Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! You can request a free trial of the software.

Please see our order page for pricing information.

Please see our order page for maintenance fee information.

After purchase, an email will be sent to you containing a secure link which will allow you to download and install FarmBooks. After the initial installation, you can check for updates and download updates from the help menu within FarmBooks.

You can run FarmBooks on a Mac but it must be installed and run in “Windows mode.” Please contact us for more information.

Batch entry is a another way to enter checks, paychecks, and deposits in more of a spreadsheet like setting. As the name implies, it requires that the user first create a batch before transactions can be entered. These transactions must be “posted” before they are recognized by the accounting side to be displayed in the register and on reports.

Batch entry is a great way to enter transactions from a bank or credit card statement. It has totals at the bottom of the window that show the number of checks and deposits entered along with amounts which can be compared against the statement. It also shows the difference in the amounts between the expected and actual entered amounts for both checks and deposits so that you know the amount of the remaining entries. It is a great tool for users behind in their bookkeeping.

Data may be entered manually or imported via a file created by your online bank or credit card company. Also, your entries must be posted. When the transaction is posted, it will be posted to accounting and the bank balances will be adjusted accordingly and the data will be available to be displayed on reports and in the register. You can work on the batch for as long as is needed and it can be recalled when the application is opened on a later date if desired. If all transactions are ready to post, the batch will automatically be deleted. You can elect to post the ones that are ready to post and finish the remaining ones during another edit session or have time to research. The “Post” transaction function can be found by pressing the “Batch Activities” button and selecting “Post”.

In order to use the import feature, you first need to go to your online bank or credit card website and download your transactions. The import file must be formatted as a CSV (comma separated values). It is important to note that FarmBooks does NOT capture or track your online bank login information. Once you have the data downloaded from your online bank or credit card company, you need to tell FarmBooks how the bank arranged the data in the CSV file. You do this by creating a data map that describes the arrangement of the data. FarmBooks provides a wizard that steps you though the process by analyzing the data from the bank or credit card company and assists with the creation of the data map. The wizard will automatically analyze the import data to determine what fields your bank or credit card company has provided. The final step of the wizard is where you actually map the bank fields to FarmBooks fields. The data map is only created once for each financial institution and can be associated to a bank account so that you can just simply import your data in the future.

A transaction record has one record with two lines of entry. The first line details the payee along with check/deposit information whereas the second line lists the account code, enterprise, external code, amount, and unit information (same as in check/deposit entry). If multiple ATIG/D codes are needed to describe the transaction, press the F2 key to duplicate the currently selected row in the list of transactions and add another ATIG/D code. You can create as many lines as necessary for the transaction. These records will be combined into one transaction (same check/deposit number) during the post activity step.

The status column indicates if the transaction requires additional edits, is a possible duplicate, or has all the required field values and is ready to post. The status column could have one of three possible values: “Edits Required”, “Warning Issued”, or “Ready to Post”. These statuses are shown in the leftmost statistically panel at the bottom of the window along with number of lines and amounts for each status. In fact, you can click on the status symbol in the grid to see a list of corrections needed or an informational message for that transaction.

During the import process, for instance, the payee naming rule can detect a debit transaction to your electric company and automatically classify the transaction with the proper ATIG/D assignment. If the transaction is fully specified, the transaction will be “ready to post” and will be indicated by the “green arrow” symbol in the status column. If further edits are required, then the status will be shown with a “red x” symbol. A warning (yellow triangle with an explanation mark) will be displayed if the imported transaction is considered a duplicate transaction.

By default, you do not need to do anything with this column. For instance, once the transaction line’s status is “Ready to Post”, it will automatically change the “Post” column to be checked. However, this column does allow you to overwrite the value should you decide that you do not want to post this transaction. The post column can only be checked if the status column is “Ready to Post”. The post column controls whether the transaction is “posted” during the “post activity” step of the process.

Four possible buttons can be displayed within the grid ATIG/D column. Three of them are displayed to assist with the entry of an ATIG/D code and are displayed when the grid row receives input focus. The first button is a down arrow and allows the user to search a drop down list by ATIG/D code. The second or middle button is an ellipse (three dots) that allows the user to search for an ATIG/D value from a hierarchical list of account categories with drill-downs to locate the desired income or expense code. The third button is called “L/R” for Loans or Receivables and is dependent on the transaction type being a check or deposit respectively. The loan / receivable button allows the user to view the list of loans or receivables defined for the current year and apply it to the transaction being entered. It will automatically populate the ATIG/D along with its corresponding external code. This can help minimize using the incorrect pair of ATIG/D and external code combinations when making a loan payment or receivable amount.

