Sage 100

We have been spending way too much time with clients and their payroll expiration. Last year we were told we could not renew customers payroll and it had to be done by Sage. We have found over half of our clients were not renewed on payroll (so Sage walked away from last years revenue and our prorated share) and we now have to actively address. So in the last couple weeks we have found a few clients on 2015.3 and 2016.x where the unlocking key update only extends the subscription by one month. Some of those just set it forward a month and still locks the customer out of their payroll. Sage is saying update them to the latest PU. Easier said then done for some clients with 3rd party updates. Just wanted to give you all the heads up that you may have some ticking time bombs out there. Also, to find out if anyone has found a better solution than surprise updates for the client.

Larry, I agree with the ticking time bomb, plus I found out this week from Linda Raby 9Sage) that the entitlement server had different keys than the portal. Reason I found out is we had one client's maintenance for GL,AP,AR was set to expire 6/3/17, even though the real date was December 2017, come to find out the only valid key besides payroll than goodness that was on the entitlement server was for bank Rec, the client did not own Bank Rec. Could be interesting times!

I have spend the last 3 weeks updating to the newest product update for 2015, 2016 and 2017 so our payroll customers have the correct expiration dates. Its a nightmare! So very nice of Sage to give us a heads up, she said sarcastically.

This is a known issue as reported to those of us who participate on the Partner Advisory Council. You can reach out to Linda Cade who can put you in touch with the appropriate people in support. There was someone from Sage on the last call who talked about this specifically. Perhaps our friends, @JohnHoyt or @JimWoodhead took better notes than me????

That ticking has been getting louder the last few months. I drew up PR Sub. Agreements for every customer (I never heard that Sage would do that) over the last year, usually at renewal time, sent the letter Sage gave us all to send, had the conversation as they suggested and got them all on the version or update they had to be on based on that partner session a year ago, and have just one lagger left. It took a ton of my time, one customer went to Sage Managed Payroll (still waiting on my commission) and one is furious with me because she doesn't use payroll but has to pay the minimum in order to keep employee maintenance for some other system to look at.

I must have completely misunderstood from the meeting I was in. Sage had to renew and Sage had to draw up the agreement. Either way, here I am trying to get these all worked out and solved based on version and update and starting with the ones with expiration dates based on their current installed version. The ones I have changed so far have not gone well because the expirations are not working properly unless they are on the latest service update.

@Larry Bradford - we have been updating everyone to the latest product update and so far their PR keys have been working fine. There is a patch available for customers that no longer own the payroll module and need access to payroll reports. Search Sage KB for 'unable to access payroll module'. Gives customers read only access to PR reports -of course they have to be on 2015 PU5, 2016 PU2 and higher and 2017 PU1 and higher.

We just found out this month that customers who purchased a multi-year renewal will also need a payroll subscription. Sage has to manually discount out payroll (and/or direct deposit) for these.

This is the type of issue that should not need to be addressed with development (Linda Cade) or support. Pricing and product licensing requirements like this are marketing issues, since marketing is the function that develops the product ""packaging"" and pricing. Let's hold them responsible as opposed to designing the approach, then walking away to confuse us with another product, and eventually leaving Sage.

I've been having problems with this since last September. I have lost a LOT of my time trying to get Sage to a) give me the same answer twice in a row and b) give me the keys that work. I have found different keys on my client's portal verses what's list on my portal for my clients. I have had to have engineering go into one of my client's program and hard code a key in to get it unlocked due to their mistake in releasing the wrong numbers. I have had countless ""fill-in"" managers for my area while trying to find a new one and have had both myself and my clients treated very rudely trying to get something to work. I've been with Sage a LOT of years and have never seen something get so out of control and so poorly handled as this payroll split. So frustrating!

I have spent so much time on Payroll renewals that I feel Sage owes me a paycheck!

They do @JaneCavanaugh each and everyone of us.

I was concerned that two of my clients still had not had their Payroll Subscription processed by Sage. My new sales advisor told me today that the expiration date had been pushed back until August instead of the 4/30th deadline. Anyone hear that?

https://90minds-com.socialcast.com/messages/34214414?ref=stream

We just heard about it today! Would have been nice to hear about it a month ago as we wouldn't have had such a frantic April!

I never heard that either. :-P

What? Sage didn't communicate this important announcement with the channel? That's absurd!

Should be a fun Monday morning.

**Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]** Casablanca is a classic.....

There are SO many KB articles about payroll expire dates. Just found another that's not fixed. pertains to 2016.4 and 2017.1. https://support.na.sage.com/selfservice/viewdocument.do?noCount=true&externalId=82331&sliceId=1&cmd=displayKC&dialogID=332092&docType=kc&isLoadPublishedVer=&stateId=332096&docTypeID=DT_Article&ViewedDocsListHelper=com.kanisa.apps.common.BaseViewedDocsListHelperImpl

What is Stephen Kelly's or Scott Ehman's email address? When you send out (if you haven't already) your PR update message, include their email's in your message as people to reach out to when (not if) issues are encountered next week.....

Be sure to click Edit, then Activate on the Registration tab to make it look at keys, then back on the modules tab, you should see the new Expire date. I just applied the hotfix internally.

It sounds like Sage just made the decision this week to extend the payroll date to August 1st (according to our Sales Ops/Renewal reps). They said a communication would be sent out soon.

What is the rush?? They have all weekend??

I'll give you two guesses who is going to be responsible if the keys for any of these payroll users need to be manually updated. If you guessed Sage , guess again.

Acumatica??? :-P

Hey, they have free, unlimited payroll support from sage and I think keys should qualify as part of that, right?!! Not that the person answering is going to know how to fix it, necessarily.

The channel partners need to think seriously about charge backs to Sage for having to do things that Sage should have done. They certainly charge us right and left for partner fees, certifications, etc.

From a single user payroll only customer this morning to whom we had just presented their Sage 100 maintenance/subscription options: ""Good morning! I have a question concerning the kind of technical support Sage can offer us. When I called them about the problem I had with Crystal Report, they had no idea what to do. Just gave me the hit-or-miss run-around. Why can't we purchase a technical support from Friendly Systems? Phil seems to know the software inside out. This is the kind of support we need.