Elevate your accounting experience with add-on modules

Add-on modules are designed to meet the diverse needs of businesses across various industries.  

These enable users to customise their accounting systems according to specific requirements, streamline processes, improve efficiency, and gain deeper insights into their financial data.

Sage 50cloud Pastel offers the following modules:

Point of Sale (POS)

Sage 50cloud Pastel POS offers a user-friendly and secure retail solution, with features like barcode scanner integration and comprehensive reporting, streamlining your sales process and enhancing security.

Debtors Manager

Automate debtor collection processes with Sage 50cloud Pastel Debtors Manager, ensuring efficient tracking, control, and reporting for improved cash flow and debt recovery.

Receipting

Simplify receipt processing and printing with Sage 50cloud Pastel Receipting, enabling seamless integration with your cash book and offering customisation options for receipt layouts.

Bill of Materials

Manage inventory assembly and kit item codes effortlessly with Sage 50cloud Pastel Partner’s Bill of Materials module, featuring flexible reporting and cost allocation functionalities.

Fixed Assets

Automate fixed asset management tasks, including depreciation calculation and asset tracking, with Sage 50cloud Pastel’s Fixed Assets module, ensuring compliance and accurate financial reporting.

Multi-Warehousing

Effectively manage multiple stores or warehouses with Sage 50cloud Pastel Partner’s Multi-Warehousing module, offering features like store-specific inventory tracking and seamless item transfers.

Project Tracker

Stay in control of project finances with Sage 50cloud Pastel Partner’s Project Tracker, facilitating budget management, expense allocation, and detailed reporting for improved project profitability.

Sage Intelligence Reporting

Enhance decision-making with dynamic reporting capabilities using Sage 50cloud Pastel Intelligence Reporting, offering customisable templates, drill-down functionality, and real-time data access.

Serial Number Tracking

Track item movement and warranty information efficiently with Sage 50cloud Pastel Serial Number Tracking, ensuring accurate inventory control and streamlined warranty management.

Time & Billing

Simplify time tracking and invoicing processes with Sage 50cloud Pastel’s Time & Billing module, enabling easy creation of timesheets, customer invoices, and detailed productivity analysis.


Are you ready to take your accounting experience to the next level?

Get in touch for more info: info@mrbm.co.za or 031 818 9030.

Top HR trends for 2024

From maintaining wellbeing to using the right HR tech, we round up the top trends to help HR leaders get ahead in 2024.

The buzzword for 2024 is AI (artificial intelligence) and specifically generative AI. It’s not new, but it has accelerated at such a rate that machine learning apps such as ChatGPT are all the rage.

That means HR teams all over the world are trying to figure out how best to understand and use them responsibly in the workplace amid a backdrop of economic uncertainty, a tight talent market, and hybrid working.

The following summary shines a light on seven HR challenges and priorities one can expect in 2024:

 

1. Staying relevant in HR

HR teams need to get on board with new technology to make smarter decisions. It’s all about understanding data and communicating effectively to drive positive changes within the organisation.

 

2. Re-evaluating the employee relationship

With a breakdown in the employer/employee relationship highlighted by strikes across the globe in 2023, HR needs to really listen to employees and build genuine relationships. It’s about creating a workplace where employees feel heard and valued, beyond just offering technological solutions.

 

3. Rethinking Manager Roles in a Hybrid World

Managers face challenges in navigating hybrid and remote environments. This requires them to relook their roles with a focus on empowering their teams and improve on their people skills to keep everyone connected and motivated.

 

4. Reconsidering Talent Acquisition

As the talent market evolves, it’s all about nurturing the skills you’ve got. HR’s shifting gears from just hiring to managing talent, with an emphasis on keeping the team happy and up-skilling and re-skilling internally.

 

5. Maintaining Wellbeing in a Digital World

The rapid pace of digital transformation raises concerns about worker stress. HR needs to integrate wellbeing into organisational transformations, ensuring nobody gets left behind. This becomes essential for sustainable change where everybody can thrive.

