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Kalypso Newsletters

Kalypso Payroll Updates for 2022

Please let us know if you have any issues updating Kalypso. This will be the last payroll update for Kalypso.

FEDERAL INCOME TAX		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$14,398*
Federal Tax Rate	Level 1	$50,197	15.00
	Level 2	$100,392	20.50
	Level 3	$155,625	26.00
	Level 4	$221,708	29.38
	Level 5	$999,999	33.00

EIC Information	EI Factor	1.58
	Max Earnings per year	$60,300

CPP Information	CPP Factor	5..70
	Max Annual Contribution	$3,499.80
	Annual $$ Exemption	$3,500.00

BRITISH COLUMBIA		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$11,302
Provincial Tax Rate	Level 1	$43,070	5.06
	Level 2	$86,141	7.70
	Level 3	$98,901	10.50
	Level 4	$120,094	12.29
	Level 5	$162,832	14.70
	Level 6	$999,999	16.80
Provincial Tax Reduction	Level 1	$21,867
	Level 2	$35,659
	Amount	491
	Factor	356
WCB max assess’t for 2022		See your statement

ALBERTA		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$19,369
Provincial Tax Rate	Level 1	$131,220	10.00
	Level 2	$157,464	12.00
	Level 3	$209,952	13.00
	Level 4	$314,928	14.00
	Level 5	$999,999	15.00

Kalypso User News – Jan 2021

Happy New Year!!

Our wish is that this reaches you in good health and looking forward to the New Year.

Contego acquired Kalypso in January 2016 and has continued to support and build additional utilities to meet user’s needs. Kalypso was written on 1985 technology and over the years has been adapted to continue to run on the current Windows environment. Windows continues to receive updates monthly and at this fast pace of change may cause potential unfixable issues for the efficient running of the Kalypso software. While Contego will continue to support Kalypso going forward, it is recommended that a more current solution be acquired to ensure your business’ successful future. Unless something unforseen happens, support for Kalypso will be ending June 30, 2022. We welcome discussion with each of you about your future vision for Kalypso and your business.

Contego recommends most Kalypso clients would be able to use Dynamics 365 Business Central as a replacement. It provides the inventory management, manufacturing and accounting that are currently being used. For payroll options, please contact us to discuss the best desktop or cloud solutions available.

It is always important to maintain backups and now even more important as Kalypso will eventually reach an end of life. Local backups are very important to run as part of the daily and month end processes. Just a reminder to also keep a copy of the daily backup at a remote location. This is good practice in case of any emergency or technology failure, contact us to discuss Contego’s solution for nightly offsite backup services.

If you have questions about a process or feature, or have trouble with Kalypso, please call our office at 403-690-8900 or email helpdesk@contegogroup.ca.

RUNNING 2020 T4 PAYROLL:

You will notice that if you enter the year 2020 on the Print T4 screen, it will change the year back to zeros and nothing will happen. You will need to download the most recent Payroll version. CRA has made changes to the T4 requirements for this year to capture additional COVID-19 payroll period information. Please find the detailed information in the following link: Removed In summary, CRA requires 4 new boxes to be reported on 2020 T4’s, which are Box 57, Box 58, Box 59, and Box 60. Call us to get your Payroll System updated prior to running your T4’s.

The T4 form for 2020 is similar to that of last year’s and will be marked “T4(20)” in the lower left corner. You can download the forms from the CRA, and when you print them be sure to select the “Actual” size option and not the “Print to Fit” option. Over the past several years, the T4 boxes had shifted around and spacing was as issue. We have done a fair bit of tweaking to do our best to have the fields line up.

Using the existing font available to us within Kalypso, the top and bottom halves of the T4 form are not perfectly spaced when you print on a laser printer, so you may need to use the SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION – – > OTHER SYSTEM UTILITIES – – > SYSTEM CONFIGURATION — > PRINT ADJUSTMENTS screen to change the vertical spacing for the Default Setting. A setting of 20 will move the entire printed page down about half a line.

T4 returns in XML format for the year 2020

Instead of T4 forms, the CRA will now accept T4 returns in a special XML file. This file can be prepared by Kalypso as a user-selectable option during the T4 print job. For more information, navigate to the CRA website that deals with T4 returns in XML format. Note that the T4 XML file prepared by Kalypso will include the T-619 transmittal information required by the CRA.

It is the user’s responsibility to make the necessary arrangements with the CRA to validate and transmit the T4 XML file. Note that T4 returns in XML format are mandatory for over 50 employees.

The XML file prepared by Kalypso will be called “PAYROLLxxxx.XML”, where “xxxx” is the year in question (for example, PAYROLL2020.XML), and will be stored in the \Kalypso folder on the PC where the job is run. The CRA advises anyone who submits T4 returns in XML format to acquire XML parser software and validate the format of the T4 records before submitting them. This is a good idea, as any errors detected by the CRA in the T4 XML returns will cause the entire T4 submission to be rejected. From the list of suggested XML parsers, XML Writer seems to be OK. The cost is $75 USD to purchase, go to http://xmlwriter.net. XML Writer validates your XML T4 file against a set of CRA specifications called a Schema. The 2020 Schema contains the T4 specs for the payroll year 2020, and you should:

1) Create a new folder called PayrollXML on drive C: (if the folder already exists, delete all files from the folder)
2) Go to www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/rf/hwfl-eng.html and download the 2020 T4 Schema zip file xmlschm1-21-2.zip
3) Extract the individual files from “xmlschml1-21-2.zip” into the folder PayrollXML

Then, at end-year:

