SPINNING YOUR WHEELS?  UC/ATS 03 WILL HELP YOU GET TRACTION!

Is your management system going nowhere fast?  Perhaps you're bogged down in business or computer system complexity.  Or you may have crashed into a brick wall of accounting demands.  Most insidious of all, you may simply be content to plod along with comfortable, but outmoded practices.     The 2003 FBS User Conference and Advanced Training Seminar isn't an instant solution to these challenges, but it will point you in the right direction and provide you the resources and encouragement to do things right.  Please carefully study the hyperlinked agenda and note:

Break free at UC/ATS 03!

•:	A new format spans practical issues that both FBS experts and novices can implement
•:	You'll pick up innovative management ideas that go beyond your familiar commodities and locale
•:	In just two days, you'll network with the best and brightest producers and professionals every assembled
•:	You'll have the opportunity to help establish ideas and priorities for future software
•:	You'll be the first to hear about some major new products and strategic directions!

Don't go around in circles any longer–join us in Moline, Illinois, on September 4th & 5th for a memorable two days that will help you escape the "rat race." For more information or to register, click on: UC/ATS-2003
	SST President David Waits will announce a revolutionary breakthrough in the future of ag software.

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"Thought-provoking".    That's the first reaction from Daryl Ellis's presentation on e.CLIPSE managerial accounting at the 2003 Purdue Top Farmer Workshop.  Most of the participants identified with and supported Ellis's goals of product costing and responsibility center management, but few have gotten as far as he has.
    Thank you, Dr. Howard Doster, for inviting us to participate in your last Top Farmer Workshop, and for continuing to challenge our thinking.  Best wishes for your retirement.

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Dr. Stein describes how Metafarms' i-Production program replaces "Brute Force Management" with integration via the Internet.

"The days of big, sweet margins are over," Tom Stein, CEO of Metafarms warned participants of PORKSHOP.2003.  "Technology changes in building design, genetics and nutrition have been made with one goal in mind: drive down costs.  Hog production companies have done a good job driving down costs.  What's the next technology—the next 'big thing?'  There aren't that many left, and producers aren't going to pay for big technologies."

    Stein noted, "Some producers have taken a detour to focus on revenues—not that revenues aren't important—but at the end of the day your energies need to focus on the operations side.  We need to do the same that companies like Wal-Mart and Target do.  The former CEO of Target once said, 'We don't have to be 1000% better than the competition, or 100% better, or even 10% better.  We just need to be 1% better in a 1000 areas."
    A co-designer of PigCHAMP, Stein's new company, Metfarms, is helping pork production companies achieve those incremental improvements by transforming "BFM" (Brute Force Management) practices into an integrated Internet/Intranet communications and reporting tool dubbed, "i-Production."  For more information on Metafarm's technology, click on: Metafarm's website

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SOFTWARE Q&A – WITH Q'S FROM YOU, OUR CLIENTS!

Send us your questions/problems–be they short, long, simple or downright frustratin'!–about SeRVware and we'll handle them right "on the air" for the benefit of all.  

Q.	I can't reconcile TransAction Plus with my bank statement because the beginning balance on the check reconciliation report doesn't agree with ending balance of the previous month's report.  Why?
a.	The discrepancy is probably caused by uncleared checks or deposits.  The default "look back" period is four months.  The beginning balance is calculated from the January 1 balance of the current year and "looking back" four months form the beginning of the report for any uncleared checks and deposits.  If you run the report for May 1st through May 31st and have a check or deposit not cleared from December of the previous year, that entry will not be calculated in the beginning balance of the report.  It was included in the beginning balance on the April report.  The "look back" period is a preference that can be changed under Utilities and Set Preferences.  If "Cleared Look Back Months" doesn't appear on your preferences list then type it in on the first blank line under the description column.  It must be typed in exactly (case sensitive).  Put a number in the value column for the number of months you want he program to "look back" for the uncleared checks and deposits and click on Save. Call in your questions (800.437.7638) or e-mail them to support@fbssystems.com.

•  Welcome!

New client Mark Legan, Coatesville, IN.

•  In the News!

Ernie Moody, senior partner, Heartland Ag Group of Springfield, Inc., was featured on the cover of the Summer 2003 edition of Doane's AgProfessional.  (He's the handsome guy wearing the hat.)  The story, "Ag Professionals Working Together Face Common Challenges," features a round table discussion between a farm manager, crop consultant and crop products retailer.