Beyond 52 Hours

Preparing New York Farms for Overtime, Payroll, and What’s Next

Overview

New York’s agricultural labor rules are changing fast—from overtime thresholds to recordkeeping requirements. This webinar breaks down what farms need to know today, what’s coming next, and how to stay compliant without adding paperwork or risk. Learn how FieldClock helps New York farms track overtime accurately, simplify payroll challenges, and stay audit-ready as regulations continue to evolve.

Transcript

ASHLEY

Just jumping back, I wanted to quickly explain what FieldClock is.

Where timekeeping, an app based timekeeping system. We offer three different apps that are designed to meet you and your crew where you're at. If your operation needs very simple timekeeping clocking in, clocking out, that's exactly what we handle. And it's easy for employees. It's easy for the office. But if your operation is more complex, our pay engine is designed to handle those difficult calculations things like piece rate, H-2a, labor, overtime rules without you having to skip a beat or manually fix math problems behind the scenes.

And what I'm incredibly proud of is that unlike other systems on the market, we don't piecemeal functionality or charge extra just to unlock tools that you need. The platform is all inclusive. The pricing is designed to be affordable for farms and their teams, and it's backed by a support team that really understands agriculture, who your people are and what they're doing on a day to day basis.

And we're incredibly proud to be a New York Farm Bureau member benefit. And we actively support Farm Bureau because we know how critical they are to farmers across the country, especially in New York. As regulations in labor challenges continue to evolve. So as we were talking about a little bit, hopefully this, but many farms across the country are really running lean.

And then you add a layer of New York's regulatory environment over top of that, and it becomes clear why labor compliance feels overwhelming and why having the right tools matter so much.

As you are very familiar. New York farms operate in one of the most regulated agricultural environments in the country. I talked to farmers all across the country every day, and the challenge isn't just the regulations and selves, but it's what happens after the regulation changes, because every regulatory change eventually turns into documentation, more records, more reports, more proof, and those back end changes almost always fall to one person in the office.

And that was me. The same person is already handling payroll, HR compliance and is most likely working out in the field as well. I need to reshare my screen. Thanks, Josh man. We're doing great, guys. All right. You weren't missing much. So. But that's that's really why we're here today. It's not just to talk about what's changing, but how to take those changes and apply them on your farm in a way that's practical, efficient, and doesn't add more work to an already lean operation.

And when all of that documentation starts piling up, compliance can feel overwhelming and feel overwhelming quickly. And compliance does feel overwhelming because it is overwhelming. And it's not just you. The rules are changing faster than ever, and those changes don't live in a vacuum. Over the last year and a half alone, there have been more than 3000 pages of new labor regulations.

And those aren't abstract policies there. They directly impact how farms pay. Workers, document time and operate on the day to day. And just last year, we saw staggered entry return in late August, followed by an interim final rule taking effect in early October, both of which significantly affected the adverse effect wage rate. That kind of pace makes it incredibly difficult for a farm of any size to say current, especially when you're already running so lean.

And each one of these regulatory changes eventually turns into documentation on the back end. More time records, more wage statements, more reporting, more proof. And almost always that responsibility falls on that one person. And that's why support matters without grassroots organizations like Farm Bureau. There's simply no way for family farms to keep up with every new policy or regulation.

Farm Bureau keeps their finger on the pulse, and they help translate what's changing to help fight to keep family farms viable. And our role at FieldClock is to help take that information and apply it on the farm in a way that's practical, streamlined, and doesn't add more work to your already full plate. And when all of this documentation starts to pile up, the risk often isn't visible until someone comes asking for answers.

So I'm glad you can actually see this slide now, because I love it, and I feel that it captures something that I see all the time, because the vast majority of farmers have the right intentions. They're doing the right thing, they're trying their best, they're paying their people on time, paying them accurately. And that's just a part of being a good farmer and an upstanding member of the community.

And that is the right thing. It's just not everything when it comes to compliance. In an investigation, doing the right thing is challenging, is challenging because you have to be able to prove that you did the right thing. And that's where this iceberg really matters. What's above the waterline is what farms are focused on day to day paying people, keeping crews moving, getting through the week.