Use Kalypso Payroll End-Year Processing to prepare a T4 XML file “Payroll2020.xml”.
2. Copy the T4 XML file from the \Kalypso folder into the folder C:\PayrollXML.
3. Load XML Writer, click “File” then “Open” and navigate to C:\PayrollXML\Payroll2020.xml.
4. From the XML Menu, select “Validate”.
5. If all is OK, the message “Document is well-formed XML and valid according to the Schema” appears. Otherwise, each error in turn will be displayed. To fix, you will have to go back to Kalypso Payroll, make changes and repeat steps 1 – 5 above:

Hint: Aim to get all simple format errors eliminated before the final end-year T4 job, as follows:

Get XML Writer and the Schema set up as soon as possible, then use Kalypso Payroll to prepare a trial T4 XML file and run steps 1 – 5 above. To minimize the incidence of format errors in your T4 XML file, make sure that:

Your Payroll Control Data contains the FULL 15-character (9 digits + 2 letters + 4 digits) Business Number assigned by the CRA,
Your email address is not left blank during XML file preparation,
If any address includes both the City and Postal Code in a single line, the 2 fields should be separated by at least 2 blank spaces.

KALYPSO PAYROLL INFORMATION (January 2021)

Here are the updated payroll calculation factors for 2021. Only update these numbers once you have completed all 2020 payroll runs.

FEDERAL INCOME TAX		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$13,808*
Federal Tax Rate	Level 1	$49,020	15.00
	Level 2	$98,040	20.50
	Level 3	$151,978	26.00
	Level 4	$216,511	29.32
	Level 5	$999,999	33.00

EIC Information	EI Factor	1.58
	Max Earnings per year	$56,300

CPP Information	CPP Factor	5.45
	Max Annual Contribution	$3,166.45
	Annual $$ Exemption	$3,500.00

BRITISH COLUMBIA		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$11,070
Provincial Tax Rate	Level 1	$42,184	5.06
	Level 2	$84,369	7.70
	Level 3	$96,866	10.50
	Level 4	$117,623	12.29
	Level 5	$159,483	14.70
	Level 6	$999,999	16.80
2021 Information – Updated Jan 5, 2021
Provincial Tax Reduction	Level 1	$21,418
	Level 2	$34,929
	Amount	481
	Factor	356
WCB max assess’t for 2021		See your statement

ALBERTA		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$19,369
Provincial Tax Rate	Level 1	$131,220	10.00
	Level 2	$157,464	12.00
	Level 3	$209,952	13.00
	Level 4	$314,928	14.00
	Level 5	$999,999	15.00

* CRA has changed how the Basic Personal Amount deduction is handled for employees with employment income greater than $159,483 per calendar year. We are not planning to apply this update unless we hear back from you that this is required.

Latest Software Versions

There are no changes to the software this quarter. These are the current versions:

System Administration	3.25	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.49
Accounts Receivable	3.40	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.26	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.34	Expert Systems	3.02
Cash Register	3.04

We would like to ensure that you are staying current with Kalypso software. Please contact helpdesk@contegogroup.ca or call 403-690-8900 to arrange a Kalypso software refresh. Note: The original MCS FTP site that was used in the past has been discontinued.

Print and Email Functionality

If you are looking for more email functionality for quotes, orders, or invoices and statements, please give us a call and we’ll demo our PDF and Email tool to you.

Cloud Office Solutions

Many small businesses are using Microsoft’s Office 365 as a replacement to a local file server. Providing the following advantages:

File Storage in the Cloud. This allows more than one person to work on a file at the same time and see changes updated live. It also has the option to review older revisions and see who changed the file and what it looked like before.
Email in the Cloud. Email in the cloud is more than just email, it’s Calendar and Contact sharing as well. It’s the ability to share tasks and assign them to someone in your team.
Dynamics 365 Business Central – This is a potential replacement for Kalypso. It allows you to do things like accounting (GL, AR, AP), invoicing, inventory management, kitting (what Kalypso calls Manufacturing), payroll, and allows integration with Office 365 email.
Dynamics 365 CRM – This is a full customer management system for sales and opportunities. This also integrates with email and Business Central.
MS Project – Create and manage projects along with Gant charts to show and monitor the progress of projects.

For a demo of what this looks like or for more information about using a cloud server, please reach out to helpdesk@contegogroup.ca.

Contego has Rebranded

Contego is pleased to unveil our refreshed brand identity. The updated logo shows the evolution of our company since its founding in 2007. While this is a significant change, our core values haven’t changed. Contego continues to ‘Bridge the Gap’ between Technology and Business Applications (supporting Desktops and Servers to ERP Solutions), Home Office and Business Office (information sharing through SharePoint and ERP applications), our Clients and their Customers (providing customer portals to secure communications). Visit us at www.contegogroup.ca. Contego continues to grow, here is a look at some of the things we do.

Additional Accounting Application Support Services
- Microsoft Dynamics Support (Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics 365)
- Acumatica (Cloud based accounting solution)
IT Services
- Server Management
- Desktop Support
- Application Support (Microsoft Office, Office 365, and other industry specific applications)
Security Services
- On Premise Services (Antivirus and Spam solutions, Firewalls)
- Security Education (Phishing tests and Education Materials)
- Security Monitoring (Our Dark Web search will show your passwords that have been compromised.)

It’s Cool to be Green!

It’s time to think about having invoices sent to your email or setting up electronic payment. Contact Connie at admin@contegogroup.ca. We look forward to helping you be cool.

____________________.

Kalypso User News – Oct 2020

Fall is here and business keeps changing. Are you keeping up?

As we aim for the new normal, many businesses are struggling to keep up with what the new normal is. What are the new rules? Are you taking advantage of the new government programs? Have you adjusted your products and services and ways of selling so that your company is poised for not only survival but continued growth? What Kalypso tools are available to help you start selling online?

