Coming Attractions

A timeline update, and the first pricing news. Short version: about 90% of the code is ported, a small side-by-side alpha group is targeted for mid-September, and the earliest possible release is February 2027. Upgrading will cost $15 or less — $10 for Standard, $15 for Professional, single desktop use. That price is locked.

Here's where the paycheck entry screen stands today. Still a work in progress, so all of it is subject to change, but it's far enough along to be worth sharing.

This is the edge case — every income and every deduction turned on at once. Most payrolls use a fraction of what's shown here. The light blue is a test color; it may end up gray, or some other color entirely. There will also be a dark mode, which is what I use most days myself.

About the size: this shot is 14 point, sized to fit the average laptop display — it's what I test at, and it will likely end up being the default. Other text sizes will be available, so you can pick what suits your eyes. The window can also be resized by dragging any edge, if you'd rather use more of your screen.

Today the new build ran its first real payroll — ours. From here forward, every paycheck and every deposit at Medlin Software comes out of the new software. That's what alpha testing means around here: the people who wrote it are the first ones to trust it with real money, real employees, and real filing deadlines. If something is wrong, we find it the honest way, with our own numbers on the line, before anyone else has to.

Alpha also means it isn't ready for your payroll yet, and we won't pretend otherwise. There's plenty left to fix, and we expect to find some of it the hard way. Beta comes when it's fit for somebody else's paychecks. We still expect that before 2027 arrives, and we're still not naming a date.

A decision we've firmed up: the new software will keep your data in a database instead of the collection of separate files Payroll uses today. Fair question — why now, after all these years? Because the old arrangement worked fine for what it had to do. One computer, one person, one folder of files. We don't add machinery for its own sake, and there was nothing here worth fixing. The cloud edition changes the math. Data that lives online and gets reached from more than one machine wants a single well-behaved file, not a folder full of pieces that all have to agree with each other. Once the cloud made it necessary, the rest came along for free: one file for everything, so backups and moving to a new computer stop being fiddly, and a real log — a record of what changed and when — which is the sort of thing nobody thinks about until the afternoon they need it. Other benefits ride along too, and we'll cover those as they settle.

We've also framed up how the cloud and local sides will work together, and privacy drove every part of it. Cloud data will be encrypted so that only you can open it. Medlin can't unlock it and can't turn it over — not because we'd refuse, but because we won't be holding anything that would let us. That's the whole point. A subpoena, a break-in on our end, or an employee with too much curiosity all come up with a file nobody can read. The trade is the one every honest encryption scheme makes: you have to remember your pass phrase. Lose it and the data stays locked, and there is nothing we can do from our end to change that.

Alongside the cloud copy, you'll keep an encrypted copy on your own computer — for when you're offline, or when something goes sideways and you need your numbers right now. Out of the box it won't ask for a pass phrase, because you already decide who gets into your own computer. If you'd rather it did ask, you can turn that on. Shared office, laptop that travels, or just a belt-and-suspenders temperament — your call either way.

You'll also be able to make a copy to send us for support. Nothing leaves your computer unless you send it, and what's in it is up to you. You decide whether that copy carries a pass phrase — if it does, you'll need to send us the phrase as well, preferably in a message separate from the file itself. You'll also have the option to mask Social Security numbers and banking information before the copy goes out. We almost never need either one to track down a problem.

We're testing a cloud data option. Running Medlin locally, with your data on your own computer, isn't going away — that stays. Alongside it, starting with the first release of the new software, we expect to offer a cloud edition: your data lives online instead of on a local drive, and you can reach it from any computer that can run Medlin. The cloud edition would be licensed by FEIN rather than per machine. It's aimed at people who work from more than one device, and at people who would rather their data sat safely online than spend their evenings minding local files and backups.

Also in testing: an employee history report covering any time frame you have data for — not just the current year.

And a suggested-reports feature: a group of reports for the month, the quarter, and the year, printed in one pass instead of one at a time. Useful for anyone who has ever closed out a quarter and then wondered which report they forgot.

One less thing to worry about: the new build will read and write the same data as the current one. For at least the 2027 tax year, you'll be able to go back and forth between the current build and the new build on the same data — no conversion step, no picking a side. (The current build isn't standing still either; it's getting its own 2027 updates.)

We're building a new version of Payroll, targeting the 2027 tax year. We're not promising a release date, but we do expect a beta out before 2027 arrives. It's a ground-up rebuild: 64-bit only, a more modern look, and dialogs you can resize instead of being stuck with a fixed layout. Payroll will also open on its own, with the last-used list built right in — no separate menu app needed to get to it. Accounting and Receivables aren't changing; you'll still reach them through the Medlin Menu like today.

Very early screens — both the design and the features shown are subject to change. Text size will be adjustable (12, 14, 16, 18, 24, or 28 point); smaller displays may default a size lower. These shots were taken at a smaller size to fit more on screen. The second image shows the resizing that's new to this build — the current version's windows are a fixed size.