And then what's underneath is what investigators actually look at wage statements, hours offered versus hours worked, travel time, piecework breaks, housing inspections and the paper trail behind it all. And real time documentation is the only way to protect yourself. If there's ever a situation where an employee's recollection differs from yours. Investigators often rely on the employees statement unless you have records that clearly show otherwise.

Most farms come to us after an investigation, and it's not because they were doing something intentionally wrong. It's because missing documentation, small human errors, or miscommunication added up. And unfortunately, those small gaps multiply quickly when information is scattered. So when we talk about compliance, we're not just talking about audits or investigations. We're talking about what farms are expected to do every day all year long, regardless of whether they have H-2a or not.

At this point, I want to be clear compliance isn't something that only matters if there's investigation. If there's an investigation there. These are expected expectations that apply year round for every operation. Farms are expected to track hours, accurately, pay correctly, maintain wage records, and be able to show how decisions are made. And that's true on a normal Tuesday, not just when someone shows up with questions.

And where things get stressful is when documentation is scattered or recreated after the fact. And that's when simple questions become difficult ones. I know that I had an inspection on the farm, and I'm not typically a nervous person, but when you have someone there that's asking very specific questions and and needs documentation right away, you feel a little nervous, especially when you're trying to sort through 2025 bin box of all of your handwritten time cards.

And that's what happens in an investigation. And investigations do happen. Often they're triggered by complaints or nearby activity. And the farms that feel prepared are the ones that are already doing things consistently as a part of their normal workflow. So the question becomes, how do you meet those expectations in a way that actually fits a lean operation without adding more work or more paperwork?

Now there is some good news. Preparation doesn't mean doing more, but it does mean doing things differently. One of the biggest shifts is capturing information as work happens, instead of trying to recreate it later. When time, pay and labor details are when when time pay and labor details are recorded in real time, they're when they're stored in one place.

Documentation stops being a separate task. It's simply just where it exists. This is especially important for farms that that are running lean that have small teams, because when compliance lives in spreadsheets, notebooks, someone's inbox, or in my case, a bin box, it becomes fragile. Small gaps turn into big headaches as you're doing a deep dive into that bin box for those time cards, you really have your fingers crossed that your employees actually filled out their time card that week.

Or you didn't just guesstimate because they didn't respond in time for you to finish your payroll now. But when you have a streamlined system where documentation is built into your daily workflow, it's tied directly to your time. Keeping to your payroll compliance becomes part of the process and not an extra burden. And the preparation really happens before payroll runs, because once payroll is finalized, a record is created and fixing issues after the fact becomes difficult.

Okay, so what exactly are we preparing for in New York? We've talked about preparation, but now let's actually talk about what's changing in New York, because over time isn't happening in isolation. Starting January 1st this year, over time is required after 52 hours in a calendar week. And that applies to all farm workers, including H-2a and other visa workers.

What's different now is that weekly accuracy really matters. Not estimates, not averages, but clean daily and weekly records. Now, for those operations who have field workers and also retail workers, they're on two different wage programs. So now making sure that you're capturing those things and paying them appropriately is becoming more challenging. So for retail workers, you need to pay overtime after 40 hours for your field workers, it's now after 52.

We've also seen major changes around the adverse effect wage rate. The interim final rule that took effect last fall shifted wage calculations to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics system. The s and this is the same one used traditionally for each to be. That change also introduced new variables like skill levels, housing adjustments, and staggered entry, although they help ease the process and help you have people there when you need it.

It also presents challenges with documentation. How do you keep these things separate? How do you make sure that you're paying people accurately? And again, those these options are helpful, as I said. But the complexity on the back end is significant. And each one of these policy shifts and eventual shifts will turn into documentation how wages are calculated, how hours retract, how decisions were made.

