FarmBooks 3.0.1 Release Notes

Registration Changes

The application had three different places where the registration information could be changed (File menu - Change Registration, Setup menu - Personal Information, and Utilities menu - Maintain Registrations). Each one had a strength or weakness from the other ones. This set of changes will bring consistency between them and did eliminate the option from the Setup menu - Personal Information.

History of the various methods:

• Method 1 (File menu - Change Registration):
  This option would only allow you to change the farm registration number. You were not permitted to change the farm number and / or name.
  
  
• Method 2 (Setup menu - Personal Information):
  This option would change the registration number and / or name and update the farm number in the transaction file; however, the folder name would not reflect the current registration information. To update the folder, it would require you to go to maintain registrations and delete the registration number and open window explorer and rename the farm folder, then go back into maintain registration and ADD the registration. Again, the main benefit was that it updated the farm number that was stored in the transaction files.
  
  
• Method 3 (Utilities menu - Maintain Registrations):
  Maintain Registrations would allow you to ADD a registration with a new number and / or name, but the farm database folder is not renamed to reflect either the number and / or name change. The transaction files have the farm number stored in them to be checked against the registered farm number when opening the database. However, this process would NOT update the farm number in the transaction files and so it would result in an error when opening the database - "Transaction files do NOT belong to registered farm."
  
  This method still has one advantage over the two methods. If you create a new fiscal year and you have NOT entered any transactions, it will allow you to remove the fiscal year along with ALL the setup data. However, if the farm has loans and or receivables defined for the farm (New Fiscal Year process creates beginning balance), it will require you to manually delete these beginning balances before you can remove the fiscal year. This would allow someone to delete the fiscal period should it get created with the wrong start date. It does require you to have at least one fiscal year before you are permitted to remove one. Without a fiscal year, you don’t have a registration record. This functionality is not available from the File menu - Change Registration.

Solution:
Since it was desirable to rename the farm folder if either the farm number and / or name changed, the second method (Setup menu - Personal Information) had to be removed since it is not possible to rename a folder while the database is actually open. The other two options were changed to allow you to change the farm number, name, and or registration number. The process will now rename the folder, update the transaction file with the new farm number, and update the registration information.

Maintain registrations shows a database legend as to what the various colors indicate for the database icon. Also, a new status was added to show registered farms that no longer have a valid number (version 3.0 required new numbers). A new properties level was included to shows the farm number, registration number, and database folder. This should help in determining what folder is being used by what registration.

As a side note, "Open Farm" and "Change Registration" will now show three different database icon colors, yellow - active usable database, blue - registered but no data folder, and gray - registered but not valid) the same as maintain registrations.

Check Printing Changes / Register Grid Refresh

Added printer dialog prompt to allow the user to change the printer before the printing of checks; Windows default print is still the default but now the user can override if they have more than one printer.

If the checks did not print correctly, the user can specify the first check that printed incorrectly. However, the next check number was incorrectly set to the next check number. Also added some additional description on the check confirmation window to better explain the use of the voided check range.

After printing one or more checks that were marked "PRINT" and designating the appropriate starting check number during the process and clicking "OK" to say the checks printed fine, the word "PRINT" shows in the Register instead of the appropriate check number. If more checks are printed later, then the previous set of checks then reflect the check number but the current set of printed checks will still show "PRINT" as the check number. Closing the bank account or the program and opening again seems to "pop" the check numbers in. The register is now refreshed properly.

If you would change the bank account when entering a check, paycheck, or deposit and then return the register grid, the grid would show the correct bank account name, but the data shown in the grid was not properly refreshed to match the bank account. This has been corrected.

Check Number Change

In this version, we no longer left fill the check numbers with leading zeros. No change was made to your existing data.

If you use the "Next" or "Next and Cleared" (used if you don’t print checks from FarmBooks) preference options for "Check Number and Status", then you should set your beginning number for each bank account you have defined from the Balances menu and Bank.

