The Grapevine is moving!

Fresno, California – For years Datatech has maintained our support blog at blog.datatechag.com, known as ‘The Datatech Grapevine.’ In an effort to help clients have support updates and training materials all in one convenient place, The Grapevine is moving to DatatechAg.com/support-training-blog.

You can see the Support Blog on Datatechag.com now in the top main menu under Support/Training. At this location, you can continue to access all the superior support, training and program updates that you’ve come to expect from Datatech.  The blog posts are categorized for your convenience on the topics clients need. We recommend that you open the support blog page as soon as possible and at the very least, bookmark it in your browser for easy online navigation.

If you’re signed up to receive emails when Datatech posts to our support blog, we’re happy to tell you that will continue. If you’re not signed up to follow Datatech with your email address,  and have you’re own WordPress account and only see our support blog posts in your WordPress Reader feed, our content will now only appear on the above support blog location on Datatechag.com, so you’ll need to check this location for the latest from our support team.

As a further convenience, you can sign up with your email to receive our latest blog posts right from the Datatechag.com support blog location and news blog pages. In the next week or so the old blog.datatechag.com website will re-direct to the new support blog location. At the very least, please bookmark DatatechAg.com/support-training-blog in your browser for easy navigation and the latest from Datatech.

If you have any questions, you can contact Datatech. Email me at Jon@Datatechag.com

Thank you for your loyalty and be assured that Datatech is working to put the necessary content and updates in your work space as quickly and simply as possible.

 

New HRM Tool Tip for Deductions on Health Benefit Records

Datatech’s HRM Software has just made it a little easier to check the deductions being calculated when a Health Benefit Record is added or edited. For those who want to see what calculation the software is making to come up with the amount it will deduct for the employee, a new Tool Tip will pop up when the “Amount” box (to the right of the “Employee Cost” field) is clicked with your mouse pointer. Once you have updated your software to version 7.73.0.437 (or newer), you can make use of this new feature.

To begin using the feature, first go to the Employee Entry window and select an employee number. Then click on the Health Benefits tab. You can click the New button to add a new record, or, if an entry already exists that you want to view or edit, highlight that record and click the edit button, or simply double-click that record.

Next click the “Select Plan” button and select (or re-select) the correct Medical Plan from your menu. The deduction amount recorded in your Medical Plan should automatically populate into the “Employee Cost” field. However, suppose your deduction amount is a weekly amount and the employee gets paid monthly or semimonthly? Or suppose the amount is a monthly amount and your employee is paid weekly? How do you know the exact amount the software will deduct from each check?

The new Tool Tip now shows you what calculations are being made and what the actual deduction amount on the pay check will be. Clicking your mouse pointer in the “Amount” box to the right of the “Employee Cost” field will popup the Tool Tip, showing you the basic deduction information. Now hold the Shift key and click the Save button. This saves the entry without closing the Record you have open. Clicking your mouse pointer again over the “Amount” box now shows you any conversion factors being applied as well as the final amount that will be deducted from of each paycheck. Note the screen shot below for an example of what you might see. In this example, the Pay Cycle is “S” for Semimonthly and the Medical Plan indicates the Employee Share is $20.00 per week. A conversion factor is therefore applied to multiply the weekly amount times 52 weeks to determine the annual amount, then divide the annual amount by 24 paychecks to reach the correct semimonthly amount of $43.33 per check.

Form 941 update available

An update is available now that includes changes made to the federal Form 941 for 2017.  Customer that are running The Farmer’s Office, The Labor Contractor’s Office, The Shipper’s Office, The Broker’s Office or Food Processor Accounting can use the Check for Updates option on the Tools menu to download and install this update.

Customers that are using another program will need to call our customer support department to schedule a time to install the update.

If you do not need to file the 941 form (i.e. all of your employees are classified as 943 employees, or you are not using the payroll system) then this update is not required.

This update does include some database changes to the payroll check file.  The database update might take some extra time to complete depending on the size of your payroll history file.  We recommend that you schedule installation of this update either before or after regular working hours to minimize downtime.  Installing the update running the program on your server first will complete the database updates in the least amount of time.

