Simplified Fuel Tax Credits

In April, the Australian Taxation Office announced measures to simplify fuel tax credits. Some of those changes only apply to entities claiming less than $10,000.00 in fuel tax credits, which equates to eligible fuel purchases of approximately 25,000 litres.

Another change to simplify calculating fuel tax credits relates to heavy vehicles used mainly off road. The ATO has created a list of heavy vehicles they consider to be used fully off public roads e.g. bulldozers or headers. From the March BAS period onwards it is no longer necessary to apportion on and off road use for those eligible heavy vehicles when calculating fuel tax credit claims even, if they are sometimes driven on a public road.

More information on Simplified fuel tax credits can be found using the link below.

https://www.ato.gov.au/business/fuel-schemes/fuel-tax-credits---business/working-out-your-fuel-tax-credits/simplified-fuel-tax-credits/

Keeping up to date with ATO changes which may affect your business can be done by subscribing to RSS news feeds or Email subscriptions on the ATO website.

https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Gen/Subscriptions/

It is also recommended to contact your Accountant or Financial Advisor for assistance on your eligibility.

Farm Management Solutions that you understand -  www.agdata.com.au

Emailing Invoices from Phoenix

Recently, AGDATA sent out a survey to all clients asking for your valuable feedback. Some of the respondents advised they would like the emailing of invoicing simplified. Currently within Phoenix you can enter a new invoice and email straight from within the invoice window.

Email Invoices from Phoenix
To email invoices from Phoenix, a Customer account and Sub-account(s) must be set up to have the structure to record an invoice. For the customer to whom the invoice is to be emailed their email address must be recorded in their Card File entry.  If Customers haven’t been set up, go to Phoenix Help, select the Index tab and ‘Customer’. Alternatively, if you are using Phoenix Version 8 go to Help and select Video Tutorials to access the video on Setting up Customer and Supplier Account.

• Click on the Customer button on your toolbar

• Select the Customer Account from the drop down and click Ok

• Once the selected Customer window is open, select the New button e.g. New: May’16 to enter the invoice details.

• Once you have entered your invoice appropriately, click Save

• A Confirm box will offer the option to Print the Tax invoice by selecting Yes,  or Email can be selected here.

• The email with the invoice attached will appear for you to check the email address as well as add any other message you want to include in the email.

• Click Send


Alternatively, if you have already entered the Invoice, selected Print but now want to email it as well, or you simply need to email the Invoice again:

• Once in the Customer Account find the invoice you wish to email

• To Open the invoice simply double click on it

• Displayed at the top of the invoice is a Printer Icon, select the drop down arrow to the right
• From this drop down select ‘Preview Invoice 0000#’
• This will then open the preview of the invoice which like all reports in Phoenix can be printed, saved or emailed.

We hope that helps you.  As always our support team are here to answer that quick question to get you out of a bind.  We recommend the Signature Service Plan to ensure you are getting the most out of your investment in the Phoenix Farm Management Solutions.  The Signature Service Plan gives you greater access to our support team and the marvelous tutorial videos that they have created to help you when you need the help most.

www.agdata.com.au

Buyer beware - Your data is valuable

Recently we noticed yet another startup in the #AgTech space, so we went to see what they had to offer as any responsible business would do.

We always say to our potential clients who are making comparisons between us and our competitors, 'make sure you look at the terms and conditions (T's & C's) before you put your money down.  We believe our T's & C's are the most reasonable, fair and respectful that you will find.

With this new startup, we unearthed some of the most unreasonable T's & C's we have observed in our 32 years.  Essentially, the company took exclusive rights to the data you entered into their cloud software.  This enables them to access your data and sell it to 'anyone'.

'CAVEAT EMPTOR - LET THE BUYER BEWARE'

When investing your time and money into any cloud platform - Please read the fine print.  The terms and conditions are a legal agreement.  Don't legally give your data away! It is a valuable commodity.

You can find our own terms and conditions on the Phoenix Live page.

Using Alternate Storage Systems with Phoenix

'Computers are manufactured devices and like any piece of equipment we use can, and do, break.'