We're also seeing more attention around joint liability. So if you work with a farm labor contractor and there's an issue, it's very common for that scrutiny to extend to you as well. So knowing your contracts, understanding them, keeping them accessible is more important than ever. And finally, modernization, even government agencies are moving towards electronic first compliance. The AFL-CIO and the Department of Labor increasingly, increasingly expect digital records.

Pen and paper just aren't enough anymore. Not for farms and certainly not for compliance. But the big takeaway isn't memorizing every rule change. Its understanding that the environment is becoming more precise, more digital and more interconnected. And the systems farm used to support and the systems that farm and the systems farm use to support that reality. And now this is where all of these policy changes become real.

Add payroll.

So up until this point, we've talked about what's changing, why compliance feels heavier and what farms are expected to do year round. And this is where all of that moves from policy to practice. Every rule, every documentation requirement, every expectation we've talked about eventually has to land somewhere operationally. And for farms, that place is payroll. Payroll is where hours, wages over time and decisions all come together.

It's where compliance stops being something you plan for and becomes something that you have to execute correctly. And once payroll runs, the record is created. That's why payroll is the point of no return. So let's talk about how farms are actually handling handling payroll today and where the cracks tend to show.

Now I see this all the time and I want to say this upfront. There's nothing wrong with this approach. Excel is familiar, it's flexible. And for a long time it's been the easiest way for farms to make payroll work. These spreadsheets usually didn't start complicated. They grew over time as rules changed, as labor changed, and as the operation involved.

And in many cases, they still work. People get paid, checks go out, and payroll runs. The challenge is that spreadsheets rely entirely on manual inputs and memory. There are no guardrails, no built in rules, no real audit trail. And when something changes like overtime thresholds, wage rates or credits, this spreadsheet doesn't know that. And that's where risk starts to creep in.

Not because anyone is doing something wrong, but because the system itself wasn't designed for the complexity that farms are dealing with today. And I dealt with this firsthand on the farm as well. I used Excel spreadsheets, and I thought I was amazing at it, but it would be weeks later that I would see that a formula was incorrect or had changed inadvertently, and I had to go back and redo all of that work.

It's incredibly time consuming, and it's error prone for sure. But the problem isn't Excel itself. It's what happens when there are no safeguards, like there's no alerts for Ashley when she changed a formula in her spreadsheet. And that's the reason why Excel becomes dangerous. And it's not because people are careless. It's because errors are silent. A formula in my case can break a row, can be overwritten, someone can make a well-intentioned adjustment, and nothing flags it.

Payroll still runs, people still get paid, and no one realizes that there's an issue until much later. And there's there's also no real audit trail, and it's hard to see who made a change when it was made and why. And when questions come up about overtime credits or pay rates, farms often are forced to explain decisions instead of just simply showing records.

And that's when even small issues start to feel big. Not because the farm did something intentionally wrong, but because the system can't defend the work that was done. So what does a safer payroll process actually look like for farms?

The right tool isn't one that you have to constantly protect, it's one that will protect you. A good payroll process should automatically apply payrolls and safeguards so that you're not relying on memory or manual checks. You should be signing off on actual work that happened, not chasing formulas or trying to remember why something was adjusted. Now, going back to my example of when we had an audit on the farm.

If you're slightly nervous and now you need to explain some sort of calculation, having to think back to a year ago, two years ago, that's really difficult. And even though you will eventually get to it, it's so much easier just to provide that information that's already explained right there. Because payroll should produce clean, downloadable files that flow directly into reporting and tax filings.

Everything time, approvals, edits should live in one place, creating a complete digital paper trail. And that's what eliminates the risk of data loss and confusion later. And in other words, the system should be doing the hard compliance math behind the scenes, doing it consistently every single time. And when you digitize the entire workflow, payroll stops being a weekly emergency and becomes a simple review.

You're not chasing time cards. You're not cross-checking spreadsheets. You're not fixing formulas, and you're no longer guessing. You're reviewing clean, accurate records and approving pay with confidence. And all of this ties directly back to New York's regulatory landscape. Because once you understand how complex these payrolls really are, it becomes clear why manual systems simply can't keep up.

