2012 FBS User Conference, Farm Financial Standards 2012 Conference, FBS Users in the News, August Webinar Schedule, Q&A: Manually Entering Amount Paid
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 FarmSMART                                                      July 2012 

In this Issue:

2012 FBS User Conference

Farm Financial Standards 2012 Conference

FBS Users in the News

August Webinar Schedule

Q&A:  Manually Entering Amount Paid in Invoices

 

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Greetings!   Dog Days of Summer

We're truly deep into the dog days of summer, yet there's much to look forward to:  

  • Plan to cool off, reload and recharge at the FBS User Conference, August 29-30th.  
     
  • Schedule your free webinar training for August.
     
  • The Q&A of the Month describes what happens if you manually adjust "amount paid" on A/R or A/P invoices.
     
  • We encourage you to attend the Farm Financial Standards Council annual conference, July 31- August 2nd, in Bloomington, Illinois.
     
  • Has farm enterprise analysis lost its usefulness?  Join the discussion in the Farm Management Software Blog 

                                                                                      SDG 

Speakers Announced for 2012 FBS User ConferenceUC preview logo

 The guest speakers for the 19th annual FBS User Conference will address the timely topics of  margin protection strategies, crop/pork cost benchmarks, innovative mobile-to-cloud crop data management platform and accounting practices for large and complex farming operations.  

Moe Russell, M.B.A.
 

 

  

    

    Margin Management

 

Moe Russell is president of Russell Consulting Group, specializing in risk management, H.R. management, business planning and feasibility analysis. 

David Ward
 

 

 

 

     Margin Management

 

As senior Risk Manager with Commodity & Ingredient Hedging,David Ward analyzes commodity markets and manages risks for a wide range of market participants.  

Jack Mack
Jack Makowski, M.B.A.

 

 

 

    

    Crop Data Management

    

Jack Makowski is Vice President Sales and Marketing at Conserviswhich provides mobile cloud-based tools for tracking crop imputs and grain movements.   

John McNutt

John McNutt, M.B.A.

 

  

 

 

  Production Cost Benchmarks

 

 

Past president of the National Pork Producers Council, John McNutt is a business analyst and consultant with Latta, Harris, Hanon and Penningroth, LLP.  

Andrea Butterbaugh
Andrea Butterbaugh

 

 

 

 

  Business Control

     

Andrea Butterbaughhas 20 years of experience in farm accounting and is currently the controller at Bryant Agricultural Enterprises, a diversified Ohio cropping operation. 

You'll not only hear these outstanding experts speak, but also have opportunities for one-on-one interaction in breakout sessions and the our popular dinner cruise. 

 To register, click on this link.

User Conference Details and Schedule 
FBS UC Classroom
 
  • Dates:  Wednesday, August 29-Thursday, August 30 
  • Location:  Stoney Creek Inn, 101 18th Street, downtown Moline, Illinois (1 1/2 blocks east of the John Deere Pavilion)
  • Schedule at a glance:
    • August 29
      • Registration 9:00 am
      • General session 9:30 am - 5:00 pm
      • Mississippi Dinner Cruise 6:00 pm
    • August 30
      • Early bird brainstorming 7:30 am
      • Break-out sessions 8:30 am - 4:00 pm
  •  Costs:
    • Full session
      • $250 first person
      • $150 for each additional person
    • One day only
      • $150 first person
      • $100 for each additional person
    • 50% discount if paid by Friday, August 10th
    • Extra dinner cruise ticket:  $47.95 
  • For hotel reservations:  Call the Stoney Creek Inn (309.743.0101) directly and request the FBS room block. 
  • To download a free brochure, specify preferred topics orregister for the conference click here or call 800.437.7638 / extension 1. 
  • Deadlines:
    • Hotel:  Friday, August 3rd
    • Conference 50% discount: Friday, August 10th
U.C. Breakout Sessions Focus onYour Most Relevant Topics 
Bernard Scanner
Demonstrating a "paperless office."

