4.0.6.6 Release Notes

FarmBooks 4.0.6.6 Release Notes

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May 6, 2016

Database Conversion

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This release requires a conversion before the database can be opened.

  • New Farm D-Codes added with this release. See section "New D-codes (ATIGD)" section along with other new codes and changes listed below.
  • Date field added to invoice tables for future use by the application.
  • Additional data fields added to support batch entry.
  • Database changes to support unlimited vendors. Users are no longer limited to 1,000 vendors.

General Changes to Application

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Font sizes Increased
The font size was increased for the application menu bar and dropdown menus items and the report window. Open Farm window had the font size increased as well.

Logging Error
Some users would receive “RichEdit Insertion Line Error” when running one of the process wizards like New Fiscal Year. Some versions of Window’s RichEd32.DLL would report this error when trying to add the first line into the log control and so this error was not observed by all users. Changes have been made to avoid this error and to ignore the error and continue processing.

2016 Tax Table Rates Included with Release
If you have not downloaded the tax rates for 2016, you will not be required to download it. However, it will be necessary to apply the tax table to your database by selecting option “Have Already Installed from CD or Previous Download”.

New Year End Task Wizard
A new wizard has been added to simplify processing of Year End Tasks. Please see the section below for more information.

Backup Database

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If the user is backing up to a USB flash drive and if the USB drive is not plugged in, the backup process fails with a message that the “Backup has been aborted. Error creating the backup archive”. However, it does not backup to the local hard which could result in no backups being done. Now, the program will notify the user and prompt them to plug in the flash drive. If a second attempt is made and it fails, the backup location will automatically be changed to the local hard disk after notifying the user.

Bank Account Setup

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Changing the beginning bank balance in the grid would result in the YTD balance not being updated. This would be noticed in the register tab grid be inspecting the balance at the top of the window and the last line in the grid as they would not be the same. It would require running the data analysis process from the detail register tab or from the utility menu by selecting Analyze and Recalculate Farm Totals. Now, you can change the beginning balance in the grid.

Batch Entry Updates

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Create Bank Data Map / Import Bank Transactions

  • Supported date formats have been expanded from mm/dd/yy to yyyy/mm/dd ordered formats to include date separators with hyphen including a timestamp like 2016-03-01T13:00:00 or just a date like 2016-03-01 where the year can be a two digit year or a four digit year.

    If your bank formatted dates are in year month day order or dates formatted with a hyphen as a date separator along with a possible timestamp included, you can now create a data map without receiving an error that the date data type is invalid.
  • Allow an import source field to be mapped to more than one available field as long as the available data type is not an amount or date field. For instance, this will allow the source field for the payee / description field to be mapped to the memo field as well.
  • Expand phrases used for Debit / Credit Column Indicator to include multiple values (up to three). Found that some banks indicate the source as check or debit card to indicate that the amount field is a debit. The designated phrases may indicate either a debit for checks OR credit for deposits. The user can pick the type with the fewest number of phrases necessary to describe the column.
  • Browse open dialog expanded to include file extensions TXT and TAB as supported file types in addition to CSV.
  • Number of rows to skip to the first row of data or to the column heading row can be manually set. Zero will be the default and means to auto detect the number of rows to skip based on data analysis. Some banks place rows in the beginning of the file providing bank account information and data range used in the export. These extra rows can be easily detected if the number of columns differs from the other rows. However, some banks place blank columns by placing a number of commas to match the maximum number of columns in the file. In this case, the user will need to specify the number of rows to skip.
  • Check numbers embedded in the payee / description or in the designed check number field is now supported as long as there is at least one prefix phrase to locate the starting point to pick up the digits following the phrase.

Batch Entry

  • New Rule menu option "Reset to Unapplied Data if ATIGD Unassigned" that will allow users to roll back changes if only the vendor was mapped without any ATIG/D assignments. This could occur if there are memorized transactions and transaction dates imported are for the next fiscal year and the fiscal period has not been created yet.
  • Added a progress bar to the "Apply ALL payee naming rules to Unapplied Data". Also, some changes to improve the processing speed by reducing the number database operations where possible.

Check/Deposit Entry

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Recording detail transaction lines with zero amounts should be ignored. Having memorized transactions would record zero amount detail lines which are now skipped. Voided transactions are the only exception.

Export Data

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The export option added in version 4.0.6.5 to export farm cash transactions for loans and receivables has been removed.

External Codes - Vendor Changes

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Monthly Invoice Summary by Customer
This report summarizes your invoice activity by month per customer showing both invoiced and paid amounts. The report may be used by operations that do monthly billing to determine if any invoices have been missed. The transaction date range is the invoice date.

The application is no longer limited to 1,000 vendors. Since the number of vendor is unlimited, the vendor code is no longer displayed in the list or required during vendor entry. The list will always be sorted by vendor description.