The fourth button is only displayed when the transaction type is a paycheck and will hide the other three buttons and will be shown as “Paycheck Detail”. Clicking the Paycheck Detail button or pressing the Alt-K key will bring up the payroll paycheck detail window to allow payroll details to be entered for an employee just like a the standard paycheck entry screen.

To control the default behavior for the date column, you need to set your desired option from the general application preference settings. From the file menu, select preferences and locate the option for “Default Date on New Entry”. You have two choices “Use Today’s Date” or “Recall Date of Last Transaction”. Initially for the Recall Date of Last Transaction, this will be the current date every time you open the application. Then it will recall the date of your last saved entry.

The batch entry preferences are found by pressing the “Option” button along the top of the batch entry tab (leftmost button). The user can set options to enable grid search, show the grid filter row, show the statistics panel at the bottom of the window, whether to mark the transaction as “cleared the bank on post” or not, and if you want to reassign the check / deposit number should you change the bank account or fiscal year at the top of the batch entry tab. Also, the grid sort order as entry order or by check/deposit number. The last option has to do with how the check number is assigned during manual entry.

The most important thing to consider is the default assignment of the check or deposit number. This is only important if you are manually entering transactions. If you are importing transactions from your online bank or credit card, then this is not used. For manual entry, you need to consider whether you are entering credit or debit card transactions or values from your bank statement. This will determine the type of default you select.

• For credit or debit card transactions, select “Use Number Formatted as Bnnnn” as the check number is arbitrary and you don’t care. Also, you don’t need duplicate check number validation. The number is formatted with or without leading zeros depending on the general application preference “Format Check Number with Leading Zeros” for the nnnn part.
• If you are entering values from your bank statement, select “Use Bank Account’s Next number” as you want the system to assign your next check number and want validation that a duplicate transaction has been entered.
• Or you may simply select “None” if you will be assigning the number. It is important to note that only numeric numbers are validated for duplicates.

It is important to note that only numeric numbers are validated for duplicates. If the number assigned contains an alphabetic character, it is not validated for duplicates.

The transaction description used by a debit or credit transaction can be ugly. You can create payee naming rules that will translate this description into a payee name that you would prefer. Furthermore, you can assign a vendor code to the payee naming rule that will remap the bank description to a vendor. If you use a vendor code with the payee naming rule, you can take advantage of the existing vendor memorized ATIG/D list feature to have data automatically assigned an ATIG/D code or list of codes during the import. See the manual or watch the batch entry webinar for the import feature for more details on creating the payee naming rules.

No, it is easier to create the rule after you have imported your data. You can build up the list of payee naming rules over time for places that you most frequently shop. Also, the list of payee naming rules show the last time the rule was applied to your import data. This will allow you purge the list of rules that have not been used for a long time.

The Tnnnn number is assigned during the import process for transactions if the data map defined for the bank has the general option “auto assign check / deposit numbers when unassigned” checked. The Bnnnn number is enabled based on user batch entry preferences for “Assigning check / deposit number on manual entry” and if the “Use Number Formatted as Bnnnn” is selected. The nnnn part of the number is formatted with leading zero or without depending on the general application preference “Format Check Number with Leading Zeros”. It is only recommended to use the Bnnnn format if you are entering debit or credit card transaction and do not need duplicate check number validation.

If you use the import feature of batch entry and have already entered transactions for the imported time frame, it is important that you do not end up creating duplicate entries. The import process does track the last import date ranges and provides a warning that you have imported data with overlapping dates from the previous import. If the import bank data does NOT have the check number assigned, it could result in a duplicate transaction being created without an warning message. The transactions assigned with a Tnnnn number should be reviewed for possible duplicates. If the bank has the number assigned, it will be validated for possible duplicates within the same fiscal year. If you spot a transaction that you know is a duplicate, you can uncheck the “post” check mark to prevent the transaction from being posted. Once the non-duplicates are posted, you can then delete the batch to discard the unwanted transactions.