We have been working with a variety of businesses to help answer these questions.

Current Kalypso Challenges

We are still getting calls and support requests and they seem to be mostly the same:

Month End and Year End Processes – Running all of the closing processes in order and in a timely manner is still very important. Also doing Kalypso backups prior to starting these processes can help with recovery if things go wrong, as it helps us to see what the system looked like before the processes were performed.
Report Exports – Kalypso comes with a series of reports. Some of these reports are point-in-time reports. If you need an inventory balance you need to run it on the date. We have helped some clients get older reports when they use our nightly backup solution and have the files offsite each night.

Please contact us with any questions about a process or feature, or if you run into trouble with Kalypso.

Invitation to See Cloud Based Solutions – Tentative Demo Dates

October 15 or 22, 2020 — (choose one)

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Streamline your processes, make smarter decisions, and accelerate growth with Dynamics 365 Business Central – a comprehensive business management cloud-based solution designed for small to medium-sized businesses.

October 29, 2020

Payroll Solution– Work with a payroll process that is easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to train.

We would like to provide you with a demo, Please contact us and let us know which of these dates works best for you.

No matter what application you are currently using we are here to ensure your company’s continued success in transition to a new environment. Contego will support and has developed tools to export data out of Kalypso in preparation for an efficient migration to your chosen new application.

Online Point of Sale Tools

Pre-Covid some Kalypso customers were already running online eStore platforms to sell their products and others have moved some of their sales online since March. There are many eStore shopping platforms to choose from: Shopify, WooCommerce and OpenCart are some of the popular platforms to handle everything for you ranging from sales, payments and shipping for online product sales. We have written an add-on inventory export tool that you can use to update your online inventory every X (you determine) hours. The online platforms manage inventory quantities for online sales but do not take into consideration your in-store (on premise) sales, so it becomes necessary to refresh the online quantities with current inventory levels as you sell product out your front door. Contact us for more info about this.

Cloud Backups

One of our Kalypso customers recently had an unexpected event happen where they were unable to return to the office the next day. We were able to restore the previous night’s backup and provide our client with a working environment within an hour of obtaining a replacement computer.

If you have a backup solution, please make sure the backups are sent offsite on a daily basis. If not, please reach out to us and setup a remote backup solution. The cost for peace of mind is minimal when compared to losing company information or having to enter a year’s worth of data.

Government Programs

Are you aware of these two programs which are available to businesses. (Courtesy of @tabrbeancounter) Reach out to your accountant to help navigate through these programs.

CEBA loans – the deadline to apply for the CEBA loan has been extended to October 31, 2020. Remember to repay the loan by December 31, 2022 to ensure $10,000 is forgiven
CEWS wage grants – Recent legislation has made a lot more employers eligible for grants and it was extended to the end of this year. If you have employees and your sales are down (either directly due to COVID-19 or not), it is worth looking into. The rules are complex so check with your accountant to see if you are eligible.

Latest Software Versions

There are no changes to the software this quarter. These are the current versions:

System Administration	3.25	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.49
Accounts Receivable	3.40	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.26	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.33	Expert Systems	3.02
Cash Register	3.04

We would like to ensure that you are staying current with Kalypso software. Please contact helpdesk@contegotech.ca or call 403-690-8900 to arrange a Kalypso software refresh. Note: The original MCS FTP site that was used in the past has been discontinued.

It’s Cool to be Green!

Did you know that your invoices and newsletters are available by email? We also accept electronic payment and eTransfer, if you haven’t already updated your information with us, please contact Connie at admin@contegotech.ca to set up invoices and newsletter by email and/or electronic transfers.

Kalypso User News – July 2020

Summer Has Arrived and is Open for Business!!

Most companies are starting to open back up again. Some companies have thrived during this time and some are facing challenges. We are hoping that you are not severely affected in health or business.

We see many companies succeeding by making changes to their business to be more competitive and reacting to what this new economy is going to look like.

The challenges and phone calls we are getting these days are:

Data Corruption – The systems aren’t working because of a corrupted backup or file.
Process Issues – With people working remotely and new people stepping in to take on tasks we are seeing that missing a single step in a month-end process can cause endless issues.
Integration Issues – Companies are trying to interface with online stores and vendors to get data to come into their systems without manual intervention.

During these COVID months, many of our Contego staff have been working from home effectively, providing support to our customers’ staff who also transitioned to a home office. We have gained new customers looking for proactive IT and business support with a vision for the future.

Kalypso is now in its 35^th year and we have been supporting it for approximately 5 years. Due to limitations to Kalypso’s upgrade potential, we have been looking for solutions that will take our clients into the future. It is our intention to provide the best individual solution for each of our clients’ needs.

We look forward to speaking with each of you this fall about your individual business requirements.

Please contact us with any questions about a process or feature, or run into trouble with Kalypso, 403-690-8900 or email helpdesk@contegotech.ca.

Invitation to See New Solutions

Watch for a future webinar invite in September to provide more details on these products:

QuickBooks Online
- Good for small businesses that require basic accounting or just payroll functionality
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
- Suited for small businesses with inventory management and small manufacturing (often called kitting) to create and manage goods they are selling to customers
Acumatica
- Suited for small to medium businesses or multi-location businesses that need to automate processes and have their accounting systems do more.

Contego will support and has developed tools to export data out of Kalypso in preparation for an efficient migration to your chosen new application.

If you would like to learn more now, please reach out to us at kalypso@contegotech.ca or call our office at 403-690-8900.

Remote Access to Kalypso

If your Kalypso server has access to the internet, then you can be setup with remote access to your server and data. This may be critical if you need to work from home for a longer period of time. Ask our tech staff how they can set you up with this access prior to your need to be out of the office.

