July 2009
Vol. 9  No. 7


FINAL DETAILS AND DEADLINES FOR THE 2009 FBS USER CONFERENCE
WEBINAR SCHEDULE
SeRVware Q & A SECTION





FINAL DETAILS AND DEADLINES FOR THE 2009 FBS USER CONFERENCE



This year's FBS User Conference covers a wide range of practical and unified topics that will help computer users with all levels of experience to project, protect and profit from their technology investments.  Here are the final program details:

Location
Stoney Creek Inn, on the Mississippi riverfront, downtown Moline, Illinois.

Tuesday, August 25

1:00-5:00 pm Farm/Trust Manager Training Session.

This special pre-conference session is for professional farm managers and their staff and will cover the following topics:
  •   How account sweep and interest spread are calculated
  •   Best cash management practices
  •   Understanding the logic behind your customer statement
  •   What Accounts Payable can add to your effectiveness
  •   How to track real-time crop inventories
  •   How to track real-time crop inventories
  •   Internal financial reporting
  •   Standard Operating Procedures to reduce errors and expedite work flow
  •   Automating client reporting
  •   Electronic / web-based report options
  •   Budgeting tips
  •   FSA / crop insurance filing alternatives


Wednesday, August 26

9:00 am General registration.

9:30 am Taking advantages of the new features in Version 8.1.
Every year we incorporate scores of time-saving improvements in FBS SERVware.  We'll show you where to find them and how to use them.

10:45 am How to extract extra value from your FBS data.
You've spent countless hours recording data.  Learn how to choose the right report, filter and options to turn that data into meaningful and timely analysis as well as interface with spreadsheets and other software.

12:00 pm Lunch

1:00 pm Panel Discussion:  Preparing your records for your accountant and banker. You'll hear three perspectives on preparing accurate and consistent financial statements in a format your accountant and lender require.  In doing so you'll reduce the cost of fixing mistakes and improve your credit worthiness.

Joe Dykhuis, Controller at Dykhuis Farms, Holland, Michigan
John McNutt, MBA, Consultant with Latta, Harris, Hanon & Penningroth CPA firm, Tipton, Iowa
Mike Zook, Commercial Lending Services Officer, 1st Farm Credit Services, Normal, Illinois


2:00 pm Farm Financial Standards Council Update.
The Council has been on the forefront of ag financial and managerial accounting standards for nearly two decades.  Learn about the current issues the Council is studying and how you can adapt your operation to be in compliance.

Ron Swanson, past president of the Farm Financial Standards Council and farmer, Galt, Iowa


2:30 pm Break

3:00 pm LifeCycle Budget as a stand-alone, long-term planning tool.
Under development for over three years, the LifeCycle Budget can now function as a simplified, yet versatile multi-year modeling tool.  We'll walk through case studies showing projected financial statements under various scenarios.

D. Howard Doster, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana


Norm Brown


4:00 pm FBS User Idea Exchange
Ask other users how they solve particular problems or share your favorite time-saving or error-reducing tips.

5:30 pm Adjourn

6:00 pm Dinner Cruise on The Celebration Belle.
Everyone's favorite time at the FBS UC.  Prime Rib.  Mississippi scenery.  Great networking and friendships.



Thursday, August 27

8:00 am Where do we go next?
This is your best opportunity to shape future software development at FBS.

8:30 am Breakout Training Sessions.
Choose between two concurrent session tracks.
Breakout #1 Breakout #2
Avoiding common FBS "boo-boos."

Have you unintentionally developed some habits that waste time and create potential errors?  Discover the "best" way to operate your software.
      (FBS Staff)
LifeCycle Budget as an integral planning/monitoring system.

A new way to look at budgeting and performance monitoring:  dynamically integrated with your accounting and production records.
      (Howard Doster & Norm Brown)
Choosing the right accounting input/report options.

What are all those options for, and why do I sometimes get different results from the same report or can't find an entry?  What's the difference between an adjustment and a journal entry?  We'll clear this up!
      (FBS Staff)
Unlocking the Report Generator.

Did you know there's an "open" data base application in FBS?  Learn how to quickly design custom reports in TransAction Plus, Crop Audit and Smart Breeder.
      (Paul Hey, FBS Technical Writer)
Technology Update.

Should you switch to Windows 7?  What are the best choices for remote computer access and wireless building-to-building connections?  Where is smart phone technology going?  Our resident technologist will provide some cutting-edge answers.
      (Ken Wedig)
Managerial Accounting Forum.

Discover and share with other FBS users best practices for configuring cost and profit centers, goal-setting, monitoring and decision-making.  Prepare by bringing your questions and examples.
      (User and consultant open discussion)


12:00 pm Lunch

1:00 pm Software as a Service—how's it working so far and what can we do to make the experience even better?
Software as a Service (SaaS) connects users over the Internet through a central server.  In addition to reducing costs over conventional on-premises software, SaaS permits real-time collaboration.  Find out from a SaaS provider and its clients what the challenges have been and where are the next opportunities.
Everett Chambers, Ph.D., AgCompass, Tomah, Wisconsin
Ken Wedig, AgCompass, Davenport, Iowa.
Dave Lepley, Lepley Farms, Bellevue, Ohio.


1:30 pm Demonstration of FBS running in a SQL database.
See what's involved in converting from the FBS standard Access database to the optional Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC) which provides additional power and performance.

1:45 pm Digging into specialized reports.
Based on conference attendees' interest, we'll cover the following specialized reports:
  •   Financial Ratios
  •   Lower of Cost/Market
  •   Consolidated Cost Analysis
  •   Marketing contracts
  •   Scanned documents
  •   Inventory Register
  •   WIP Inventory Report
  •   Standard Cost/Vendor Monitor
  •   Asset Register
  •   Batch Reports
  •   Web-based dashboards
  •   User-defined Smart Feeder


4:00 Adjourn


Deadlines

Hotel reservations must be made immediately to ensure availability and rates.  Call the Stoney Creek Inn at (800) 659-2220 and specify the FBS room block at the Moline, Illinois location.

Conference registrations made by Friday, July 31 will receive a 50% discount.  Call 800.437.7638 /extension 2 to lock in the savings or click on this link to register online.

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WEBINAR SCHEDULES

Join us for these free webinars at 10:00 am CST:

     LifeCycle Budgeting (emphasizing mid-year corrections) on Monday, August 3


If you'd like to attend any of these virtual meetings, e-mail norm@fbssystems.com by 8:00 am CST on the day of the webinar to receive login instructions.

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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.

How do I access documentation/help files in FBS?

A. There are two ways to launch the on-line documentation built into FBS SERVware
1.  Press the F1 key to go directly to help screen associated with FBS screen or module that you currently have loaded.
2.  Click on the Help menu at the top of the screen, then click on Help Topics.

Once the help screen is displayed you can navigate and view in four ways:

1.  Click on the Contents to view an expandable table of contents.  Then click on the help topic of interest.
   

2.  Click on the Index tab to view help topics in alphabetical order.
   

3.  Click on the Search tab and type in the topic you wish to search for.  All pages containing matching words will be displayed in the window.
   

4.  Click on the printer icon to print the current page, range of pages or the entire help document.


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sales@fbssystems.com
800.437.7638

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