6. Redefining Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

It’s time for organisations to recommit to DEI efforts, but this time with the help of technology to accelerate progress. We need to change the way we select people and appraise their performance, and talk about values where differences are normalised.

7. Adopting the Right HR Technology

HR’s under pressure to invest in new tech, but it’s not just about the gadgets. It’s about finding tools that add real value whilst keeping things legal and ethical. Let’s try out new tech where it really counts.

 

Embracing AI responsibly

As we look ahead in 2024, the HR industry’s embrace of AI offers exciting new opportunities, but responsible use and training remain crucial. We must ensure that any new tech we take on board still align with our long-term goals, balancing the risks and opportunities cautiously.

Read the full article originally published by Jessica Leyshon for Sage.com

 

Get in touch for more info: info@mrbm.co.za or 031 818 9030.

5 Signs it’s time to outsource your payroll

By entrusting payroll responsibilities to experts in the field, you can streamline your operations.

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, managing payroll can be a daunting task for many companies. As businesses strive to focus on their core activities and enhance efficiency, many are choosing to outsource their payroll processing functions.

5 Signs it’s Time to Consider an Outsourced Payroll Service:

Increasing Payroll Errors

If you notice a surge in payroll errors or inconsistencies, it could indicate underlying issues with your payroll processes. These errors not only lead to dissatisfied employees but also pose compliance risks and may result in costly penalties. The expertise and automation provided by a payroll bureau service provider can help to eliminate these errors.

Concern Around Business Continuity

Relying solely on in-house payroll processing could pose a significant risk to business continuity, especially during unforeseen events such as natural disasters, system failures, or employee absences. An outsourced payroll service offers built-in redundancies and disaster recovery measures, ensuring uninterrupted payroll operations and therefore increased business resilience.

 

Experiencing More Complex Payroll Requirements

As your company grows or diversifies, managing payroll can become increasingly complex. Factors such as correct treatment of pension / provident contributions, fringe benefits, etc. can overwhelm in-house payroll teams. An outsourced payroll service can handle these complexities and adapt to changing staffing needs with ease.

 

Struggling with Compliance and Regulations

Staying abreast of ever-evolving tax laws, labor regulations, and compliance requirements is a daunting task. Failure to comply with these regulations can lead to severe consequences for your business. An outsourced payroll service employs experts who stay updated on regulatory changes, mitigating compliance risks and keeping your payroll processes in line with current legislation.

Administrative Tasks Affecting your Efficiency

Payroll administration involves a multitude of time-consuming tasks, from processing payroll data and generating reports to managing employee enquiries and handling UIF and SARS submissions. Outsourcing these responsibilities frees up valuable time for your HR and finance teams to focus on strategic initiatives and core business functions.

 

Is it time to trust the experts?

Outsourcing payroll can provide numerous benefits for your company, including improved accuracy, compliance, scalability, and time savings. 

Get in touch for more info: info@mrbm.co.za or 031 818 9030.

Shift your focus from reducing taxes to building wealth

Preparing for and complying with Tax Year-End can be stressful for small business owners.

Rather than only focusing on cutting your tax bill, we consider a different strategy: focus on growing wealth and use the Tax Year-End time to review your financial situation and make changes, if necessary. In this article, we highlight nine things to think about to reduce your tax bill and grow your wealth. Originally published by Jasper Basson for Sage.com.

1. Grow wealth by reinvesting your RA tax refund

You can claim up to 27.50% of your taxable income as a deduction (up to a maximum of R350,000 per year). In most cases, this will be your total contributions for the year. Rather than spending the refund, clients are advised to grow their wealth by reinvesting it into their RA.

Let’s say your effective tax rate for the year is 25%. A portion of that will be for tax refunds for your RA contributions. By reinvesting that portion back into your RA, you effectively make an additional 25% growth on your RA per annum.

2. Getting too creative with tax deductions could end up costing you more

Clients often ask if it’s a good idea to purchase a new vehicle to bring down their tax liability. The short answer is no: Buying a vehicle to pay less tax only makes sense if it works for you, for example, as a delivery van. In that case, yes, you will pay less tax, but remember that you can’t achieve capital growth without an income tax effect.