Cloud Backups

One of our clients recently had an unexpected event happen where they were unable to return to the office the next day. We were able to restore the previous night’s backup and provide our client with a working environment within an hour of obtaining a replacement computer.

Latest Software Versions

There are no changes to the software this quarter. These are the current versions:

System Administration	3.25	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.49
Accounts Receivable	3.40	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.26	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.33	Expert Systems	3.02
Cash Register	3.04

It’s Cool to be Green!

Did you know that your invoices and newsletters are available by email? We also accept electronic payment and eTransfer, if you haven’t already updated your information with us, please contact Amanda at admin@contegotech.ca to set up invoices and newsletter by email and/or electronic transfers.

Kalypso® User News April 2020

Spring is Almost Here!!

We hope this newsletter reaches you in good health and keeping safe. The COVID-19 issue is at the forefront of our minds, so you will find that a lot of what we are talking about is around Business Continuity in times of crisis.

How do you work with less staff?
How do you keep your staff safe if they aren’t forced to be at home?
How do you get access to your information remotely?
Do you have the Kalypso electronic manuals to help look up occasionally used features?
Is your Data backed up in the cloud so you can restore in the case of a disaster?

Right now, we are looking to assure you that our support is still available, and the phones and emails are being answered. If you don’t have electronic versions of the Kalypso manuals, please reach out to us and we will email these to you.
If you have questions about a process or feature, or run into trouble with Kalypso, please call our office at 403-690-8900.

Working with Less or Different Staff

Often a key component of maintaining continuity during change or training new employees is making sure there is access to information. There are a number of tools to help with documentation and organizing your teams better. Office 365 is a combination of Microsoft Office along with Exchange (email and calendaring applications), Teams (formerly called Skype for Business which allows remote communications and face to face meetings via phone or computer cameras and speakers), and SharePoint and OneDrive (document management systems to keep your documentation accessible to staff even when they are working remotely).

Please look at the following link for information about using Teams to set up face to face meetings with your customers and vendors. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6645726608038735873/

Remote Access to Kalypso

If your Kalypso server has access to the Internet, then you can be setup with remote access to your server and data. This may be critical if you are forced to work from home for a longer period of time. Ask our tech staff how they can set you up with this access prior to your need to be out of the office.

Cloud Backups

Microsoft Support for Windows 7 Ended January 14, 2020

You may have seen the screen “Your Windows 7 PC is out of support” in big friendly letters. It goes on to tell you that there are No Security Updates, No Software Updates, and No Tech Support for Windows 7. If you are still running Windows 7 PCs, your Kalypso software will still run. The risk is on the security side, since known security holes will no longer be patched by Microsoft. If your IT company doesn’t have an upgrade plan for you, please reach out, we can help. Please note that operating system upgrade requests are an additional charge but getting your Kalypso software running on the new PC is part of your regular support.

February 29^th, 2020 Came and Went

Everyone who needed the special leap-year patch version for February 29^th were able to get the latest versions and we had no calls with issues. It’s good to see that everyone was updated before the bug became an issue.

Print and Email Functionality

If you are looking for more email functionality for quotes, orders, or invoices and statements, please give us a call for a demo of the PDF and Email tool.

Latest Software Versions

There are no changes to the software this quarter. These are the current versions:

System Administration	3.25	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.49
Accounts Receivable	3.40	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.26	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.33	Expert Systems	3.02
Cash Register	3.04

We would like to ensure that you are staying current with Kalypso software. Please contact call 403-690-8900 to arrange a Kalypso software refresh. Note: The original MCS FTP site that was used in the past has been discontinued.

What Else Does Contego Do?

We have shared this in the past when we reached out to you 4 years ago. As with most companies, Contego has expanded and changed over the past few years. Here are some items that we are able to help you with:

Additional Accounting Application Support Services
- Microsoft Dynamics Support (Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics 365)
- Acumatica (Cloud-based accounting solution)
- Deltek Vision (Service industry software focused on Architects and Engineers)
IT Services
- Server Management
- Desktop Support
- Application Support (Microsoft Office, Office 365, and other industry specific applications)
Security Services
- On Premise Services (Antivirus and Spam solutions, Firewalls)
- Security Education (Phishing tests and Education Materials)
- Security Monitoring (Our Dark Web search will show your passwords that have been compromised.)

It’s Cool to be Green!

Did you know that your invoices and newsletters are available by email? We also accept electronic payment and eTransfer, if you haven’t already updated your information with us, please contact Amanda at 403-690-8900 to set up invoices and newsletter by email and/or electronic transfers.

Kalypso® User News January 2020

Happy New Year!!

Contego is entering Year 5 of our support of the Kalypso software environment. When we first met and talked with many of you, we talked about our promise to support the software for at least 5 years. What seemed like such a long time in the future is now upon us. We will continue to support Kalypso going forward but are nervous each time Microsoft releases updates for Windows 10. At some point a Windows update may cause us significant grief. With that in mind we want to know what you think. How long do you intend to continue to use Kalypso? We are on the lookout for cost effective alternatives to Kalypso that would meet your needs. Contego sells and supports several higher end accounting solutions for larger businesses. Please look at the section on other accounting solutions that Contego supports.

We continue to support Kalypso clients with a steady stream of requests. Again, keeping valid backups when things happen is an important part of the solution, including running local backups as part of month end processes are very important to keep doing. Just a reminder to also keep a copy of your daily Kalypso backups at a remote location in case something significant happens to your server environment. Call us to sign up for our nightly offsite backup service.

If you have questions about a process or about a feature, or run into trouble with Kalypso, please call our office at 403-690-8900.

