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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 3

INITIAL STATEMENT OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP OF SECURITIES

Filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
Section 17(a) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 or
Section 30(h) of the Investment Company Act of 1940

1.	Name and Address of Reporting Person*	2.	Date of Event Requiring Statement (Month/Day/Year)	3.	I.R.S. Identification Number of Reporting Person, if an entity (Voluntary)
	Carey, Carole E.(Last) (First) (Middle)		December 30, 2002
	5726 High Meadow Drive (Street)	4.	Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol	5.	Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer (Check All Applicable)
			Optio Software, Inc. ("OPTO")		o	Director	o	10% Owner
					o	Officer (give title below)
		6.	If Amendment, Date of Original (Month/Day/Year)		x(1)	Other (specify below)
	Norcross GA 30092 (City)         (State)         (Zip)
				7.	Individual or Joint/Group Filing (Check Applicable Line)
					x	Form Filed by One Reporting Person
					o	Form Filed by More than One Reporting Person

Reminder:	Report on a separate line for each class of securities beneficially owned directly or indirectly.
*	If the form is filed by more than one reporting person, see Instruction 5(b)(v).

Table I — Non-Derivative Securities Beneficially Owned
1.	Title of Security (Instr. 4)	2.	Amount of Securities Beneficially Owned (Instr. 4)		3.	Ownership Form: Direct (D) or Indirect (I) (Instr. 5)	4.	Nature of Indirect Beneficial Ownership (Instr. 5)
	Common Stock			500,000		D
	Common Stock			80,000		I		Held by the Carey Family Partnership, of which Carole Carey is the General Partner
	Common Stock			50,000		I		Held as Custodian for Shannon D. Carey, a minor
	Common Stock			50,000		I		Held by Ashley E. Carey
	Common Stock			40,000		I		Held by Michelle N. Carey

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Table II — Derivative Securities Beneficially Owned (e.g., puts, calls, warrants, options, convertible securities)

1.

Title of Derivative Security (Instr. 4)

2.

Date Exercisable and Expiration Date (Month/Day/Year)

3.

Title and Amount of Securities Underlying Derivative Security (Instr. 4)

4.

Conversion or Exercise Price of Derivative Security

5.

Ownership Form of Derivative Security: Direct (D) or Indirect (I) (Instr. 5)

6.

Nature of Indirect Beneficial Ownership (Instr. 5)

Date Exer- cisable

Expi- ration Date

Title

Amount or Number of Shares

Explanation of Responses:

(1) The reporting person is a member of a Section 13(d) group of which the members agreed to vote in concert to increase the size of the board of directors of the Issuer and elect new elect new directors, as more fully described in the group Schedule 13D filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 6, 2003. For purposes of this filing, the reporting person disclaims beneficial ownership of the securities beneficially owned by the other members of the group.

/s/ CAROLE E. CAREY	February 11, 2003
**Signature of Reporting Person	Date

**	Intentional misstatements or omissions of facts constitute Federal Criminal Violations. See 18 U.S.C. 1001 and 15 U.S.C. 78ff(a).
Note:	File three copies of this Form, one of which must be manually signed. If space is insufficient, see Instruction 6 for procedure.

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