F.A.Q.s

It seems like a lot of money!

Compared to a word processing program which is expected to sell millions of copies, then yes, it may seem like a lot of money! But, if you look at it as a specialized tool that you are going to use every day and which will save you time, make you more efficient, and give you all the critical information you need at your fingertips, then we think it is a bargain. And by the way so do our customers.

We have a certain way of doing things and we don't want to be forced to change!

We won't make you! Our software is so flexible that you can work any way that you want to. The only difference is that you will end up being far more efficient and having far less to do!

What about technical support?

We answer our phones from 6am to 6pm PST,  Mon. - Sat., and are available earlier or later by appointment.  In fact, we work farmers hours so you don't have to! And, no you are not going to end up talking to somebody in India who can barely speak English and who won't be able to help you! You'll be talking to our developer who knows the program inside and out

Why do we need a support contract if the program is so easy to use?

That's a very good question and, to be truthful, you probably don't but if you want complete peace of mind, knowing that you can call anytime and as often as you want with any questions about the software, and be able to get free upgrades, then $50 a month doesn't seem like a lot to pay, does it!

How often will you be releasing an upgrade?

The short answer is that we don't know! We are constantly adding new features and functionality but the likelihood is that there will be a major upgrade once a year with many minor ones during that time.

Can we enter data into a mobile device while we are out in the field?

Not right now but we are working on a solution to this and hope to have one available within the next couple of months!

What's the deal with this Top Ten Award?

In our launch year, 2008, we were honored with a Top Ten New Product Award from the World Ag Expo, the world's biggest farming show each year in Tulare. That year, over 250 products were submitted for consideration so it was a very big deal for us to be chosen as one of the top ten.

How big is your company?

We're very small with just a few people but we are very efficient and we have all the people we need to continue to develop the program and to support our growing customer base!

How does it work if we need customization?

That's very simple. You tell us exactly what you need and we'll give you a price (and a time frame) to incorporate it for you. Our rates are very reasonable and our turn-around time is usually less than a week!

How do you know so much about our business?

Because it's our business too! We are growers ourselves; we just happen to have a lot of expertise in computer programming as well! This makes us uniquely suited to provide a solution to other farmers!

At least one of your competitors claim the same thing and they sell a program for less than $300!

Yes, they do and we're not going to compare ourselves to them - that's for you to do and to make a decision as to which program will give you the most value for your money. But, we will say that if we charged as little as they do, we would have no budget for ongoing development and we wouldn't be able to provide anything other than a cursory level of support.

Why don't we just write this ourselves?

You certainly could but you would not have anything that you could use for months or maybe years, plus it would cost you far more than just buying our software which is ready to use immediately. As an aside, if you hired us to write this program for you specifically, it would have cost you well in excess of $100K so far and we're not finished developing.

How do we know you're going to stay in business?

The truth of the matter is that you don't - nobody does! We're in it for the long haul; we've invested a substantial amount of money bringing this program to market and for us to go out of business, just wouldn't make any sense. We've also been developing software (for many different industries) for the past 20 years so we're not a new kid on the block.

Are you open to suggestions and/or criticism?

Absolutely! We love to hear suggestions; in fact, many of the better features in the program have come from our customers. As to criticism; if you think we've made something too complicated or difficult to understand, we definitely want to hear about it. As a developer, we are sometimes too close to the wood to see the trees so a fresh viewpoint will often spot something that we've overlooked. So, please don't hesitate to contact us with either!

We use Quickbooks currently and we don't want to have to start all over again!

You're not going to have to! Quickbooks is an accounting program and it is brilliant at what it does but you cannot get the level of detail from it that you need to manage your business effectively and efficiently. Hay&CropManager!" simply becomes the front end to your accounting program and it takes over all sales, receivables, inventory control and customer records. At the end of each day or period, you simply enter your total sales and your total payments into it as journal entries so that it can generate profit and loss statements, etc. All the detail to substantiate those numbers is in our software where it is most useful!