Register now to join CMS for one of our half-day user groups in Connecticut or Rhode Island. Registration is free.

These half-day informative sessions are designed for HR and Payroll professionals to learn the Sage Road Map of technology updates, new product releases and how to maximize their Abra Software purchase.

Special Rhode Island session focuses on the RI Wellness Program, for the complete agenda, please visit our website below.

Wednesday, October 18 2006
Hilton Garden Inn, One Thurber Street, Warwick, RI 02886
1pm - 5pm

Thursday, October 19 2006
Crowne Plaza, 100 Berlin Road, Cromwell, CT 06416
1pm - 5pm

Please register on our website here.
http://www.cmshris.com/usergroups.html

The August issue of HR Magazine features a Sage Abra customer on the front cover. The feature story, on HR in manufacturing companies, includes several quotes from Kristi Schmidlap at Corrugated Services in Forney, Texas. She is pictured on the cover and on the first page of the article.

To read the article please click here.

The August 7 issue of Accounting Today includes payroll software reviews by Dave McClure, and of course, Abra Payroll is included, with a mention of Sage Payroll Services as Sage Software's outsourcing solution, and Sage Compliance Services for "organizations wishing to perform payroll in-house, but outsource payroll tax compliance."

The article also points out how the use of Abra ESS in conjunction with Abra Payroll "helps enable paperless payroll." The article includes the following quote: "Built on 20-plus years of experience, and boasting a strong national network of certified business partners, Abra Payroll is notable for its focus on the mid-range business, its power and its flexibility. Few payroll solutions in its class can offer the same ease of navigation, customization features, economy and return on investment."

To read the article please click here.

The August issue of The CPA Technology Advisor gave Sage Payroll Services a perfect 5-star review.

The article states "No matter what degree of out-sourcing is chosen, Sage Payroll Ser-vices is a comprehensive and powerful payroll product with state-of-the-art integration abilities. Sage Payroll Ser-vices is truly a turnkey payroll service that delivers online services accessible on an in-house basis - the best of both worlds. Powerful integration with Sage Compliance Services for tax compliance, Sage Abra HRMS for HR management, and the various Sage accounting systems only adds to the attractiveness of Sage Payroll Services."

To read the article please click here.

By Kevin Freking
Associated Press

WASHINGTON-- The welfare rolls aren't dropping as fast as they used to, and that could pose a big money problem for states from coast to coast after a new federal law takes effect next month.

The states' task: find jobs for tens of thousands of people on welfare or risk losing millions in federal money. More than two dozen states have work to do inlcuding Pennsylvania, California and Michigan.

The law requires states to place into job training, community service or other work activities 50 percent of their households that get welfare aid -- and 90 percent of their households that receive assistance.

"About half the states are in pretty good shape," said Wade Horn, assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. "About a quarter of the states are really going to have to work hard."

Pennsylvania will have to add nearly 23,000 recipients to the work rolls, which amounts to a 220 percent increase in work participation, according to federal estimates obtained by the Associated Press.

California has to find work activities for more than 60,000 people - a 100 percent increase in its work participation rate.

Michigan must add nearly 11,500, a 117 percent increase. Several other large states, including Texas, Florida and Georgia, will meet the requirements easily, according to federal estimates.

The requirements are part of broad rules that more strictly defines what constitutes work and require states to verify that adults are doing the activities the states say they are.

This week, five Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee said the rules had placed new challenges on the states that would make the program more expensive and difficult to administer. They are asking for a congressional hearing.

Some analysts are also concerned that states will penalize beneficiaries as a way to get to 50 percent work participation, rather than help recipients land and keep jobs.

"The people who have the most barriers to employment, the most issues in their life, they tend to be sanctioned more than others," said Evelyn Ganzglass of the Center for Law and Social Policy. "But they often have problems that prevent them from complying. These can be mental health problems, physical disabilities, all kinds of issues that these families face."

Pennsylvania officials say their state has made significant strides since March, the last month included in the federal figures. Work participation is now up to about 32 percent instead of the 15 percent cited by the federal government, they said.

"We're confident we're going to hit the number," said Ted Dallas, executive deputy secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare.

Dallas said the new regulations have forced Pennsylvania to re-evaluate its program. He said there has been more one-on-one counseling and more accountability from contractors. He also said more recipients have been penalized when they did not comply with state requirements.

States can kick recipients out of the program if they have not met certain requirements, such as attending appointments with counselors or going to job interviews. Sanctions in Pennsylvania rose from 1,030 in February to 2,327 in July, state officials said.

Labels: WOTC

Feature originally appeared in September 2006 HR Magazine.

Small businesses that invest in formal employee selection, management and retention strategies see direct, quantifiable results on the bottom line, according to a recently completed study.

A two-year study conducted by Cornell University associate professor Christopher Collins and sponsored by the Gevity Institute found that companies that implement such practices-categorized as workforce alignment-show 22.1 percent higher revenue growth, 23.3 percent higher profit growth and 66.8 percent lower turnover than companies that do not. Overall, companies with a well-aligned workforce perform 39 percent better than companies with less effective strategies, according to the study.

The workforce alignment strategies identified as most effective for small businesses are:

* Hiring based on organizational fit, not just job fit.
* Giving employees greater discretion, trust and empowerment.
* Creating a family-like environment.

Implementing even one of these strategies brings about significant improvement, researchers found.

"The study is groundbreaking because we've proven that specific human resources strategies have a meaningful, and statistically significant, impact on small business financial performance," says Collins, who is on the faculty at Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School and the Center for Advanced Human Resources.

"So much of existing research concerns large companies," says Collins. "However, the relative impact of a single person leaving a small business can be an even greater setback" for small companies than for large ones, he says.

CMS would like to let you know of the price changes for Sage Abra that will go into effect on October 1st, 2006.

Changes to the price list impact SupportPlus pricing at the 500 employee tier and above. A summary of the changes is as follows:

• On average the Sage Abra HRMS Solution pricing will increase by 3%.
• Sage Abra version 7.4 support price increases: 3% increase on modules at the 500 employee tier and above.
• Sage Abra 500 HRMS version 8.1: No price changes.

Sage Abra eRecruiter was added to the Sage Abra Suite v7.4 price list in June 2006, and is not affected by any price changes. Please keep in mind that special introductory pricing for Abra eRecruiter expires on September 29, 2006, and standard list pricing goes into effect on October 1st, 2006.

CMS will continue to honor any existing proposals and price quotations through October 31st, 2006.

Click here to read our recent notice in the news of becoming a Sage Select software partner.