In this Issue:

 FBS User Group Gathers in Northwest Iowa

Thanks to Pig Hill Company, Alvord, Iowa for hosting a regional FBS User meeting on March 11th  attended by FBS clients from Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.   The group shared their software experiences with each other and provided valuable feedback to FBS Director of Professional Services, Mike Boggs.   Mike updated the users regarding new and existing FBS integrated modules to help increase their efficiency and effectiveness. 

The Northwest Iowa user group plans to meet again this summer.  If you'd like to be involved or sponsor a regional user group contact mike@fbssystems.com

Also, don't forget about the 2016 FBS National User Conference, August 23 and 24 in Moline, Illinois.

Connected in the Cloud with Conservis

Conservis Corp, the industry leader in Enterprise Agriculture Management, announced the general availability of real-time financial accounting integration with industry-leading financial management accounting package FBS Systems.

Adding to its already robust platform of management tools, Conservis’ accounting integration allows on-the-ground production data collected by Conservis to seamlessly transfer into financial management accounting systems.  The new accounting integration increases efficiency and reduces the risk of errors typical of duplicative data entry. As with all Conservis data, the integrity of information is maintained securely in the cloud.

“The last six years have seen ag management solutions rapidly multiply across specialized applications, creating an array of data silos that farm businesses have to navigate on their own,” said Jack Makowski, Product Manager at Conservis. “The Conservis platform is the first to solve this issue for the farmer’s financial and related production data. Simplifying the farmer’s world means connecting the greatest number of dots and this is another major step in bringing all systems together for an expansive, total-farm management platform.”

Providing management tools that encompass all business activities on a farm including planning, budgeting, purchasing, inventory, production management and tracking, harvest tracking and settlement gives growers visibility and insight into the complex details and numerous functions that make farms work.  The data collected from these operation-wide business processes flow directly into accounting systems for a complete, holistic financial picture.  Accounting and production information is always in sync for complete accuracy and time-savings.

“Financial integration is part of our core strategy,” said Patrick Christie, CEO of Conservis. “From inputs management, to machines, to financials and risk management, connecting all the pieces of the farm is part of our mission. Conservis will be the single window into tomorrow’s farm.”

“Every field activity recorded in Conservis drives dollars in FBS management accounting,” said Norm Brown, FBS president.  “What happens in the field doesn’t stay in the field. It automatically updates financial inventories and cost accounting by farm, crop, field and operation. The signature FBS integrated platform precisely meshes with the Conservis cloud to save time, improve accuracy and generate unprecedented levels of financial analysis and cost control.”

Click here to download product information.

Call 800.437.7638 /Extension 2 to schedule a demonstration.

Opportunity Accounting:
Understanding Cost Behavior

High commodity prices are a mixed blessing.  Certainly they provide prosperity that “lifts all boats” for the producers growing those crops.  On the other hand, good markets mask inefficiencies that come back to haunt farmers when times get tough.

When the only game in town is cost control, your options are rarely quick, simple and not potentially-counter-productive. 

First it’s important to recognize there are four ways of categorizing costs.

Direct vs. Indirect Costs

Direct costs can be traced to a cost object in an economically feasible way while indirect costs cannot.  A cost object is anything for which as measurement of cost is desired.  For example, if your cost object is a corn crop then your seed, chemicals and fertilizer would be included in direct costs while your equipment would be considered as an indirect cost. 

Note that “economically feasible (tracing)” is the determining factor between direct and indirect costs.  For instance, an off season tractor repair bill is hard to trace (and frustrating to allocate) to the crops the tractor will be used on during the farming season.  On the other hand, specifically-identified seed inventories can be feasibly traced to the farms and crops where they are planted.

Variable vs. Fixed Costs

Variable costs change in total in proportion to changes in the related level of activity or volume, but fixed costs remain unchanged in total for a given time period despite wide changes in the related level of total activity or volume.   Feed and per-acre custom farming charges are instances of variable costs in production agriculture.  Depreciation and cash rent are examples of fixed costs.

So are all direct costs, variable and all indirect costs, fixed?  The exceptions make farm opportunity accounting interesting.

• Day labor hired specifically to harvest a vegetable crop is variable and direct, but full-time farm employees informally allocated to various jobs are often treated as indirect costs.
• Annual cash rent is a fixed direct cost, crop share rents are direct variable costs and “flex” rents incorporate indirect costs behaviors from external costs and/or market adjustments.
• Farmers can either treat fuel as an indirect cost allocated "after the fact" or as a direct variable cost tied to field production activities.
• Real estate taxes can be either a direct fixed cost or an indirect fixed cost depending on how they flow through a land entity.
• “Arms-length” services like custom farming and contract livestock production transform indirect fixed costs into direct variable and fixed costs.

This table illustrates the relationships and examples among these cost categories.

Next month we’ll examine some proven strategies for driving down costs and reducing risks.

April  4:  Scanner Interface.
April 11:  Credit card entry and reports.
April 18:  Reconciling bank accounts.
April 25:  Macros.

Q&A of the Month:  Automate Crop Data Collection

Sarah Dixon, FBS Sales and Support Coordinator

Q.  What’s the best way to get crop data from my tractor, sprayer or combine into FBS?

A.  We actually offer three options to communicate with your field technology.

1. The MACH 2.0 Interface imports and converts field application and harvest data from APEX, SMS, DigiStar,Trimble, Land.db or similar crop production software into FBS Crop Audit data.
   

2. Our newest, most-automated technology is real-time “cloud” integration with Conservis mobile/web crop records. (See story above.)
   
   
3. The most flexible option is the TransAction Plus Import module which can create both crop and accounting entries from CSV or Excel files. 

 Give us a call before you get in the field so we can help you completely automate your record keeping chores this season.   My direct line is 800.437.7683/Extension 100.