So now we've talked about the reality. Farms are operating in the regulations, tighter margins, more documentation and a lot of responsibility falling on very few people. The good news is that farms don't need to do more, but they need better tools that reduce risk and simplify the work that has already. That already has to happen. So now I want to shift us from problems and pressure to solutions.

What actually helps farms move forward from reactive to prepared without adding any more to their plate? And that's why I'm incredibly proud of our Farm Bureau member partnership, because FieldClock connects what happens in the field to what ends up in payroll and compliance time, payrolls, approvals records all in one place. Instead of information living in notebook spreadsheets or multiple systems, everything flows together in a way that's designed specifically for agriculture.

Now, I'm going to give you broad strokes of our platform. You're certainly welcome to reach out to me afterwards. And I can walk through this with you for your farm. It's actually my favorite thing to do to understand how your operation is working, to present the tools we have, and come up with solutions that will work for you and your team.

But very quickly, here's how the pieces fit together. We have multiple apps that I mentioned earlier, the first being our agent app, and this is for people who are working independently irrigators, mechanics, drivers, supervisors, whoever needs to clock in and clock out can simply do that from their own device. And before I move forward, our devices, our apps work on Apple.

Android doesn't matter whatever device you'd like to choose, and you're using your own devices. So we don't have any proprietary hardware. You simply use what's best and most affordable for you and your team, which I love. They also work offline and they auto sync. So if you're in a rural area, like many of our family farms are all across the country, our apps will continue to function, capture time, attendance, productivity, and as soon as that device is back into connectivity, whether it's Wi-Fi at home or cellular reception, we auto sync.

So no more work after work. We're simply grabbing this information and pulling it right in in real time, so no more extra work. So we've talked about the agent app that's meant for individuals to clock themselves in, in and out. We also have a field mobile app and this is meant for heavy lifting, high volume for large crews.

Specialty crops. Piecework actually can also be used by owners supervisors as well, just to see what work is being done from their own personal device. And you can move people around as well. We have a kiosk app which is takes which would replace your punch cards, punch card system, or your time cards. It's a it's for standalone locations like packing sheds, cold storage warehouses, your shop where your employees would simply come up to it, do a pin and they can clock themselves in.

And it certainly does replace the clipboard. Our admin site is where the office reviews time, approves payroll, runs reports, and pulls records. We have a proprietary employee portal that helps with transparency. It will present hours, pieces of breaks, all to the employer employee so that this way it reduces disputes and builds trust, and they can see what they've done and correct their hours in real time.

For those farms with really, really intense systems with or accounting systems that want data to flow elsewhere, we have open API as well. And all of this feeds into one place. Payroll timekeeping captures the work and then payroll makes it official. So I want to be very clear about one thing before we move on time. Keeping in payroll are not the same thing.

They're closely connected, but they serve different purposes. Timekeeping captures what happened in the field. Payroll is where that information becomes an official record. It's where wages are calculated, taxes are filed, reports are generated, and compliance becomes real. And that's why payroll is the point of no return. Because once payroll runs, the record is created in everything downstream depends on it.

But for many farms, payroll options and agriculture have been shifting. And that uncertainty adds stress, especially when payroll is something that you can't afford to get wrong. And our approach is simple. FieldClock works with any payroll system by producing clean, payroll ready exports, reducing manual entry and human error. But we have taken feedback from our customers, as we do about our platform, as we do with everything else.

We have heard that small farms, especially small farms, really struggle with payroll systems. Oftentimes they're unaffordable. They're hard to connect with and talk to, and they don't understand what what farmers actually do. Or in a lot of cases, what a 943 tax filer is. So we are now we offer FieldClock payroll all in one place powered by ADP.

And this supports 943 tax filers, seasonal labor seasonal workers. And the reality is that farm face, without asking you to force fit your operation into a system that it wasn't built for. So whether you use FieldClock for just timekeeping or both timekeeping and payroll, the goal is the same accurate data, clean records and confidence that you're that what you're filing and reporting is correct.

