Tracking cattle

[ksfrmr]

I have just purchased some fall bred cows. These will be used for breeding stock and I don't plan to sell them until they are either past their "prime" or something is wrong with them. I also plan to sell the calves produced from these cows yearly. What would be the proper way to track the cows bought in QB? What is the proper way to track the heifers/steers that will be born and sold in QB? I am confused whether they should be tracked with Inventory or Non-inventory etc. In my mind it seems that the calves produced every year would be tracked no differently than a grain crop. When a new calf is born, you would just adjust the inventory that is set up. Any suggestions?

[FlagshipTech]

> I have just purchased some fall bred cows. These will be used for breeding stock and I don't plan to sell them until they are either past their "prime" or something is wrong with them. I also plan to sell the calves produced from these cows yearly. What would be the proper way to track the cows bought in QB?

The cows are a fixed asset, just like machinery. They should be entered in a fixed asset account, and depreciated over their expected remaining useful life. If your copy of QuickBooks is new enough to support Fixed Asset Items, they're a good way to set up all fixed assets; however, you're on your own as far as depreciation goes--QuickBooks doesn't provide any help for that.

> What is the proper way to track the heifers/steers that will be born and sold in QB? I am confused whether they should be tracked with Inventory or Non-inventory etc. In my mind it seems that the calves produced every year would be tracked no differently than a grain crop. When a new calf is born, you would just adjust the inventory that is set up. Any suggestions?

Generally, I agree with your approach. This is one of the rare situations where you ought to use the Inventory Part item type in a farm business, set up with the COGS Account as Retained Earnings (to discard the cost of goods sold, if you're a cash basis record keeper). You can adjust inventory quantities for calves born and/or adjust inventory quantity and value at any time prior to preparing balance sheet reports. Pages 187 - 198 of The QuickBooks Farm Accounting Cookbook™ details all the steps and adds little things you may want to know.

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