Archived
05-03-2008, 08:23 PM
Hi
I am using QuickBooks professional for accounting in a poultry raising enterprise. I’m interested in keeping track of the current inventory of chickens, the losses, and the profitability of the enterprise.
What I do now is, when all eggs are laid for a particular hen I create a purchase order with her name. Then, when the eggs have hatched I receive and enter a bill against the P.O. bill for the chicks as inventory asset items. I don’t know what cost if any to put on the P.O. or bill for the chicks. I could keep the cost at zero, or I could estimate the cost for the grain and feed that the hen consumed during egg development.
What about a management cost or overhead cost for the chicks? Will this way of accounting produce accurate results? The chicks will be sold by using a sales receipt when they are fully grown. I think if I follow this plan the balance sheet will not reflect the costs for grain and feed nor management time.
How do you suggest setting up classes for a poultry enterprise? Do you have any other suggestions for a poultry accounting system?
Which QuickBooks report most closely resembles a farm enterprise budget?
dchambliss
==========
POs and Bills for each hen sounds like an extreme amount of accounting for the information you will get.
Might you be better off to set up egg laying over a period of time (week, month, quarter, or year) or production division (building or group of hens) as an enterprise using Classes, then keep track of eggs/chicks hatched/death losses in the aggregate for the Class?
Keeping track of livestock production inventories (birth/deaths/current inventory) within QuickBooks and linking them to specific Classes isn't easily done in QuickBooks. In fact, it's not really possible in QuickBooks alone.
[Side note: We eventually plan to re-release our ManagePLUS add-on with features that will solve some of these problems. However, it still won't be out this winter.]
Maybe the best approach for now is to set up a simple enterprise spreadsheet (in Excel, etc.). Identify the value of your inventory (hens, eggs, chicks) at the beginning of the enterprise period (a month, for example), then again at the end of that period. Also, use your feed (and other) records to identify feed costs, medicine costs, etc., for the period. As for things like depreciation and other overhead costs, you'll have to assign the enterprise a reasonable portion of those costs over the period in question.
When the period is over and you've finished your estimates, you should have a decent P&L for the enterprise.
NOTES:
There are farm enterprise budget/analysis spreadsheets available at various places on the Web--just do some searching on Google.
To get the concepts straight in your mind, also do some searching and reading about cost accounting--particularly the concepts of "profit centers" and "cost centers"
Good luck!
Mark Wilsdorf
Flagship Technologies, Inc.
QuickBooks™ Add-Ons and Solutions You Can Use
http://www.goflagship.com
I am using QuickBooks professional for accounting in a poultry raising enterprise. I’m interested in keeping track of the current inventory of chickens, the losses, and the profitability of the enterprise.
What I do now is, when all eggs are laid for a particular hen I create a purchase order with her name. Then, when the eggs have hatched I receive and enter a bill against the P.O. bill for the chicks as inventory asset items. I don’t know what cost if any to put on the P.O. or bill for the chicks. I could keep the cost at zero, or I could estimate the cost for the grain and feed that the hen consumed during egg development.
What about a management cost or overhead cost for the chicks? Will this way of accounting produce accurate results? The chicks will be sold by using a sales receipt when they are fully grown. I think if I follow this plan the balance sheet will not reflect the costs for grain and feed nor management time.
How do you suggest setting up classes for a poultry enterprise? Do you have any other suggestions for a poultry accounting system?
Which QuickBooks report most closely resembles a farm enterprise budget?
dchambliss
==========
POs and Bills for each hen sounds like an extreme amount of accounting for the information you will get.
Might you be better off to set up egg laying over a period of time (week, month, quarter, or year) or production division (building or group of hens) as an enterprise using Classes, then keep track of eggs/chicks hatched/death losses in the aggregate for the Class?
Keeping track of livestock production inventories (birth/deaths/current inventory) within QuickBooks and linking them to specific Classes isn't easily done in QuickBooks. In fact, it's not really possible in QuickBooks alone.
[Side note: We eventually plan to re-release our ManagePLUS add-on with features that will solve some of these problems. However, it still won't be out this winter.]
Maybe the best approach for now is to set up a simple enterprise spreadsheet (in Excel, etc.). Identify the value of your inventory (hens, eggs, chicks) at the beginning of the enterprise period (a month, for example), then again at the end of that period. Also, use your feed (and other) records to identify feed costs, medicine costs, etc., for the period. As for things like depreciation and other overhead costs, you'll have to assign the enterprise a reasonable portion of those costs over the period in question.
When the period is over and you've finished your estimates, you should have a decent P&L for the enterprise.
NOTES:
There are farm enterprise budget/analysis spreadsheets available at various places on the Web--just do some searching on Google.
To get the concepts straight in your mind, also do some searching and reading about cost accounting--particularly the concepts of "profit centers" and "cost centers"
Good luck!
Mark Wilsdorf
Flagship Technologies, Inc.
QuickBooks™ Add-Ons and Solutions You Can Use
http://www.goflagship.com