Sometimes the data on them can be retrieved but sometimes it can’t and unless we have external copies of at least essential data, it may be completely lost.

External Storage Devices

External storage devices are popular. They come in many different types with a wide variety of options and price tags to match the features offered.  As long as these devices are not stored with the computer so in the event of a disaster which destroys the computer, the storage devices are not destroyed as well, you will probably be able to retrieve your valuable information and restore it onto a new or repaired computer.

Cloud Storage

Another popular option for storage of data so it is off site and therefore not exposed to the same risks as your device is ‘cloud storage’.  The Phoenix Warehouse is in effect a cloud storage facility for Phoenix backups which was first made available to clients about 2001, long before the phrase ‘cloud storage’ was coined.  As with any such storage facility the data is actually stored on servers owned or rented by the storage provider and accessed through an internet connection.  In the case of AGDATA the servers are owned and maintained by AGDATA in Australia for the use of the clients who have subscribed to that service.  The data stored on those servers remains the property of the client and it is the client who grants access to their data to another party, if they need to.

Relevant Questions

There are many other data storage providers who provide servers which you can access to store digital data.  If using any form of offsite data storage facility, it is important to know:

1. Where is the data stored? If it is off shore it won’t be covered by Australian laws regarding privacy etc.

2. Can you get assistance from the cloud provider if necessary?

3. Who has access to the data?  Some companies will sell or share data they store.

4. What is the longevity of the company providing the data storage?  Have they got a proven track record and likely to be around as long as you need the to be?

5. What happens to your data if the storage provider goes out of business?

Data Sharing Risks

Another use of offsite data storage facilities is to have data stored on the offsite servers and to then access that data from different computers in different locations.  While this sounds like a good idea it has the potential to be disastrous when there are not good data management guide lines in place which are strictly adhered to.  Even when they are, syncing between your computer and a storage facility not designed for a Phoenix database can still result in lost data.  If using offsite storage in this way, ensure there are local backups as well so any loss is minimised.  If access to the same data is required from different locations a dedicated cloud solution such a Phoenix Live is a better solution.

Contact our support team on 07 46328488 or email tech@agdata.com.au if you have concerns about the storage solution you are using.

Farm Business Analysis from historical data

Farm Business Analysis

Innovation and Automation

Given the rate at which innovation is travelling today, on farm automation, robotics, sensors, and big data are just around the corner, if they are not here already.  A lot of the analysis of the data will be done for you once all of the information is aggregated and presented in such a way for you to make expeditious smart business decisions from a dashboard not that much dissimilar to the Phoenix Suite Screen seen below.

Phoenix Suite Screen Gadgets

The Value of Historical Data

Agriculture is a long term business and there is a lot to be learned from the on farm activities looking back over the seasons.  This is why history is taught in schools, so that we can learn from the past successes, and failures.  Hopefully we will replicate the success and avoid poor decisions in the future.

Benchmarking

When benchmarking your business, it is always good to measure from as early a point as possible.  You can compare your historical data with data available at various locations on the web including farm survey data for the beef, lamb and sheep industries.  A large selection of AAGIS data for beef, lamb and sheep industries covering the period from 1989-90 is available for selection and download via: Data

Ian McLean of Bush Agribusiness shares his views on the topic

'Long term data can be quite powerful in terms of showing how businesses have performed, and changed over time.  Analysis of long term income should look at what the changes in total real income have been and how much changes are due to changes in market prices, and changes in volumes sold.  The expenses will show how total (real) costs and the cost structure (enterprise expenses, overhead expenses, capital expenditure, finance costs and taxation) of the business have changed over time.  When long term data is analysed it should be done in real terms, to better reflect actual changes over time without the effect of inflation muddying the waters.'

Restoring historical Phoenix data from floppy disc

When you upgrade to Phoenix 8 from older versions of Phoenix, our team in Toowoomba can bring your data up to the current version as a part of the upgrade cost.  You need to do this within a month of the upgrade payment unless you take out the Signature Service Plan subscription.  If you have left Phoenix to try other programs before coming back to Phoenix and have some old floppy disc backups: we can import that data for you.  We believe, very few, if any other software company can provide this service.

