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May - November

Forthcoming Shows

Farmplan will be attending the following agricultural shows this year:

• Beef Expro, 21st May
• Royal Cornwall, 5th - 7th June
• Cereals, 11th - 12th June
• Highland, 19th - 22nd June
• Royal Norfolk, 25th - 25th June
• Sheep Event, 30th July
• Monmouth, 28th August
• Tillage South, 11th September
• Tillage North, 25th September
• Agrisoft, 19th November

Spring 2008

SPS Press Release

Online submission of SP5 forms launched

The Rural Payments Agency will be accepting electronic submission of the Single Payment forms via the Government Gateway in 2008.

The Farmplan Single Payment Scheme (SPS) Planner software, which helps users identify Land Use Codes and calculates Eligible Area and Area claimed for Protein, Energy, Nuts and HFA, now enables users to submit their forms online and obtain an immediate submission receipt. This means that, for forms submitted before the deadline, the user can be confident RPA has received them on time.

“Farmplan is one of only two suppliers working with RPA to enhance existing software to enable customers to submit their SP5 Single Payment Scheme application electronically for the 2008 scheme year. In order to ensure the smooth running of the process, a limited number of online submission licences are being made available for the first year, 2008.” Hugh Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, RPA.

The SPS Planner software has been used by Lilburn Estates and Whitbread Farms amongst hundreds of other farm businesses for many years. One of its key benefits is that it can help improve the accuracy of returns and minimise errors.

“This new enhancement will be a valuable addition for many farms. Claimants could significantly reduce their work load using this electronic channel” commented Neil Unitt, Managing Director, Farmplan.

Training and Support is available.

Autumn 2007

Business Manager

The latest version of Business Manager has some exciting new features:

- Cashflow filtered by bank account

- Exporting

- E-Mailing

Find out more information here >>

June 2007

Gatekeeper press release

Major innovation in cropping technology
Internet used to improve crop management processes.

June 2007 - A brand new software package for keeping crop records - designed to cater for the evolving needs of the farming industry - is launched today by agricultural computer management suppliers Farmade and Farmplan. The new program called GateKeeper, synchronises information via the web to enable better information sharing and additional data security.

The software offers multi-user, multi-site access and updating; and facilitates improved farmer agronomist work-plan sharing. “Farming environments have changed considerably over the last 15 years”, Peter Henley, Managing Director at Farmade commented. “Structures and work processes, for many farms, are completely different from how they were. Many farms are now part of a group, rather than individual and want to reap the benefits of shared knowledge and resources. Furthermore, cross compliance and changes in legislation have placed great pressure on farms to improve performance, which in turn has made farmers increasingly reliant on the information exchanged with their Agronomist.”

Common problems are not just related to the ability to share information. Piers Costley, Sales Manager, Farmplan, stated “It is estimated that 70%-80% of cropping software users do not have adequate back-up processes. This puts user’s data at considerable risk. GateKeeper can provide off-site back-up to give farmers confidence that if anything goes wrong, their data is secure”. Mr Costley assured “GateKeeper is user friendly software. We want customers to be able to get real benefits out of the system and are keen that people are able to use it to best effect. The software is fully supported and training is available”.

June 2007

Sheep Manager press release

New tool to help Sheep Farmers improve farm performance

June 2007 - A new software tool to help Sheep Farmers simplify processes and identify ways to improve performance is officially launched today. 'Sheep Manager' stores individual animal data and turns it into useful information for management decision making.

The system, developed by farming computer systems company, Farmplan, enables users to organise and analyse records on every single sheep from birth to point of sale. Farmers can monitor animal margins, pedigree performance, lambing history, slaughter weights etc. as well as easily identify animals for sale, breeding and treatment. As part of the existing livestock range from Farmplan, which also includes 'Flock Manager' for monitoring entire flocks, it can generate statutory movement books and treatment record books as well as integrate with Farmplan's EID solution.

Piers Costley, Sales Manager, Farmplan, commented "It is important to us that people are able to utilise our systems to their greatest advantage. Sheep Manager is easy to use and customers receive free guidance and support for the first 12 months. This enables them to ask any question they have, no matter how basic or advanced."

March 2007

Property Manager

Released in March. In this update we have made changes relating to 'Twice Yeary Rental Period', Scrolling and Holding Edited Record' and 'Property Analysis Report'. For a full list of enhancements please click more info >>

March 2007

Sales Order Processing and Invoice Manager

As a result of listening to feedback from our customers we have been working on a number of exciting features to be incorporated into the Sales Order Processing and Invoice Manager programs.  The changes have been extensively tested in house and it is now being used in real life situations with a number of our beta testers.  It is in the final stages of development and will be ready for release in the next couple of weeks. New features include a number of changes within the Price List option which will allow to update the prices more efficiently.  Notes and user defined codes may now be brought forward from the order stage to despatch and invoices if required. Finished flags will allow you to tidy up your data by removing old customers and products from the data entry and reporting screens where relevant.

March 2007

Single Payment Scheme

The Single Payment Scheme program is almost ready for release in time for you to start preparing this year's forms. As well as updating the forms to the 2007 layout we have added a number of new reports and filters that will enhance the management information available.  Please note that for 2007 the RPA will only accept their own data sheets however you will be able to produce the copy forms from the program to allow you double check that your information is correct before you transpose it to the official forms.

March 2007

Earnie Payroll

It is payroll year end time again. The Earnie Payroll update is being issued this week to allow you to complete your year end returns and submit them on-line.  As we informed you in the Autumn, and more recently by email, this version of Earnie will NOT be compatible with Windows 98 and you will need to update your machine before you can load the program.

March 2007

Windows Vista

Early use of Farmplan software with Windows Vista shows no major issues.  You will need to run Business Manager in Administrator mode the first time that you use - for more details please contact the adviceline.  We would also recommend that you do not load Earnie Payroll , Sales Order Processing or Invoice Manager into the normal default location of c:\program files\ as Vista does not normally allow users to write to this folder (and this is where these programs would normally store their corresponding data files).  If for the time being  you should change the default location when installing - for example c:\earnie instead. Updated versions of the program will be issued.