Sage 100

I had a client ask yesterday about the new tax calc engine in 2018. If their internet is down on PR day, will they be able to do manual taxes so that they can get their payroll completed? I would think yes, but thought I'd ask the group. TIA. Pam

I've been playing around with it and thought maybe there was hope for a workaround when I got prompted to download and install tax updates. However, it still requires an Internet connection to run the tax table calc and it looks like that's what it's going to be.

I thought you might be able to work around the internet by choosing manual taxes. But no, even with manual taxes, Sage looks for an internet connection.

Add this to the list of Sage questions - I think customers need to know there is a change here. It seems there should be a way to override tax calculations without an Internet connection.

I asked Linda Raby @ Sage (I was speaking with her about another Payroll 2018 issue) and she confirmed - it is not possible to process payroll without an internet connection. Anyone have a Plan B?

I guess there's also something to be said about 'electricity' in that I would think the _primary_ reason internet might be down is if there's no power. So what do folks currently do if they have no power on Payroll day? I imagine a v2017 payroll client wouldn't be able to process payroll, unless maybe they had sufficient battery backup's, etc. and/or the ability to manually write 'net pay' checks.

You may be able to connect a cell phone or other cellular device as a hotspot or access point in a pinch.

What did people do when their hosted servers went off line last winter? The Internet is a utility just like electricity now. Companies need to have a contingency plan(s) in the event it goes down. What happens for companies using ADP and Paychex when their internet goes down? Copy the Sage folder to a laptop and go to a local hotspot. Use a cell phone as @BillPfahnl suggests. What is the company going to do when their other Sage Internet connected goes down (Avalara, AP automation, ADP, etc)? This is a great opening for a review of their Sage contingency plans. @JerryNorman any comments?

When you step back a bit this becomes a different question. ""The business technology environment has changed over the past 10 years, so what is our best approach to taking advantage of it?"" Similar to keeping an old car running: eventually the constant repair is more expensive than biting the bullet and letting it go. How many new adopters of Intaact or Acumatica want to run payroll locally? There's a reason. When the payroll is run completely in the cloud, you don't care about the rest since you can always access the system from a local machine talking to it from SBUX hotspot. If you want to run payroll from Sage 100, and worry about power/internet, then put the server in the cloud through one of several methods, and ensure all your employees are paid via ACH. The failure rate of business cloud services is now very, very, very low. Our computing systems are more and more assuming internet connectivity. It is more expensive to resist it than embrace it. Adopt an architecture that is aligned with this New Reality: put the Sage 100 server in the cloud and worry about something that is potentially more productive to the business rather than how to manually load tax tables.

I don't have a problem with this - however, I think it's something we need to make customers aware of in advance since it is a change in how they are used to processing.

Of course! This is a very relevant consulting, not just repair, value.

We used to recommend people kept a good old POTTS line in case the internet went down so they could modem into our service, but in today's world we recommend a cellular hotspot. It works great in a pinch and really is a very low cost insurance policy which can be used in trade shows or other circumstances as well.

I'd like to thank everyone for their input. Very much appreciated!