Another Class Question

[Ifarm2]

I am in the process of expanding my Class List to get more detail. I am confused about adding the crop year in the class list. For instance:
Farm (1st level)
Corn (2nd Level)
2010 (3rd level)
Farm# 1 (4th level)
Farm #2, Etc... (4 levels seems like too many)

or should it be
Farm (1st level)
Farm# 1 2010 Corn, etc?

Would I be able to eliminate the "2010" and just choose the time frame in the "Dates" selection box on a Report?

I wish I understood all that this program can do.:p

[FlagshipTech]

I see what you're doing until you get down to that 4th level:

Farm# 1 (4th level)
Farm #2, Etc... (4 levels seems like too many)

How are these different from your first level, "Farm"? I would think that's where you would refer to different farm locations, and you wouldn't need the 4th level you describe. But please explain a bit more and we'll try to help.

> Would I be able to eliminate the "2010" and just choose the time frame in the "Dates" selection box on a Report?

The short answer is "Yes", but it's probably a bad choice.

You could eliminate the crop-year class level and just filter reports based on the Date column, as you suggest. But what happens when you want to compare something between 2 or more different crop years? ...that won't be possible if there's no crop year class.

-------
A bit more explanation...

The basic ideas below are explained in a lot more detail in The QuickBooks Farm Accounting Cookbook™ (http://www.goflagship.com/products/cbkhome.htm).

You mention that 4 class levels seems like too many. But there are things you can do to minimize the effort involved.

First, structure your class list so that the classes you use in the most general way are at the top of the list. For example, my personal preference would be to make "Corn" the first level. Why? There are quite a few expenses that are overhead of the Corn class, which don't get tagged to a specific crop year or farm location (Example: the bill you pay to your machinery dealer for testing/checking a corn planter's metering units.) So if Corn is at the first level, you'll only have to select "Corn" in the Class field of those transactions.

This same idea applies to the other levels of your class structure. And there's no "wrong" way to do it--it all depends on what kinds of expenses you classify the most with classes: move them toward the top of the hierarchy. This would be my own preference:


Corn
Jones
2009
2010
Smith
2009
2010
SBeans
Jones
2009
2010
Smith
2009
2010

Second, get used to typing classes in QuickBooks, rather than using the mouse. It is much faster to type them. The reason is how QuickBooks handles what you type. To enter the Corn:Jones:2010 class from the list above, you can type it as "c:j:2010".

Being able to type the first 1 or 2 unique letters of class names, plus the colon ':' character when QuickBooks displays the right name for what you want, is quick and handy once you're used to it. So try to make class names at each level unique within the first couple characters wherever possible.

Third, lots of people fret over setting up the "ideal" class structure because, in QuickBooks at least, that absolutely determines the structure of your class reports. But there'll soon be a remedy for that. Within about two weeks, we expect an update to our ManagePLUS for QuickBooks program that will let you completely rearrange the class list for reporting purposes. So if you original class structure is:


Corn
2009
Jones farm
Smith farm
You could get reports with the classes arranged however you want, such as:


Jones farm
2009
Corn
Smith farm
2009
Corn
or...


2009
Smith
Corn
Jones
Corn


Most important, the Production/Use amounts attached to each class (what gives you per-bushel, per-acre, etc., info on ManagePLUS reports) will properly "follow" classes to their new spot in the hierarchy and will properly be summed "upwards" so Production/Use amounts at "parent" class levels will be the sum of those from their "child" levels (hard to describe verbally, compared to the "Wow!" factor of seeing it.)

So what I'm saying is that in a couple weeks you'll no longer be "stuck with" your class structure for analyzing things on a per-farm, per-crop-year, per-crop, or whatever basis.

For ManagePLUS info go to: http://www.goflagship.com/products/mphome.htm . Or go to our home page and get on our email newsletter list, to get the announcement when the new ManagePLUS update is released.

Mark Wilsdorf
Flagship Technologies, Inc.
QuickBooks™ Add-Ons and Solutions You Can Use
http://www.goflagship.com

[Ifarm2]

Gosh, You make it sound so easy. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH. This is really going to work - isn't it!!!