Sage Software's Sage MIP Fund Accounting Gives Animal Welfare Organizations In-Depth Reporting and Comprehensive Budgeting Tools

AUSTIN, TX -- (MARKET WIRE) -- February 20, 2007 -- Sage Software announced today that animal welfare organizations across North America are continuing to choose its award-winning Sage MIP Fund Accounting software for nonprofit financial management. Sage MIP Fund Accounting helps animal welfare organizations, like Bat Conservation International, Inc. (BCI), Best Friends Animal Society, and Earthjustice, track and report on multiple funds, across multiple budget periods, helping them meet reporting requirements and demonstrate accountability to constituents.

"Sage MIP Fund Accounting is a necessary tool, like a microwave oven," said Daniel Hill, controller for Oakland, Calif.-based Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the Earth's places, natural resources, and wildlife, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. "The software consolidates our financial transactions and produces valuable reports. Plus, through Citrix, all of our satellite offices have full, real-time access to Sage MIP Fund Accounting for transaction entry and report writing. Doing things manually, or consolidating information from separate financial packages, would be unacceptable."

Sage MIP Fund Accounting continues to be an easy-to-use solution, helping animal welfare organizations demonstrate transparency and accountability. Austin, Texas-based BCI, a nonprofit devoted to conservation, education, and research initiatives involving bats and the ecosystems they serve, chose Sage MIP Fund Accounting 19 years ago, after reviewing several accounting systems.

"Sage MIP Fund Accounting provides the ease-of-use I wanted, while providing virtually endless reporting options and saving me enormous amounts of time when it comes to copying transactions, grouping reports, and sending reports to Excel so that I can show data in a different format, if necessary," said Linda Moore, director of finance for BCI. "The software's budgeting component is absolutely the best. I cannot imagine trying another fund accounting program."

Virgil Barstad, senior accounting analyst for Kanab, Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, an organization working with animal shelters, rescue groups, and its members nationwide to bring about a time when there will be no more homeless pets, said, "We were using another accounting system, but had trouble with corrupted, sometimes irreparable, data files. Sage MIP Fund Accounting promised to be more robust and error-free, and this has proven accurate. With only accounts and classes as resources, the other system did not offer enough variety in the types of entries we could track. We wanted to track by account, department, division, IRS designation of expense, and type of restriction, and Sage MIP Fund Accounting's use of custom-made independent segments fulfills our needs admirably."

Using the specialized fund accounting software, animal welfare organizations, as well as nonprofits of all types and sizes, can plan and manage budgets, maximize grants, and produce accurate customized reports in minutes. "Sage MIP Fund Accounting contains general ledger data that is easily consolidated into monthly reports for our board of directors," added Hill. "The general ledger data also provides the basis for the creation of audited financial statements, and Sage MIP Fund Accounting's reporting functionality provides historical information that helps us develop our annual budgets."

Sage MIP Fund Accounting's powerful reporting tools, table-driven charts of accounts, and dynamic Drill-down Analyzer make it easy for auditors to verify these organizations' financial statement accuracy and organization to maintain a clear audit trail. The software also helps animal welfare organizations report back to donors and their boards.

Moore explained, "Using Sage MIP Fund Accounting, I can report to our donors about individual grants, including to what projects their donations went, and where the dollars were spent. I love the amount of detail that can be generated from the accounting system, and its audit trail is amazing. I provide our independent auditor with details of all transactions, plus I can go back any number of years to create a report for any time period. Likewise, our Board of Trustees usually has a preference regarding financial reporting. They tell me what they want and I can always get Sage MIP Fund Accounting to generate the needed information. Love it!"

For more than 25 years, Sage Software has been helping nonprofit organizations further their missions and better serve constituents through the use of technology. Sage MIP Fund Accounting and the range of Sage Fundraising product choices enable nonprofit organizations, regardless of size and budget, to select a solution that best fits their needs. Sage MIP Fund Accounting earned a coveted 2005 Campbell Award from Campbell Rinker for its exceptional ratings in the Nonprofit Accounting Software Survey, a nationwide survey of accounting software users.

For more information about Sage MIP Fund Accounting or other Sage Software Nonprofit Solutions, visit www.sagenonprofit.com or call 800-647-3863.

About Sage Software

Sage Software supports the needs, challenges and dreams of more than 2.7 million small and mid-sized business customers in North America through easy-to-use, scalable and customizable software and services. Our products support accounting, operations, customer relationship management, human resources, time tracking, merchant services and the specialized needs of the construction, distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit and real estate industries. Sage Software is a subsidiary of The Sage Group plc, a leading international supplier of accounting and business management software solutions and related products and services for small and mid-sized businesses. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and the Group now has 5.2 million customers and employs over 13,000 people worldwide. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.sagesoftware.com/moreinfo or call (866) 308-2378.

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Contact Information: Press Contact: Cynthia Sutton Sage Software (703) 793-2700 x 3032 cynthia.sutton@sage.com