Happy Holidays from the team at AgWare!
Wow, were did 2013 go? We would like to wish all of you the happiest of Holidays and a blessed New Year!
AgWare has been diligently working on the MGR program and we have been making great progress, but there has been slightly more revamping than expected. You have probably noticed that we have not announced a release that is ready for download. Due to some technical challenges in getting the 2013 tax forms completed in the existing FarmMGR program, we needed to create the reporting portions for this tax year in the new AgWare MGR system instead of waiting until next year. Here is an update on where we are with the program and what will be happening in January.
There are three things AgWare is doing to move the program forward:
1) AgWare is officially supporting the current FarmMGR program on Windows 7.
AccuTech did not officially support FarmMGR on systems beyond Windows XP, and we know that many customers are running on old computers to make sure they can receive support. All of our development is taking place on Windows 7 or Windows 8 computers and we are successfully running the FarmMGR software. We have now used enough of the system on Windows 7 that we are comfortable supporting the software on Windows 7. If you install the software on a new computer be aware there is an error at the end of the install when an old conversion tool is run. This tool is not needed and the error can be ignored.
2) A second developer has been added to help get the new version completed as quickly as possible.
3) The 1099 Tax forms will be printed from the new AgWare MGR system.
Most of our work over the past month has focused on the reporting system in AgWare MGR. We will have the initial AgWare MGR system ready for download by January 10th. The first version will only have three areas for you to use. Those are a) GL Summary Reports b) Tax Reports and c) Custom reports.
Tax Specific Information:
The initial versions of the AgWare software will run side by side with the AccuTech FarmMGR program. For your 2013 taxes the FarmMGR program will be used to prepare the Tax data, so all of the “Prepare Data” functions will be completed using AccuTech FarmMGR. All of the reporting functions including the electronic export will be completed in AgWare MGR.
AgWare completed the electronic export functions this week. However, we quickly found out that the IRS testing system is not available for testing until January 20, 2014. We will be testing our export files as soon as that system becomes available. We are checking with some customers to see if they still have data from 2012 that we can use to verify our export files. January 20th is also the earliest date that live electronic files can be submitted to the IRS.
Here is a preview of the Tax report screen in the AgWare MGR system. The “Report” drop down will let you change between 6 tax reports. The reports include the 1099 INT Forms and 1099 MISC Forms as well as the listing reports of the Print/Not Print for both INT and MISC forms.
We appreciate your business and we are excited for what 2014 has in store for the AgWare MGR program. Please feel free to contact us at 605.791.4872 with any questions or to set up a tutorial of the AgWare MGR system. Our offices will be closed on December 24th, 25th, and 26th to celebrate Christmas and on New Year’s Day.