If you have checked the option “Reassign Check / Deposit Number on Fiscal Year / Bank Change” in the batch entry preferences (option button along the top the batch entry tab and select entry preferences), then it is a simple as changing the bank account at the top of the batch entry tab. The reassign function uses the format as specified for the “Assign Check / Deposit Number on Manual Entry”.

FarmBooks supports three standard formats:

• Three checks per page
• Top check and two vouchers
• Voucher – Check – Voucher

Special check formats may be created for a fee. For ordering FarmBooks compatible checks visit the Dynamic Systems website at www.dswebtoprint.com/farmbooks.

The starting check number is defined for each bank account along with the beginning bank account balance for the fiscal year. This can be found from the “Balance menu” and then by selecting “Bank…”. Edit each bank account and set the “Next Sequence Number” for check and / or deposit. Repeat this for each bank account.

You can set the format for each bank account by going to the “Balance menu” and then by selecting “Bank…”. Edit each bank account and press the “Check Format” for the “Default” section and choose the desired format. Repeat this for each bank account.

When printing checks, you can still change the format and the beginning check number.

Note: There are two formats for “Three per Page”, one by Current and the other by Dynamics. You must select the format that matches the vendor where you ordered your checks.

The application “Option” preference is where you can configure the “Check Book Entry” as “Novice” or “Date Entry”. Novice causes the pop-up window to be display instead of allowing entry into the grid. Select “Data Entry” to allow entry of data directly into the grid. If you don’t know a code while entering data into the grid, you can press the Ctrl-Enter key in the field to pop-up the code list to allow you to browse for a specific code.

If you are using the application as a check writer, you should have your application “Option” preference for “Check Number and Status” set to “Print” or “Print and Cleared”. You will notice that the word “PRINT” is inserted for the check number. The system assigns the check number when the check is printed. If you have anything other than “PRINT” as the check number, the check will NOT be in the list of checks that are ready to be printed.

If you don’t have a “sheep operation” for example, then you can de-activate these codes from the “Setup menu” and then by selecting “ATI – ATIG Codes”. It is as simple as un-checking the zero G CODE to de-activate the entire ATI code group or you may un-check a single code to de-activate it. Now, the sheep ATIGs will not be displayed in any of the lists though out the application.

The defined ATI budget table lists by ATI category all of the budget values entered for Budgeting in the “Planning menu”. For each selected ATI code, a yearly budget value is entered; and then the yearly value is allocated to a specific month or months. The yearly budget values are utilized in the Flow of Funds report as the basis of comparing actual income and expenses for the fiscal year with budgeted values for each ATI category. The budgeted values are also utilized to develop the Projected Cash Flow report which can be used to compare projected to actual cash flow values.

User may create a “Product or Service Item” called “Finance Charge” and specify the account ATIGD. Since the finance charge invoice cannot be edited, it will be important to specify an ATIGD that does not require an External Code. If this special product and service item is not defined, then the customer’s default ATIG/D is used.

You can never have too many backups. It is always wise to protect your business from loss of information in the event of either a hardware failure or natural disaster. The application backup preference allows you to configure the location where you want your backup stored. If the location is to any location other than “C:\FarmBooks Backups\” a secondary backup will automatically be made to the local hard drive (does not protect you in the case of a hard disk failure). This was especially important when floppy diskettes were used as a backup media since they tended to be extremely unreliable. Also, if you check “Append Timestamp for Multiple Backups”, it will create a new backup instead of overwriting the same file. This give you more options should one of the backup files be corrupt.

The re-index function should only be used if you receive a database error or are instructed by technical support. This function in the application is overly used with no real benefit.

Inventory allows you to track your assets by recording a beginning and ending value. You may enter these values on an operating (actual cost) basis or by a market (what if scenario) basis. The system will automatically create the ending values if your application preference for “Automatically Create Ending Inventory” is checked. The ending values can be edited thought the year as you obtain more accurate information. The operating or marketing values are printed on the balance sheet depending on which report you select.

User may create a “Product or Service Item” called “Finance Charge” and specify the account ATIGD. Since the finance charge invoice cannot be edited, it will be important to specify an ATIGD that does not require an External Code. If this special product and service item is not defined, then the customer’s default ATIG/D is used.