Are you working on February 29, 2020? You will need a software Update!!!

We have had a few requests for updates to the new version that handles leap years beginning with 2020. In case you didn’t recall from our last newsletter, as the result of a helpdesk call in early summer, we discovered that some modules of the current version of Kalypso do not recognize February 29, 2020 as a valid date. We have updated the software to accommodate leap years up to February 28, 2028. Since February 29, 2020 falls on a Saturday, your business might not be impacted by this. If Saturday, February 29, 2020 will be a regular business day, you must get your software updated in the next few months, otherwise you can postpone the update for a few months.

RUNNING 2019 T4 PAYROLL:

The T4 form for 2019 is similar to those for 2014, and may be marked “T4(13)” or “T4(14)” in the lower left corner. You can download the forms from the CRA, and when you print them be sure to select the “Actual” size option and not the “Print to Fit” option.

T4 returns in XML format for the year 2019

It is the user’s responsibility to make the necessary arrangements with the CRA to validate and transmit the T4 XML file. Note that T4 returns in XML format are mandatory for over 50 employees.

The XML file prepared by Kalypso will be called “PAYROLLxxxxXML”, where “xxxx” is the year in question (for example, PAYROLL2019.XML), and will be stored in the \Kalypso folder on the PC where the job is run. The CRA advises anyone who submits T4 returns in XML format to acquire XML parser software and validate the format of the T4 records before submitting them. This is a good idea, since any errors detected by the CRA in the T4 XML returns will cause the entire T4 submission to be rejected. From the list of suggested XML parsers, XML Writer seems to be OK. The cost is about $150 – go to http://xmlwriter.net.

XML Writer validates your XML T4 file against a set of CRA specifications called a Schema. The 2019Schema contains the T4 specs for the payroll year 2019, and you should:

1) Create a new folder called PayrollXML on drive C: (if the folder already exists, delete all files from the folder.
2) Go to www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/rf/hwfl-eng.html and download the 2019 T4 Schema zip file xmlschm1-19-1.zip.
3) Extract the individual files from “xmlschml-19-1.zip” into the folder PayrollXML.

Then, at end-year:

Use Kalypso Payroll End-Year Processing to prepare a T4 XML file “Payroll2019.xml”.
2. Copy the T4 XML file from the \Kalypso folder into the folder C:\PayrollXML.
3. Load XML Writer, Click “File” then “Open” and navigate to C:\PayrollXML\Payroll2019.xml.
4. From the XML Menu, select “Validate”.
5. If all is OK, the message “Document is well-formed XML and valid according to the Schema” appears. Otherwise, each error in turn will be displayed. To fix, you will have to go back to Kalypso Payroll, make changes and repeat steps 1 – 5 above:

Hint: Aim to get all simple format errors eliminated before the final end-year T4 job, as follows:

Your Payroll Control Data contains the FULL 15-character (9 digits + 2 letters + 4 digits) Business Number assigned by the CRA,
2. Your email address is not left blank during XML file preparation,
3. If any address includes both the City and Postal Code in a single line, the 2 fields should be separated by at least 2 blank spaces.

KALYPSO PAYROLL INFORMATION (January, 2020)

Here are the updated payroll calculation factors for 2020. Only update these numbers, once you have completed all 2019 payroll runs. In 2018, the CRA added an additional tax level for people earning more than $210,371 / year. British Columbia has also added in another tax level for people earning more than $153,900 / year. Last year we upgraded the Kalypso payroll program to use these additional tax brackets. If you didn’t need these additional tax categories, there was no need to upgrade.

So if you are a BC employer with staff earning more than $157,748 or an Alberta employer with staff earning more than $214,368, please give us a call and we’ll assist you in upgrading to the new version of the Payroll software.

FEDERAL INCOME TAX		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$13,229*
Federal Tax Rate	Level 1	$48,535	15.00
	Level 2	$97,069	20.50
	Level 3	$150,473	26.00
	Level 4	$214,368	29.00
Added Jan 1, 2018	Level 5	$999,999	33.00

EIC Information	EI Factor	1.58
	Max Earnings per year	$54,200

CPP Information	CPP Factor	5.25
	Max Annual Contribution	$2,898.00
	Annual $$ Exemption	$3,500.00

BRITISH COLUMBIA		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$10,949
Provincial Tax Rate	Level 1	$41,725	5.06
	Level 2	$83,451	7.70
	Level 3	$95,812	10.50
	Level 4	$116,344	12.29
	Level 5	$157,748	14.70
Added Jan 1, 2018	Level 6	$999,999	16.80
Provincial Tax Reduction	Level 1	$21,185
	Level 2	$34,556
	Amount	476
	Factor	356
WCB max assess’t for 2019		See your Statement

ALBERTA		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$19,369
Provincial Tax Rate	Level 1	$131,220	10.00
	Level 2	$157,464	12.00
	Level 3	$209,952	13.00
	Level 4	$314,928	14.00
	Level 5	$999,999	15.00

* CRA has changed how the Basic Personal Amount deduction is handled for employees with employment income greater than $150,473 per calendar year. We are not planning to apply this update unless we hear back from you that this is required.

Latest Software Versions

There are no changes to the software this quarter. These are the current versions:

System Administration	3.25	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.49
Accounts Receivable	3.40	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.26	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.33	Expert Systems	3.02
Cash Register	3.04

We would like to ensure that you are staying current with Kalypso software. Please call 403-690-8900 to arrange a Kalypso software refresh. Note: The original MCS FTP site that was used in the past has been discontinued.