Also, a filter row is now displayed at the top of the list in the external code entry to allow you to restricted the list to sub-strings to allow vendors with similar names to be easily located. For instance, if you filter using an asterisk character before or after the text (ie: *mart* then all vendor containing “mart” will be displayed) then all descriptions with this sub-string will be displayed. After the listed is filtered, then you can deactivate the vendor so that they can no longer be used during check / deposit entry for new entries. Finally, when you create your new fiscal year, you can elect not to roll-over these deactivated vendors (occurs automatically with the Year-End Task Wizard) which will reduce the number of vendors in the new year.

Inventory Grid Entry

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Monthly Invoice Summary by Customer
This report summarizes your invoice activity by month per customer showing both invoiced and paid amounts. The report may be used by operations that do monthly billing to determine if any invoices have been missed. The transaction date range is the invoice date.

Entry of Inventory ATIG/D codes from the Grid Worksheet which also had a corresponding accrued code would result in the transaction being classified as an accrued code instead of inventory. This is automatically corrected with the data analysis portion of the conversion process that is run with this update. Inventory data entered from either begin or ending value was correct.

Invoicing Changes

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Customer Entry
Contact and Alternate Contact phone numbers were not displaying edit masks when the field was not selected.

Product and Service Items
Allow the short and long descriptions along the amount to be changed in the grid without using the detail popup window.

Create Statements
Statements with Credit Memos not completely applied to invoices were not reflecting the correct statement balance. The credit memo was using the total balance instead of the balance due (un-applied amount). If the credit memo had not been applied to any invoices, the statement balance was correct.

Statements longer that one page was sometimes showing a blank page following every page. This was not observed by all users. The container to hold the logo image was being grown past the right margin causing the extra page. Now, the container is not allowed to grow.

New Fiscal Year

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The prior year’s last known reconciled ending balance was not being rolled forward to the new fiscal year. When reconciling for the first time for the new fiscal year, the opening statement balance would be blank instead of reflecting the last reconciled ending statement balance.

Memorized Check/Deposit

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Pressing the Memorize button will now ask if you want to include the amounts (Yes or No) or cancel to abort the memorized vendor transaction. Memorized transactions can always be edited or deleted from the setup menu, external codes, and vendors by pressing the “ATIG List” button along the bottom of the vendor maintenance edit widow.

Register Grid

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Allow column customizations by clicking in the upper left corner of the grid for the current edit session (detail register already allowed) to include the memo field. This will allow you to filter based on a memo if needed. By default the memo field is not shown.

Tax Table Update

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Roll-over split percentages from the prior year for Farm Auto and Farm Utilities to the new tax year if they exist.

New Reports

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Customer Purchases (Invoicing)
This report summarizes customer purchases by week and items showing the invoiced amount. The report page numbering is per customer. The transaction date range is the invoice date.

Updated Reports

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Reports Window
Font size increased. “View Exports…” button added so that if you are batch printing reports to PDF that you do not need to close the reports window to view the exported reports.

All Reports
Explicitly set the default display format for amount fields. If other non-FarmBooks applications installed used Crystal Reports, it could cause the dollar amount fields to be rounded to whole amounts if the format was not explicitly set.

Credit Analysis
Report can now be sorted for each section of loans / receivables by either external code or external code description. You can now set your preference for the report by pressing the sort button. In prior versions, it was sorted by external code.

Schedule F/Schedule F Data Map
Reported updated to reflect ATIG and ATIGD codes changes (see code changes below).

Flow of Funds: Customer Payment Received Not Applied to Invoice
Invoice payment with an over-payment results in the deposit detail lines not matching the header (out-of-balance).

Temporary fix is to show “Customer Payment Received Not Applied to Invoice” Section to Flow of Funds Reports. This section is shown before the bank summary if the over-payment condition exists otherwise it is suppressed.

View Exported and Invoice Archive Documents

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Buttons were not working to view or delete documents if Window’s known file extensions were hidden.

A-Code Notations
A-Code = 0 is Cash; 1 is Accrued; 5 is Inventory; x is all three.

Year-End Tasks Wizard

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The Year-End Tasks wizard simplifies the three steps (1: New Fiscal Year, 2: Update Tax Table, and 3: Payroll Calendar Year-End) into one step by analyzing your data to determine the steps that are necessary to complete all of your year-end tasks. It will describe the actions needed to complete each step and if you agree that the actions are as expected, then you will press the finish button to start the process.

For instance, if your fiscal year is a non-calendar year, then it may skip the New Fiscal Year step and only execute steps 2 and 3 if you do payroll. Then when it is time to create your new fiscal year later in the year, just run the Year-End Tasks wizard again to complete step 1 and it will skip steps 2 and 3. If you don’t do payroll, then it may only execute step 1 if and when it is necessary. The Year-End Tasks wizard may be run multiple times in a given year. The wizard will test for an internet connection if it is time to obtain a new tax table and if no connection is found, it will remind the user to install the tax table before running the wizard.