 

 

ACA Correction Report Examples

Before reading this post, make sure you have read the previous post first:  Creating ACA Replacement and Correction Files.

The ACA Correction Report allows you to see what information will be included in a correction file.  Three separate sections are printed to show what information has changed on each part of the form.  In some cases, information may only change in one part of the form, while in others, information in all three parts might change.

Regardless of what information has changed, the entire form is reported in the correction file.  The program automatically references the original form that was reported by using the Receipt ID of the original file

The program looks for specific changes in each part of the 1095-C form.  For instance, in Part I, a change to an employee’s first, middle, or last name or the S.S. #, will result in a corrected 1095-C for that employee being included in the correction file if the IRS reported a TIN Validation Error for that form.  (Other changes to information on Part I of the form, such as your company information, will not trigger the form to be included in the correction file.)  Here is an except of some changes from the Part I section:

In this example, the original reported information for each employee is printed on the first line.  The second line shows the current (corrected) information.  Information that changed is printed in bold letters.  In this example, the middle name and last name have changed for the first employee; the last name has changed for the second employee; the middle name has changed for the third employee; and the first name has changed for the last employee.

 The next except shows changes that have been made to the codes reported on Part II:

For this section, the report lists the account number and the line # (14/15/16) for the information that has changed.    As with the part I section, codes for line 14/16 or amounts for line 15 that have changed since the original electronic file was generated will be printed in bold.  In this except, the first seven employee has one or more codes on line 16 that have changed.  The last employee has code that changed on both lines 14 and 16.

The final except is for corrections to Part III of the 1095-C:

Since there may be multiple individuals that are enrolled in coverage for Part III, the report will print the original individuals reported, draw a line across the page, then list the current Part III enrollee information.

For the Part III information, there may be changes to the individuals that are enrolled as well as the months that they were enrolled in coverage.  For instance, the first employee (19) listed no longer has the month of April checked for being enrolled in coverage.  Employee 148 originally reported only one enrolled individual; now there is a second enrolled individual listed on the form.  Employee 168 originally had two enrolled individuals; now there is only the employee listed as being enrolled.

As with the other two sections, when there are differences between the original and current information, a bold font is used.  So for instance on employee 246, the first two individuals have different months checked and are printed in bold.  But the last two enrollees do not have any differences between the original and current information, so they are not printed in bold.

Creating ACA Electronic Replacement and Correction Files

Many customers have been waiting to generate correction files.  The latest update to the Human Resources Management program includes this feature.  You can use the Tools->Check For Updates option to install the latest version of HRM (7.72.0.436.)  For your reference, we will provide an overview of both the Replacement and the Correction processes here, and  step-by-step instructions will be posted later on the Datatech Support/Training page on our Website.

The online help file for the HRM program has also been updated with detailed information on creating replacement and correction files, as well as printing corrected forms in cases where this is needed.

Last year we added an option to generate a replacement file.  The correction file is a new option.  To start with, this post will explain the purpose for each type of file and in what situations they should be used.

Time to File Your ACA Information Returns with the IRS

Now that the deadline for Paper Filing your ACA Information Returns (February 28, 2017) has come and gone, it is time to focus on making sure your Employee copies of the 1095-C forms have been furnished, either in person or postmarked, by Thursday, March 2, 2017.

And for those of you who must, or who have chosen to, file your returns electronically, you are in the final stretch of meeting your deadline to upload your files to IRS e-Services by March 31, 2017.

If you have missed the paper filing deadline, or if you haven’t already obtained your TCC from the IRS, you have the next 31 days to process your electronic submission. And since the IRS e-Services registration seems to still be an area of some confusion, we would like to remind you again that TWO responsible employees in your company must register for a user account on e-Services in order to properly process your ACA Application for TCC.

Also as a reminder, Datatech will NOT be filing any electronic information returns on behalf of our customers for 2016 reporting. We have been encouraging preparation for these deadlines in earnest since November 2016. We also have a much larger customer base using the HRM software this reporting year, and we do not have sufficient personnel to handle these kinds of requests. Additionally, the electronic file functions of your HRM Software are much better utilized if you process your own information returns.

