Do we have any answer on this?

Usually around 12/15

I'll mention this again as I cringe every year when they do this.  SOFTWARE UPDATES SHOULD NOT HAPPEN THIS CLOSE TO END OF THE YEAR!!!!!   They should happen earlier in the year where there is time to do them and more importantly time to fix them if they cause any issues.

Tax and form updates are fine year end because they don't change the core working of the software.

Just my 2 cents

I agree 100%! Make it a quick tax update that can be done in a few minutes vs hours of upgrade time and server reboots.

Hello – this topic came up last year and our Product Manager posted the following that may be helpful:                 

Thank you all for your input and concerns. We understand that the timing of Year End releases is difficult, and we want to shed light on the 3 major topics in this thread in hopes to clarify why year end is the way it is.

First regarding timing of the release being early to mid-December. Unfortunately, due to the IRS (as well as other government entities) typically releasing changes on a calendar basis, an update of the software is needed near the end of calendar year. Most of the time government entities don’t finalize these changes until very late in the year, sometimes they aren’t even finalized until the end of November or beginning of December. In an effort to minimize the number of updates customers must make, we only release software updates once the changes have been finalized. Early December is simply the earliest the changes can be released.

Second, regarding updates versus upgrades and having to install them on all machines. Due to the configuration of the client-server environment that Sage 300 CRE relies on when the server is updated, the workstations must also be updated so that the versions match between each machine. If the machines aren’t in the same version of Sage 300 CRE, the system wouldn’t know how to handle data it wasn’t programed to recognize, and issues would arise. We try to avoid requiring a full upgrade when at all possible, however, when year-end changes require new fields to be added or changed (i.e. database changes) and/or data related to form generation to be modified, we must perform a full upgrade. Unfortunately, this has become a common need over the last several year ends due to the complexity of the changes that have been passed.

Lastly around taxes and backwards compatibility. Tax files are backwards compatible, for the most part. It is the last part of that previous sentence as to why we recommend being on current version of the software with new tax files. Tax files can be used on earlier versions; however, tax changes sometimes aren’t limited to the tax file itself. To explain a little further; occasionally a tax change isn’t as simple as a tax rate change and it DOES require a software change to accommodate. In this scenario, if the new tax file was used with an older software version, the tax might not calculate correctly. To ensure your taxes always calculate correctly, we recommend being on a current version. In addition to the complexities that scenario generates, testing all the configurations of software version and tax file versions would place an immense load on our Q&A team at a time of year where quick turnaround is critical. Similarly to the previous topic, many times government bodies don’t finalize changes until late December, sometimes they even finalize changes in the month of January even though they are effective January 1^st. Typically, we have very little time to respond to these changes which is why we recommend installing the current version of software to be used with new tax files.

Should you have any further questions or concerns regarding these topics please reach out to me through Sage City. 

Thank you, 

Phil

Phillip Wiering

Product Management