business manager - amazon s3...produce large numbers of self billing invoices. to use this option,...

Business Manager

Enhancements – Version 3.38

April 2018

www.farmplan.co.uk 01594 545022 [email protected]

Contents

Installation Instructions ........................................................... 3

Making Tax Digital – What you need to know ........................... 4

Business Manager Enhancements ............................................ 5

Bank Reconciliation – Link to Statements ................................................................................................ 5

Data Entry Templates – Payment Types................................................................................................... 6

Auto-Reverse Journals – Mark Journals ................................................................................................... 6

Quick Pay – Default to last transaction type used ................................................................................... 7

Net Margin Calculator .............................................................................................................................. 7

Batch Print Purchase Invoices (Self Billing Invoices) ................................................................................ 8

Searchcodes – Additional Address Details ............................................................................................... 9

Farm Codes – now available at all levels .................................................................................................. 9

Fixed Assets – change heading code ...................................................................................................... 10

Fram Farmers – Import statement details ............................................................................................. 11

Default Print/Preview to PDF format ..................................................................................................... 13

Turn off Report Rounding ...................................................................................................................... 13

Office Accounts - Customer Outstanding Invoice Statement ................................................................. 14

Rolling 12 month Cashflow/Profit & Loss ............................................................................................... 14

Export to Excel – Exclude Totals ............................................................................................................. 15

Valuation/Store Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 15

Opening Customer/Supplier Balances ................................................................................................... 15

Full Trial Balance Audit ........................................................................................................................... 16

Period 13 – Display figures ..................................................................................................................... 16

Items Analyser – Financial Periods in Date Order .................................................................................. 17

VAT reconciliation .................................................................................................................................. 18

Cash Basis VAT Adjustments .................................................................................................................. 19

Summary of VAT Returns ....................................................................................................................... 19

Close VAT Period .................................................................................................................................... 20

Closing VAT Periods – Warning Message ............................................................................................... 20

Budgets – Import from a spreadsheet ................................................................................................... 21

Budgets – Multi-Budgets ........................................................................................................................ 22

Budgets – Advanced Budgets ................................................................................................................. 23

Passwords - Check after Restore ............................................................................................................ 24

Private Web Backups – store your data on the ‘cloud’ .......................................................................... 24

Autosetup Templates ............................................................................................................................. 24

Installation Instructions Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 Operating Systems only

Microsoft has withdrawn support for the Windows XP and Vista operating systems so you will be unable to install this version of the program on any machine still using them. Please contact us to discuss upgrading to a newer operating system.

Before you start, ensure that you have read about the enhancements.

You will not be able to load this version of the program if your licence has expired. If you are getting messages telling you that your licence has expired but you have renewed your contract, take the option File – Licence – Get Key BEFORE you load this version of the program.

Multi-user – We recommend that you update any outstanding batches back to the master data before loading the new program.

Remember to make an up-to-date backup of your Business Manager data.

The option to install the latest version of the program can be found under Accounts Software in the Support area of the Farmplan website (www.farmplan.co.uk). You will need your email address and customer number.

Make sure that the Business Manager program is closed.

Follow the on-screen instructions to ‘Download’. The exact procedure will vary according to the version of Windows and browser that you use but just follow the instructions on the screen. You will download a file called setup.exe, supplied by Reed Business Information (our parent company), which should then be ‘Run’.

If Windows SmartScreen (a warning message) appears to block the installation, click on More Information and then Run Anyway.

A black box may appear on your screen during the installation. Ignore it – it will disappear when the installation is complete

When the installation is complete go into the program – your data will be automatically updated to run with the new version (3.38) of the program.

http://www.farmplan.co.uk/

Making Tax Digital – What you need to know

What is Making Tax Digital?

MTD is a government initiative to digitalise the UK tax system. It will take place in phases starting with the electronic submission of VAT through compatible accounts software next year.

When will it take effect?

Businesses will have to keep digital records and submit VAT returns digitally from the first VAT return period starting after 1st April 2019.

From April 2020 (at the earliest) quarterly submissions of income and expenditure will have to be submitted using MTD compatible software.

Who will it affect?

