Dear Friend,

Kassidy and Mom in the show ring.

 The FBS crew lives and breathes the farm life. The family of Sarah Dixon, our Support Coordinator, showed barrows, rabbits, bucket calves and 4-H general projects in our county fair.  Here she congratulates her daughter Kassidy for winning the reserve grand champion feeder barrow.  During the rest of the year Sarah uses her technical skills and ag knowledge to provide support and training to FBS clients.  She'll be assisting with accounting and crop software training at this year's Ag Software Success Summit.

Also this month:

• More benefits from the FBS Ag Software Success Summit..
• Cover your financial bases.
• FBS Users in the News.
• Out of Balance Balance Sheet.                                                                                                                                                   SDG

Seven Benefits from the 2018 Ag Software Success Summit

1. Intensive Management Accounting Workshop with Dick Wittman. Take charge of your business through Using Management Accounting to Link Financial Performance Analysis and Strategic Thinking.
2.  Free Management Accounting Guidelines and Implementation Guide from the Farm Financial Standards Council. All Summit participants will receive copies of the the comprehensive Management Accounting Guidelines and the newly-released, concise Implementation Guide so you can put Wittman's concepts into practice.
3. Learn Firsthand from Peers and Professionals. Discover how innovative producers have implemented management accounting and what professional help is available to succeed.
4. Compare Your Costs. Know where you stand with your peers through the latest detailed corn, soybean and pork cost of production benchmarks from LattaHarris and Russell Consulting Group.
5. Relevant Breakout Sessions. The concurrent Thursday breakout sessions are split between basic and advanced accounting and crops and livestock so that no matter what level you're at, you can keep climbing.  Download our conference brochure for an updated schedule.
6. Know and Guide the Future of Your Software.  Explore what's in store for your software and provide feedback for future development directly with our programmers.
7. Unique Networking Opportunities. The Ag Software Success Summit is where agriculture's elite meet and network.  From the classroom interaction to the prime rib dinner cruise on the Mississippi, this will be this year's best opportunity to learn how to achieve software and business success.

For more information or to register:

Click here for the conference brochure.

Register online by clicking on this link. 

For questions on the conference contact sale@fbssystems.com or call 800.437.7638.

 Thanks to these co-sponsors:

This month we continue a series on the most important factors that contribute to successful farm software implementation and results.

Reason #7:

Cover all your financial bases.

View all 7 Steps for Success and watch our video.

FBS Users in the News

Summer Pork Checkoff Report

When it comes to establishing and maintaining strong employee relationships, pork producer Joe Dykhuis says that respecting employee difference while working toward common goals is what keeps the Dykhuis' 18,000-sow Michigan farrow-finish operation running smoothly.

Mary Langhorst, owner of Wakefield Pork, says employee care is a key part of this Minnesota-based farm’s barn culture.  While running a pig farm isn’t an easy job, Wakefield Pork never loses sight of one key philosophy:  what’s fun gets done.  “We do a lot of fun activities together,” Langhorst said.  “We’re family-oriented.  We want to engage in employees’ lives because we truly care about them.”

The Progressive Farmer

Indiana farmer Dennis Maple, chairman of the NCGA’s Corn Productivity and Quality Action Team, is quoted and pictured in The Bio-Harvest IS HERE in the June 2018 issue.

Q&A: Out of Balance Balance Sheet

Sarah Dixon, FBS Sales and Support Coordinator

Q.   My Balance Sheet is out of balance.  How do I track down the reason?

A.   The Balance Sheet is one of our key financial reports.  If it's out of balance a couple of things to always try are to: 

1. Recreate Beginning Balances (Utilities>Create Beginning Balances).

2. Re-calculate Retained Earnings (Input>General>Accounting>Calculate Retained Earnings).

3. Check for errors.

You probably already know how to do the first two but maybe not how to check for errors.  To check for errors run an Accounting User Defined Report and check the box on the top right for undefined entries.  Any entries that appear on the report need to be cleaned up or corrected. 

The next report to check is the Trial Balance.  Determine if any of the period numbers match the amount by which you are out of balance.  That will help you figure out in which ledger account the issue is. 

It's also helpful to know when your Balance Sheet went out of balance.  Was it last in balance last month or last year?  Run the Balance Sheet for decreasingly more narrow date ranges until you find the day.  For example, start by running it for six months, then three, then one month, then by the half month, then by a week and finally down to the day.  Once you know which day it went out of balance you can run the User Defined Report again (recapping by entry) for the suspected day and search for out of balance entries.  Find and correct the entry giving you issues.