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Greetings! After keeping us in limbo for three years, Sage Software eventually capitulated and released DacEasy Version 14 Suite this past summer. I imagine that the company realized that some of us diehards are not going anywhere, and they better cater to us!

DACEASY VERSION 14 SUITE

As usual, the new Suite brings new features--some quite nice while the others may be considered just stocking stuffers. Major improvements have been made to forms and reports. We now can incorporate company logos on forms and reports; customize payable and payroll checks; etc. Another nice feature is the ability to enter virtually unlimited detail comment lines in transaction entries such as General Ledger, A/R and A/P. In the past, we were limited to a 24-character description, which often meant that we had to resort to cryptic notations.

DacEasy will soon release the 2007 Tax Update for Versions 13 and 14 payroll programs. The price for the annual tax update service is $269.95 for the single-user and $379.95 for the network versions.

If you would rather not purchase the tax update service, you can update the tax tables manually to bring them in compliance with the 2007 withholding requirement. Please send us a fax request on your company letterhead to 303•922•3062. We will fax you the new tables and instructions on how to update your tables in late December.

The price to upgrade any single-user program to Version 14 is $349.95. The price for a similar network upgrade is $599.95. The prices shown here are special discounted prices that are valid through December 31, 2006.

Please call us at 303•922•5522 to place your order. Alternately, you can fax your order to 303•922•3062. Please call for pricing if you would like to purchase an accounting and payroll combo, or payroll upgrade and tax service combo at their special price. While the IRS has added a few codes for Boxes 12 and 14 of the W-2 this year, the basic structure of the form has not changed from 2005. As such, if your software was able to print the right format W-2's last year, you should be able to print them this year as well.

TAX FORMS

As in the past years, we can supply the common tax forms that you need. You can order only the quantity that you need from us instead of having to purchase bundles of 25 or more forms. The cost of the W-2 and 1099 forms is $0.50 each and the envelopes are priced at $0.20 each. We have not changed these prices since 1988! We do add a handling charge of $5.00 for orders under $25.00.

You can place your order by one of three means: 1) by phoning us at 303•922•5522, 2) by faxing your request to 303•922•3062 or 3) by sending your request by e-mail to drdac@drdac.com. Please note on your order form the quantity of forms and envelopes (W-2 or 1099). We only supply laser forms. If you need continuous forms, we will send a special order to our supplier.

CLOSING PAYROLL YEAR

You will have until March 31, 2007 before you will have to close the year 2006. However, most of you will be ready by Jan 31 since the tax forms have to be provided to employees and contractors by then. Here is the closing process:

  • Post all payroll entries and make/clear all tax deposits.
  • Install any tax update you purchased.
  • Print all forms and reports: W-2, W-3, 1099, 941, 940-EZ, SUI reports, custom reports, etc.
  • Make a year-end backup copy of your data. To insure the quality of the backup, restore data right after backing up. Mark the backup and save it with your other 2006 payroll information.
  • Close the month and the year. Since you will be in the fourth quarter, closing the year also will close the quarter.
  • Purge the cleared checks and detail for the previous year. Run the "File,Recover" operation on all files to repack the data files.
  • Update tax tables, social security wage base and SUI rate for 2007. Please remember to input the SUI rate as a percentage as opposed to the absolute number shown on the State sheet.

CLOSING ACCOUNTING YEAR

A company’s accounting year does not necessarily coincide with the calendar year, nor do the books have to be closed immediately after the previous year has ended. In fact, we can keep two years open at a given time. Whenever you are ready, the following steps should help guide you through the closing process:

  • Reconcile your bank account(s) and enter the year-end adjustments provided by your CPA.
  • Print all the needed journals; do a final check to insure accuracy and completeness.
  • Make a good, reliable backup. Again, use a medium of your choice. USB flash drives (key drives) are becoming quite inexpensive. A 1 GB flash drive costs about $20. It serves as an excellent medium for storing archives. Whatever medium you use, restore the backup right away to insure reliability. Save the backup with your 2006 accounting reports. Mark the accounting version on the label.
  • Post all modules you use and print the final reports. Compare the final financials with those provided by your accountant.
  • Close the last month of the year for A/R, A/P, and G/L.
  • Finally, close the year for A/R, A/P, Inventory and G/L. The order in which you close the subsidiary modules does not matter. However, you should always close the G/L the last. Use the account number for Retained Earnings if the program asks for a closing account number while closing the G/L year.
  • Purge old transactions using the Periodic, Purge routine. You will need to purge each transaction file separately. It does not matter if you use an early date (prior to 01/01/06) in the From field. But be careful that the To date does not exceed 12/31/06 (or the last date of your last fiscal year) . In fact, it might be prudent to change the program date to that last date (using the F4 key) before you embark on this project.
  • Lastly, go to File, Utilities and run Drop Indexes, Recover and Verify on all files (choice A). This process will clean up and repack the data files. Upon performing these steps you will notice that your backup file size is smaller than before.

Remember, almost any problem can be solved—provided you have made reliable backups!

ET CETERA….

Last month, Microsoft released the business version of its latest operating system, Windows Vista. The home version of the operating system is to be unveiled on January 31, 2007. Some of you will be getting new computers with Vista already loaded on them. Although, in general, the Microsoft operating systems have been “backward compatible,” DacEasy programs may not run well on Vista. It might be a good idea to postpone upgrading to Vista—or putting Dac applications on your new Vista-loaded machines—until Dac works out the kinks. The same holds for the most recent version of Internet Explorer. Please do not rush to upgrade to the new version 7 on computers running DacEasy. The Dac programmers are still trying to develop a means for coexisting with IE 7.

Some of you long time users might have outgrown DacEasy and might be looking for software that can migrate you to the next level. MAS 90 is one such product in the Sage Software line. Admittedly, it is much more expensive than the Dac suite. However, it is a time-tested, solid accounting software that is particularly well suited for businesses with heavy inventory transactions. Please call us at 303•922•5522 if you would like additional information.

December 2010
Important Phone Numbers

IRS 1•800•829•1040
State of Colorado 303•238•3278/7378

DOCTOR DAC, INC.
6655 West Jewell Avenue, Ste 203, Lakewood, CO 80232-7108