Microsoft Support for Windows 7 Ends January 14, 2020

End of Windows 7 support is now. If you are still running Windows 7 PCs, your Kaplyso software will still run. The risk is on the security side since known security holes will no longer be patched by Microsoft. If your IT company doesn’t have an upgrade plan for you, please contact us and we can help. Please note that operating upgrade requests are an additional charge but getting your Kalypso software running on the new PC is part of your regular support.

Print and Email Functionality

If you are looking for more email functionality for quotes, orders, invoices and statements, please give us a call and we’ll demo our PDF and Email tool to you.

We’ve had a busy summer helping many of our Kalypso customers as they continued to upgrade hard

What else does Contego do?

We have shared this in the past when we reached out to you 4 years ago. As with most companies, Contego has changed over the past few years. We wanted to let you know some of the pieces that we may be able to help you out with.

Additional Accounting Application Support Services
- Microsoft Dynamics Support (Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics 365)
- Acumatica (Cloud based accounting solution)
- Deltek Vision (Service industry software focused on Architects and Engineers)
IT Services
- Server Management
- Desktop Support
- Application Support (Microsoft Office, Office 365, and other industry specific applications)
Security Services
- On Premise Services (Antivirus and Spam solutions, Firewalls)
- Security Education (Phishing tests and Education Materials)
- Security Monitoring (Our Dark Web search will show your passwords that have been compromised.)

It’s Cool to be Green!

Time to think about having invoices sent to your email or setting up electronic payment, contact Amanda at admin@contegotech.ca. We look forward to helping you be cool.

October 2019

Where did summer go?

We’ve had a busy summer helping many of our Kalypso customers as they continued to upgrade hardware, make changes in their businesses and run into situations that we all learned from. We are excited to see the way our customers continue to maximize the use of Kalypso. If you have questions about a process or about a feature, or run into trouble with Kalypso, please call our office at 403-690-8900 or email helpdesk@contegotech.ca.

2020 is a Leap Year! No Kidding…
As the result of a helpdesk call in early summer, we discovered that some modules of the current version of Kalypso do not recognize February 29, 2020 as a valid date. We have updated the software to accommodate leap years up to February 28, 2028. Since February 29, 2020 falls on a Saturday, your business might not be impacted by this. If Saturday, February 29, 2020 will be a regular business day, you must get your software updated in the next few months, otherwise you can postpone the update for a few months.

Laser Printing Invoices, Orders and Quotes
Many of you are still printing your invoices, orders and quotes on pre-printed multi-part dot matrix printers with the terms of sales, return clauses and warranty information pre-printed on the bottom of the forms. When you transition to printing the invoices, orders and quotes on laser printers, some additional functionality is required such as specifying how many copies of each document type to print along with the destination of the copy (Customer, Store, Shipping). To accommodate these requirements, the Laser Printing Controls form has been updated.

On the Invoicing Control Data Maintenance screen we have added a Laser Fine Print specification screen that allows up to 10 lines of 97 characters that will be printed at the bottom of the invoices, orders or quotes.

Latest Software Versions

As mentioned above, there have been software updates to the highlighted in red modules. These are the current versions:

System Administration	3.25	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.49
Accounts Receivable	3.40	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.26	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.33	Expert Systems	3.02
Cash Register	3.04

Microsoft Support for Windows 7 Ends January 14, 2020
By now your IT company will have informed you that Microsoft will stop providing updates to Windows 7 on
January 14 ,2020. Keep upgrading to Windows 10 to stay current.

2020 Federal and Provincial Payroll Amounts
In December the 2020 Federal and Provincial Payroll deduction tables will be posted on our website.

Print and Email Functionality
If you are looking for more email functionality for quotes, orders, invoices and statements, please give us a call and we’ll demo our PDF and Email tool to you.

Help Contego Understand Your Company to Support Your Future

Over the past several years, a number of our Kalypso customers have sold their businesses to new owners and others are thinking about it. Maybe you just bought a business using Kalypso. To help us plan for the future, we ask you to complete a quick survey so that we can understand what your future goals are. It goes without saying that any information provided to us, will remain confidential.

October 2019

Where did summer go?

Latest Software Versions

As mentioned above, there have been software updates to the highlighted in red modules. These are the current versions:

System Administration	3.25	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.49
Accounts Receivable	3.40	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.26	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.33	Expert Systems	3.02
Cash Register	3.04

2020 Federal and Provincial Payroll Amounts
In December the 2020 Federal and Provincial Payroll deduction tables will be posted on our website.

Print and Email Functionality
If you are looking for more email functionality for quotes, orders, invoices and statements, please give us a call and we’ll demo our PDF and Email tool to you.

Help Contego Understand Your Company to Support Your Future

Kalypso® User News July 2019

So glad summer is here!

We’ve had a busy spring helping many of our Kalypso customers as they continue to upgrade hardware and make changes in their businesses. We are excited to see the way our customers continue to maximize the use of Kalypso. We continue to learn cool tips and tricks from our customers all the time. If you have questions about a process or about a feature, please let us know. You can email Kalypso@contegotech.ca or call our office at 403-690-8900.

Latest Software Versions

There have been no software changes to the main Kalypso product base.

System Administration	3.24	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.48
Accounts Receivable	3.39	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.25	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.32	Expert Systems	3.02

If you are looking for more email functionality for quotes, orders, invoices and statements, please give us a call and we’ll demo our PDF and Email tool to you.

Government Audits

Several customers have had different levels of reviews from Revenue Canada or PST agencies. So far all of these requests have been for several years back, so good year-end backups are a necessity. As a reminder, CRA requires that you retain 7 years of history, so you need to keep your year-end backups for 7 years. While you are at it, also backup your Kalypso program directory since the software occasionally changes. For the PST review, the customer needed to provide listings of all invoices for a given day. If you don’t archive your data you should have all of your data available to run reports on.

