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Pc Mars Plus for Windows is an enhancement to Pc Mars. It adds complete inventory tracking, livestock production data, crop production data, enterprise allocation, a combine set of books utility, and extra report capabilities.

The software requirements are a Pentium 266 MHz system with 32 meg of RAM if using Windows 95/98 or 64 meg of RAM if using Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista. A VGA monitor and Windows supported printer is also required.

INVENTORY TRACKING

Pc Mars Plus allows you to automatically increase/decrease inventory items (ie: corn, beans, hogs, supplies) when entering cash transactions. The inventory is adjusted by the entry of inventory numbers in transactions (for purchases and sales). "Inventory Actions" can also be entered to track non-cash inventory activities such as transfers, crops harvested, feed fed to livestock and livestock births and deaths. End of month assets and liabilities numbers are automatically calculated and can be displayed and reported at any time. You are able to quickly assign your inventory a FMV and generate a net worth for any month. A screen shot of the inventory action screen is shown below.

LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION DATA

An instant snapshot of monthly livestock numbers are displayed in a spreadsheet-like "check" screen. This shows inventory numbers and changes for both cash and non-cash activity on a monthly basis. From this screen changes in inventory can easily be added or edited and a report printed out.

CROP PRODUCTION DATA

An instant snapshot of crop numbers are displayed in a spreadsheet-like "check" screen. This shows inventory numbers and changes for both cash and non-cash activity on a monthly basis. From this screen changes in inventory can easily be added or edited and a report printed out.

An entry screen is provided for entry of crop production data by field and/or farm. Field acreage, planting, harvest and production data can be entered for owned, cash rented or crop share rented categories. A summary screen and reporting options are also available.

ENTERPRISE ALLOCATION

You can allocate transaction activity that was entered in the GEN (General) enterprise to other enterprises by percent or dollars. The Allocated Enterprise Report has been added to show these allocations.

COMBINE UTILITY

A utility is provided to combine 2 sets of books into one. This can be used to combine fiscal years into a calendar year set of books or to combine two accounting entities into one.

ADDITIONAL REPORTS

Additional comments

Pc Mars Plus is only for the cash version and simply tracks inventory for the net worth. Your tax reports are still cash basis.

Pc Mars Plus is an enhancement to Pc Mars, so you can still access all past Pc Mars data. The additional features in Pc Mars Plus will simply be "grayed out" because they are not available in your prior Pc Mars data. Additionally, Pc Mars Plus can convert your data from Pc Mars to Pc Mars Plus.  New for version 2.3 -- the program can be installed in a "both" configuration allowing accrual sets of books to be created and opened (no Plus features).

Upgrade Information

Pc Mars Plus for Windows version 2.3 is now available. The major changes from Version 2.0 are listed below.  The changes in Version 2.3 are in blue and listed first.

Payroll

File

Options

Setup

Transactions

Reports]

Inventory (new name, was net worth)

Cash Flow

Utility

Other

Updade Prices

New and upgrade prices

To order by E-mail click on this link http://www.iowafarmbusiness.org/support/e-mail%20order%20form.htm

Patch updates to Pc Mars Plus Version 2.2

Problems were detected after version 2.2 was released.  A update patch is available to fix these problems, as well as added features. You can tell if any of these affect you by examining the version number, listed under "About Pc Mars Plus" under the Help Menu. Examine the version number and note the changes made for higher versions than yours. Described below are the problems and changes made for each of the versions updates. Note that these update VERSION 2.2 ONLY.

Version 2.2.8

  1. The 2 percent reduction of the employee share of social security taxes is extended through December 31, 2012.
  2. Fixed a problem where a "table open" error occurred in the conversion of a regular Pc Mars set of books to Pc Mars Plus set of books.  This occurred under the Setup menu, Business Information.

Version 2.2.7

  1. The 2 percent reduction of the employee share of social security taxes is extended until February 29, 2012.
  2. For non-simplified payroll method, the employer share of social and medicare is not added to the paycheck if the the user blanks out the employee share of social security and medicare.
  3. Fixed a problem in FINPACK export (Minnesota users only), where milk units were not being exported correctly.

