4.0.0 Release Notes

FarmBooks 4.0.0 Release Notes

line

Jan 15, 2010

New Application Preferences

line

Options

  • Check Print Order (Standard or Reverse)
  • Format Check Numbers with Leading Zeros
  • Use Upper Case for Payee and Code Entry
  • Show Company Paid Payroll Items on Pay Stubs
  • Link to Allow Farm Automobile and Utility % Splits to be defined in the tax Table

Cover Page

  • Customize the application main screen startup size and location (Application best viewed with screen resolution 1024 x768 or greater)

Backup

  • Number of Backups to Retain (if append timestamp for multiple backups is checked). Use 0 for unlimited.
  • Secure Off-site Backup Service is available for a fee.

Email

  • Outgoing Email Setting can be configured and used with the New Invoice Module

Sound

  • Customize sounds to be associated with application startup along with selected save and delete operations (sounds can be enabled or disabled).

Printers

  • Allows default printers and paper sources to be defined and used for check and report printing.

Sort

  • Sort the External Code list by either code or description

Unlimited Bank Accounts

line

Number of bank accounts definable has been expanded from 9 to unlimited. Bank code is user definable and no longer restricted to 002x numbers. Any combination of letters or numbers may be used for a length of 5 characters.

New Payroll Module

line

Expanded D-Code Setup for Payroll ATIG Codes

  • Use the D-Code to allow you to create additional earnings and deductions lines in payroll defaults setup. Payroll Reporting is still at the G-code level.

New Payroll Defaults

  • User definable descriptions for multiple earnings and deductions lists for the calendar year. Set the default codes indicator to quickly setup earnings and deductions used for all employees. Set the print priority to define the order that they are listed on the pay stubs.

New Employee Entry

  • New demographic fields to capture various phone numbers and email addresses.
  • New employee information to track hire, release and termination dates.
  • New sick and vacation tracking. Tracking Method can be tracked as Paid Days Off (PDO), Sick and Vacation time, or Not Tracking.
  • New payroll state withholding filing status and number of allowances.
  • Easily create earnings and deductions description lists per calendar year based on active and default indicators setup in payroll defaults. Multiple wage lines can be created. Designate deductions as company paid. Set deduction extra withholds amounts along with limits. This could be used for employee loan repayment deductions. Also, activate and deactivate lines to include or exclude line detail within paycheck entry.

New Paycheck Entry

  • For hourly employees, enter either hours worked or gross pay and the system will calculate the deductions. YTD hours, Gross Pay, and Net Pay are displayed. Only the employee’s currently active earnings and deductions are included in the list.
  • Salaried employees have all active earnings and deductions included based on employee setup data. All that is necessary is to review and apply to create the paycheck with detail.
  • YTD values per ATIGD account code can be viewed including prior earnings and deductions that are currently deactivated.
  • Summaries show for employee withholdings, company paid, and total deductions are displayed.

New Payroll Report

  • Payroll Pay Stubs - The payroll pay stub report can be used to re-print pay stubs or when the paycheck writer is not used to print paychecks. A single employee or all employees can be printed for a specified bank account.

New Invoicing Module

line

The invoicing module allows you to easily generate estimates and billings, post payments and deposits, generate statements, track sales tax collections if your business is taxable, and monitor customers balances. Various invoice forms and statements can easily be emailed to your customer. A first look at the invoice preferences setup, it seems like there is a lot of setup required. Only a few decisions (less than two minutes of setup) need to be specified on the invoice options tab and you are ready to begin creating invoices. You need to enter your business remitter mailing information, indicate if you collect sales taxes and apply finance charges to statements, decide how you want income to be tracked (detail deposit for each line item or as one lump sum deposit), and provide a default income ATIGD. Customers and “Product and Service Items” can be created and built up as you create invoices. You can later go back to setup to further customize the invoice module. The invoice module ships with template data which you can modify as desired. For instance, you can decide what invoice columns and column names best reflect your business activity.

New Invoicing Preference Setup

  • Invoice Options Set business remitter mailing information, important decision in the options section (collect sales tax, track income per line item (detail deposit or lump sum deposit), apply finance charge to statements, prompt on new item), starting numbers, default form and income ATIGD used for customer entry, and customize your default view settings for the invoice tab used during application startup.
  • Forms Customize column name or hide unwanted columns, include your business logo, or include footer and image text messages per form type (estimate, invoice, credit memo, finance charge, and statement), archive printed forms if desired.
  • Email Forms Customize email message and decide whether you want to archive document per email form type.
  • Payment Terms Set due date days and any discount given within x days.
  • Sales Tax Items Setup tax rate, description, payment vendor, and ATIGD expense code for a single tax authority.
  • Sales Tax Groups Use if you need to report and pay tax amounts to several tax authorities (state, city, local) otherwise just use sales tax items if only one tax authority.
  • Customers Define bill-to / ship-to addresses, emails and contact information along with default payment terms, taxable status, sales tax or tax exempt number, credit limit and opening balances, preferred delivery method (mail or email) along with income ATIGD.
  • Product and Service Items Define Item / Short Description, Long Description is unlimited text, taxable indicator, unit quantity code, unit price (sale amount) and weight per Unit, along with a default income ATIGD.