So now when time and payroll work together this way, something important happens. Compliance stops feeling like a constant risk and starts feeling manageable. And this is where farms really start to feel the difference. Because when they have the right tools in the right place, payroll stops being a weekly emergency and becomes a review. You're not chasing time cards, fixing formulas, or wondering if something was missed.

Over time, it's tracked automatically. Eligible credit hours are clearly separated. Documentation lives in one place instead of across spreadsheets, folders and emails. And when questions come up from an agency, an advisor, a lender, you're not scrambling to recreate what happened. You already have the records, and you can stand behind them and share them quickly and easily. And that's the real win, because compliance stops feeling overwhelming and starts feeling manageable even in a more regulated environment.

And that's exactly why this partnership with Farm Bureau matters. It's about helping farms get to this place of confidence. And I want to take a moment just to talk about why why this matters to me personally and professionally. I truly understand that Farm Bureau plays a critical role in helping farms navigate change, whether that's labor regulations, policy shifts or economic pressure.

They keep their finger on the pulse of what's happening, and they fight to make sure that family farms have a voice. And that's exactly where FieldClock fits. Our role isn't to replace that work, it's to help farms make those policy, take those policies and apply them on the ground in a way that actually works. So we help close the gap between policy and practice.

We help turn requirements into records and complexity into something manageable, especially for farms that are running lean and wearing a lot of hats. And when Agnes can never say this word advocacy, I can't say it. You all know what I'm saying. At this point and practical tools work together. Farms are protected on both fronts, and this partnership exists so that growers know that they're not navigating this alone, and that there are tools and people available to support them.

So for those of you who are asking, I wanted to throw this slide in here for you just to walk through pricing so that everyone has a clear picture of how this works for New York Farm Bureau members. And I am proud that FieldClock is focuses on affordability, but we also focus on transparency. And we make this loud and clear on our website.

When you come to our website, our price is right there and upfront there are no questions. So for small family farms, our family plan includes up to ten employees with a simple per employee rate. Beyond that, for New York Farm Bureau members, the $500 one time activation fee is waived, which lowers the barrier to getting started and quite honestly, helps drive membership in your state as well.

For larger or more complex operations, there's still a meaningful member benefit, reducing the activation fee and pricing based on monthly active employees, so that you're only paying for the labor that you actually use. Because we do understand seasonality and if payroll is something that you need, it can be added on. This is meant for small family farms of 50 employees or less.

It's $50 per month as a base fee plus $5 per employee. Keeping, time keeping and payroll are connected all in one place, but still clearly separate. And the goal here is flexibility. Farms can start small, add what they need, and know the pricing upfront without having any surprises.

So that's all I have for you today, and I will certainly take any questions if you have them. But I do want to thank you for your time and the good work that you're doing on your farm and in the community, and I'd like for you to consider me as a resource. Should you need anything, please make sure you take my information, because at the end of the day, this isn't about software regulations.

It's about protecting your family, your workers, your operation, and your land. And we want to help in any way we can.

JOSH

Thank you. Ashley, I do see a couple questions out there. I'm just going to go ahead and jump in and answer them for convenience. Yeah. So first and foremost, I think the most recent one to come through saw a question about Center Point. Yet we work with Center Point. We've got like 30 different payroll exports that are off the shelf and work as they are.

Even if you got some we don't list on our website or anything like that. We can build new lenses as easily as you need. So don't worry about what payroll system you're using. If they will accept a file, we will generate a file for them. I think outside of like pay for most will take something. So center point is a big yes.

So another question out there. Let's get down to facial recognition. Is facial recognition available at Clark. And no we don't use facial recognition. We're not using biometrics right now. And there's a couple of reasons for that. One, that regulatory landscape keeps changing on that. And we've seen a lot of companies get sued for mishandling biometrics. And we're not worried about us.

We're worried about you. And we've we have firsthand experience with operations that were using time clocks that used biometrics, where the employer themselves did not properly disclose all the necessary legal use around the biometrics, and the employer got sued. Now, this is a retail time clock with retail biometric stuff, and everyone kind of knew how it was working.