Based on an effective tax rate of 25%, you would need to spend R100 to save R25, leaving 75% less in the bank. But by not spending the R100, you’ll still end up with R70 in the bank after tax. This is why you shouldn’t use saving tax as your only motivation to purchase a vehicle.

3. SARS is wary of travel claims

There are various types of travel claims: A travel allowance as part of a salary structure; a fringe benefit on a company car; and the use of vehicles to conduct business and generate income.

Whatever your situation, you need to keep a logbook. Recently, SARS audits have been particularly focused on travel claims, which is understandable with the world shifting to remote work and international travel grinding to a halt. If you’re audited, these are the documents you’ll need to provide SARS:

  • Detailed travel logbook (investing in an electronic logbook might be your best return on investment for travel claim purposes.)
  • Purchase finance agreement for your vehicle (if you paid cash, you’d need to provide the invoice, proof of payment, and registration document.)
  • If you used a vehicle registered in someone else’s name, attach an affidavit by that person confirming that you may use the vehicle.

4. ETI: The most powerful small business tax hack

The Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) is probably the most effective tax hack for small business owners. Your business qualifies for the ETI if you employ people under certain requirements, such as:

  • Monthly salary between R2,000 and R6,500
  • Ages between 18 and 29
  • Valid South African ID.

Speak to your accountant for guidance on how to claim the ETI.

 

5. Use Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) benefits

Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) offer tax benefits to investors because you don’t pay tax on dividends, interest or capital gains. This investment scheme requires after-tax money to be invested, with no deduction on your deposits. Currently, you can invest R36,000 per year, tax-free, with a total lifetime limit of R500,000.

 

6. Capital gains tax consideration: Stretch the sale

Individuals receive an annual capital gains tax exemption of R40,000. If you are considering selling your business, try to structure the transaction over two income tax periods. In doing so, you can use the capital gains tax exemption over two years for one transaction.

When selling shares or property during this period, consider making the sale date from 1 March and not before 29 February. Doing this will postpone capital gains exposure and the impact on your cash flow. This tactic also allows you to generate additional income with the capital on hand before you need to declare provisional tax.

 

7. Pro bono work for charities

If you do pro bono work for a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) approved charity, you might be able to obtain an annual Section 18A certificate for your services. Compile a spreadsheet of all pro bono services delivered between 1 March 2023 and 29 February 2024, including your market-related fee. The PBO may issue a Section 18A certificate to you for this amount. You will be able to deduct 10% of your taxable income on all donations to PBOs. A few things to note:

  • Not all PBOs may issue Section 18A certificates. They must be separately approved by the SARS Tax Exemption Unit. Confirm this status with the charity you are working with.
  • The Section 18A certificate must include the PBO’s reference number, date of receipt of the donation, name and address of the donor, and the amount or nature of the donation.

8. Net losses from part-time businesses

Many part-time entrepreneurs tend not to declare their secondary income for tax purposes, either because they think it’s irrelevant or are scared about the potential consequences on their income tax return. To be clear: it is compulsory to declare any additional income from any business source.

However, many of these businesses have a net loss in the first one to three years, mainly because the company is constantly evolving and growing, which requires input capital. These first few years of running at a loss will actually benefit you because the loss is deducted from your salary (as an employee), so your income tax liability will be smaller. This means you will receive income tax back from the overpayment of PAYE from your employer.

Note: In certain circumstances, SARS might ringfence the losses. This needs to be discussed with your tax consultant.

 

9. Conduct a financial health assessment

We suggest companies do a regular financial health assessment with SARS and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). These are some of the things to look out for:

  • Have the CIPC annual returns been submitted, and are they up to date?
  • Are there any outstanding tax returns for the company or its directors?
  • Is there any debt owed by the company or its directors?
  • Does the company qualify for small business corporation status? This alone results in a massive saving in corporate tax.
  • Can one use the Employment Tax Incentive on the payroll?

 

Speaking to your accounting and tax consultants, and automating your processes where possible, will help at Tax Year-End time. Get in touch for more info: info@mrbm.co.za or 031 818 9030.