Invoice Tab

From this tab, you can create estimates, invoices, credit memos, statements with finance charge invoices, and post payments and deposits. You can preview, print, email, or batch print/email forms. Forms can easily be copied by pulling an existing form back into the editor and changing its form type. Also, you easily edit / delete forms or payments along with viewing the payment transaction history.

  • Navigation Bar with Customer / Transaction View Tabs
  • Define Date Filters to customize data viewed in the top most grid list.
  • Customer List View with Customer List Filters
  • Transaction Type View with Status Filters
  • Receive Payments - Apply payments, discounts, credit memos / overpayments, and write-offs to open invoices.
  • Create statements and apply finance charges
  • View Payment Transaction History
  • Preview, Print, Email, or Batch Print/Email Forms
  • Edit Forms, Deposits, and Customers

Invoicing Reports

  • A/R Aging (Customer Detail Aging and Aging Period Summary)
  • Customer List
  • Sales Tax Liability (Under Tax Values Report List)

New ATIG/D (Account-Transaction-Item-General/Detail) Features

line
  • Length of descriptions fields expanded from 20 to 40 characters. Use some restraint when creating G/D Code descriptions as this will cause the transaction journal report to grow into two lines per item as the description is allowed to wrap to the next line.
  • Expanded to include D-Code Setup - Allow 9 additional codes to be defined for each G-Code for an additional 81 accounts per ATI code below.
  • 041xD and 941xD - Labor Hired / Payroll Withholdings
  • Non-Farm Income and Non-Farm Expense Codes

New ATI Budget Features

line

The budget entry has been updated to include a footer summary for each column. Also two new tabs have been added to allow the user to compare Budget Values to Actual YTD Values as either a chart or table grid view.

  • Budget Entry - Summary Total for each column
  • Options
  • Show amounts to nearest penny or dollar
  • Synchronize Budget VS Actual Chart and Table Views
  • Exclude ATI with Zero Amounts
  • Show Yearly Only OR Yearly and Monthly Amounts
  • Chart View: Budget VS Actual - Navigation bar at the top or click chart item for drill downs
  • Table View: Budget VS Actual - Toggle Synchronize with Table to see detail ATI amounts
  • Export - To Excel or Image

New External Code Features

line

The budget entry has been updated to include a footer summary for each column. Also two new tabs have been added to allow the user to compare Budget Values to Actual YTD Values as either a chart or table grid view.

  • Activate and Deactivate All Codes - Once codes are used on a transaction, the codes cannot be deleted, now they can be deactivate to prevent future usage.
  • Vendor Codes
  • 1099 Vendor indicator - This allow a special 1099 vendor summary or retail report to be created.
  • Additional Fields include Tax Id, two contacts with multiple phone numbers and emails, memo line (will be included on the check/deposit memo).
  • Memorized ATIG/D List - Checks / Deposits for a vendor can easily be memorized so that once you enter the vendor all the detail is include for easy editing. Also, from vendor maintenance, you can create, edit, or delete lines and include as much detail as desired.
  • Vendor Name with square bracket text - include text within [] to allow the same vendor name to be used and easily identified when writing checks/deposits. The bracketed text will NOT print on the check but will be displayed on reports.
  • Miscellaneous Codes
  • Additional contacts with multiple phone numbers and emails.

New Payroll Calendar Year-End Features

line

When copying employees from one calendar year to the next, it will exclude any employees with a termination date or inactive status. There is a link provided so that you can quickly review/edit the current year employee.

  • Payroll Defaults
  • Copy Payroll Defaults from a selected Calendar Year
  • Use System Defaults Payroll Defaults for Calendar Year
  • Let me Create the Payroll Defaults for the Calendar Year

New Fiscal Year Features

line

Now, you have the option to copy only active codes or ALL codes from the current year to the new fiscal year. You can click the link and make any edits or deactivate unused codes before creating the new fiscal year. Also, you can decide to copy the memorized vendor ATIGD list or start over and create new ones for the new fiscal year.

Before you begin, if your backup is not current, it warns you so that you could stop and create a current backup. This would allow you to restore the backup and rerun the new fiscal year if you discover that you have several negative loan balances. Negative loan balances are caused by the fact that you used incorrect combinations of ATIGD and external codes that were probably entered incorrectly when checks were written. After the restore, you could either correct checks or add the missing loan ATIGD / External Codes assignments. It is recommend that you run the credit analysis report before creating the new fiscal year.

