Payroll Software and People Management blog

Sage Summit is the world’s largest event for small and medium businesses, and it takes place from July 25–28th in Chicago.

Over 20,000 people will attend this unforgettable event, which will also host some 300+ informative sessions.

Joining Sir Richard Branson on the keynote agenda at Sage Summit are some of the biggest names from the world business and entertainment, including:
• Gwyneth Paltrow, Oscar-winning actress, founder and CCO of goop, a lifestyle newsletter that sets trends
• Zooey Deschanel, actress, singer-songwriter, and cofounder of HelloGiggles, a positive online community for women which was recently acquired by Time Inc.
• Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO of Herjavec Group and investor on ABC’s Emmy Award-winning hit show Shark Tank
• Daymond John, founder and CEO of FUBU, star of ABC’s Shark Tank and CEO of Shark Branding

Van Diamandakis, EVP of Brand, Sage, said,

”Sage Summit is the largest global gathering of entrepreneurs and small businesses, and we want to ignite their passion with some of the most successful celebrity entrepreneurs speaking, sharing their passion for business, living and giving on stage.

They believe, like we do, that small businesses are the driving force of our economies, and they will share their incredible stories and expertise to inspire 20,000 attendees on to greater success."

How to avoid missing out on Sage Summit

Even if you can’t attend Sage Summit this year, don’t worry.



Sage Summit Live is the best way to follow the top speakers are saying at Summit… and you can attend this virtual event from your computer.

Once you register, you will:
• Get a front row seat to featured keynote conversations
• Hear from visionary speakers and thought leaders on their success strategies
• Discover new technology to drive success

Register for Sage Summit Live Today  It’s free!

Follow the Sage Summit conversation
It’s easy to follow what the speakers and attendees are saying on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
You can also take part in the conversation on Twitter using #SageSummit or follow @Sage_Summit.

Also by joining the Sage Summit Facebook event and reply as ‘Interested’ or ‘Attending’ so your network will discover Sage Summit on Facebook.

Businesses that employ staff are currently burdened with a number of tax, super reporting and payment obligations. Single Touch payroll is a proposed ATO initiative that will revolutionise the way businesses report and make payments.

Single Touch Payroll proposes to reduce red tape by simplifying the administration of employee payroll, tax and superannuation requirements by employers. Significant changes are being designed for both employers and employees with the ‘on-boarding’ process being streamlined to determine what efficiencies can be gained as the ATO moves to a digital platform for all business interactions.

Digital ‘real time’ reporting and payments within Payroll and HR are one of the main features of this initiative. By using compatible business software, employers will be required to communicate with a multitude of departments simultaneously to easily produce required information.

It is proposed that Single Touch Payroll is planned to start from July 2016 with a rollout over a two year period, however the final scope is yet to be determined. The ATO has been engaging with various sectors of the business community to understand all considerations before a final announcement.

In order to meet the needs of this change, employers would need to use an approved software solution that delivers on all required obligations and the ATO would need to be ready to handle this type of reporting from all businesses.

Sage MicrOpay is actively involved in regular discussions with the ATO about Single Touch Payroll to ensure that our customers software and time considerations are taken into account. 

Cloud computing in recent years has exploded to be terminology that we are all familiar with. Although for many of us this new technology is not easily understood, what businesses must understand though is there are many positive ways cloud technology can help your business excel, saving you time and money and giving you peace of mind in the event of a disaster.

A recent survey conducted by Infosys found that Australia businesses are leading the way in accepting cloud computing(1), this shows there is obvious benefits to cloud computing, but how can you use cloud computing to help your business and ultimately increase your bottom line.

 Here are our top five benefits on why your business should start cloud computing now.

1) Infrastructure and Upgrades
Because technology is always changing, and so is the infrastructure that goes with it. The cost of updating your infrastructure is always a large financial investment. By using a dedicated cloud company which continuously purchases state of the art equipment to ensure your service is reliable in an environment, eliminates the need for maintaining hardware and associated IT administration. Most of the cloud solutions offer upgrades for free as part of the package and can easily be downloaded via the internet or even automatically completed to help with easy software integration.

2) Capital Cost
Businesses are quickly waking up to the fact that cloud solutions make good business sense when it comes to cost management. Managing in-house IT infrastructure and operating costs are the main reasons that businesses are turning to the cloud. With so many cloud providers in Australia, the cost of this service has become very competitive. Evaluating your business requirements for a cloud service before approaching providers will ensure the service you will be provided with matches your company needs. When it comes to cloud services cheapest may not be the best option.

3) Disaster Recovery
Implementing a system of backups where your data is stored both on your system and on the cloud is a perfect contingency plan for your business. Make sure that your cloud provider has a Disaster Recovery and business continuity plan in place for those “what –if” scenarios. Ensuring your Cloud Computing provider can support your business if a disaster does occur is also a prerequisite.

4) Security
Security concerns are still one of the greatest apprehensions that businesses have in regards to using cloud technology. Trusting your valuable data to a third party does have risks. But by acquiring knowledge about the physical and technical controls of the data centre, it’s country location and who can access it, is a good way to put you at ease that your data is safe. Ensuring that both the data centres’ and it’s anti-virus software and firewalls are updated will help secure your data.

5) Performance/Availability
In today’s world having fast, secure access to your data when you want it is essential. To achieve this select a cloud provider that includes a multi-server environment or multi location access. Ask if your cloud provider can easily increase its capacity when you need it without interrupting your workflow is essential for business to run smoothly.  

To discover more about Sage MicrOpay’s Private Cloud solution and how it can help your business, you can find out more information on our website.

1) Source: www.theage.com.au/it-pro/cloud/cloud-computing-is-now-mainstream-and-australia-is-ahead-say-new-reports-20141103-11fze9.html