Ransomware

Nobody likes to see this image pop up onto their screen. We have seen an increase again of Ransomware among our Kalypso clients. We all need to take steps to protect ourselves from these predators that are looking to disrupt and kidnap our information for personal gain. We recommend you do the following:

Backups – make sure you have daily offsite backups. If the USB drive you use to back up your system is still connected to your computer, your backup file will also be encrypted.
Education – talk to your staff about the problem. The suspicious emails targeting your team are getting much more sophisticated and professional looking and sometimes it is difficult to decipher between legit and bogus emails. Working with your team will ensure that people look twice before clicking on a suspicious email link. Also, put a computer and internet use policy in place.
Security Tools – Make sure you have security in place. Antivirus software, a firewall or router that does content filtering to make sure people aren’t looking at things they shouldn’t.

If you need help with any of these items, please reach out to our IT group.

Finally, the RCMP has put together the following page of information for your review.

http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-fraudes/ransomware-rancongiciels-eng.htm

Windows 10 Printer Drivers

During your Windows 10 upgrades, some of you are encountering problems with older printers. The Kalypso application works fine but the printers won’t print. We can do some testing with your specific device but often old dot matrix and some older laser printers do not work cleanly with Windows 10. If you have some old printers and are ready to upgrade to Windows 10, please take the following steps to determine if you’ll need new printers:

Get a Windows 10 computer set up with Kalypso.
Plug the printer directly in to the computer and install printer drivers.
Print to the printer using Windows Notepad.
If step 3 works, try printing directly from Kalypso.

NOTE: If you are using a remote printer management box rather than directly connecting to the printer, you may have additional issues. Please do the above test with the print box connected to.

Kalypso® User News April 2019

Spring is finally here!

After a relentless winter we are looking forward to spring and summer. We are excited to see the way our customers continue to maximize the use of Kalypso. We continue to learn cool tips and tricks from our customers all the time. If you have questions about a process or about a feature, please let us know. You can email Kalypso@contegotech.ca or call our office at 403-690-8900.

Latest Software Versions

There have been no software changes to the main Kalypso product base.

System Administration	3.24	Inventory Management	3.35
General Ledger	3.20	Order Entry & Invoicing	3.48
Accounts Receivable	3.39	Job Costing	3.09
Accounts Payable	3.25	Business Synopsis	3.06
Canadian Payroll	3.32	Expert Systems	3.02

If you are looking for more email functionality for quotes, orders, invoices and statements, please give us a call and we’ll demo our PDF and Email tool to you.

Backup Backups Backups!!!

The number one issue we still run into is backups and recovery when things go wrong. Kalypso backups come in 3 flavors.

On Hard Drive Backups – These are the backups that need to be run as part of your month end processes when you get the warning to backup before performing this step.
1. The backup files live in the same directory as your Kalypso data and there is only one copy.
2. When you reach month end and it tells you to run a backup before taking the next step, please run the hard disk backups for that system. (Once for AR, once for AP, Once for GL, etc.) This is not covered off by your nightly systems backups.
3. After the month end is completed do not run these to hard drive backups because this will overwrite your pre-month end backups. Instead run the post month-end backups to diskette (USB). Keeping these is important if you run into issues with the month end process.
USB Full nightly backups – Run these system level backups on a nightly basis.
1. We recommend a USB drive for each day of the week or 5 daily backups.
2. After month end is completed, run a full backup to a monthly USB drive to capture the On Hard Drive Month End backups discussed above. This preserves your pre-month end hard drive backups for longer.
3. If you are doing more backups than this, please do not stop. Keeping a large set of backups will help if you have any workstation or server issues.
Cloud backups – If you are doing cloud backups, you may not have to do nightly USB backups. Also, make sure that they meet the following conditions.
1. Make sure they are scheduled when no one is on the system. If they run during the day while someone is working, you may cause file lock errors that cause system issues.
2. Make sure that the computers are left on overnight and aren’t set to go to sleep. This may cause a backup to not run or to run in the morning when people are starting to access the system.
3. Make sure that you keep enough backup copies. If you are using the Contego solution, this is taken care of for you.

The primary time we run into issues is when the someone runs a month end process in error and there are no backups for us to restore to restart the month-end process.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Recently we partnered with a Calgary based accounting implementation group to allow us to assist our customers as they grow their businesses and take them to the next level. If you are feeling that you have outgrown what Kalypso can offer, please give us a call and we will work with you on a path forward.

Future Period Transactions

We have seen future period transactions cause problems for our Kalypso customers. Before you run month end processes you should check to see that there are no rogue future period transactions. In AR, AP, and GL, you can run a current transaction report. Look for dates that are future months.

Still Running Old Hardware? When it fails, it won’t be fun!

The tendency for small to medium sized businesses is to try to squeeze every last bit of life out of the computer hardware. Murphy’s law is such that the hardware will fail at the most inopportune time and end up costing downtime, recovery costs and embarrassment. Let us supply you with any POS requirements you may have, including Scanners, Cash Drawers or Receipt Printers or other IT hardware and software needs.

Trying to be Green

Email Heather at admin@contegotech.ca if you’re interested in getting invoices emailed or setting up electronic payment. She’d be happy to send you the information that you need.

Kalypso® User News January 2019

We have talked with many of you over the past few months tackling some of your support or business questions. We wish you a great new year as you face the business challenges of 2019. If you have questions about a process or about a feature, please let us know. You can email Kalypso@contegotech.ca or call our office.