From April 2019 all businesses and landlords with turnovers in excess of the VAT threshold (currently £85,000) will be required to maintain their records digitally and make electronic VAT submissions to HMRC. Manual records will no longer be acceptable and while spreadsheets may be used for day to day functions, they must link to compatible software to do the VAT submission. It will no longer be possible to go directly the HMRC’s website.

We’re prepared for MTD

Here are Farmplan we’ve already begun making changes to our accounts software solutions to enable you to manage MTD easily when changes come into effect for digital VAT in April 2019.

We’re working with our own MTD Consultant, Anne Cianchi. Anne is a Chartered Accountant and manages her own smallholding. She will happily answer any specific queries that you may have about MTD.

We are working closely with HMRC and will join their beta testing group for digital VAT as soon as they are ready. Plus we’re partnering with key industry groups including ICB, IAgSA, NFU and our farming community to ensure our solutions meet the requirements of HMRC and are user friendly.

What should I do now?

Make sure that you always close your VAT period in the program when you have told

HMRC your VAT figures. This will ensure that the figures on Business Manager

equate to the figures held by HMRC. Once figures have been finalised with HMRC

any corrections should be made in the following VAT period.

Keep an eye out for communications from us. We will continue to keep you informed

about MTD on our website https://farmplan.co.uk/category/mtd-blog/

To help us fully understand your requirements please complete our recent VAT

survey which can be found in the Messages section of the program.

https://farmplan.co.uk/category/mtd-blog/

Business Manager Enhancements Full details of all changes can also be found in the option Help – Contents - Business

Manager – Summary of Enhancements – Version 3.38

If you would like help or more information about any of the changes in the program, please

contact Software Support on 01594 545022.

Bank Reconciliation – Link to Statements

The link to a scanned or electronic version of a bank statement can now be linked to its

equivalent screen within the Bank Reconciliation.

Make sure that you have entered a default file location in Tools – Options – Data Entry

which will activate this option.

Click on the ‘Change’ button for the selected Statement in the Bank Reconciliation option

and browse to the electronic version of this statement.

It can then be viewed by using the ‘Display’ button.

Data Entry Templates – Payment Types

Cash Analysis templates are no longer tied to a specific ‘payment type’.

For example, if a template has been created with a payment type of direct debit and linked

to a particular supplier, it can also be used for any other cash analysis transactions that are

electronic payments or cheques.

This will apply if the template is created in the Repeating Transactions option or if it is created directly from the Use button at the bottom of the cash analysis entry screen.

Auto-Reverse Journals – Mark Journals

If a general purpose journal is marked to ‘auto-reverse’ on a particular date, the program

will create an equivalent but opposite journal automatically. This may be used, for example,

to create creditors and debtors at the end of the year which can be reversed on the first

date in the new year.

Both the original and the reversing journal are now marked with the details of their ‘pair’ so

that you can easily match them in the future if you need to edit both.

Quick Pay – Default to last transaction type used

Quick Pay will now use the same transaction type as the last one used.

For example, if you last used Quick Pay to create your electronic transactions, it will assume

that is the option that you would like to use next time. Of course you can always change

this if it is not correct.

Net Margin Calculator

We have now made the Net Margin Calculator module available to all users with the Farm

Accounts option.

The Net Margin Calculator is a quick method of achieving a Net Margin for those users who

are not currently allocating their overheads to enterprises but who would still like to achieve

a more accurate profit per enterprise. It allows the proportionate allocation of overhead

costs that have previously been made to the General enterprise to be re-allocated to the

individual enterprises that are open within a specific financial year.

The figures are reflected in the Farm Accounts (i.e. the farm profit and livestock/crops and

commercial enterprise reports are affected). Any adjustments made here will not affect the

financial or cash reports.

Within Tools - Options – General tick the option to ‘Use Net Margin Allocations’. The

overhead figures can be allocated on a percentage basis using the option Data Entry – Net

Margin Calculator. See Help for more details.

Batch Print Purchase Invoices (Self Billing Invoices)

It is now possible to print or email batches of purchase invoices – for example if you

produce large numbers of self billing invoices.

To use this option, ensure that you have turn

on the option to use Batch Printing in Tools –

Options – Batch Printing.

We recommend that you set up a Supplier Group

to keep these particular supplier invoices separate

from your normal invoices in Setup –

Supplier/Customer Groups.