  • External Codes
  • Active Codes or ALL Codes
  • Memorized ATIGD List
  • Current Farm or None
  • Budget Roll-Over Options (one new choice)
  • Use actual amounts as budget amounts for the new fiscal year.
  • Log updated so you can easily review loan/receivable entries.
  • Bank account roll-over balance amount captured in log.

New Tax Table Update Features

line

The tax table update can now be downloaded from the internet. It simplifies the process of installing the yearly updates. However, if you do not have internet access, you can still request an update CD.

New Restore Features

line

The restore process now captures the current database so that it could be uninstalled if discovered that your backup set is corrupt. The current farm folder is erased before restoring any files. Do not attempt multiple restores if you discover you have a corrupt database or you may not be able to uninstall the last restore. Call support immediate if this situation arises for assistance with uninstalling the last restore.

Also, it is possible to restore prior versions of the dataset after your database has been upgraded to the current version. If a prior version was restored, the next time you open the farm database; it will be converted to the current version format.

New Register Tab Features

line

A new filter row at the top of the grid allows you to quickly filter the list when looking for a specific value (enter the value in the column of interest). The filter row can be hidden or shown by clicking on the “View button” within the register tab and uncheck or check the option “Show Filter Row”.

Remember once a filter is applied, you can clear it by unchecking the box in the yellow bar at the bottom of the grid; delete the information from the filter row, or by selecting options from the “Clear button”.

New Detail Register Tab Features

line
  • Change View Button This button lets you toggle between the payee (check, paycheck, or deposit) and the detail. The color scheme was updated to match the register tab for the payee view. In the past, you had to press the options button within the detail register tab and select view to switch views. Now, you can toggle between the views with the press of a button. The view option will still let you customize the column order as in the past.
  • Search by Dollar Amount with Specified Comparison Operator
  • Add Price / Unit Column and show only non-zero values otherwise show blank

New Check/Deposit Features

line
  • Recall Last Button Once the vendor has been entered, press the recall last button to pull in the details of the last transaction for this vendor.
  • Memorize Button Pressing this button will memorize all the detail data associated with the vendor and create an ATIGD list for this vendor. The next time the vendor is selected all details with the ATIGD list will be automatically be included. This list can be maintained from the vendor external code window by pressing the ATIG List button.

New Menu Items

line
  • Report
  • View Invoice Archive Printed or Email Forms archived (Controlled by Invoice Setup for Form and E-Forms)
  • Balances
  • Reconcile Bank Exposed this function from the menu. In the past, it was only accessible from the register tab reconcile button.
  • Setup
  • Bank Accounts New users could not find this setup which was under the balances menu.
  • Payroll Defaults New codes for this release (see notes payroll module)
  • Invoice Preferences New codes for this release (see notes invoice module)
  • Help
  • Quick Keys Press Ctrl-Q to popup this help window listing quick keys along with an explanation

New Report Options

line

Since the number of bank accounts has been expanded from 9 to unlimited, reports that have bank account selection as part of criteria now have a report header page with all the report criteria instead of including it in the page header. The report header page can be suppressed.

  • Options
  • Suppress Report Header Page
  • Auto adjust rules for Bank Accounts on New Fiscal Year Change
  • Batch Printing Rules includes Bank Account

New Reports

line
  • Farm/Non-Farm Financial Statements
  • Transaction Journal Report: New Report by selected ATIG Code
  • Payroll
  • Payroll Pay Stubs (Single Employee or All)
  • Invoicing Reports
  • A/R Aging (Detail and Summary)
  • Customer Listing
  • Tax Value
  • 1099 Vendors (Detail and Summary)
  • Sales Tax Liability

Net Taxable Income Statement Report – Not including all Tax Planning Values

line

The report was not including all tax planning values if there was no associated transaction data for that report section. The report now includes all values regardless of transaction data.

Editing a Check/Deposit ATIGD Detail – Zero Units and Description

line

When Editing a Detail Line and changing an ATIG/D for a Check/Deposit, it resulted in the description along with Units and Weights being Changed/Zeroed. Now, if there is a description on a line, then the Description along with Units and Weights will not be erased on an ATIG/D change for the line.

Setting Starting Check Number during Print

line

The value entered as the starting number when printing checks will always update the next check number for the bank account.

In the past, if the starting check number provided during check printing did not match the starting check number defined in the setup for the bank, then it would not save the next starting number. It was assuming that you were printing checks out of sequence. Now, it always updates the starting check number.

Deposit Data Fix – Missing Vendor Code and Name for Payee Record/Vendor Code missing on Detail Records

line

This fix was important to support the new 1099 Vendor Report.

New Check Format Setup Feature

line

Option added to Suppress Memo Line by Check Format.

