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Managing a brewery is a juggling act, and it involves keeping an impressive amount of chainsaws (read job tasks) balanced in your hands and in the air around you. Lets just consider a few of the business facets that could coexist under the term craft brewery physical brewing operations, packaging hall, restaurant, bar, distribution wing, government compliance, merch, events, oh my. Then, each one of those umbrella terms branches off into a variety of other managerial ecosystems.

Lets just ponder beer recipes for a moment. How do you manage them? Like on paper? Or in an excel spreadsheet? Your head? Someone elses head? Thats concerning. What if you could quickly search an extensive database of grains to quickly dial up your grain bill? What if you had access to instant gravity and color calculations to make dialing in your beer recipes a breeze? What if this same program/portal/software/thingy also streamlined a bunch of other brewery managerial ops COGS analysis, TTB reporting, yeast management and so much more. Well dear reader, I know of such a software service. Its called Ollie Ops, and its the spotlight of Craft Brewer Business latest webinar: Software Solutions Built by Brewers, For Brewers. Here are the deets:

Ollie Ops will be hosting a webinar withCraft Brewing Businesson Wednesday, Sept. 21 (from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EDT), to help breweries and beer pros discover how to streamline brewing operations with software. Sign up right here!

Quick question: What is Ollie Ops again? Ollie Ops (formerly Fermentable, owned by parent company Next Glass) is an easy-to-use software to help you manage your brewing operations. Your business is brewing beer, not managing spreadsheets, compiling TTB reports and fumbling through brew logs. The folks at Ollie Ops know the ins and outs of the industry, so they developed a software that gets the paperwork out of the way, so you can get brewing.

Heres an example: When it comes time to generating TTB reports, the classic process can easily involve a full day or more of rummaging through brew logs that had been through the ringer of an active brewing environment, not to mention illegible handwriting. Ollie Ops can generate those TTB reports with only a couple of clicks. It can also automatically track real time raw material inventory and enables simple, intuitive brew log management. It saves brewers time on paperwork, allowing them to focus on their craft. Wanna learn more?

The webinar is free.Sign up right here.

Here are our speakers:

Kyle Kensrue is a brewery solutions account executive at Next Glass (parent company of Ollie Ops). He worked in the hospitality industry for 10 years before moving over to the brewing world. As director of operations at Randolph Beer (Brooklyn, N.Y.) he was in charge of developing their brewing program, to go along with their established bar and restaurant group. He also spent time as the director of operations at the award-winning Gun Hill Brewing (Bronx, N.Y.). Kensrue is a Certified Cicerone and former president of the NYC Brewers Guild.

Dustin Jeffers is a solution consultant at Next Glass. He received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Connecticut and his Masters Degree from Florida Atlantic University. He has been in the beer industry since 2012, working at Saltwater Brewery as the head brewer/chief operations officer and at 3 Sons Brewing Co. as the director of operations. Jeffers has been a part of multiple aspects of the brewing industry including brewing, front of house, sales and operations.

The webinar is free.Sign up right here.

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Sign up for our free webinar: Optimizing your brewery operations (COGS to yeast management) with a flexible software solution - Craft Brewing Business

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co(F.N) said it will cut a total of 3,000 salaried and contract jobs, mostly in North America and India, as it restructures to catch up with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) in the race to develop software-driven electric vehicles.

Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley has been saying for months that he believed the Dearborn, Mich. automaker had too many people, and that not enough of its workforce had the skills required as the auto industry shifts to electric vehicles and digital services.

"We are eliminating work, as well as reorganizing and simplifying functions throughout the business. You will hear more specifics from the leaders of your area of the business later this week," Farley and Ford Chairman Bill Ford wrote in a joint email.

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Ford shares were down 4.8% in midday trading amid broader declines on Wall Street.

Like other established automakers, Ford has a workforce largely hired to support a traditional combustion technology product lineup. Going forward, Farley has mapped out a strategy for Ford to develop a broad lineup of electric vehicles. Like Tesla, Ford wants to generate more revenue through services that depend on digital software and connectivity.

Tesla's pre-tax profit margins have exceeded Ford's this year, and Farley has been blunt about the need to cut costs.

In Monday's email to staff, Farley and Ford said the company's cost structure "is uncompetitive versus traditional and new competitors."

Rising prices for batteries, raw materials and shipping are putting additional pressure on Ford and other automakers. Still, Ford has stuck to its full-year profit forecast, despite $3 billion in higher costs due to inflation.

Ford has begun separating its operations into electric, combustion engine and commercial vehicle operations. Farley said in July "cost reduction will happen" in the combustion operations. But Ford said on Monday the staff cuts will affect all parts of the company.

Rival General Motors Co (GM.N) in late 2018 moved to cut 14,000 jobs as it prepared to accelerate its electric vehicle strategy.

Ford, GM and Stellantis' North American operations will confront a new workforce challenge next year as they begin contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers union, which represents the Detroit automakers' U.S. factory employees.