Applicable suppliers can then be allocated to this group in Setup – Supplier/Customer

Setup.

To batch print or email the relevant purchase invoices go to Reports – Batch Printing –

Purchase Invoices and filter the list by this Supplier Group.

Ensure that the required invoices have been ticked and then either use the Report or Email

buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Searchcodes – Additional Address Details

In preparation for Making Tax Digital (MTDfB), which will be introduced for many businesses

from April 2020 and will involve making quarterly submissions to HMRC, we have added the

ability to add the address details of searchcodes that are properties.

Unfurnished Properties and Furnished Property Lets require different tax returns to be

completed for their income and expenditure. It will be necessary to be able to differentiate

them once you have to submit quarterly returns but it also makes your accountant’s job

easier now if they can easily identify and extract these details.

Note – you may have recorded the address details of your properties elsewhere, either

using the Farmplan Property Manager program or on a separate spreadsheet. To save time

the address details can be imported using the Property Import/Update button. The address

will be slotted in against existing searchcodes. Unrecognised properties will create a new

searchcode for you.

Farm Codes – now available at all levels

Farm codes are additional secondary analysis codes that work in a similar fashion to search

codes. These have now been added to all levels of Business Manager so that they are

available to all users.

NB the description of ‘Farm Code’ can be renamed in Tools – Options – General if required.

NB – Full details of how to create this file can be found in the Help.

Fixed Assets – change heading code

(Only available with Asset Register Module)

It is now possible to reallocate Fixed Assets to a different heading code. This will allow you

to correct mistakes or tidy up your asset register if you decide to reclassify items.

Go to Setup – Asset Register.

To change the Asset Code that an Asset is currently allocated to, pick the required heading

code from the drop down selection. New codes can be created in Setup – Heading Codes –

Fixed Assets if needed.

NOTE:

All entries that have been made previously will be moved to the new code.

The pre-set General asset under each Asset code cannot be reallocated. If you need

to amend these, you should edit all transactions against this code.

Fram Farmers – Import statement details

It is now possible to import your Fram Farmers’ statement details from a csv file, either in

the form of invoices, or as a cash analysis entry i.e. direct debit, which will reduce the time

spent entering the details manually.

Fram Farmers’ members are normally sent this file along with their electronic statement in

the form of a monthly email. If you are not receiving this every month then you may have

opted out in the past. Please contact them on 01728 727700 to ask them reinstate this.

This file should be saved to a known location on your computer, (it will be deleted when the

import is complete). Take the option File – Fram Farmers Import.

Each invoice will be imported individually if you normally use the Purchase Invoice option

(not available at Cash Manager level). However if you would rather import all entries as one

direct debit tick the ‘Download as Cash Analysis Payment’ option.

After you have clicked on ‘Next’ you will be given the option of adding new suppliers to your

Business Manager data or linking to existing ones.

The description used on the invoice by Fram Farmers is then linked to a heading

code/enterprise etc. in Business Manager.

The program will remember this link, so next time the same description is used it will be

automatically allocated to the same coding structure. You will normally only see any new

links that need to be made but you can change the ‘show’ selection to see any previously

linked codes and amend them if necessary.

Once all codes have been linked, go to the final screen, where you can view the links of both

codes and suppliers to check that they are correct. Go ‘Back’ to amend any links.

Click on Finish to complete the import and create the transactions automatically.

NB all transactions can be viewed or edited in the normal way once they have been

imported.

Default Print/Preview to PDF format

We are aware that a number of machines with Windows 10 and a display setting of greater

than 100% may have issues with printed and previewed reports failing to fit on a standard

A4 layout. This can be overcome by setting the reports to use the PDF format by default.

Go to Tools – Options – Reporting and put a tick in ‘Switch Print/Preview to PDF’.

An additional advantage to using this option is that you can preview reports and leave them

open for later reference without having to print them.

Turn off Report Rounding

If a report has very large figures on it, the program may need to adapt the layout to fit them

on. For example the decimal places may be removed, or if the figures are very large they

may be rounded to the nearest thousand.

We would recommend that you check the following settings in Tools - Options:

commas should not be included to denote thousands e.g. 20,000. (General)

reports should be displayed in landscape layout rather than portrait (Reporting)

However, this rounding behaviour can now be overridden in Tools – Options - Reporting so

that the full figures are still used. You may then wish to edit the layout of the report,

perhaps by changing the font in the Report Publisher option. It will also mean that the

figures are displayed in full in any exported spreadsheets.