This option determines how your payment will be deposited: as a single lump sum or as a detail deposit reflecting each line on your invoice. It is recommended that you track income per invoice line item so that reports will contain more detail information reflecting your business activity. However, if your business activity is simply doing a single service or product, then a lump sum deposit may suffice.

When tracking income per line item, the first line is printed on the estimate, invoice or credit memo form. The second line is used solely for making the deposit. The ATIGD is the only field that is required and the others provide additional detail for the deposit if desired. The unit price in the first row is used to determine the total amount to be printed on the form for the customer. This is based on the item quantity times the unit price. The unit price on the second line is used for tracking unit information associated with the ATIGD code and may reflect your cost of doing business.

The product and service items are the types of merchandise or activity that describe what you are selling. They capture various details that allows you to quickly enter a line on your invoice without specifying each field every time and brings consistency to your data and reports.

No. These can be created as you enter estimates or invoices. When creating your product and service items, it is recommended that you use general descriptions if you are initially adding a new product or service. After the line has been saved to the invoice, then you can go back and add more detail to the long description that may describe something specific for this line that would only apply to this estimate or invoice. On future estimate or invoices, this will allow you to reuse the product or service item on the form and then add additional detail specific to an invoice while entering the line as the additions are not saved. However, you can always go to the product and service item list in invoice preferences and add more detail or change the message that will be used on future forms.

From the invoice tab, press the activities button and then select “receive payment” from the drop down menu to open the window to process a customer payment. Now, all you need to do is select your customer from the list and enter the received amount and press the tab or enter key and the amount will be automatically be applied to the list of open invoices starting with the oldest invoice first. You can edit the payment amount assigned to each open invoice if you want to change the pay assignment by adjusting the amounts in the grid under the Payments column.

From the invoice tab, locate the incorrect payment in the topmost window and select it and then press the delete button. A warning confirmation pop-up window will be displayed asking you to verify the deletion of the payment. When a payment is deleted, the associated deposit is deleted, the bank balance is adjusted, and any discounts, credits, or write-off that you may have applied for the payment is reversed, and finally the customer balance is updated.

You should enter the amount received in the payment window. This overpayment will then be available as a credit for the customer which may be applied to a future invoice.

The overpayment amount will be recorded against the account receivable ATIG 2065. The system will automatically create an accounts receivable external code if the description “Invoicing Unapplied Payment” does not exist and associate that code with the ATIG.

Later when the “Unapplied Payment” is applied as a credit to a future invoice, the amount will be removed from accounts receivable via ATIG 1065 with the same external code used for the “Invoicing Unapplied Payment”. This can be seen in the Credit Analysis report as a “Payment” or “Received” amount with the balance being zero once the credit is applied.

There is a help button next to the receive payment amount field that will allow you to review the account information described above.

When you enter the vendor name in the deposit tab, it will check to see if you have a customer with a balance. If a customer has open invoices with a balance, you will be asked if you want to apply the deposit against the open invoices as a payment and a deposit. Answering yes to this question will redirect you to the customer payment window.

No, if the vendor with the same name as the customer does not exist for the fiscal year that you are creating the payment / deposit, it will be created for you automatically when you save the payment.

In invoice preference, set “None” as your default payment terms. Also, use the payment term description with “None” on the customer records. This will suppress the payment information from invoices.

No, you can hide columns and messages on the printed form type (estimate, invoice, credit memo, finance charge, or statement). Use the “Forms” setup options from invoice preferences to control hiding columns, show or hide special text, logo, and column heading text per form type. Select the form type from the drop down list for “Defaults for” and specify your preferences per form type. Also, if you don’t need a ship-to location, you can hide it for the form type.

If the customer has not paid you in full within the period defined for their payment terms, you may want to send the customer a statement of their account showing all open invoices. You may elect to assess a finance charge for unpaid invoices during this process. If you assess a finance charge to the customer, then a special invoice is created called a finance charge. If you later elect to drop the charges, delete the finance charge invoice.

Open the invoice form, for which you want to give a credit in the editor, and change the form type to “Credit Memo”. Now, for each line that you want to give a credit make that line’s unit price negative. Only lines with negative amounts will be included in the credit balance.

First, you must create a credit memo or have received an overpayment. Now, from the receive payments window, click on the button in credit column to assign an amount to the open invoice. This will adjust the balance due for this open invoice. Also, if the customer overpays their balance you should capture the total paid amount in the receive payment window. This will allow you to later apply this overpayment as a credit to an open invoice. Any un-applied credits for the customer will be displayed at the bottom of the receive payments window.