FREE CYBERSECURITY VULNERABILITY EXPOSURE REPORT:

Every week we hear about large corporations and service providers being hacked and customer accounts and email addresses being exposed. Those exposed customer accounts might be your employees and now their passwords are being bought and sold on the dark web. If you are interested in gauging your exposure to this, we can run a free cybersecurity report that will show if any of your employee email addresses have been exposed. Give us a call or email with your request.

LATEST SOFTWARE VERSIONS:

The Canadian Payroll is the most recent change.

RUNNING 2018 T4 PAYROLL:

The T4 form for 2018 is similar to those for 2014, and may be marked “T4(13)” or “T4(14)” in the lower left corner. You can download the forms from the CRA, and when you print them be sure to select the “Actual” size option and not the “Print to Fit” option.

T4 returns in XML format for the year 2018

Instead of T4 forms, the CRA will now accept T4 returns in a special XML file, and this file can be prepared by Kalypso as a user-selectable option during the T4 print job. For more information, navigate to the CRA website that deals with T4 returns in XML format. Note that the T4 .XML file prepared by Kalypso will include the T-619 transmittal information required by the CRA.It is the user’s responsibility to make the necessary arrangements with the CRA to validate and transmit the T4 XML file. Note that T4 returns in XML format are mandatory for over 50 employees.The XML file prepared by Kalypso will be called “PAYROLLxxxxXML”, where “xxxx” is the year in question (for example, PAYROLL2016.XML), and will be stored in the \Kalypso folder on the PC where the job is run. The CRA advises anyone who submits T4 returns in XML format to acquire XML parser software and validate the format of the T4 records before submitting them. This is a good idea, since any errors detected by the CRA in the T4 XML returns will cause the entire T4 submission to be rejected. From the list of suggested XML parsers, XML Writer seems to be OK. The cost is about $150 – go to http://xmlwriter.net.XML Writer validates your XML T4 file against a set of CRA specifications called a Schema. The 2018Schema contains the T4 specs for the payroll year 2018, and you should:1) Create a new folder called PayrollXML on drive C: (if the folder already exists, delete all files from the folder.
2) Go to www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/rf/hwfl-eng.html and download the 2018 T4 Schema zip file xmlschm1-18-3.zip.
3) Extract the individual files from “xmlschml-18-3.zip” into the folder PayrollXML.Then, at end-year:

Use Kalypso Payroll End-Year Processing to prepare a T4 XML file “Payroll2018.xml”.
Copy the T4 XML file from the \Kalypso folder into the folder C:\PayrollXML.
Load XML Writer, Click “File” then “Open” and navigate to C:\PayrollXML\Payroll2018.xml.
From the XML Menu, select “Validate”.
If all is OK, the message “Document is well-formed XML and valid according to the Schema” appears. Otherwise, each error in turn will be displayed. To fix, you will have to go back to Kalypso Payroll, make changes and repeat steps 1 – 5 above:

Hint: Aim to get all simple format errors eliminated before the final end-year T4 job, as follows:Get XML Writer and the Schema set up as soon as possible, then use Kalypso Payroll to prepare a trial T4 XML file and run steps 1 – 5 above. To minimize the incidence of format errors in your T4 XML file, make sure that:

Your Payroll Control Data contains the FULL 15-character (9 digits + 2 letters + 4 digits) Business Number assigned by the CRA,
Your email address is not left blank during XML file preparation,
If any address includes both the City and Postal Code in a single line, the 2 fields should be separated by at least 2 blank spaces.

KALYPSO PAYROLL INFORMATION (January, 2019)

Here are the updated payroll calculation factors for 2019. Only update these numbers, once you have completed all 2018 payroll runs. In 2018, the CRA has added an additional tax level for people earning more than $210,371 / year. British Columbia has also added in another tax level for people earning more than $153,900 / year. Last year we upgraded the Kalypso payroll program to use these additional tax brackets. If you didn’t need these additional tax categories, there was no need to upgrade.
So if you are a BC employer with staff earning more than $153,900 or an Alberta employer with staff earning more than $210,321, please give us a call and we’ll assist you in upgrading to the new version of the Payroll software.

FEDERAL INCOME TAX		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$12,069
Federal Tax Rate	Level 1	$46,630	15.00
	Level 2	$95,259	20.50
	Level 3	$147,667	26.00
	Level 4	$210,371	29.00
Added Jan 1, 2018	Level 5	$999,999	33.00

EIC Information	EI Factor	1.62
	Max Earnings per year	$53,100

CPP Information	CPP Factor	5.10
	Max Annual Contribution	$2,748.90
	Annual $$ Exemption	$3,500.00

BRITISH COLUMBIA		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$10,682
Provincial Tax Rate	Level 1	$40,707	5.06
	Level 2	$81,416	7.70
	Level 3	$93,476	10.50
	Level 4	$113,506	12.29
	Level 5	$153,900	14.70
Added Jan 1, 2018	Level 6	$999,999	16.80
Provincial Tax Reduction	Level 1	$20,668
	Level 2	$33,702
	Amount	464
	Factor	356
WCB max assess’t for 2019		See your Statement

ALBERTA		Amount	% Tax
Personal Exemption (Code1)		$19,369
Provincial Tax Rate	Level 1	$131,220	10.00
	Level 2	$157,464	12.00
	Level 3	$209,952	13.00
	Level 4	$314,928	14.00
	Level 5	$999,999	15.00

DETAILS OF SOFTWARE CHANGES:

If you need the additional Federal or Provincial Tax Levels, please contact us before you run your first 2019 payroll. SMART RESOLUTIONS FOR THE YEAR:

Make sure that my data and applications are backed up and that I have a current copy offsite or in the cloud. Remember to test your backup periodically.
Keep my computer hardware up to date.
Ensure that my environment has current and secure anti-virus protection.
Be careful which emails I open and which links that I click on.