2014 Year End Update Released!

The Year End Update is ready for download for customers running The Farmer’s Office, The Labor Contractor’s Office, The Shipper’s Office and The Broker’s Office.  Updates for our other software will be available early next week.

Some important notes on this update:

As always, the update can be installed at any time–you don’t need to finish your payroll for 2014.  You must install this update before you enter/create checks that will be issued in 2015.

Release Notes

The Year End Update is installed by using the Check for Updates option on the Tools menu, like all other updates.  The Release Notes for the update will indicate that this is the Preliminary Year End Update.

This preliminary update includes tax rates for 2015 and tax forms for 2014.  Some of the documentation is still in the process of being written, and we will release a supplemental update next week with additional documentation..

The Year End Help file included in this update does have all of the Release Notes for changes made throughout 2014.  We are working on more details on major programming changes and updates to the main help file.  Besides the help file, we also included the Year End Update documentation in a PDF file that is installed to the Help folder.

Recommendations for Installation

When installing the update on a network server, log into Windows using an administrator account.

Make sure that all users have exited the program before starting the installation.  When the Check for Updates option is done downloading the update, it will check to see if any users are in the program and display a warning before starting the update installation process.

Install this update on your server if possible, and after installation run the program for each of your companies on the server to complete the database updates as quickly as possible.  There are a lot of updates to large database tables that will take some time to complete.  Plan on installing this update when no one needs to use the system to minimize down time.

The installation program should automatically detect the correct location to install the update to, but double check it!  If you are not sure where the program should be installed to, right click on the shortcut that you use to start the program and check the path for the Target.  For instance, if the Target reads “G:\Winfarm\Programs\Winfarm.exe”, then the update should be installed to “G:\Winfarm”.

After installing the update, the first time you start the program it will install a new DataFlex 18 Client.  The 18.0 client will be necessary for updates we will deliver in 2015.  Once the full client install is done on the server, each workstation will go through the workstation installation process when the new version is run the first time.

 17.1 Visual DataFlex Client Required to Run

This update requires that you have the Visual DataFlex 17.1 Client installed on all of your workstations.  We started distributing the VDF 17.1 Client in November of 2013, so by now everyone should be all set for this update.  If the current version of the program that you are running starts with a “7”, you are all set.

If the current version of the program that you are running starts with a “6”, go to the Tools menu and select the 17.1 Client Check option.  If you get a message saying your computer is “good to go” then you are all set.

This is what the VDF17.1 folder should look like

If you get an error on the 17.1 Client Check option, or you don’t have that option, you may have skipped some updates along the way that would have installed it.  To manually check to see if you have the 17.1 Client installed, start the program and go to Tools->Explorer.  This will open a standard Windows Explorer window in your data folder.  Go up one level (i.e. to the “Winfarm”, “WinLCO”, “Broker”, or “Shipper” folder) and then look for a “Vdf17.1” folder.  (It may help to click on the Name column heading to alphabetize files and folders to make it easier to find.)  Once you find it, double click on it to open it.  It should contain multiple folders, including “Bin”, “Bitmaps”, “Help” and “Usr”.  If you see these folders, you should be ok.

If you don’t have the “Vdf17.1” folder at all, or the only folder you see is “Bin”, you don’t have VDF 17.1 installed.  You will need to get it installed before you will be able to run the latest version of the program.    Contact Datatech Customer Support to complete this process.

Check the Version

After installing, go to the Help->About option and verify that the correct version appears.  For The Farmer’s Office and The Labor Contractor’s Office, the version number should be at least 7.19.977.  For The Shipper’s Office and The Broker’s Office, the version should be at least 7.22.545.  If either the middle (the minor version number) or last number (the build number) is higher, that is ok.

Did You Know? – Acct # entry on Pay Crew option

One of the features of Datatech’s Daily Payroll Entry is the Pay Crew option.  This utility allows you to enter one line in the daily payroll entry and with two clicks of the mouse pay the rest of the crew the same pay (Right click in Daily Payroll, select Pay Crew). This shortcut can be used when all (or most) of the employees on a crew sheet will be assigned the same crop/field, job, hours, and pay rate.

To use this utility in the past, however, you had to have the employees previously assigned to a crew.

Many of our customers do not have stable crews and are not able to pre-assign employees to a crew.  Now, when you click on the pay crew option, you can click the Enter Accts button to enter the account #’s from your crew sheet and automatically create the daily payroll lines without having to enter through each line.

When you click the Enter Acct #’s button, the window will expand.  Then, simple enter each account # and press Enter or Tab to enter the next number.

When all account #’s have been entered, click Ok to create all of the daily payroll entry line items.

This utility was designed as a quick entry option when account #’s are available. There is no lookup in this table. However, when account #’s are available, this should be a faster entry method then entering each line manually in the daily payroll entry. Why not give it a try on your next payroll?