Discounts may be applied to an invoice using several different methods. The system could calculate a discount if the payment term has a discount rate associated with it and the payment is within the time-frame. This calculated discount amount would be display in the un-applied discount column at the bottom of the receive payments window. You could elect to apply the discount by selecting the button in the discount column on the line of the open invoice you wish to discount. You could manually assign a discount to an open invoice as long as a payment amount is entered for the invoice, otherwise you would need to edit the invoice and add a line to the invoice with the discount amount specified as a negative amount.

The logo should be no more than 3 inches wide by 1 inch height to allow enough space for the business remitter information to display below the logo.

From the setup menu, select invoice preferences and then the “Forms” tab. Use the “Defaults for:” drop down list to obtain the desired form to hide the logo. Uncheck the “Include Logo” check box in the Logo setup section.

Assumptions:

1. Loan to John Deere needs to be paid off without impacting your bank balance.
2. Insurance Paid off John Deere Loan 202x- Intermediate, current, or long term along with loan external code.
3. Insurance Refund of Unused Annual Premium.
4. Need Credit Analysis Report to Reflect the Loan Balance as Zero.
5. Capital Assets reduced by totaled Equipment paid off by insurance.

Create a deposit for the amount of insurance premium refund or enter zero if you didn’t receive a refund of premium. Use a Capital Asset Sale 086x or 087x to get loan beginning balance and an offsetting entry for ATIG for 202x – Intermediate, current, or long term along with loan external code. Use ATIG 0392 for any insurance premium refund.

The “Payroll Defaults” items are the master list of earnings and deductions / benefits that can possibly be assigned to an employee record for the calendar year. You can add new items to this list during the year as necessary to support your payroll needs. There is a default indicator column that allows you to specify items that would generally apply to all employees. This will allow you to quickly pull in these items during employee setup with the click of a button. Should you no longer provide a benefit, you can deactivate it by unchecking the active indicator. This will prevent you from adding it to new employee records. However, you will need to identify employees that had this deactivated payroll item and manually uncheck it in employee setup to prevent the use of this item on future payroll checks.

For instance, I would like to break down health insurance as Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits. From the setup menu, select ATI-ATIG/D Codes and location Farm Expenses: Farm Expenses 100% Deductible: 041 Labor Hired – Health Insurance is 0415 (should be display with red text). Now, press the add button to enter D Codes 1, 2, and 3 for the Medical, Dental, and Vision respectively. Lastly, you will add these same categories in “Payroll Defaults” setup by pressing the “Retrieve ATIGD Items” buttons. It will population the description along with the ATIGD just created for the withheld and paid deduction ATIGD assignments. These “Payroll Defaults” withheld and paid deduction ATIGD assignments must be unique for the calendar year.

From the setup menu select external codes and then employees, press the add button to create a new employee. After you enter the employee demographics along with the payroll information in “Step 1 of 2: Employee, Employment, and Payroll Info”, press the “Next” button. The wizard will display “Step 2: Earnings and Benefits / Deduction Info” page. It will be pre-populated with the defaults from the payroll default setup. If the grids are empty (zero records added to the grid) press the “Payroll Defaults” button at the top of the window to create the master list and the close the window to return the employee earnings setup and then press the “Retrieve Default Items” button. See question, what is the purpose of the “payroll defaults” in setup? If you added new payroll defaults since you setup the employee, you can press the “Retrieve Default Items” button again to obtain the new item or items. You can also click the first row in each grid and select from a drop down list for the “payroll item” column to add an item without using the retrieve button.

Payroll withholding ATIG codes are 941x where the x value for the G-Code is 2=Social Security, 3=Medicare, 8=State, and 9=Federal. To make a tax deposit for any of the withhold use the corresponding A-Code of 0 or 041y where the y value equals the x value above for the G-Code. To designate the payment as the previous year use an External Code in the range 985 to 990. For instance, pay the federal tax deposit for the previous year use ATIG=0419 with an external code of 990 for “PRV YEAR FED INC TAX”. Run the Payroll Summary report and you will notice that the column “Amount Paid” does not reflect the payment for the previous year which allows the “Amount to be Deposited” column to be accurate for the current year.