As a current customer, if you find some old backup floppy discs in the cupboard and don't have that data available in Phoenix for analysis, and you're not a Signature Service Plan subscriber:  we maybe able to import that data into another database for you to analyse, however it will be a fee for service.

A number of environmental and physical factors could prevent the data from being recovered.  These factors could include electromagnetic and dust exposure, or physical damage to the floppy disc.

Look at your choices when it comes to selecting the Phoenix Financial package that suits your business.

Important Fuel Tax Credit Information

Don’t forget 1st February…………

Why?  Fuel tax credit rates increased in line with the latest CPI changes.

AGDATA has released the updates for Version 7 and 8 with the new rates in them.

It is now your responsibility to ensure that you have installed those updates and have created the new Fuel Tax Regimes starting 01/02/2016 in order to claim the rebate at the latest rate. The new regime(s) can be created after you have entered your February transactions, but should be created before you lodge a BAS which includes February.

Although we routinely update the Fuel Tax Credit rate in line with the ATO, there are still some of you who only install the Phoenix updates expecting the new rates to be automatically applied.  We are unable to create the new regime, this needs to be done by you.  It would be great if this could be the case but for various reasons it can’t.

As the off road rates in particular have been increasing, if you are still claiming your fuel tax credit at the rate which applied several years ago, you may be under-claiming.  Depending on the volume of fuel you use this could be a significant amount of income you are missing out on.

As an example a client whose off road fuel consumption from November 2014 to January 2016 was about 90000 L and who’s on road fuel was about 25000 l and who hasn’t changed their Fuel Tax regimes since July 2014 has under claimed Fuel Tax credits of almost $1000.

For each set of books using the Fuel Tax Credit calculators in Phoenix the regimes must be manually updated each time there is a change.  The change will in most instances be because of changes in the rates, but if your fuel use changes significantly that also requires a new regime. E.g. You were previously claiming a rebate only for off road fuel and then purchased a truck over 4.5t GVM.  If this truck meets the eligibility criteria to claim the fuel rebate and is used on road as well as off road a new regime may need to be set up starting from the date of the change in use.

Many leave it up to the accountant to work out your claims or manually calculate them. Once the regimes are set up in Phoenix the only other information required for Phoenix to report the amount to put in 7D in the BAS is the quantity purchased. This is recorded when entering an invoice from the fuel supplier, if using Suppliers in Phoenix, or when recording a payment for fuel in the bank account, if Suppliers aren’t used.
Below is a link to the Australia Taxation Office website. If you type Fuel Tax Credit into the Search field you will be given a range of topics to choose from to learn more about eligibility, rates and claiming.

https://www.ato.gov.au/

There are a few helpful tutorial videos available on this topic for Signature Service Plan subscribers

There is also a free tutorial video available on the topic

Contact our helpful support team if you are still unsure of what needs to be done on 1800 500 400

Not using Phoenix Financials yet?  Take a look at how your farm business management could benefit from the solutions developed with only one industry in mind - Agriculture

http://www.agdata.com.au

The Death of Windows XP – Are you still using it?

Almost 2 years ago, after 13 years, Microsoft withdrew support for the Windows XP operating system. It is estimated that over 1 billion copies of Windows XP were sold both to businesses and individuals. This means that there is a good chance that some of you are still using the Windows XP operating system. If this applies to you, keep reading to find out how this affects you.

Withdrew support?

So what does it mean now that Microsoft no longer supports Windows XP? From a Microsoft point of view they no longer produce updates or patch security issues. They also will not provide any support for issues that you may encounter. Obviously, this leaves Windows XP open to attacks from viruses, malware, hackers and other security concerns. This alone is the one reason why you should discontinue using Windows XP.

Impact for Phoenix Users?

When Microsoft withdrew support for the XP operating system two years ago, so did the majority of software developers worldwide including AGDATA Australia. AGDATA Australia can no longer guarantee that any version of Phoenix will run securely on Windows XP. We have no option but to discontinue our support for Phoenix on Windows XP.

If you need to call AGDATA Australia for Phoenix support we may ask you what operating system you are running. If you are using Windows XP we are not able to provide support for Phoenix or Phoenix Live on that platform.