Version 2.2.6

  1. Fixed a problem with network sharing (Paradox user error), caused by enhanced open/view.
  2. Changed the calculating of State Tax Withholding with a fixed amount only being entered. (Advanced Payroll only)
  3. No longer allow reusing of paychecks from a previous year and recurring paychecks are not carried over from a previous year. This is because of different withholding percentages used in past years.
  4. Allow ZIP backup and restore of PLUS set of books in Pc Mars.
  5. Added an option for enterprise budgeting – Small business and Church Set of Books only.
  6. Added an option for enterprise “Fund” balance reporting – Small business and Church Set of Books only.
  7. Changed multiple selection in the Check Register Report to “period” vs. “month” when direct control of the period is enabled.
  8. Added a warning when a “zero amount” paycheck is entered and changed the calculation to show withholding in the appropriate Labor Reports.
  9. Program change – Now only withholding will be included on paycheck stubs, even if a same name is used in the Vendor List as well as the Employee List.
  10. A date range selection was added to the W2 Summary Report.
  11. Added an option to the Expanded Labor Report for advanced users to screen out labor deposits occurring in a month or date range. Also this deposit criteria is listed on the top of the deposit portion of the report.
  12. Option to specify quarterly FUTA rates for 2011(only), on the FUTA Report screen. For fiscal Set of Books, different FUTA rates and limits can be entered for the two spanned calendar years (under Payroll General Information)
  13. Fixed an issue in the Labor Withholding and Deposit Report where the printing of deposits was overrunning past the end of the page.
  14. Added a check in Advanced Payroll (only), where labor deposit descriptions cannot be the same as any of the withholding descriptions. Also in Advanced Payroll, a check was added so that pension employer share description cannot be the same as pension withholding description.
  15. Additional PLUS Feature – Fixed a combine issue, when a user received a “EmpTable1: Field: Other4 percent’ not found.”

Version 2.2.5

  1. Several users received a reconcile error after installing version 2.2.4.  This was due to characteristics of different operating systems.  This patch will correct this issue for all operating systems.
  2. Non-simplified payroll users who made manual entries without matching descriptions for Social Security and Medicare withholdings noticed changes to the labor deposit reports.  This patch restores previous method for employer share matching calculations for paychecks entered prior to 1-1-11.
  3. Updated new IFBA address for advanced payroll ordering

 Version 2.2.4

This update accommodates the federal 2010 year end tax legislation dealing with social security paycheck deductions.  The new law requires the employee share of social security tax for 2011 be decreased to 4.2% (instead of the previous 6.2%).  The employer's share, or match amount, will remain unchanged at 6.2%.  If any paychecks were entered incorrectly at the 6.2% rate, this update will also handle any offsetting adjustments made prior to March 31, 2011.

Version 2.2.3

  1. Removed period column from reports where not pertinent; (when direct control of the period is NOT selected). The period is always displayed on these reports: check register and bank transfer report.
  2. The deposit number now prints on the Nelco deposit tickets
  3. Nelco check & deposit forms listed in selection box and Nelco order screens are added with hyperlinks to their website.
  4. Tack notes are now "word wrapped" for entry and viewing ease.
  5. Loan interest rate is printed on loan reports
  6. Added an option to print all tack notes on the Year End Detail Report (Cash Version) or Full Year General Ledger (Accrual Version).
  7. Added the ability to change a non-multiple loan vendor expense to a multiple loan vendor expense and vice-versa.
  8. Enhanced Open/View now will now read books that have been “renamed” to a longer books names than the Pc Mars Plus 8-characters default.
  9. Amount column is moved before description column on the credit transaction screen to match the check and deposit entry screens.
  10. Fixed an issue with deposit slip printing with blank vendors or descriptions
  11. Date format (mm/dd/yy) cannot be overridden by a computer’s operating configuration.
  12. On the Restore screen, the "Restore from zip file" check box was moved to the top of the screen.
  13. Fixed an issue with the Tack Notes’ “Go To” button when there was no notes ever created.
  14. If Account Receivable Program, A/R (interfaced mode) is running with an open set of books, Pc Mars Plus cannot open that set of books at the same time and vice versa.
  15. Added a feature under Utility to reset the printer settings. This will reset both the report and check printer option to the Windows default printer. This feature was added because wireless printers were being “lost” when signal dropped out.
  16. Updated Advanced Payroll order form
  17. Renamed patch installation exe file for improved patch installation
  18. Changed 2.2.3 installation so that any “read only” program files that need updated have their attributes automatically changed.

