Best Software Joins Global Initiative to Launch Extensible Business Reporting Language.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2000

United Effort Brings Financial, Accounting, Software and

Governmental Communities Together to Issue First Standardized

Specification That Exchanges Financial Reports Across All

Technologies, Including The Internet

Best Software, Inc., a leading provider of HR/payroll, fixed asset management and planning and budgeting solutions, announced today that it is helping to develop and launch the new Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) through its membership on the XBRL Project Committee, which represents financial, accounting, software and governmental communities from around the world. XBRL, formerly code-named XFRML, is a free XML-based specification that uses accepted financial reporting standards and practices to exchange financial reports across all software and technologies, including the Internet.

XBRL for financial statements, developed by the committee as the first product in a future family of XBRL-based products, is currently under review for comments by the accounting profession, and is anticipated to reach the market in July 2000. XBRL streamlines the financial information supply chain that includes public and private companies, the accounting profession, data aggregators, the investment community and all other users of financial statements.

"Its Web-native platform - developed for the Internet from the ground-up - makes XBRL especially well-suited to development of planning and budgeting applications like Best! Imperativ Active Planner(R)," said Dan Quigg, vice president and general manager of advanced analytics products.

"Our Best! Imperativ HRMS(R) HR and payroll solution is already similarly benefiting from related Extensible Markup Language features that will help dramatically change the way internal business processes are transacted today across all industries. That is the main reason why Best Software has been such a strong supporter of XBRL and its possibilities in our rapidly changing digital economy."

XBRL offers several key benefits: technology independence, full interoperability, efficient preparation of financial statements, and reliable extraction of financial information. Information is entered only once, allowing that same information to be rendered in any form, such as a printed financial statement, an HTML document for the company's Web site, an EDGAR filing document with the SEC, a raw XML file, or other specialized reporting formats such as credit reports or loan documents.

More than 80 percent of major US public companies provide some type of financial disclosure on the Internet. Investors and users of the Internet need accurate and reliable financial information that can be delivered promptly to help them make informed financial decisions. XBRL meets these needs and is particularly important in delivering financial information via the Internet, including at a company's Web site. XBRL leverages the efficiencies of the Internet as today's primary source of financial information by making Web browser searches more accurate and relevant for all users of financial information.

"Best Software is dedicated to providing leading-edge HR/payroll, fixed asset, and planning and budgeting solutions in order to help its customers transform the way they manage their people, fixed asset and planning processes," said Quigg. "XBRL is yet another product development tool that we are leveraging to continue to expand the broadening scope of functionality of our comprehensive analytic solutions. This leading-edge technology, will help enable our 50,000 customers worldwide to realize significant time and cost savings when performing diverse financial reporting functions."

"XBRL allows companies, analysts, investors and other audiences to make better-informed financial and management decisions and to leverage the capabilities of the Internet to facilitate the exchange of financial information," said Barry Melancon, president and CEO of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "XBRL does not change existing accounting standards, it merely provides an efficient and reliable means for the exchange. Based upon standardized, underlying data tags, XBRL does not require a company to disclose any additional information beyond that which it normally discloses in its current financial statements."

Best Software joins new sister company Sage Software, Inc., and more than 30 other companies and organizations on the XBRL Project Committee. Participants include: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Arthur Andersen LLP; CaseWare International; Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants; Cohen Computer Consulting; Crowe, Chizek and Company, LLP; Deloitte & Touche, LLP; e-content, a division of Interleaf, Inc.; EDGAR Online, Inc.; Epicor Software Corporation; Ernst & Young, LLP; FRx Software Corporation; Grant Thornton LLP; Great Plains; Hyperion; International Accounting Standards Committee; IBM; Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia; Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; Institute of Management Accountants; KPMG, LLP; Lawson Software; Microsoft Corporation; Morgan Stanley Dean Witter; Navision Software; Oracle Corporation; PPA GmbH; PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP; Reuters Group LP; SAP AG; Standard & Poor's; Texsys RD and The Woodburn Group. For more information about XBRL, please visit http://www.XBRL.org.

About Best Software

Best Software, Inc., with more than 50,000 customers worldwide and offices in the US, Canada and Europe, is a leading provider of solutions which help organizations transform the way they manage their people, assets and planning. Its scalable, cost-effective solutions complement core financial management systems and support the full spectrum of Microsoft(R) platforms, including Windows(R) 95, Windows(R) 98, Windows NT(R) and BackOffice(R). In February 2000, Best Software entered into a merger agreement with The Sage Group plc, a leading worldwide supplier of accounting solutions, and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sage Group. For further information, call 800/368-2499, send an email to [e-mail], or access our Web site at www.bestsoftware.com.

Note to Editors: Best Software and the Best logo are registered trademarks, and Best! Imperativ HRMS, Best! Imperativ Active Planner and Best! Imperativ Analytics are trademarks, of Best Software, Inc. Microsoft, Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and BackOffice are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.