I have created a chart that includes a staff for the bass line--so, just notes on a bass clef in the normal range that one would play on a 4-string bass.

I went to Score Manager and added a staff for Tablature-4 Strting bass.

I copied the notes from the first staff into the tablature staff. I selected 0 as the lowest fret.

All of the notes are displaying on the top G string, and they are displaying with a - sign in front of the fret number.

I also created a new document and tried pasting the notes into a new tab staff--same result.

I have posted the file at this address:  http://www.chapinandchapin.com/images/finale/cute_bassline.musx

Mac OS 10.11.6. Finale 14.5.7098