Version 2.2.1

  1. Modified program for regular payroll so that state tax tables can be used for state tax withholding after December 2009.  Note that these tables may be out of date, so state withholding calculations may not be correct after December 2009.
  2. Fixed problem with employee list (regular and advanced payroll) where certain edit items were not being updated when using the scroll bar to browse employees.
  3. Fixed a "looping" error condition in advanced payroll when changing pension type.
  4. Fixed a problem converting regular payroll to advanced payroll, when "YES" is entered instead of "CONVERT".

Version 2.2.2

  1. Enhanced Open/View is now available in advanced file maintenance mode.
  2. Fixed a problem with loan balances not being carried over correctly.
  3. Fixed a problem in Alternate FICA report with advanced payroll when using "other" pay types (Advanced Payroll only).
  4. Removed shading in the Net Worth Statement that was causing a problem with some printers.
  5. Added back in Fica detail to labor reports that was in previous versions of Pc Mars Plus.
  6. Fixed a problem with Fica/Fed remaining calculations in detail labor reports.
  7. Added back in then "View/Changie ending data" function to net worth.  This is done with a right-click menu option.

IIf any of these affect you and you want to update your program to the latest release (2.2.8) , go to IFBA website to: Download Update (fix) to Pc Mars Plus 2.2

This is a file that updates or fixes your existing Pc Mars Plus 2.2 program file. Just save the file to your desktop. Then run the update program (Pc Mars Plus Update 2.2.8.0.exe) by double clicking on it. It will ask you for the location (folder) containing Pc Mars Plus 2.2. This most likely will be in "PcmWinf". This folder you specify must contain Pc Mars Plus 2.2 in order for the program to be updated.

Patch updates to Pc Mars Plus Version 2.3

Problems were detected after version 2.3 was released.  An update patch is available to fix these problems, as well as added features. You can tell if any of these affect you by examining the version number, listed under "About Pc Mars Plus" under the Help Menu. Examine the version number and note the changes made for higher versions than yours. Described below are the problems and changes made for each of the versions updates. Note that these update VERSION 2.3 ONLY.

Version 2.3.2

  1. Added a bank balance override feature.  This allows you to "start over" with selected bank account(s) if carried over bank balances are in error, due to problems with prior year sets of books.
  2. Added inventory number to the report of assets and liabilities carried forward on the carry over balances utility.
  3. Improved the user experience on the Capital Asset Purchase wizard - On a blank creditor you can go backwards, and  improved the use of the enter key on entry grids.
  4. Fixed some issues with error checking on the entry of the data location of prior year set of book(s).
  5. Fixed an issue with the calculator returned result.
  6. Fixed an issue with the carryover of existing duplicate assets descriptions.  Also added error checking when new duplicate asset descriptions are entered.
  7. Added error checking when deleting assets that have been carried over to a new year.

Version 2.3.1

  1. Corrected a few issues with the Capital Asset Purchase wizard and added capabilities:
    1. Corrected an issue with the "vendor" column showing, when it should not have been, after a Capital Asset Purchase (with Cash and Financing) is saved to a check transaction.
    2. Clarification of the "boot" comment.  It is now not displayed if the transaction includes rolling over an existing loan.
    3. Expense and income codes can now be entered in the entry detail associated with rolling over an existing loan.
    4. Corrected an issue with the Capital Asset Wizard button on the icon bar being enabled for Accrual sets of books.  It is now grayed out (disabled).
  2. Corrected an issue with the exporting of selected items to a spreadsheet.  It was not importing everything if the period specifications were blank.  The issue is now fixed.
  3. Clarified the Social Security Rate comment on Payroll General Information screen and F1 help screen.
  4. Corrected an issue with the Carryover Balances utility with the carrying over of zero balance loans.  The zero balance loans were being carried over again even if the user chose not to when creating a new sets of books for the year.  This is now fixed.
  5. Clarified the F1 help screen for Finpack account code customization.
  6. Added the availability of periods n1-n12 on the menu bar and the period selection screen when in Direct Control of Period mode.

 If any of these affect you and you want to update your program to the latest release (2.3.2) click on the following: Download Update (fix) to Pc Mars Plus 2.3

This is a file that updates or fixes your existing Pc Mars 2.3 program file. Just save the file to your desktop. Then run the update program (Pc Mars Update 2.3.2.0.exe) by double clicking on it. It will ask you for the location (folder) containing Pc Mars 2.3. This most likely will be in "PcmWinf". This folder you specify must contain Pc Mars 2.3 in order for the program to be updated.

For further information, E-Mail IFBA or E-Mail SoftShell.

This page last updated on 3/19/2013