Introducing Sage Intacct: a leading cloud-based solution

We have expanded our solution set and now offer our clients this innovative ERP automation: it lowers your costs, increases security, and improves productivity.

Sage Intacct operates a SaaS (software as a service) business model and can provide the support you need, even as your business evolves. This is a financial management solution for companies of any size.

It integrates with existing tools and automates tedious processes, which frees your team and allows you to do more, in half the time.

No matter what industry you’re in or business model you follow, your organisation is unique. Sage Intacct’s built-in tools will meet your unique business needs.  It automates the complete array of accounting processes — from basic to complex — so you can improve productivity, provide compliance, and grow without excessive hiring.

FEATURES INCLUDE

✓ CORE FINANCIALS
Automate complex processes and multi-dimensional data analysis.

Slash your close time in half and accelerate your finance team’s productivity. With Sage Intacct’s accounts payable software, your business saves time through the automation of manual processes and eliminating inefficient workflows. Just point and click to configure approvals processes that work for your organisation.

✓  DASHBOARDS AND REPORTING
Intuitive dashboards provide fast, yet rich, financial and operational performance.

Save 40+ hours per month on financial reporting and cut time spent checking data accuracy by 75%. With Sage Intacct’s financial reports, you get the agility and flexibility to quickly slice-and-dice the details that matter to all key stakeholders: investors, executives, sales, finance, and other departments. Reach peak performance with fast answers for confident decision-making.

✓  BILLING
Smart solutions to automate complex revenue and billing processes.
The intelligent, automated, and faster way to manage revenue complexities. When it comes to subscriptions, specialised contracts, recurring billing services and the added complexities of compliance, Sage Intacct is the cloud solution finance trusts. We provide the automated workflows, smart revenue recognition, and seamless data flows that streamline the revenue cycle across your organisation.

✓  PLATFORM
Built-in tools for growth.
Infrastructure solutions to give you an extra edge over the competition, be that in efficiency, cost savings or better decision-making across the business. Sage Intacct Platform Services is your ticket to making user expectations a reality.

✓  ADVANCED FUNCTIONALITY
Flexible additional modules for total financial management.
With Sage Intacct’s additional modules, you’re always ready for what’s next. Fixed assets, Inventory management, Multi-entity and global consolidations, Project accounting and more.

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Contact us for more information on this leading accounting product: info@mrbm.co.za or 031 818 9030.

Blue Jeans Breakfast 2019

On 6 June we co-hosted the Blue Jeans Breakfast with Global Z-Data and BizSmart, and we are overjoyed at the success that it was.

Our full house of guests enjoyed a morning of networking and breakfast, with an engaging discussion on Digital Transformation by our keynote speaker.  Ryan Hogarth was truly captivating and left us feeling inspired to re-look the way that we are doing business and how we are approaching the ever-changing world of technology.

Our sponsors for this event comprised Sage, Mimecast, ESET, Maxtec, Fortinet and CLOUD29.

 

Blue Jeans Breakfasts aim to bring together networking, education, collaboration and creativity in a relaxed environment.

 

We look forward to taking these conversations on innovation, business and technology further.  If you wish to make suggestions or collaborate on a future event, please do get in touch.

 

Database Mirrors: Ransomware Protection

Ransomware – the stuff of nightmares

Viruses, Malware, Phishing and even the dreaded Y2K of yesteryear – none of these “horror stories” keep IT Administrators up at night quite like the term Ransomware does. Like an “invasion of the body snatchers” type scenario, suddenly your data is no longer your own. It’s still on your server, on your very own infrastructure – but your data (arguably, the heart and soul of your operation) is no longer accessible. Even if you pay the Ransom, there’s no guarantee that the nightmare ends.

Yes, you can secure your “always online, always accessible” Server Environment, but the reality is that there’s always a possibility (however minute) of Ransomware lurking just around the corner. For some of us, we want – nay, need – just that little bit of extra confidence that we’ve sufficiently protected ourselves against Ransomware. Almost as if we’re looking for a sort of “chamomile tea” solution, if you would entertain the phrase; just that final bit so that we can rest easily with the assurance that we’ve done all we possibly can to prevent the threat.