Should you find that you did not like the outcome of the New Fiscal Year or the Payroll Calendar Year-End steps, you may re-run them from the “Advanced Steps” options of the Year-End menu and select your desired options by answering the questions of each respective wizard.

ATI Description Changes

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ATI New ATI Description Current ATI Description
x51 MISC LIVESTOCK EXPENSE LVST MKTING-BREEDING
053 / 153 MISC CROP EXPENSE CROP STORAGE-MKTING
x48 FEES-PUBLICATIONS-TRAVEL FARM ORG. – MISCEL.

ATI Codes Added to the Inventory List

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ATI ATI Description Inventory Section
x53 MISC CROP EXPENSE Feed-Supplies-Other
x55 GEN.FARM INSURANCE Feed-Supplies-Other

ATI Farm Codes Expanded to Allow D-Codes

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ATI ATI Description
x44 FEED PURCHASED
080 / 580 LISTED PROPERTY
x81 BEEF, BREEDING
x82 DAIRY, BREEDING
x83 SHEEP, BREEDING
x84 SWINE, BREEDING
x85 OTHER LVSTK BREEDING
086 / 586 MOTOR VEHICLES
087 / 587 MACHINERY-EQUIPMENT
088 / 588 BUILDINGS
090 / 590 LISTED PROPERTY
x91 BEEF BREEDING PURCH
x92 DAIRY BREEDING PURCH
x93 SHEEP BREEDING PURCH
x94 SWINE BREEDING PURCH
x95 OTHER BREEDING PURCH
096 / 596 MOTOR VEHICLES
097 / 597 MACHINERY-EQUIPMENT
098 / 598 BUILDINGS

New or Changed ATIG Codes

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The ATIG codes are changed only if the current g-code description is an exact match.

ATIG New G Code Description Current G Code Description
0312 / 1312 Weather Insurance-Crop  
0385 / 1385 Weather Insurance-Lvstk  
0537 / 1537 Precision Ag Services & Fees  
0539 / 1539 Crop Consulting & Day Labor  
0557 / 1557 Weather Insurance-Crop  
0558 / 1558 Weather Insurance-Lvstk  
0906 / 5906 Amortization Tax  
x199 OTHER CASH CROPS PEANUTS / RICE
x474 TILLAGE MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT
x475 PLANTING TILLAGE – PLANTING
x485 TRAVEL EXPENSE TRAVEL/MTG. EXPENSE
x671 TRUCK CROPS TRUCK CROPS, FRUITS-BERRIES-NUTS
x999 FARMSTEAD-ROAD-WASTE FARMSTEAD-ROADS

Additional New ATIG Livestock Raised Codes

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ATIG New G Code Description
x117 Beef Bulls
x118 Beef Cows-Heifers
x127 Dairy Bulls
x128 Dairy Cows-Heifers
x137 Sheep Rams
x138 Sheep Ewes
x147 Swine Boars
x148 Swine Sows-Gilts

New D-Codes (ATIGD)

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ATIG x447 Silage and x448 Alfalfa G-Codes were changed to a more general description and the D-Codes were added for more specific values for the general category.

ATIG Current G-Code / Changed To G-Code
x4470 Silage / Grain
New ATIGD New D-Code Description
x4471 Barley
x4472 Corn
x4473 Grain Sorghum
x4474 Oats
x4475 Rye
x4476 Wheat
x4477 Millet
x4478 Other Grain
x4479 Other Grain
ATIG Current G-Code / Changed To G-Code
x4480 Alfalfa / Hay & Forage
New ATIGD New D-Code Description
x4481 Alfalfa
x4482 Brome-Fescue-Bermuda
x4483 Prairie Hay
x4484 Other Hay
x4485 Corn Silage
x4486 Sorghum & Other Silage
x4487 Straw
x4488 Cereal & Other Silage
x4489 Temporary Pasture
New ATIGD New D-Code Description
09061 / 59061 Management
09062 / 59062 No Management
09619 / 59619 UAV-Drones from Aircraft
09871 / 59871 Nut Trees
09872 / 59872 Fruit Trees & Vines

Changed ATIG Codes Remapped to ATIGD Codes

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The ATIGD setup data will only be deleted if the description matches. The transaction data will be remapped as described below with only the ATIGD fields changed.

Change ATIG Description Remapped ATIGD
x447 Silage x4486
x448 Alfalfa x4481

Deleted ATIG Codes Remapped to ATIGD Codes

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The ATIGD setup data will only be deleted if the description matches. The transaction data will be remapped as described below with only the ATIGD fields changed.

Deleted ATIG Description Remapped ATIGD
x443 Corn x4472
x444 Grain Sorghum x4473
x446 Other Grain x4478
x449 Other Hay x4484