Fix Error ‘number’ is not a valid floating point value for field “where value” could be Amount, Units, or Total Wt

line

Edit an existing amount, unit, or total wt where the amount was one thousand or greater resulted in error when the value was changed in the check or deposit grid. Value could be changed within the detail window without an error.

Minimum Main Window Size

line

When clicking “restore down” for the main window would result in it being very small and you had to stretch it out each time. Now, there is application preference to control main window size and location on application startup.

Detail Register: Payee View shows bank account in ATIGD field

line

This has been corrected. In fact, the ATIGD should not be shown for the payee view as this field does not apply. Change the view back to detail would not show the ATIGD field again until application restart.

Ask to Set / Change Check Format Used for Printing Checks

line

Ask question during the bank code setup. Also, if the user changes or does not have a check format defined for the bank account, ask if they would like to change / set selected format as the default check format.

Check with Two Vouchers: Move memo line up

line

ANSI standard requires nothing to print within bottom 5/8″ of check. The memo line was moved up and can be suppressed for the check format if desired.

All check formats can be purchased from a new vendor. See the website for order information.

Auto Split Non-Farm Automobile Code Mapping ATI 008x

line

In the prior version, the split would map to inappropriate codes. It has been changed to use the codes below when splitting Non-Farm 008x codes to Farm codes.

Non-Farm Auto Farm Auto Mapping
0081 Gas & Oil 0521 Gasoline
0082 Repairs 0421 General Machinery
0083 Taxes & Licenses 0542 Personal Tax
0084 Insurance 0554 Motor Equipment Insurance
0085 Loan Interest 0437 Intermediate Interest

Flow of Funds Reports – Not returning correct number of records

line

The report was returning the data for all fiscal years. Now, the report just selects the requested fiscal period.

Balance Sheet: Suppressing Zero Lines

line

Suppress beginning inventory values BIV zero values from the ending inventory value EIV report.

Check/Deposit Date Default – Hold the date value for Farm Session

line

Currently, the date defaults to the current date and is held once the date is changed for the edit session. Once you leave the check/deposit tab, the last date is lost and returns to current date when going back to tab. Now, the last date used is held while the farm is still open.

Data Analysis – Inspect Loan and Receivables for missing Inventory Type

line

The inventory type was not set for receivables in the transaction data. This resulted in an invalid variant being reported. Also, the balance sheet would not be accurate.

Change Transaction from Detail Register Changes Bank Account

line

If you had the register tab set to say bank account 0021 and the check being changed from the detail register was assigned to bank account 0022. Changing the check and saving it from the detail register would result in the bank account changed to 0021.

View Log New Features

  • Invoice Activity Logs
  • Email Form, Invoice Batch Print, and Invoice Statements
  • Viewer can be set to FarmBooks Viewer or Microsoft WordPad
  • If strange characters are being display when viewing the log, then switch log viewer to see if it corrects the problem.

Check/Deposit Payee Dropdown List show Additional Fields

line

The dropdown list now show whether the vendor is active and if it has an associated ATIGD List.

Accelerator Key (key on tab show with an underline) not working when changing to another tab

line

Accelerator keys are maintained between tabs. Also, some accelerator keys conflicted with the menu accelerator keys and have been dropped from buttons.

Negative Accounting Allowed

line

Using negative accounting principles to adjust an ATIGD was changed so that this was not allowed. Now, the user is permitted again to adjust accounts with negative amounts. Check with your farm manager to determine how he would like the account adjusted for your situation.

New Grid Feature (Register or Detail Register) Payroll Company Paid

line

Show company paid payroll withholdings in a blue font color.

Payroll summary report show company paid amounts.

Tax Planning Names Expanded

line

Names for tax planning values expanded so that abbreviations are eliminated.

  • 99950 Changed from Annual Depreciation of Equipment to Annual Book Depreciation of Equipment.
  • 999963 is a new code for Annual Tax Depreciation of Equipment.

Backup Process Cleans up / Ignores Unwanted Files in Farm Database Folders

line
  • Deletes any backup files or preferences files from the farm folder.
  • Backup only files with the correct database extensions. This will keep the backup file size small.

Credit Analysis Report

line

The report has been changed to include Non-Farm Loan Interest 0045 and 0085. These family living codes have been changed to “loan type” codes which now require an external code. When you use ATIG 0437 without an external code, the user receives a warning that an external code is recommended.

Income Statement Report

line

The report no longer includes “Investment in Growing Crops” when computing the beginning and ending operating inventory values.

Schedule F Report and Net Taxable Income Statement

line

The “depreciation value” now comes from the new tax planning ATIGD of 99963 Annual Tax Depreciation of Equipment instead of 99950 Annual Book Depreciation of Equipment.

New Fiscal Year

line

Tax rates for salaried employees with semi-monthly pay periods was not correctly computed when creating the new fiscal year. Weekly rates were used.