Farm Inventory Issues
QuickBooks Canada : Pro 2012Was trying to create a file for a farm, but I guess you don't have anything for farming inventory (ie production that isn't purchased) and also don't have a Net Worth report or any kind?
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02/09/12 3:36pm PST
Viewed by asker 02/10/12 8:19pm PST
Viewed by asker 02/10/12 8:19pm PST
10 Replies
yarddog
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Allstar
Advisory council of community power users.
02/09/12 4:57pm PST
Farms (incorporated and non-incorporated) do bookkeeping to track their Asets, Liabilities, Capital, Income and Expense - and it's certainly not a problem. You could contact an Accountant familiar with accounting for farms, or you could wait to see if a QuickBooks user (who is familiar with farm accounting) who can/will assist you.
Assureflex Corporation http://www.assureflex.com
02/10/12 9:49am PST
Yes, I have been doing total tracking for 20 years, but was hoping that I would be able to switch to QB because of the ease of use. However, between the inventory being unusable for farm production and the fixed asset tracking not allowing serial numbers to be recorded and no place to insert a FMV of assets for a net worth statement (of which there is none of that either except in graph form!!!) - I am quickly quite convinced that this program is not one that would give any helpful information for decision making for farmers. Thanks for your response, though!!!
02/10/12 9:58am PST
Absolutely - that's what I use now and love much about the program, except for the fact that it is still so stiff as far as moving around in, customization of reports, etc. But love the inventory, percentage breakdown of business/personal, net worth reports, asset information - pretty well like it all except the user friendly part!!! Will stay with it and just grin and bear it when I get frustrated with how long it takes me to get from one place to another. Thanks for the chat!
02/10/12 10:03am PST
I hear you, but every time I get frustrated I think of how it was before FCC took over. Good Luck.
AlexanderM
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Advisory council of community power users.
ProAdvisor Canada
Members of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program
02/09/12 5:27pm PST
Quickbooks is not the best for tracking farm inventory, but it certainly can be done. When you have produced your product you would DR your inventory asset account and CR your Income accounts. When you actually sell your products you DR your bank and CR your inventory asset account. This recognizes the income against the expenses that were incurred to produce that income. Yes I know this is not normal, but such is the life of a farmer.
02/10/12 9:54am PST
Thanks for your thought - might work in a perfect world. But the value used for the initial entry to insert inventory would have to be changed as the price of hte commodities that were being sold changed and there would have to also be an adjusting entry at yearend to remove the income from the P/L for the volume of commodity that was still in inventory. Numerous entries to get somewhere that still would not have a good handle on inventory in the bin.
Will just stop considering QB as an option for our own operation as well as for the other agricultural operations for which I do books. Would have been a nice switch.
02/10/12 1:31pm PST
I have used Quickbooks for the financial part of our farm business for several years now, having run into the same problem as you in the FCC program. It was crazymaking! We now keep our farm inventory in another file, so they do not interact with each other, but I get all the benefits of Quickbooks, and none of the inventory pain!! We are doing inventory manually right now, but now looking to an Excel format to maintain it more effectively. Inventory is a major issue for us too. We found separating it from the financial records was really helpful - easier to do it manually than to fight with the programs. I love Quickbooks- has done everything I have needed so far.
02/10/12 8:19pm PST
So do you just make an adjusting entry in the Inventory Asset account at the end of your fiscal year then so your Balance Sheet is correct?
02/12/12 10:50am PST
Latest post
Yes, that is exactly what I do on the finance side. As I said, we keep our inventory separately, and we can generate a net worth statement with that data quite easily, by taking those values and adding in land values, buildings, etc. on an Excel worksheet. It can then change as our inventory values change. We typically do inventory counts at year end (Dec 31), June and September, as we have other forms for crop insurance that require inventories at those times.(We don't tend to do March unless there is a real need for the info.)It has worked for us and I can do all sorts of great reports and assesments through Quickbooks, but we don't need an "active" or "live" inventory count 365 days of the year.Just need it for year end and these crop insurance dates. I adjust the balance sheet based on the yearend. Hope this helps!