Remove the tick from this box:

NB – We recommend that this option is used in conjunction with Adobe Reader. If you

have another application for generating PDF reports you may find that you have to

print from the preview option. Contact the Support Line for more details.

Office Accounts - Customer Outstanding Invoice Statement

The customer statement report is now directly available from the Customer Ledger screen –

Office Accounts as well as Reports – Batch Printing or the Report Library.

Rolling 12 month Cashflow/Profit & Loss

New reports have been added that allow you to produce a rolling 12 month cashflow or

profit & loss report. The new reports will be shown at the bottom of the list in the Report

Library – Cashflow or Profit & Loss. Select actuals or budget, and the level of analysis that

you require (summary, standard or detailed). Make sure that the calculate date is set to the

last month of the required report. The report will display the 12 months up to and including

this month.

Note that any period 13 figures will be assumed to be included in period 12, and each period

is the whole month e.g. 15th August will assume that the whole of August is the last period

on the report.

Export to Excel – Exclude Totals

It is now possible to exclude any total fields in the exported versions of all reports. This

means that you can apply your own calculations without having to remember to exclude the

totals that are normally shown on the spreadsheet.

In order to exclude these figures go to Tool – Options – Reporting and remove the tick from

‘Data: Include Totals and Subtotals’.

Valuation/Store Analysis

New reports have been added to the Report Library – Valuations and the Report Library –

Stores, that reconcile valuations from the opening balance to closing balance.

The layout of the report is similar to the one already present against each stock in Data

Entry – Stock Movements for valuations by period. This summarised version can be done

for all valuations or by heading code or valuation type.

Opening Customer/Supplier Balances

An ‘opening’ tick box has been added to the Detailed Supplier Balances and Detailed

Customer Balances reports. This will allow these reports to be produced for any opening

balances (i.e. invoices and credit notes) entered before the original year start date.

Full Trial Balance Audit

A full audit trail of all figures on the Trial Balance is now available in Report Library – Trial

Balance. It is also available from Report Library – Audit Trails.

It is anticipated that accountants will find this particularly useful, as they will be able to see

how every figure on the Trial Balance has been calculated including all heading codes,

valuations, VAT, depreciation, supplier/ledger balances etc.

Be aware that potentially it may be a very long report and may take some time to calculate.

While you may wish to view figures on the screen, it is really designed for export to Excel (or

for very large businesses to a csv file) which can then be used to find, interrogate and

analyse specific figures by you or your accountant. You may wish to customise the layout to

suit your requirements e.g. to add your own filters or formulae or rearrange the columns.

In addition your accountant will be able to reduce the time taken analysing your data by

importing this spreadsheet into the specific accounts preparation software that they use as

part of preparing your year-end accounts.

Period 13 – Display figures

Period 13 is used by Business Manager when the last day of the financial year has been used

– usually for year end adjustments.

If a Cashflow or Profit & loss report by period (actual and projected) includes any figures in

the period 13 column, then the report will now automatically be produced in landscape

layout to ensure that these figures are displayed.

NB – please make your accountant aware of this report which they will be able to use

to support your Trial Balance report at the end of the year.

Many accountants already have Business Manager themselves which they can use to

interrogate your data. Remember that you can make your data easily available to

them by using the Third Party web backup slots.

If they do not have the program, you can export this report and email it to them at

the end of the year.

Items Analyser – Financial Periods in Date Order

If you pick any of the ‘periods’ fields as a column option on the Items Analyser, they are

now shown in date order. Previously they were initially sorted alphabetically which meant

they had to be rearranged before producing the report.

You may wish to suppress the

period number on the column

label. This can be done by editing

the report layout and full details

can be found in the Help.

The Items Analyser is a very powerful tool that will allow you to produce personalised

reports that will provide detailed management information about your business.

Customised tables can be displayed within the program or exported to Excel for

additional functionality in the form of pivot tables. It is found in the Items Inspector

option. Full details can be found in the Help.

