Is Microsoft’s Support for TLS Finally Ending?

When Sage 100 version 4.30 finally hit the shelves we told any client who would listen that the upgrade was worth the pain due to one function alone that had been added: Paperless Office. Specifically, the Paperless Office Electronic Delivery. This new feature added such a robust tool that had not been available up to that point. At the click of a mouse, customers could get their invoices or statements emailed to them in real time. The days of manually generating emails and attaching PDF files were finally a thing of the past. Those were the good days. Today, due to a little-known protocol retirement, this Electronic Delivery feature may also be a thing of the past if you are not on a current version.

Sage 100 versions 2018 and below use a protocol known as TLS 1.0 (Transportation Layer Security) to encrypt the data when sent through Paperless Office Electronic Delivery.  Microsoft beefed up the protocol and released TLS 1.2.  They continued support on version 1.0 but kept warning this protocol would eventually be retired. Based on feedback we have been receiving from our customers, this may be what has occurred. Sage has published Microsoft’s response to this:

• Microsoft: “We temporarily halted disablement of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for commercial customers due to COVID-19. As supply chains have adjusted and certain countries open back up, we restarted the TLS 1.2 enforcement rollout on October 15, 2020. Rollout will continue over the following weeks and months…”
  Read the full article

• Microsoft: “We are fully aware that many customers will not have noticed the multiple Message Center posts and blog posts, and are not aware of clients or devices that are still using TLS1.0 to submit messages. With this in mind, starting in September 2021, we will reject a small percentage of connections that use TLS1.0 for SMTP AUTH. Clients should retry as with any other temporary errors that can occur during submission. Over time we will increase the percentage of rejected connections, causing delays in sending that more and more customers should notice…” Read the full article

Several of our clients have been experiencing sporadic paperless office or electronic delivery rejections due to Microsoft support for TLS 1.0 ending.

What does this mean for your Sage 100 install?

• If you are on version 2019 and above, nothing. This does not affect you.
• If you are on version 2018 with a product update of 8, 9 or 10, then there is a patch Sage will release to you on request (with the appropriate legal sign off).
• If you are on version 2018 with product update 7 or an earlier update, the latest product update will need to be installed. Then the patch from Sage can be released to you (with the appropriate legal sign off).
• If you are on a version of 2017 or earlier, you’ll need to upgrade.

Our account management team is ready to help you get the patch from Sage and/or schedule a product update or begin the upgrade process. Contact us for help.