As luck would have it, for one particular project, I was able to work hand in hand with an adept team to implement the very same sort of “chamomile tea” solution for one such concerned client.

Adding another layer of protection – a reflective layer at that

So here’s the scenario in a nutshell: The client commissioned another service provider (Skynamo) to implement a Mobile Sales Application that accesses data from a database that we (MRBM) look after. The IT Administrator has kitted out the SQL Server (named VEGA) with all sorts of Ransomware protections – Firewall, Anti-Virus, Secure Access policies, etc – the whole nine yards. However, he’s still apprehensive about opening up ports on VEGA, essentially having it open to the whole WWW. That’s when he pitches his “chamomile tea” solution – they’ve got another server (SIRIUS) which was previously used as a test environment for Custom Development that hasn’t been in active use for some time. He’s happy to open up ports on SIRIUS (being a non-critical Server), so he asks if we can mirror the database from VEGA to SIRIUS so that the data can be accessed from there instead.

 

As with most IT solutions, the answer was “of course we can – but it’s not necessarily straightforward and not without some caveats”. There were several challenges to overcome:

 

VEGA and SIRIUS were running SQL Express 2014 and SQL Standard 2008 R2 respectively.

  • While SQL Express does support some mirroring, it can’t act as a Primary Mirror.
  • Other issues arose from this as well – inability to restore to lower version, etc.

The Mobile Sales Application only needed to access Master Data (less than 1GB worth)

  • While the entire database was not large (< 20GB) it would have been redundant to mirror it entirely (transactions and all) for only a sliver of data to ever be accessed.

Lastly, and the most challenging, VEGA and SIRIUS had differing default SQL COLLATIONS.

  • Any database admin worth his salt knows that mixing COLLATIONs is bad news.
  • Because of how we had to implement this (without traditional mirroring), this had its own separate cadre of challenges to overcome.

Now as service providers on opposite ends of the problem (making the data available vs consuming the data), it’s a good thing that we had a solid working relationship from having collaborated on a couple projects across several sites previously. Had that not been the case, we most likely wouldn’t have been able to fully realize the solution that the client wanted. In the end, here’s how we did it:

We implemented the entire Mirror using SQL scripts.

  • And we do mean the entire Mirror. Oh, we tried several things first – Copy, Restore, Base Copies of the Database and few other things. Most of these fell flat because of issues with the Version and COLLATION differences.
  • This included Tables, Views, Functions, Triggers and all the in between plumbing that made the database work, with specific focus on getting the objects in place for the Mobile Sales Application.
  • Both Service Providers worked closely, pruning and perfecting scripts until the scripted Mirror worked as intended.

Summary – Reflecting on the solution

It’s a very non-traditional solution, but it works. We’ve got a Database Mirror without implementing SQL Mirroring, a fully Scripted Database Synch with JOINS and FUNCTION CALLS across Servers with differing Builds, Versions, Editions and COLLATIONs!

Trawling the web in preparing this “chamomile tea” revealed that many others had given up when presented with some of the challenges we overcame during this implementation. So why did we work that hard at achieving this for the client? Because, both service providers were on board with the idea that for the client, peace of mind is priceless.

If the unthinkable does indeed happen and Ransomware does hit SIRIUS, the IT Administrator can rest easily knowing that the soothing “chamomile tea” solution successfully protected VEGA from the brunt of the attack’s payload.

Are you ready for year-end?

Getting ready for Year End can be a daunting task, so we have compiled some checklists to help guide you through your Sage Pastel Partner Year End process.

Should you require an MRBM Consultation before Year End, please get in touch as soon as possible to make a booking.

A. PRE-YEAR END CHECKLIST

To ensure that your Year End operation is successful, you are required to first perform the following checks:

✓ 13th Period Setup: 
A financial year consist of 12 periods. Sage Pastel Accounting allows for 13 periods in a financial year. The 13th period is used to extend your financial year with one period to complete the preparation for Year End.

