New subscribers to Farmcaster are faced with an important task – getting their historic data entered. While it is a task that can be accomplished by anyone, some new users might find it a little daunting in its scope and detail. There are tools and services that Farmcaster offers to help with this.
In our first blog, Farmcaster’s Implementation Services were showcased to save time and ensure accuracy of data being entered into the program. You send us your financial statements, and we will make sure they get entered quickly and accurately.
In this blog, we would like to introduce you to the compatibilities that Farmcaster has with two other programs – Farm Credit Canada’s(FCC) AgExpert Analyst and CaseWare’s accounting and audit software. These compatibilities are different in a few ways but accomplish the same end-goal – to have your data entered accurately and, in a way, by using the information that exists in the source programs.
First, let us look at FCC’s AgExpert upload feature into Farmcaster. The compatibility is currently with the desktop version of AgExpert Analyst. AgExpert is a bookkeeping software program that is designed specifically for farmers. If the email addresses are the same in both programs, all it takes is a few clicks to get your data into Farmcaster. At this point, your data will be held in a temporary “pending matches” page, this is where you will match the data with the appropriate Farmcaster data codes. There is a high degree of customization available in AgExpert, as such to ensure that the codes match up properly, we do require the user to match them. The time savings and accuracy benefits are still substantial. Refer to the step by step process outlined in the User Guide.
CaseWare is an accounting and audit software program used by many accountants. If your accountant is using CaseWare, there is an opportunity for you to get the source data that your financial statements are based on. This is a discussion you will have to have with your accountant. Farmcaster cannot promise that you will be able to actually acquire these source files. However, if you can get access to them, the upload into Farmcaster is quite smooth. Since the data in these files are based on a master code list called GIFY codes, we are able to match them without any user-input required. Simply refer to our step by step process in the User Guide. In summary, it is important to remind users that getting your data entered accurately is important for Farmcaster to be used to its full extent. It is nice to know that for AgExpert Analyst and CaseWare users, there will time saved, and accuracy improved with the compatibilities.