VAT reconciliation

A new report has been added to the Report Library – VAT which will help reconcile the

original opening VAT balance, all the VAT claimed and paid/received to the closing VAT

balance. It can be used in conjunction with the Supplier/Customer Detailed Balances

report, Revenue and Customs summary and the VAT returns for each period.

This report covers your original year start date to the calculated date.

It consists of:

Opening Balance – the original VAT balance, see Setup – Opening Balances

*Adjusted for opening invoices prior to the first year start date

Completed VAT returns, VAT payments and receipts plus VAT journals to Revenue

and Customs for each full period that falls in the requested date range (NB this is

regardless of whether it has been closed or not)

Incomplete VAT returns – includes all transactions that fall within requested date

range but the allocated VAT period spans the calculated date

Late Payments – includes all transactions that fall within requested date range where

the start date of the allocated VAT period is after the calculated date (i.e. entered

after the appropriate VAT period had already been shut at the time of entry so the

VAT details have been moved into the next open VAT period).

*Late Payments – Paid after VAT period closed

*Early Payments – Invoice has been entered after calculated date but paid before

the calculated date

*VAT on Outstanding Invoices – not yet claimed

*Cash Basis VAT adjustments – only for businesses that are registered for Cash Basis

VAT. This will show any unallocated supplier or customer ledger payments or

invoices that have been cleared using the ‘Clear’ button. These can be further

investigated using the new Cash Basis VAT Adjustments Report.

Closing VAT balance – as shown on the Trial Balance/Balance Sheet

*Cash Basis VAT only

Cash Basis VAT Adjustments

An additional VAT report will also show the details of any VAT that has not been claimed

correctly for cash based VAT businesses.

If you have ticked the box in Setup – VAT Settings to say that your business operates Cash

Basis VAT, the VAT is not claimed until you pay an outstanding invoice. It is therefore

important that invoices are paid correctly using the Ledger Payments option in order to

trigger this claim.

If you use the ‘Clear’ button to match the invoice with an on account figure, the program

will not claim the VAT on the invoice so should not normally be used in this scenario.

This report will help you check if this has occurred.

To prevent this happening, you should always match a payment with an invoice, where

possible. If you have already entered the ledger payment ahead of the invoice you will have

created an ‘on account’ value against this supplier. Instead of using the clear button you

should go back to the original ledger payment and match it to the correct invoice. Any VAT

already claimed against this payment will now be matched to this invoice. (Conversely the

same applies to Ledger Receipts and VAT due).

NB if an invoice has been matched to a credit note, then the ‘clear’ button is still relevant, as

the VAT will be balanced out. This report may be produced as a reduced list to remove any

balancing details.

Summary of VAT Returns

The exported version of this report has been adapted slightly to make the column order

equate to the standard report.

Close VAT Period

Each report in the Close VAT option can be previewed on screen as well as printed. This has

always been available by right clicking anywhere on this screen but we have now made this

more obvious by adding a preview report button.

Closing VAT Periods – Warning Message

Once you have finished entering data for a VAT period and you have updated HMRC with

your VAT return figures, we strongly recommend that you close the VAT period to prevent

any more transactions being entered which might change the figures so that they no longer

agree with your submission.

If you preview the reports without closing the VAT Period you will now see a warning

message on the screen:

Remember to take a backup of your data

before you close the VAT Period.

Making Tax Digital – VAT

From April 2019, all VAT return details must be submitted via a software package such

as Business Manager. We recommend that you make sure that all old VAT periods

have been closed before then so that you will be ready to proceed correctly.

Budgets – Import from a spreadsheet

It is now possible to import a Cashflow budget that has been prepared using a spreadsheet,

for example by an external consultant. It will be allocated to the General enterprise i.e.

whole business level, for the selected financial year. Both the Cashflow and

Profit/Movement figures will be populated.

The spreadsheet must be in a csv format and it must be laid out in our recommended

format, full details of which can be found in the program’s Help instructions. You will be

given the opportunity to match income and expense names where they differ from the ones

used by you within Business Manager, but the Band names must be identical to those used

by the program.

Export Budget Format

The recommended format can also be created from the Report Library using actual or other

budget figures e.g. from a different financial year.