__________

✓ Inventory Stock Take: 
If you use inventory, it is important to do a stock take before proceeding with the Year End.

__________

✓ Foreign Currency Revaluation: 
The Foreign Currency Revaluation needs to be run before processing the Year – End you will not be able to run the revaluation after the Year End.

__________

✓ Open Batch: 
Prior to processing your Year End, you will need to update all open batches. This includes Sage Pastel POS Cash on Delivery (COD) and Sage Pastel POS On Hold documents.

__________

✓ Retained Income Account: 
The Retained Income account is a Balance Sheet account that needs to exist in Sage Pastel Partner/ Xpress for the Year – End to be processed

__________

✓ Bank Reconciliation: 
Prior to processing your Year End, you will need to make sure that all bank transactions for this year have been reconciled.

__________

✓ Data Integrity: 
The Data Integrity is run before the Year End to ensure there is no data corruption.

______________________________

B. YEAR END PROCESS

The following Year End process should be conducted on the server. This is to avoid the system crashing if attempting to work on multiple companies at the same time from different workstations.

Note: Make sure that all your batches are updated. When you view the open batches, ticks should only be under quotes sales orders and purchase orders.  You cannot clear history with any open batches.


 Backup the Company.

Do this manually to a safe place before you start.


 Create a New Company.  

Navigate to File New, copy another company, put your cursor on the current company and then tick on the New tab. Make sure that you are creating the New Company in the same drive as the Current Company, in the new company name space put the new company name.  If you are currently using LEOG2018, you will create LEOG2019 for the new company of if you are using a fix name like LEOG create last year as LEOG2018, click CREATE.

When you copy, if Pastel displays the explorer instead of the navigator, then tick on the icon four from the very right at the top, and choose navigator rather than explorer. Please note that in some cases, where the dataset is very large, you may get an error 6, overflow.This overflow just means there is too much.If that happens, copy the whole directory, through the windows explorer, and then rename the copy.


 Using 13 Periods.

If 13 periods is selected, make sure “use last period as first period” is ticked. If 12 periods is selected, make sure this is unticked.


 Run a Data Integrity.

If errors pop up, the data should be data-fixed before continuing any further.


 Run the Year End Wizard.

If there are no data errors, run the Year End Wizard and follow the steps. Choose the option to not create new company as you have done this above.


 Backup Again.

After Year End, close pastel and reopen then perform another backup.


 In the New Company:
  • Go to change delete history/clear files
  • Clear history
  • Open item history for 3 years ago
  • Delete invoice history
  • Delete serial number history (if you are using serial numbers)
  • Clear open item history – customers and suppliers
  • Delete 3+ years transactions (only available from version 12+)
  • And project tracker if you are using that
  • All Gl Accounts from 0001 to 9999
  • All suppliers Blank to ZZZZZZZZZ
  • All customers Blank to ZZZZZZZZZ
  • Confirm what you are going to do

 Backup and Rebuild.
We recommend that you conduct another backup and rebuild acchistl.dat, acchisth.dat, accoi.dat, acctrn.dat.  This will take some time to complete if you have not done it for a long time.

 Check Periods, Data Integrity.
Once the above is complete, go into setup periods and make sure the new periods are correct.  Conduct another data integrity.  We usually also take away the 13thperiod so that users do not accidentally process into period 13.

 Entering the New Year.
Make certain that you process into PERIOD ONE of the new year.

 Backup, Again.Take a backup of this before you start.

Load Shedding: Protect your data

Load Shedding is unfortunately back again and we have subsequently noticed an increase in data corruptions.

One of the reasons for this is that our computers and operating systems are not designed to support abrupt loss of power, but rather to follow their built-in processes of preparing for shutdown.  Instant loss of power can result in lost or corrupted data for certain file systems.

To ensure that your business data is well protected, we request that customers please review the Load Shedding Schedule on the Eskom website and make provisions to either shut down your equipment before the power goes off or make use of a UPS or generator to backup your power supply.

If you would like more information on how to protect your business against load shedding, please get in touch and we will explain how best to set up your equipment as well as the benefits of moving your business to the cloud.