Red Wing Software will be discontinuing support services and product upgrades for the Champion Controller Accounting and Payroll and for Windows Accounting Series Software on March 31, 2018. If you are still using one of these products for your business, it is important that you work with our staff to start the transition process to your CenterPoint® Accounting. There will be no upgrades or telephone support for Champion Controller or Windows Accounting Series once support ends. If you are also using Champion Controller Payroll, you will only receive tax tables for 2017; there will be no tax table updates for 2018.

A Red Wing Software consultant will help you through the transition process. Call us to get up and running on CenterPoint! To speak with a consultant, please call 800-732-9464.

Thank you for being a long-time customer of Red Wing Software. We look forward to an ongoing partnership with you and your business!

During the month of December, we will be updating the documents used to outline the procedures you will use at year-end. The documents will have instructions on how to access and install tax table updates, close the year, enter transactions in the new year, etc. They also explain where additional information regarding year-end can be located and include answers to the most frequently asked year-end questions received by our Technical Support department. The 2017 year-end documents will be available the week of December 4th.

CenterPoint year-end documents can also be accessed directly from our How2 Documentation. From our web site at www.redwingsoftware.com select Products, under your CenterPoint product, select How2 Documentation. In the Search bar, enter Year-end Frequently Asked Questions.

Red Wing Payroll year-end documents can be accessed directly from our How2 Documentation. Log in to the Red Wing Software web site at www.redwingsoftware.com, select Products > Legacy Products > Red Wing Payroll > How2 Documentation, and then select End of Year > End of Year FAQ.

Note: The links displayed above will display 2016 year-end documents until the week of December 4, 2017.

• Mark’s (Technical Support Specialist) eight year old son, Jacob, performed in his first piano recital. He started playing at age three.
• Roxie (Administrative Assistant) and her husband, Steve, went on a mini vacation. One stop was the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, IL.
• Katrina (Administrative Assistant), Kyla and Josh became the “Super Family” for Halloween!
• Red Wing Software’s office is located in an old school building. Recently some new landscaping was added that includes a sculpture of a little boy and girl on a log reading.

• Cori (QA Analyst) and Ryan (Graphic Designer) celebrated Cori’s birthday with a trip to an escape room with Ryan’s family.
• Katrina (Administrative Assistant) spent a day at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri, with “family” for Kyla’s 5th birthday!
• Ashley (Technical Support Specialist) and her sister met Danny and Frankie from Carlo’s Bakery at the Mall of America on her birthday.
• Roxie (Administrative Assistant) enjoyed an amazing concert. Boz Scaggs sounded fabulous as he sang his hits from the 70s to today.

If you haven’t already started, now is a great time to begin planning for next year. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re in; there are things you can do to affect the path and destination of your enterprise.

I’m a firm believer in zero-based budgeting. That doesn’t mean we have to throw away all of our historical data and start from scratch, but what it does is make sure we look at each line item in the budget and give thought to how that line might be different than in previous years.

At Red Wing Software, we know there are some constants that we can count on being relatively stable from year to year. In our case, labor is one of those constants, since we enjoy very little turnover in the fine staff we have assembled. In other areas, for instance marketing, we might make adjustments to the number of trade shows we attend, or the size or placement of ads. We spend a fair amount of time analyzing the major line items to see how we can reduce costs without affecting quality, or increase market share of a particular product, increasing revenue.

Examining every line item when budgeting expenses or projecting revenue (and then regularly comparing actual results to that budget), helps maintain better control of the business throughout the year.