For more information and step-by-step instructions to help you through the entire 1095-C and 1094-C process, please click on the Movie Clapboard icon in your Datatech programs to open our Support Videos training website. Once there, scroll down and click on the Annual Training link located underneath the Human Resource Management heading.

This opens the training page dedicated to the Webinar we held back in November 2016 regarding 1095-C and 1094-C Preparation. After the page opens, click on the large green button to Download a PDF of the Webinar pages. Note that there are seven sections to the training, including preparing TIN Validation Notices.

If you focus on sections two through six, and watch the associated videos for these sections, you should still be able to complete the process by the March 31, 2017 deadline. But the IRS e-Services Registration and subsequent ACA Application for TCC should be your first priorities, since these will take a few weeks to complete. After reviewing these training materials, please feel free to send specific questions to support@datatechag.com.

IRS Issues TCC Status Alert

As we know that this problem has already affected some of our customers, please be aware that the IRS has issued the alert shown below. You may use the following link to go directly to the IRS site.

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USIRS/bulletins/18a392a 

UPLOADING ACA ELECTRONIC FILES

Some of our customers have reported issues with being able to find the IRS upload pages for either Test files or Production files. Here is a new link to open the IRS site where you can select which channel you want to use and then log in to upload your files, obtain your Receipt ID, and then check the status of your submission and (in the case of Production files) Download your Acknowledgement file.

After clicking on the link below an IRS web page will open. Scroll down on the far right-hand side under the header UI Channel Link, and then choose either the AIR UI Channel Login – AATS (Testing) for uploading Test files, or AIR UI Channel Login – Production for uploading your actual production files.

https://www.irs.gov/for-tax-pros/software-developers/information-returns/affordable-care-act-information-return-air-program 

Datatech expands Support/Training pages

Fresno, California – In an effort to help our clients grow in their learning and make the most of their software purchase, we continue to expand and reorganize the Support/Training videos pages of our website. Supporting clients with our friendly Support and Training staff on the phone, online and in person is an extremely important part our overall mission to provide leading software solutions in ag cost-accounting, payroll, inventory and sales and excellent customer service.

Time is money and we strive to help clients simplify their daily cost accounting and payroll entry to save hours in the workday. Datatech client Cindy Kramer from Farmex and Sundance Orchards in Sanger, California says Datatech has given them their time back, “The more we explore it(Datatech Software), the more we are freed up from what we were doing before.” Farmex and Sundance made the jump from doing their accounting, inventory and sales by hand with spreadsheets to Datatech’s ‘The Shipper’s Office’ software with payroll, “Following the information for payables and receivables on the office side is so much easier than it was for the employees. I recommend it to anybody. For us it was a quantum leap!”

To aid Farmex and Sundance Orchards and all our clients, Datatech’s Support/Training videos have now been re-organized into sections such as ‘Payroll’; ‘Webinar Training’; ‘Accounts Payable’ and ‘Human Resource Management.’ These sections include training videos for refreshers on initial training with Datatech’s Training Manager, Hannah Tarrats, and many topics to help clients refresh their learning for various training in quarterly and annual reporting. Knowledge is power.

The new ‘Accounts Payable’ section includes the first webinar training video on ‘Bank Reconcilement Training’ for new clients and those that would like a refresher for their monthly reconciliation process. Clients will now also find a new training video on a recent software update that allows for creating new rules for piece work ‘break’ line items in Datatech’s payroll software. Just another way Datatech is being responsive to your needs and requests.

These training videos are available 24/7, 365 days a year on DatatechAg.com/Support. 

Ready? Get set! Learn! It’s that easy.

Datatech software clients are found across America as farmers, growers, labor contractors and produce packers, shippers and brokers; and they’ve been enjoying time savings and greater efficiency with their daily payroll, cost accounting, real time inventory and sales solutions since 1980.

Bank Reconciliation Training

Datatech –  Training Manager Hannah Tarrats will conduct an online webinar on February 21, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. PST. Improve your knowledge with Datatech.

This webinar will cover the bank reconciliation process, including entering and tracking outstanding checks from your previous software, and tools & tips for finding and fixing discrepancies.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Register now on the link below for this webinar:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3303917373421428737

After registering you’ll receive a confirmation email with information about joining the webinar.

View System Requirements

Hope to ‘see’ you there!