New feature makes fixing cash receipts mistakes easier

Once the Cash Receipts Journal has been updated, posting your deposit total to the Checkbook Register, the only way to correct a mistake has been to reverse out the original entries and re-post the payments correctly.  A lot of times, this is easier said than done!

And while this method of correcting mistakes does leave an audit trail, a lot of times customers just want to get the right numbers in their system and not worry about leaving behind evidence of data entry mistakes.

We have recently added a new feature that will unfinalize an entire Cash Receipt Journal.  This will delete the journal entries to Cash In Bank and A/R Trade (and any miscellaneous income accounts, if any) and reset the posting status on the cash receipts entries so that you may edit or delete them before re-updating the Cash Receipts Journal.

Updating employee pay rates

This article from AgAlert reminded me that when minimum wage changes, we often get questions from customers about changing pay rates for all of their employees.  I recorded this short video (about 4 minutes) to show how you can quickly get an overview of all of the hourly pay rates that have been entered on your employee accounts by using the Pivot Table feature in Excel and how you can use the Employee File Utility Wizard to do a “search and replace” on the pay rates in the employee file:

You can watch the video in your browser or download it to your computer to watch later.

If you are using Internet Explorer, just right click on the video above and select the “Save video as” option to download it.

If you are using Firefox or Chrome browsers, follow these instructions to download the video:

Start playing the video, then click on the pause button.  You’ll see a Share button appear in the upper left corner of the video.  Click on the Share button, then click  on the H.264 button.  This will open the video in a new tab page in your browser–it will automatically start playing, so pause the video again if you don’t want to watch it now.  You can then right click on the video and select “Save Video As…” to download it to your computer (file size is about 5.5Mb) and view it later using Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or any video player capable of playing H.264 (mp4) videos.

Generating a calendar year Budget Profit or Loss for your bank

Recently we had a request from a customer to be able to generate a calendar year Budget Profit or Loss report for their bank.  Since their fiscal year starts in March and ends in February, the General Ledger system can’t produce this report for a calendar year.

So we are wondering:  How common is this requirement?  Do other customers with fiscal years that start and end in the middle of the calendar year need to produce financial reports on a calendar year basis?  If we added this capability to the General Ledger system, would it have other applications besides producing reports for lenders?  Would it be sufficient to only provide this option for the Budget Profit or Loss, or should all of the Profit or Loss reports have this feature added?

New Payroll Pay Method: Base Hourly + Incentive Piecework + Guaranteed Wage

Recently a customer wanted to pay employees a base hourly rate plus an incentive piecework rate, and at the same time guarantee a minimum hourly pay rate.  The payroll system has always had the Base Hourly+Incentive Piecework (BH/IP) wage types, but up until now, the program has only been able to perform the minimum wage verification check with these wage types.

(When we use the term “minimum wage verification”, it always refers to a check against the legal minimum wage as set by the state or federal governments.  “Guaranteed wage verification” on the other hand always refers to a per hour rate check against a hourly rate that is higher than the minimum wage set by law.)

The Guaranteed Piecework wage type (GP) was designed to pay employees on a piece rate basis, but also guarantee a minimum hourly rate that is above the legal minimum wage.  The roadblock to combining the two methods has always been that the code that performs the guaranteed hourly rate calculation was designed to look at each line item individually.  In other words, the program checks the hours worked vs. the total earnings for each line to see if the guaranteed wage is met, and if not, it creates a line to make up the difference.

Farmworkers robbed at gunpoint

KSEE 24 recently reported that several farmworkers were robbed at gunpoint while they were working in Sanger:

http://www.yourcentralvalley.com/story/d/story/fresno-farm-workers-robbed/13680/7JpTxkeSGkWIHVSOVaYMLA

Most farmworkers are “unbanked” and thus have to cash their paychecks.  From time to time we’ve had customers inquire about payroll cards:  Visa or MasterCard branded cards that are issued to employees by the employer, not a bank, and which can be loaded with worker’s pay through a direct deposit process, eliminating printing payroll checks and the need to pay check cashing fees and then carry cash around.

These cards can be used for purchases at point of sale and at ATMs just like regular bank issued debit or credit cards. Employees can get cash back when used at point of sale, or withdraw cash from ATMs.  If a card is lost or stolen, then it can be reported to the issuing company so that a replacement card can be issued and the old card deactivated.

Some cards are even portable between employers.  When a worker starts a job at another employer that offers direct deposit, the card may continue to be used by giving the new employer the routing and account numbers.  (Cards are loaded using a standard ACH file with the account numbers and amounts to pay.)

While there may be some fees for certain services, employees may find that these fees are less than the current check cashing fees they must pay now.

While we have a lot of customers using direct deposit, so far customers are doing this with employees who have bank accounts.  We don’t know of any customers that have actually implemented one of these payroll card systems.  Are there any ag employers and farm workers ready to try this type of direct deposit system?

Human Resources Software Progress

Thank you to all customers who have shown interest in Datatech’s upcoming Human Resources software. We have begun to contact a select number of customers to participate as Beta users.

We will use the feedback from Beta users to continue enhancing and developing the HR software. At this time we are expected to make the software available to all customers in late July/early August.

If you would like to be contacted when the software is ready for release, please contact Hannah at Hannah@DatatechAg.com

New employer reporting requirements under the ACA

The Affordable Care Act implements penalties on individuals for failing to obtain health insurance and on large employers for failing to offer affordable health insurance coverage to their employees.  Because these penalties are implemented through the tax code, employers and health insurance providers are required to file new information returns with the IRS.  This information is required to verify whether or not employees were offered/obtained health insurance coverage, and determine the amount of any applicable penalties.

Originally, the law specified January 1, 2014 as the “starting date” for large employers to provide coverage to their employees.  However, reporting requirements were not established early enough by the federal government.  Without any information reporting from employers, it would be impossible to implement the law as written.  In July 2013, the “employer mandate” was delayed a year to provide time to develop the reporting requirements.

In March 2014 the final regulations were published in the Federal Register detailing what information will be reported by employers and providers of health insurance.  The IRS will now implement these regulations (which includes designing the forms, writing the instructions for completing them, and writing a specification for electronic reporting).  Once this is done, we will have enough detail to write the software required for reporting this information.

Payroll Quarter Closing & Reports Videos

The end of another payroll quarter is almost here! Just a reminder, you can view videos that cover the payroll closing and reporting process at http://www.datatechag.com/video/ or click on the videos below.

Quarterly Closing using the Payroll Tax Reports Control Center:

 
Generate California Electronic Quarterly DE9/DE9C Files:

Upload DE9/DE9C Files on California’s EDD e-Services Website:

Generate Printed Quarterly Reports:

Drones in agriculture

I thought these two recent articles about using drones in agriculture were interesting.  Perhaps at the next World Ag Expo we will see some companies offering drone services…

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/526491/agricultural-drones/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/03/23/drones-agriculture-growth/6665561/

Minimum wage changes in California on 7/1

California’s minimum wage will change to $9.00 per hour on July 1, 2014.  This change has already been pre-programmed into your software in the State Tax Rate file:

Click to enlarge.

The 2013 Year End Update included a change to how minimum wage adjustments are handled when the minimum wage changes in the middle of a pay period.