Business Manager. Enhancements Version April

Transcription

1 Business Manager Enhancements Version 3.38 April

2 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 Fram Farmers Import statement details Default Print/Preview to PDF format Turn off Report Rounding Office Accounts - Customer Outstanding Invoice Statement Rolling 12 month Cashflow/Profit & Loss Export to Excel Exclude Totals Valuation/Store Analysis Opening Customer/Supplier Balances Full Trial Balance Audit Period 13 Display figures Items Analyser Financial Periods in Date Order VAT reconciliation Cash Basis VAT Adjustments Summary of VAT Returns Close VAT Period Closing VAT Periods Warning Message Budgets Import from a spreadsheet Budgets Multi-Budgets Budgets Advanced Budgets Passwords - Check after Restore Private Web Backups store your data on the cloud Autosetup Templates Page 2

3 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 ( You will need your 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. Page 3

4 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 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 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 To help us fully understand your requirements please complete our recent VAT survey which can be found in the Messages section of the program. Page 4

5 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 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. Page 5

6 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. Page 6

7 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. Page 7

8 Batch Print Purchase Invoices (Self Billing Invoices) It is now possible to print or 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 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 buttons at the bottom of the screen. Page 8

9 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. NB Full details of how to create this file can be found in the Help. 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. Page 9

10 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. Page 10

11 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 . If you are not receiving this every month then you may have opted out in the past. Please contact them on 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 Page 11

12 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. Page 12

13 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. 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. 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: Page 13

14 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. 15 th August will assume that the whole of August is the last period on the report. Page 14

15 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. Page 15

16 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. 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 it to them at the end of the year. 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. Page 16

17 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. Page 17

18 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 Page 18

19 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. Page 19

20 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. Page 20

21 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. Page 21

22 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. Page 22

23 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. 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. 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. Page 23

24 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. 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 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. Page 24

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