Farm paperwork?

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herofan

herofan

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I've noticed in various posts that some mention disliking paperwork related to their farming operation. What type of paperwork do you have? I assume it must be more than what I do.

I have a computer chart that I mark down everything, such as expenses, when calves were born, hay specifics, etc. We have a book that we fill out for taxes, but otherwise, paperwork barely registers with me.
 
WE use Quickbooks. Simple but very effective accounting tool. We just post all our checks as everything is paid for by check and then enter the sales in as income. Doesn't take much effort adn if you' re curious it will give you all kind of graphs and charts showing where you're spending the most money etc. But a yellow tablet and #2 pencil will do the same job.
 
I did use Quickbooks, but after my last computer crash I couldn't reload it because of its age. It was a 2006 and QB does not support that version any longer. I switched to Quicken (owned by QB) for $29.99 and it's just as good.
 
In addition to what I have to do for basic accounting I have to do nitrogen management plans, pesticide use reports, crop reporting for usda(I skip the ones that are not mandatory), crop reporting for insurance, balance sheets for ag mortgages, and having my wife listed as an employee for tax reasons is extra paperwork. I'm sure I'm missing some.
Luckily my wife has really stepped up as my paperwork/phone/regulation person. She really is the half of the business that handles the business part. I'm just a dumb cowboy that also figured out how to drive a tractor. :dunce: I would probably lose it all without her.
 
cow pollinater":3fthd4g6 said:
In addition to what I have to do for basic accounting I have to do nitrogen management plans, pesticide use reports, crop reporting for usda(I skip the ones that are not mandatory), crop reporting for insurance, balance sheets for ag mortgages, and having my wife listed as an employee for tax reasons is extra paperwork. I'm sure I'm missing some.
Luckily my wife has really stepped up as my paperwork/phone/regulation person. She really is the half of the business that handles the business part. I'm just a dumb cowboy that also figured out how to drive a tractor. :dunce: I would probably lose it all without her.
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Life would have been a lot simpler for me had the government just told me they wanted every calf I sold a few weeks ago. We could have foregone the paperwork dance and it would have saved me the fuel to get them to the sale. But I understand how they love their paperwork. Just have to have it.......and the money. :bang:
 
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Same with me herofan. I print off a copy of birth records. Red pen in birth records etc. Calving year round here. So I update the computer about once a month. List cow numbers on the side who are upcoming so I can watch them on a quick look.

Health records are a different spread sheet. Treat them pretty much the same tho.

Taxes are simple and manual. Mileage log. Every other receipt goes into a pocket. I log it one time on a list at the end of the year for my CPA. Hand him the list of expenses with feed, seed, fuel and equipment costs, mileage log, meds, and misc maintenance in separate columns. He has depreciation items from past years. I have no new item to add. Then he gets all the other items and income that go on my filing. I will always use a CPA henceforth. Let him deal with it.

I had a book keeper full time before I sold the corporation. Learned how the CPA operated. We were running Peachtree for everything. Payroll etc. I let all the hardware and software and employees go with the corporation. Now I just see the CPA twice at the end of the year.
 
Subject of records, never comes up that I don't make this post. Makes sure you back everything up, and keep it in a seperate location. I lost all my farm records in 2006, and it was pretty rough for while. Especially cow ages, and breeding dates. How simple it would have been to have copies of that information.
 
Bigfoot":1dpumhza said:
Subject of records, never comes up that I don't make this post. Makes sure you back everything up, and keep it in a seperate location. I lost all my farm records in 2006, and it was pretty rough for while. Especially cow ages, and breeding dates. How simple it would have been to have copies of that information.
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I said in my earlier post that all my records are in Excel, but I neglected to mention that they're on the cloud. That makes it handy when I need to enter info or look up something when I'm out in the pasture. It should be safe there, but I keep backups just in case.
 

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