Go to the Report Library – Cashflow and select either the Cashflow Detailed Actual or

Budget layout. Apply any filters or dates as normal and then use the Create Budget

Template button to produce the basic csv layout. This can be adapted with Excel, for

example to add formulae or formats, but the ‘bands’ (column A) and ‘column headings’ (row

1) must remain unchanged. Any ‘Total’ rows or columns will be ignored on import and

recalculated as part of the budget.

Import Budget

The spreadsheet details can be imported from a csv file and will create a Cashflow budget

against the General enterprise. From Budgets – Setup Budget, click on the button – CSV

import.

Browse to the csv file and select the appropriate Budget and General Enterprise.

If the nominal names (column B) on your csv file match the heading code names in Business

Manager they will automatically be linked. However if they are different you will be asked

to allocate them to a heading code.

When all codes are linked, the ‘Import’ button at the bottom of the screen will be enabled

so that the cashflow budget can be imported and then edited in the same way as any other

budget.

Budgets – Multi-Budgets

We have now made the multi-budget feature available to all users.

This means that you can have as many budgets as required – perhaps to have a revised

budget as well as the original one created at the beginning of the year, or to have several

partial budgets for different areas of the business that you can amalgamate together to

make a master budget.

Additional budgets can be created from scratch or in a number of other ways e.g. by copying

an existing budget or previous actual figures so that they can be amended.

One budget is marked as the default, shown in red above, and is the one normally shown in

comparative reports but many options, such as the cashflow and profit & loss reports, allow

you to pick a particular budget at the time of printing.

Budgets – Advanced Budgets

All of the features previously only available in the Advanced Budget module can now be

accessed at all levels of use within Business Manager.

These include:

Ability to import a whole budget from an external Business Manager dataset. For

example an external consultant may prepare a budget for you, or you may give a

copy of your data to another member of staff to work on a budget away from your

master data. The second set of data can then be saved on your machine and the

whole budget imported into your master data.

Ability to copy individual enterprise details from another budget. This is similar to

above but allows you to import each individual enterprise separately.

Stores - Plan the purchase of stores into stock based on stock levels and the planned

usages that have been previously entered against each individual enterprise.

Internal stock movements – where income or expenses are created against one

enterprise for use in another one in the same business without any cash changing

hands, for e.g. the transfer of homegrown feed to livestock enterprises or

movements of home-reared animals from a youngstock enterprise to a breeding

enterprise. A report will allow you to check that each credit has a corresponding

debit.

Reconciliation of other non-cash movements e.g. depreciation – make sure that the

depreciation credit against the asset register is reflected by a balancing debit in the

profit & loss.

Enter opening creditors/debtors and other balance sheet items – i.e. to produce a

budgeted movement in assets and liabilities.

NB – we recommend that you delete budgets that are no longer in use as they can make

your dataset very large and slow to recalculate budgeted figures. Make sure that you take

a backup before deleting them (just in case). Once you have deleted all unwanted

budgets, take the option Tools – Utilities – Optimise Budgets to compact your data.

Passwords - Check after Restore

If you have a password set up in File – Select Business – Password, you will now be asked to

re-enter it when you have just restored a different version of your data as well as each time

that you go into your data.

Private Web Backups – store your data on the ‘cloud’

While backups of your data stored on your own PC are useful in case you need to return to

an earlier version of your data, they may be vulnerable if your computer breaks down or is

damaged.

We recommend that regular backups of your data are stored on the ‘cloud’ using your

Private Web backup slots so that they are stored securely and safely away from your office

but are easily accessible from any machine sharing your licence details. They are available

for any person within your business who has access to your accounts data using your

Farmplan web access code.

We have changed the process slightly so that when you go to make a backup, the program

will automatically default you to the Private Web slots rather than the local backup option.

If you would like more slots to be made available, please let us know and we can increase

them for you.

Remember that backups can also be made into the Third Party slots as well so that they can

be made available to authorised parties such as your accountant or consultant.

Autosetup Templates

We have simplified the heading code structure in the Autosetup Template option which is

used when new businesses are created.

For example, use the enterprise called Arable to create a simple heading structure. The

Arable enterprise can be renamed in Setup – Enterprises if required, and reselected from

the Autosetup option if multiple enterprises are required.

NB – if you do not have access to either the Private Web backups or Other Web

backups then you may not have entered your Web Access Code correctly. Please

contact our support line for more details on 01594 545022.

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