Y2K: Few laughs anticipated over bug's April Fool's Day trick

By Adam Gifford

April Fool's Day this year will have a bitter ring for many small and medium-sized businesses. That's when they will find their accounting packages no longer work because they aren't Year 2000-compliant.

In some cases users won't be able to set up for the new tax and financial year because the software will reject a year-end date of 00, reading it as 1900 or 1980 or some other date.

That many companies will be caught out can be deduced from lower-than-predicted demand for Y2K products and services. Of course, the opposite could be true: there is little demand because they've all fixed their systems already.

"It's too quiet. Regardless of all the information out there about Year 2000, the warnings are being ignored," said Doug Hanna, managing director of the New Zealand branch of Solution 6.

"The volume of software sales and upgrade sales over the past year is below what is necessary for people to escape problems. They'll all want to upgrade in the last week of March."

Mr Hanna believes that many small business users will be caught out - small-time developers, contractors or retailers who make limited use of what can be quite old packages, to send out invoices and statements.

While most of Solution 6 software goes direct to accountants, it does produce a cashbook program that accountants on-sell to customers. The Year 2000 version will be shipped this month. People who try to use the old version in April will find it won't work because there is no four-digit field for the year.

Mr Hanna said the lack of awareness was partly because much of the noise about the Year 2000 bug came from the United States, where the tax year runs from January to December.

"April 1999 is our D-day, not January 2000."

Don Bowman, managing director of Focus Software, said more than a third of the estimated 6000 users of his company's CBA accounting software still had not made the switch to the fully compliant CBA 2000 version, despite its being available for over 18 months.

The dealers who service the product through New Zealand and Australia are already flat out, and the pressure will only become greater.

"It will be difficult to come up with the resource if they all say they want to upgrade," Mr Bowman said.

The CBA experience gives Mr Bowman misgivings about the wider effects of Year 2000.

"I can't believe the way people are leaving things to the last minute. There will be unnecessary inconvenience."

Les Corder, a partner with chartered accountants Brown Wooley Graham, said many firms still didn't understand the need to make contingency plans.

"Many businesses potentially won't be affected, but must all look where they could be impacted," Mr Corder said.

Brown Wooley Graham is selling a DIY "Year 2000 Heath Check," developed by Australian accountants William Buck and modified for New Zealand conditions. It includes a copy of Greenwich Mean Time's Check 2000 software.

Mr Corder said sales of the package had been relatively slow, although the Institute of Chartered Accountants had now endorsed it and bought copies to distribute through its members.

Grant Boyd, the institute's business services director, said the institute was particularly concerned about the readiness of small and medium enterprises.