Dear Friend,

Season's Greetings from our new office*.

Thanks to you, our loyal clients, many exciting changes are on the way at FBS.  As of Monday, December 17th, most of us were in our new office at 601 SE 19th Avenue on the outskirts of Aledo, Illinois.  Our goal was to accomplish the move without interrupting service to our customers.  Unfortunately we did experience some hiccups transitioning phone systems, so we apologize if you had trouble getting through to us that week.  From our new location we'll be much better equipped to connect with our clients, both through the internet and a conference/training room.

* Our office assistant Amber was out with a sick child when this picture was taken.

Yet, this is only the first step.  We'll be sharing more next month.  In this month's newsletter:

•  Major changes coming!
• Trade Show Calendar.
• Highlights from the Farm Financial Standards Annual Conference.
• Opening a new year in FBS.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      SDG

  ---

We look forward to visiting with you at one or more of these trade show events in 2019.

Date	Event	Location	Booth
Jan 23-24		Des Moines, IA	302
Feb 13-16		Louisville, KY	1009
Feb 28-March 2		Orlando,Fl	2378
June 5-7		Des Moines, IA	TBD

Integrating Ag Technology Data with Financial and Managerial Accounting (Part 3)

The following is a summary of a presentation entitled "Financial and Management Accounting Software--Developments, Implementation Challenges, and Integration Issues" made in July 2018  to the Farm Financial Standards Council Annual Conference in Champaign, Illinois.

Over the next few issues of FarmSmart we’ll attempt to answer these questions:

• What do we do that’s unique?
• Who do we work for?
• What are the current technical tools of the trade?
• How we can support and leverage the Standards?
• What are the challenges to adoption?
• What are the opportunities for agricultural producers?

Advanced Technical "Tools of the Trade"

What benefits do ag-specific accounting programs based on the Farm Financial Standards have over "main street" accounting software?  Last month we reviewed some capabilities of basic "Farm Accounting 101" programs.  In this issue we'll examine even more advanced technologies.  

Integration:  the "Holy Grail"

For many years ag software developers have searched for the "holy grail" of integration of production and financial data.  What's the big deal?  Here are just a few potential benefits:

• Save time by eliminating duplicate data entry. 
• Trap errors by reconciling purchases, sales, consumption and production. 
• Financially evaluate farming practices and activities.
• Real-time updates of inventories, margins and break-even costs.
• Maintain a single management platform that simultaneously monitors and controls these 8 information "silos."

This integrated worldview has already been widely adopted in manufacturing, distribution and retail industries through ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software.  The German company SAP has been the world market leader.  Most ERP systems require a high degree of customization and implementation costs and none come "off the shelf" ready for conventional agricultural producers.

Here's a link to a story in Successful Farming last year on one farm's efforts to implement an ERP system.

Next month we’ll look FBS's ERP data model described at Farm Financial Standards Council meeting.   Meanwhile we invite you to watch our introductory "Farm Software Success Through FBS" video which helps you determine if you are ready for your own ERP.

Q&A: Starting a New Year in FBS

Sarah Dixon, FBS Sales and Support Coordinator

Q.  Can I open 2019 before I'm done with 2018? 

A.   Yes!  FBS allows you to open a new year at any time. 

In the Select Company screen simply type or use the up/down arrows to select the last two digits of the new year.  (See below.)

If no 2019 file exists you will be prompted to create new files.

This creates beginning balances for 2019 and allows you to start recording data in 2019. You can still go back to the input year of 2018 any time you need from the Select Company screen. 

You just have to be careful about what input year you are in to avoid recording in the wrong year.  Fortunately, FBS will remind you with this message:

Just remember when you are done with 2018 or anytime you want updated beginning balance numbers in 2019 you will need to go to input year 2019 and then to Utilities>Create Beginning Balances and check the appropriate boxes to recreate the beginning balances in 2019.