The Kansas Department of Labor should provide a Experience Rating Notice (K-CNS404 report) with the rate percentage for each tax year. Edit the “Unemployment” record in Setup -> Tax Table to set the percentage. Then run the Quarterly State Wage Report to determine the amount due. Currently, the excess of wages over 8,000 per quarter is taxable at the rate provided. The tax table update only ships with the Kansas excess amount and does not include the rate as it varies per employer.

From the Year-End menu, the user can see the steps necessary to prepare FarmBooks for paycheck entry. Step 1 to 3 indicates the order in which the processes need to be run. For instance, Step 1 is for New Fiscal Year. If the user has setup their fiscal year as a non-calendar year, then it may not be necessary to run this step in order to continue with the step 2 and 3 for payroll. Payroll is a calendar year activity so it only requires that the new fiscal year exist for the new calendar year. The Update Tax Table process requires that user close their farm database before the update can be run so that is why it is a grayed out or disabled menu option when the database is open.

• Step 1: New Fiscal Year
  Run this wizard to copy all your codes from the current year to the new fiscal year. It is important to be aware that running this process will copy all your ending balances for inventory, loans, and bank accounts to the new fiscal year as the beginning balance. If you need go back after the new fiscal year has been created and enter a check, then it may be necessary to manually adjust the beginning balances in the new fiscal year for loans or bank accounts.
• Step 2: Update Tax Table
  It is important to first open or select the previous fiscal year in the register tab before you run this process. Next, run this wizard to copy employees from the previous year to the new calendar year. If you did not do payroll in the previous year and want to start using payroll, it is important to run this wizard to enable payroll to be accessible for the new calendar year.
• Step 3: Payroll Calendar Year-End
  Run this wizard to copy employees from the previous year to the new calendar year. If you did not do payroll in the previous year and want to start using payroll, it is important to run this wizard to enable payroll to be accessible for the new calendar year.

If you have already run the “update tax table” process, then you have not yet run the payroll calendar year-end process.

If you have already run the “update tax table” process, then you have not yet run the payroll calendar year-end process.

If you have already run the “update tax table” process, then you have not yet run the payroll calendar year-end process. Also, the paycheck date determines the calendar year employee list to be displayed.

Run the Payroll Summary report to obtain the current amount owed for FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and Federal Taxes. The FICA amount reflects both the employer and employee portion of taxes due minus any payments in the column “Amount to be Deposited”. The report shows a total line “Federal Tax Deposit Required” amount for FICA and Federal amounts summarized. It is important that payments in the current year for the previous year are recorded correctly in order for the report to be accurate.

Payroll withholding ATIG codes are 941x where the x value for the G-Code is 2=Social Security, 3=Medicare, 8=State, and 9=Federal. To make a tax deposit for any of the withhold use the corresponding A-Code of 0 or 041y where the y value equals the x value above for the G-Code. To designate the payment as the previous year use an External Code in the range 985 to 990. For instance, pay the federal tax deposit for the previous year use ATIG=0419 with an external code of 990 for “PRV YEAR FED INC TAX”. Run the Payroll Summary report and you will notice that the column “Amount Paid” does not reflect the payment for the previous year which allows the “Amount to be Deposited” column to be accurate for the current year.

Use the same ATIG codes 041x where the x value for the G-Code is 2 through 9 as described in the previous question related to recording a tax deposit in the current year for the previous year. However, use an external code in the range 991 to 999 to denote a current year deposit. Run the Payroll Summary report and you will notice that the column “Amount to be Deposited” will have the amount for Social Security, Medicare, and Federal Taxes. The FICA (Social Security and Medicare) amount reflects both the employer and employee portion of taxes due minus any payments. Also, the report shows a total line “Federal Tax Deposit Required” amount for FICA and Federal amounts.

Run the Payroll Summary report to obtain the amount owed for state taxes. Notice that the column “Amount to be Deposited” will have the amount for state taxes minus any payments for the year. It is important that payments in the current year for the previous year are recorded correctly for accuracy.

Payroll state withholding ATIG code 9418 is used for state taxes. To pay the state tax deposit for the previous year use ATIG=0418 with an external code of 989 for “PRV

Payroll state withholding ATIG code 9418 is used for state taxes. To pay the state tax deposit for the previous year use ATIG=0418 with an external code of 989 for “PRV

FarmBooks does not directly e-file your forms for you. However, it does provide reports that allow to you to do your filings.

