At 12:00:01 am on January 1, 2000, tens of thousands of small business computer systems will begin to deliver wrong answers on date calculations or simply shut down. Failure to address this issue NOW may lead to being one of the "Year 2000" casualties. Therefore, we recommend that you address the "Year 2000" issue and your information systems immediately.

The basic problem originates from the two-digit representation of the calender year. When a computer operation requires a year and that year is shown as "00", errors will result because the system can't understand a date after "99". Problems in areas such as accounting, purchasing, inventory management, payroll, and telecommunications are likely to develop for those businesses that fail to address the situation.

Deferring necessary solutions due to costs may even compound the problems.

NINE CRITICAL DATES

7/1/98 | The fiscal year begins for 46 states.
10/1/98 | The fiscal year begins for the federal government.
1/1/99 | Widely expected to cause widespread software failures.
7/1/99 | The fiscal year 2000 begins for 46 states.
9/9/99 | There will be many software problems due to the use of '9999' field.
10/1/99 | The fiscal year 2000 begins for the federal government.
1/1/2000 | Saturday, first date with '00' field.
2/29/2000 | Leap year which is unlike others, usually not divisible by 100, programs may fail. Contact us for more information.