The second Service Release is scheduled for release this Fall and includes capabilities requested by customers during the beta testing of Version 9.0.

Simplified Product Updates
One of the capabilities added to Sage Abra Suite Version 9 is the ability to install cumulative product updates that include all changes made to the product. This means that Service Releases will include all changes made to the system and you will have the benefit of all updates added to the system since the previous release.

June Service Release
If you are running the Sage Abra Payroll module, you already should have downloaded and installed the June Service Release because it included changes required for second quarter tax reporting and third quarter payroll processing.

This release addresses changes made to comply with the HIRE Act legislation. A new field, HIRE Act Qualified Employee, has been added to the Payroll Status window. The field default is no, check yes to indicate a HIRE Act eligible employee. Two new tax codes have been added for the HIRE Act:

• EMP9 (HIRE ACT Employer Social Security Tax) is similar to the EMP1 (Employer Social Security Tax) tax code but it has a rate of 0.00.
• RR19 (HIRE ACT – RAIL & RETIRE LEVEL 1 TAX ER ) similar to the RR1E (RAIL & RETIRE LEVEL 1 TAX EMPR) tax code but with a rate of 0.00.

By default, these tax codes are set to expire on 12/31/2010. However, if this tax credit is extended, the expiration date can be changed.

The 941 form has been modified to accommodate the HIRE Act. Changes to the Form W-2 and Form W-3 also are needed for the HIRE Act. These changes will be made in the fourth quarter and will be available in the Q4 2010 Tax Update.

The June Service Release also corrected a performance issue with the HR module. Customers reported performance problems when running an Employee Find at the same time as running a Crystal ReportÆ that used the HRPERSNL database. The June Service Release corrects this issue.

September Service Release
Another Service Release is scheduled for delivery with the 3rd Quarter Tax Update for Payroll customers and also will be available for download for HR customers in late September. The Service Release includes a selection of customer-requested updates in the Sage Abra Suite HR, Benefits, Attendance, Payroll, and ESS modules. These requests were gathered from customers who participated in the beta testing of Sage Abra Suite Version 9.0, comments added in Product Feedback, and through Customer Support. Among these are several key enhancements for Employee Self Service. Payroll and Attendance information now will be available to include in the dynamic information sharing capabilities of ViewBuilder, introduced in Sage Abra Suite Version 9.0 Also added is the ability to create and publish Crystal Reports on the Web and include them for viewing in ESS.

Give us a call with your questions about the Sage Abra Suite Version 9.0 service releases.