Congress has approved a continuation of the payroll FICA-Social Security tax cut. Your current tax tables for 2012 will apply for the entire year, and no further action is required on your part. If you have not already updated your tax tables for 2012 please contact us.
Posted by Linda
If you would like to send a CC of a statement or bill you can easily create them using your PDS program. On the family’s contributions/tuition screen click the “billing address” on the left side. Fill out the required address information and select how you would like statements sent. Then when running any statement or billing report click the check box option on the “Selection Information” screen to include billing copies.
Posted by DaveDid you know?
…that if the contact person for any of the organizations for which you schedule is a member of your parish, you can bring in all of that person’s information from your Church, Formation or School database?
on the Organization screen you’ll find an Import Contact button. This will show you a list of all your individual members. Search for the appropriate contact name. All information including addresses, phone numbers and email addresses will fill in the contact information screen.
And, remember, you can associate more than one contact with each organization.
Happy Scheduling!
Posted by JeanneWould you like to be able to keep track of your envelope users separately from active families?
With the “Envelope User” check box on the Family Screen you can do just that. From Family |Quick Posting | Envelope User you can make the process of checking the box quick and easy.
Posted by PaulaIn Formation Office, a quick and easy way to get a list of students in a specific age range is to click Students | Easy List | List of Students. Choose Gender and starting and ending age then Apply. You can also Customize the View to include that Parents Names, Address, & Phone
Posted by PaulaIn the PDS Ministry Scheduler program, it is important to understand the differences between “Family Mode” and “Serve With” on the Assignment Options screen. When “Family Mode” is set to “Members Together”, Ministry Scheduler will TRY to schedule all of the members in a family together. If it can’t schedule all of the members in a family for a particular mass, it will schedule as many as it can. ”Serve With Minister Name” is more absolute. This specifies that a minister will ONLY serve at a particular mass if the other ministers listed under the “Serve With” heading can also serve at that same mass.
As an example, assume Ministry Scheduler is doing the scheduling for a mass and gets to the point where it needs 1 more Eucharistic minister and a particular family has 2 members who are both Eucharistic ministers. If the members are listed under each others “Serve With” column, neither member will be selected. On the other hand, if “Members Together” is selected instead, there is a chance that one of the 2 members will be selected.
Posted by DavidQ: “Which fund year and date should I post this weekend’s contributions to?”
A: Well, the IRS considers a contribution to be attributable to the date and calendar year in which it was actually donated. So, technically, all contributions from Saturday should be posted to 12/31/2011, and Sunday should be posted to 1/1/2012. PDS handles the rest for you. Certainly, it would be a good idea to confirm how your pastor and/or diocese would like to have the weekend’s contributions posted before you begin, however.
Posted by KeithOn some networks with very large databases, there can be a delay when using the Navigation area to look up a family or member. PDS has included another way to look up a family, and this way usually does not have the same delay. While on a Family, Member, or Contribution screen, press the “Alt-Q” key combination. This will bring up the “Quick Lookup of a Family”, “Quick Lookup of a Member”, or “Quick Lookup of a Fund” window. You have a few less options in this window, but it normally has a faster lookup time.
Posted by David
It has been a great year working with all of you. We at CMR wish you the happiest of the Christmas Season and a blessed New Year. For the present, it’s time to look at end of year reminders and get ready for the New Year processes. So let’s go…
First, general reminder to everyone that January is our busiest month. We will more than quadruple the call volume from any other month. What does this mean to you? Perhaps longer response times for return calls. Calling early in the day is best. Calling late in the day may mean your call will be deferred to the next business day. We do our best to get back to you quickly, but the reality of January begs your understanding and patience. Thank you.
For PDS Church Office users:
1. Review the procedures for advancing your funds to the 2012 contributions year. A simple process can be used unless you must carry forward any terms and rates. In that case, use the New Year Fund Setup process from Contributions | Processes | New Year Fund Setup. You can still post 2011 contributions to the 2011 fund year even after the advance. Formation and School Office users: your funds advance later in the year, not in January.
2. Review the End of Year Tax Substantiation report for your parishioners and make any necessary changes to the text of the letter. Spot check a few families to be sure the correct information is being reported. Be sure all 2011 items are posted before producing these reports.
3. This is great time to clean up data: correct family/member records; be sure all Sacrament information is complete and update any records for deceased members.
For PDS Ledger and Ledger/Payroll users:
1. Run Fix Data Discrepancies process before completing all end of year reports. This will ensure that any items not properly posted will be posted and accounts updated. Then run Verify COA. Any errors or out of balance flags must be dealt with.
2. Be sure your Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet) is in balance. This is a good time to correct any accounting errors.
3. If you are required to issue any 1099s to vendors, be sure you process the 1099s before closing the month of December. December month close process re-sets the calendar year totals for vendors, and then the 1099s can’t be run without restoring data.
4. Payroll
Users: It’s time to order your W-2 forms and 1099s for any contract employees and vendors. Note that the latest v6 update includes a universal W-2 form, so the program will print the employee W-2 forms if you opt for the universal W-2. You will still need to order the IRS filing copy (printed in red ink), and your 1099s, W-3 and 1096 forms.
5. From Transactions | End of Period | Payroll End of Quarter, run the Test Totals report to be sure that all QTD/YTD totals are correct, before running the W-2 forms and your last 941 for the year.
6. If you are required to collect FICA tax on any Life Insurance premium amounts over the IRS limits, this is best done before processing the final paycheck of the year. Should you have already cut the final check, we can help you process the collection in another way.
7. NEW IN LEDGER V6: For those of you who are required to collect FICA on the Life Insurance premiums above the IRS limits, the program now has an automatic process that collects the FICA throughout the year. This eliminates having to do anything special in December. Since Ledger 6 was released mid-year, you could not use the new process until 2012. Should you want to begin this process we can help you set it up. It must be set up before cutting your first check for 2012.
8. At this time we do not know the status of the new tax tables for 2012. You will be notified by special email when the tax tables are available. Remember: as a CMR client with support, we will supply the tax tables at no charge; non-support clients will pay a minimum charge of $40.00. Please do not contact PDS direct for the tax table as you will be charged whether you have support with CMR or not. If you do this in error, PDS will not reimburse the charge to your church.
Here are the latest PDS versions.
Please be sure your programs are updated.
- All Office Suite Programs: 6.3G (Church, Formation & School)
- Ledger & Ledger/Payroll: 6.2A
- Facility Scheduler: 6.0D
- Ministry Scheduler: 6.1B
As always, we are here to help with any of these processes and all your PDS questions. Never hesitate to contact us or call us at 877.455.9300 when you are in need.
Posted by Jeanne
Archiving your End of Year statements outside of your PDS program is a great way to save copies for your parishioners who may need reprints. Archiving can also free up your PDS program during the often lengthy printing process.
To Archive your End of Year Statements simply click on the “print to file” option on the last print dialog screen when running your statements. Select the PDF option and choose a folder on your computer to have the statements saved to and click “okay”
Posted by Dave