Report Changes

• ATIG Codes Listing was not sorting by G Code. If you added a new code that did not exist, the code would always appear at the end of ATI group.
• Detail Register List and the Check Register Reports had the rightmost column moved as it was being cut off. Also, updated the drill down report for the same reason.
• Income Statement - The report has been updated to show the G Description from the ATIG instead of the transaction user description.
• Inventory Detail Listing show 5182 "Bermuda" with the "a" on the next line by itself.
• Monthly Cash Flow - Report has been updated to read its data from the transaction file instead of the summary file.
• Schedule F had a misspelling. Is correct on the statement but not on the worksheet. Under the caution statement at the bottom of the page it is listed as "Feader Steers", but should be "Feeder Steers".

Version number updated to 3.01 for all changed reports.

Discrepancy between Transaction Journal and Monthly Cash Flow Reports

When I compare the monthly cash flow to the transaction journal report, the values do not match.

Solution:
Run the Recalculate Farm Process to rebuild the totals file. The data analysis process corrects any missing codes in the transaction file before it is recalculated. Some of the data from prior releases had missing classifications which result in the report being inaccurate. It is highly recommended that you recalculate all fiscal years for which you may want to generate reports.

New Report Control Features

Batch Printing Options - Added a "mark all" and "clear all" buttons to allow user to quickly select and deselect ALL reports without drilling into the various report levels.

General Report Preview Options - Added default Magnification Percentage. This value can be set from the "Report menu - Reports" and then select the "Options" button.

Inventory Grid Entry

Entry into the quantity code field required you to use the mouse to select the value from the list. Now, the user can enter the quantity code without using a mouse or the drop-down list. The novice user can still browse the list of codes if necessary.

The grid is designed for quick entry of information from left to right using the enter key to move between columns.

Automatic Default Preference Change Notification

The backup option for the local device was set to "C:\MCFP Backups". During the installation to FarmBooks, the user is instructed to change this to "C:\FarmBooks Backups". Now, when the user opens the preferences, it will detect the prior setting and automatically adjust it to the FarmBooks default. During this process, the user is notified of the change.

If you set the backup folder to any location other than C:\FarmBooks Backups, it will automatically save a copy to this folder on the local computer as a secondary backup.

New Fiscal Year and Export Process - Loans / Receivables with no Beginning Balance

Summary of Problems for Roll-over and Export

• Loan always created as Current Liability
• Receivables always created as Stockholders A/R
• Grouping by External Number limited External Code to only one Liability and / or Asset Type

The roll-over options would not create the correct liability and / or asset type if there was no beginning loan and / or receivable balance defined. Also, if there was no beginning balance for the loan and / or receivable, it could have possibly been created using the bank account name instead of the external code. For instance, a loan with external code 003 would get the bank account description for 0023 instead of the loan/receivable code. Loan 004 received the correct description in the case where there was no bank account defined for 0024. Both of these problems have been correct in the case where no beginning balance was defined.

In prior versions, the loan/receivable roll-over grouped by external number only and limited the external code to one liability or asset type. Now, the process has been updated to group by both the external code and the ATIG. This allows both a current, intermediate, and / or long term (liability or asset) to be created for the same loan external code. The roll-over in general was incomplete for new fiscal year. This has been corrected.

Minor Application Changes for Error Messages, Images, Register Grid Advanced Filter, and Quick Key

• Updated open error message to include the farm number and name to be more clear which farm open was in error
• Updated and added new images within the application - Inventory, Livestock Production, Maintain Registration, and View Log. Most of them now have more of a 3-D look
• Added Callout Control with Application Icon to show Fly-Over Text Messages
• Cleaned up the names of filter field name list for the advance filter popup window. Also, removed some that did not make sense in this setting. For instance, the grid is restricted by bank account and fiscal year so these would not be of additional value in filtering. This would be for the advanced user or could be used by support.
• Detail Register Grid - Pressing the enter key will automatically apply the filter. In prior versions, it was necessary to select the filter button and then select apply. However, if you want to enter several criteria values and then apply the filter all at once you can tab between fields and then select the filter button and then select apply or press the enter key on the last criteria field.