 User Conference Day Two (Thursday, August 30th) with be devoted  to user-requested topics in small-group concurrent breakout sessions

Tentative topics include:

  • Complex/Diversified Operations Case Studies.
  • Tracking Non-Production Activities (Farm Drainage, Product Sales, Shop, Grain Elevators, Feed Mills, Custom Farming, etc.)
  • "Dirt-Simple" Crop Records.
  • Customizing Your Financial Statements and Cost Analysis.
  • Feeding User Defined Report Template Exchange.
  • General Parts/Supplies Inventories.
  • TEPAP User Group.
  • Managerial Accounting Issues.
  • Accounting for Hedges.
  • Margin Management.
  • Pork/Crop Cost Benchmarks.
  • Using Tablets and Mobile Devices.
  • Building/operating Dashboards.
  • What Your Auditors Need from FBS.
  • Incorporating DTN Data in Your Decision Support.
  • Optimizing Your AgCompass Hosted Experience.
  • Professional Farm Management Firm Issues.
  • Cash Flows Statement and Ratios.
  • Asset Tracking.
  • The Paperless Office.
  • Payroll/Hired Labor Tracking Issues.

The final list of topics will be determined by the responses we receive on the User Conference website.  

Also note that these sessions will not repeat so we encourage you to bring two or more people along so you won't miss any important tips or best practices in areas of your interest.

Report Generator
Learn the "nuts and bolts" of FBS modules.
Farm Financial Standards 2012 Conference on July 31 - August 2 
Farm Financial Standards 

The only national organization that creates and promotes uniformity and integrity in financial reporting and analysis for agriculturalproducers is holding its 2012 conference and annual meeting in Bloomington, Illinois, on July 31st  - August 2nd. 

Highlights included:
  • Economic and Financial Outlook - Kevin G. Waspi, CFA, University of Illinois College of Business 
  • Farm Credit Evaluation - Using the Standards and Ratios - Ron Homann, Risk Management Officer, 1st Farm Credit Services 
  • Cash vs Accrual Farm Income Statements, Ratio Scoring - Paul Ellinger, Professor and Head of Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois; Gary Schnitkey, Ph. D., Extension Specialist, University of Illinois; Nick Paulson, Ph. D., Assistant Professor in Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois 
  • Using the Standards with Producers and Lenders to Analyze Operations - Todd Doehring, Centrec Consulting Group 
  • Using the Standards in Accounting Practices - Ben Romine, EA, The Romine Group, CPAs

For more information on the conference or the organization, connect to the Farm Financial Standards Council website.

FBS Users in the News 
"What's it take to make it to the top?" 
Farm Journal Top Producer asked this question to Nevada, Iowa, farmer Steve Henry in the February 2012 issue.  His astute answers:
"We have to have the ability to adjust to technological change."
" We always have to be learning, whether it is through university or Extension programs or part of a farmer network."
"We also have to make decisions faster, like other businesses, and we have to adjust to change."
Inwood, Iowa, pork producer Mike Ver Steeg shares his favorite smartphone "apps" in the June 30, 2012 (Iowa) Farmer Today cover story, "Smart Operators."   
Free August Webinar Schedule
Webinar Screen

Center setup and maintenance,  August 6  

Keeping track of your herd with Smart Breeder, August 13

Smart Feeder groups and group reporting, August 20

Smart Breeder reports, August 27
 
All webinars run between 10:00 am and 11:00 am CDT.  To register, e-mail support@fbssystems.com by 9:00 am CDT on the day of the webinar.
Q&A of the Month--Manually Entering Amount Paid in Invoices?
Sarah Dixon
Sarah Dixon, FBS Technical Services Manager.

Q.  I was entering Accounts Receivablesand noticed a box for Amount Paid so I went ahead and recorded the amount received in that box to show the money was deposited. Now when I run reports I don't see the deposits anywhere but the A/R shows up as "paid." What is going on? 

A.   Although the program allows you to directly enter values into every box in the right portion of the Accounts Receivable/Payable screens the only box you should manually complete is Due Date. The other two boxes (Amt. Paid / No.) will be filled in automatically as you go through the process of "flagging" invoices in the A/R Money Received or Pay A/P Invoices screens. Otherwise the A/R will show as paid because the system sees Amount Paid filled in even though no actual deposit has been made.
Edit AR Amount Paid   
So why don't we just prevent you from directly accessing the Amount Paid box? Well, there are occasional circumstances where we may instruct you to edit those values directly. Our best advice, though, is to learn the proper way to record A/R money received and A/P payments and let the program do the work for you! 

Learn other tips and shortcuts from Sarah at the 2012 FBS User Conference.

Sincerely,


FBS Systems

 

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