And yet the employer ended up in a giant, giant lawsuit and it was very expensive. And we don't want to do that to you. So what we're doing instead, and there's also other nuances as far as like workers on the farms, you know, head coverings, protective gear, particularly if you got sprayers out there like, we don't want to be dependent on being able to get a perfect clean hand or a perfect clean base.

So what were you doing? Said our PVC badges with QR codes on them. And ultimately they're they're very cheap. They're incredibly robust and resilient. And and they really do meet the needs for most farms. And from a, you know, fraud or other standpoint where you might really think biometrics the way to go, there's there's ways to manage your QR codes that you can make sure that people are not sharing badges with their friends, things like that.

So we have a lot of safeguards built into that to make sure that, you know, you're paying the right person for the right time worked.

What if I only need payroll processing and quarterly filing? Do I need to pay for everything else? Yeah. The field payroll is offered in conjunction with our time tracking. There's not really a benefit to just using payroll without the rest of the stuff. That said, it's still dirt cheap. I think depending on how many employees you have, the base would be 90 bucks a month, plus five bucks an employee, which will put you more competitive than QuickBooks, more competitive than, I think, just about any other payroll out there.

But again, we we pride ourselves not just for competing on price, but for providing a ag focused, holistic solution here.

Here. One other question snuck in there. Back to the phone thing. Yeah. For the mobile apps Android, iOS. Sorry Windows Phone users if you're still out there. I really enjoyed that platform, but we don't develop for it. And then the employee portal, the admin site, any of the web properties work, any browser, any modern browser you know on with an internet connection will be good for that.

So managing your account more complicated things, downloading CSV do that through a web app. The kiosk field agent, the cruise app. Those all work just fine. Iowa standards.

Cool. All right.

We got a lot to act with you. I like this today. We're just across the border in Pennsylvania. Whether it's work for Pennsylvania. Absolutely. Yeah, we're we're Farm Bureau member benefit. And I think 23, 24 states, we have clients in six countries and I think 35 states now. So and we do have clients in Pennsylvania, we're totally cool with it.

And if there's something, you know, if you're in a state that we haven't currently encountered and you need a different pay scheme for that, we're always looking to expand what we do. There is a partnership with its clients, so whatever you need to pay your people correctly and be compliant, we're here to help provide that. So you let us know.

QuickBooks. We have exports for QuickBooks. I don't want to go down a rabbit hole on QuickBooks. But you know, it's it's as tough on us as it is on you. So if there's better options for you out there, we encourage options. Other payroll options other than QuickBooks. We do know we like an broke. They're cool. We don't have a direct and broke integration at this point, but we're open to that if needed.

Oh, and another question about location of employees. The way you feel like treats location. It's it's a balance of what the employers need and in protecting employee privacy as well. And we understand that that sounds delicate because when they're on the clock, they're working for you and you need to know where works being done. But if they use their own device, which they might then off the clock, we need to be cognizant of not being creepy.

Data collectors, like a lot of companies are. So to that end, the way we treat location and all the other associated metadata is we track activity events. So if an employee clocks in, we're going to track where they were when they were, you know, what app did they use? Everything we can associated with that if they record notes, compliance documentation, checklists, pieces, if they clock other people and anything else they might do during their day in the app, we're going to record where and when that happened.

And that extends to like if an employee got clocked in by a separate employee who's using the app, you know, we will associate that location and that time with the employee who got clocked in, as well as whichever manager clocked them in, for instance. But we do not actively track location of the app when it's not in use.

And if you don't need location and you want to extend further privacy to your employees, you can turn off all the location staff desired.

Actually, I'll turn it back over to you for any final.

ASHLEY

No, I'm just I'm incredibly proud to partner with New York Farm Bureau. Looking forward to to meeting you. If there's ever a need to for me to be a resource, please reach out. If you have an event or would like us to connect with your County Farm Bureau, please, please reach out. Let me know. Any opportunity to meet you is a is a great opportunity.

So thank you for your time today and thank you for attending.