UAW leaders have expressed concern that electric vehicles will mean fewer manufacturing jobs, and more jobs dispersed to non-union battery and EV hardware factories.

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Editing by Bernadette Baum

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ford cuts 3000 jobs as it pivots to EVs, software - Reuters

Payroll4free is easy to use. It has a user-friendly interface making it easy for users to navigate through the site. The layout is also intuitive, so you will not have any problems when using this service. The customer service is one of its strongholds as they are available 24/7 via phone, email or chat.

HR.my is another free payroll software that seems to compete with Payroll4Free in terms of features. The best part of HR.my is that it packs quite a punch with its offers of unlimited employee management and data storage as opposed to the other 25 employees limit. However, since its a crowdfunded project, customer support is not so responsive.

On the other hand, TimeTrex is more suitable for SMBs and offers a free-to-use community edition of their payroll software.

Featured Partners

Benefits administration

Yes

Base Price

$8 per user, per month

Benefits administration

Yes

Base monthly price

$40 per month plus $6

Pricing

$40 per month + $6 per user

Tax forms

Fee-free W-2 and 1099 processing

Direct deposit

Four day maximum turnaround time

Go here to read the rest:
Payroll4Free Review (2022): Pricing, Features and How It Stacks Up - Forbes

With the help of the free utility app BgInfo, you don't have to remember all of your Windows 11 system information because it will always be available on your desktop.

As a practical matter, it is difficult to remember specific hardware and software information regarding your personal computer, particularly if the PC is a few years old. The exact CPU, network adapter, or version of Windows 11 we are using is just not information most of us remember and are ready to recite when asked. Yet this is just the kind of information that is often vital for identifying your system and troubleshooting problems.

SEE: Web 3.0 quick glossary (TechRepublic Premium)

The task of identifying systems and the hardware and software currently in use can be accomplished simply and easily with an app called BgInfo, which is part of the Sysinternals suite of utility applications freely available from Microsoft. By running BgInfo and making a few decisions on which information you would like to display, you can overlay pertinent system information on your Windows 11 desktop background image where it can be viewed at any time.

Figure A shows you a cut out of a standard Windows 11 desktop. Note that the current version is blank and devoid of system information.

Figure A

Download BgInfo from the Sysinternals website and extract the contents of the ZIP file into the C:WindowsSystem32 folder. You should have two new files in that folder, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

When you run BgInfo, you will be presented with a configuration screen that you can use to change the default settings, as shown in Figure C. Under most circumstances the default settings will be adequate, but you may adjust to fit your needs.

Figure C

Once you are satisfied with your configuration settings, click the OK button. Now, when you look at the Windows 11 desktop, you will see your system information incorporated into your Windows 11 desktop background image, as shown in Figure D.

Figure D

As an alternative to downloading BgInfo, you may run the application directly from the Sysinternals Live website. Navigate to the BgInfo page and scroll down to the link shown in Figure E. When you click it, you will run BgInfo remotely.

Figure E

BgInfo can also be run from the command prompt with various parameters and switches applied. The switches allow you to save system information into a configuration file, a popup overlay or onto the Windows 11 taskbar as a user accessible icon. The available configuration parameters include:

By default, BgInfo replaces your current Windows 11 desktop background with a new one. However, by changing the default configuration settings, you can have BgInfo use the current background image and replace it with a version updated with your system information. The original image will still be intact on your system if you wish to change back.

Placing a shortcut to BgInfo into your Startup folder will update the Windows 11 system information every time the system is booted, so it will always display the latest information. Always available and up to date system information on your desktop could come in handy when you are trying to troubleshoot.

Read more:
How to display updated Windows 11 system information with BgInfo - TechRepublic

Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in KnowBe4's (NASDAQ:KNBE) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on KnowBe4 is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.034 = US$12m (US$606m - US$259m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Thus, KnowBe4 has an ROCE of 3.4%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Software industry average of 10%.

View our latest analysis for KnowBe4

Above you can see how the current ROCE for KnowBe4 compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering KnowBe4 here for free.

The fact that KnowBe4 is now generating some pre-tax profits from its prior investments is very encouraging. About three years ago the company was generating losses but things have turned around because it's now earning 3.4% on its capital. In addition to that, KnowBe4 is employing 581% more capital than previously which is expected of a company that's trying to break into profitability. This can tell us that the company has plenty of reinvestment opportunities that are able to generate higher returns.

On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 43%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. So this improvement in ROCE has come from the business' underlying economics, which is great to see. Nevertheless, there are some potential risks the company is bearing with current liabilities that high, so just keep that in mind.

In summary, it's great to see that KnowBe4 has managed to break into profitability and is continuing to reinvest in its business. Astute investors may have an opportunity here because the stock has declined 15% in the last year. That being the case, research into the company's current valuation metrics and future prospects seems fitting.

One more thing, we've spotted 1 warning sign facing KnowBe4 that you might find interesting.

While KnowBe4 isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Returns At KnowBe4 (NASDAQ:KNBE) Are On The Way Up - Simply Wall St