The “register tab” shows only transactions for a single fiscal year and bank account whereas the “detail register tab” can be used to show transactions across all fiscal years and all bank accounts. Filters can be applied to each grid to find specific data.

There is an application preference setting that allows you to control the number of decimal places for both units and unit price. You may specify the number of decimal places between 2 to 5 digits of accuracy. This preference option applies to inventory entry, invoicing, check / deposit entry, memorized check / deposit entry, and allocation entry. In check/deposit entry in the grid, the user is not limited to the number of digits specified in preference but the display of these values will be limited to the set value. The printed reports will show unit price and unit values with the selected number of decimal places.

Batch printing of reports is probably one of the most under utilized features of the application. It does allow you to print a group of reports directly to a printer or to PDF format for later viewing. To enable this feature, go to the “Report Menu” and select “Reports…” and then press the “Options” button. Also, from this setup window, you can configure how you want the application to automatically adjust report dates for new fiscal periods or prompt once for dates during batch printing.

Use the batch print option (see “How can I print a group of reports without having to print each one separately?”) to output your report to PDF format (see item 5), then go to the “View Exports” from the “Report Menu”. Find the report that you want to email and right click and select “Send To” and “Mail Recipient”. To use this feature, you must have an MAPI configured application like Microsoft® Outlook Express, Microsoft® Outlook, etc. instead of using web mail. The report file name the application creates is prefixed with your farm name for easy identification by the recipient.

Open the report in the Preview window, and press “the envelope with the red arrow pointing down” and follow the prompts. The reports were designed for printability and so they may not export without requiring some manual reformatting. If we hear enough users wanting this feature, we may develop an export format that would export cleaner in a future release.

The “tax planning values” are estimated financial values setup for the current fiscal year to be used in providing preliminary Schedule F and Net Taxable Income Statements. The Annual Depreciation of Equipment value is also used in the Income Statement report as the basis for computing Net Farm Income. These estimated financial and tax planning values can be revised for the current fiscal year as more accurate financial and tax information becomes available.

The error message looks something like this:

AdsQueryEmpYear: Error 7200: AQE Error: State =HY000; Native Error=7008; [Extended Systems][Advantage SQL][ASA] Error 7008: The specified table, memo file or index file, or index file was unable to be opened. Table name: ext_Mast.

Does the farm name end with a period? Even it doesn’t the underlying relative path stored in the registration table may contain a trailing period. To correct this problem try the following steps:

• Go to the Personal Information window from the Setup menu and write down your registration information from the product tab.
• Close the Farm from the File menu.
• Select Change Registration Number from the File menu. Select the farm and enter registration information and press the finish button.

This will adjust the relative path information stored in the registration file. Now, open the farm and try to open the report module again. If you still obtain the error, please contact support.

Reports displaying currency amounts as whole numbers is a Windows configuration issue. To correct this, use the following steps.

• Step 1: Click on your computer’s Start menu and then click on Control Panel
• Step 2 (Windows XP): Click on Regional and Settings Options
• Step 2 (Windows 7): Click on Clock, Language and Region and then click on Region and Language
• Step 3: Check that a language format is selected (for example, English – United States)
• Step 4: On the Formats Tab, press the “Additional Settings” button in the bottom right corner and confirm decimal settings
• Step 5: Please review the Numbers Tab and the Currency Tab for the number of digits after the decimal.

It is very important to carefully consider your payroll setup data and deductions before the first payroll check is written. This will ensure that the proper amounts are withheld for the calendar year and that the reports will be accurate. The FICA exempt status is recorded on each payroll transaction at the time that the paycheck is written. Changing the employee FICA exempt status during the year will impact the Form 943 report and the Payroll Summary by FICA Status – All Employees among other reports. Hence, if you change the employee FICA exempt status during the year, it will be necessary to edit each paycheck (must bring up the data in the detail window and update it) and then record it to have the new FICA status reflected on each paycheck so that the these reports will be accurate.

The FICA status is not displayed with the payroll grid so it can be a tedious task to correct your data. It is not recommended to change this value during the calendar year unless absolutely necessary. Up front payroll planning will result in accurate withholdings that do not require a lot of adjustments later.