

On one hand, people want to track finances and off-farm investments, such as retirement accounts. Which brings up the consideration: Do you need accounting software tailored specifically for farm and ranch? The reviews are mixed. For example, is there a need for payroll, or are there off-farm income and retirement accounts to track? Rather than advocate any one product, it's best to begin by considering what types of features are important to a producer and his or her business. But these are just a few products in a large sector of the market. More agriculture-specific software is available from FarmWorks ($400 for FarmFunds), FarmBiz ($249 and up) and Red Wing ($995 for CenterPoint). Quicken ($30 and up) and QuickBooks ($100 and up) are generic and readily available ( Doye has worked extensively with Quicken and believes its user-friendliness makes it a good choice for producers. But software is available in a variety of price ranges to meet an array of needs - some specific to agriculture, others more generic. Unfortunately, there's no handy comparison of accounting software programs.

But by examining enterprises within the business using financial statements, users have another tool in communicating with lenders and business partners for the purposes of planning, setting budgets and seeking financing. “A lot of people don't think of their operation in terms of different profit-and-loss centers within the overall farm,” Doye says. “Enterprises” is a difficult concept for producers to grasp. That means a separate analysis for the cow-calf operation, backgrounding phase, pastures and hay production.
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“To really break down my operation and make choices about how to utilize my resources best for my bottom line, I needed to be able to break them out separately,” he says. Lowe, a producer turned practitioner with Midwest MicroSystems in Lincoln, NE, wanted to be able to analyze his operation as a set of enterprises. “This 1040 doesn't really tell me what I'm doing with my cowherd,” Jim Lowe recalls thinking, wondering what other tools existed for tax time and management decision-making. The first reason people initiate electronic financial recordkeeping is to make tax time easier, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Try doing that with just a box of receipts. When land comes up for sale, she can quickly crunch the numbers to capitalize on the opportunity. In the bat of an eye, she can report the income from the cow-calf operation, stocker segment and hay production. With just a few keystrokes, Doye can summarize expenses on different enterprises for the year. “A computerized recordkeeping system provides more access to your information in different ways that can help support decisions within the business,” Doye says. The livestock software talks to all of the weighing scales/ear tag readers on the market that we are aware of.For the past 15 years, Damona Doye, Oklahoma State University Extension economist from Stillwater, has helped producers transition from shoeboxes of receipts to computerized farm financial records. The livestock management is compatible with the NLIS database. Our farm management software enables you to send excel reports to your consultants and advisors. Our ag farm software is available hosted as well, so that your accountant can access your data easily on Phoenix Live. For this reason we provide accountants with heavily discounted tools and support to ensure they can support you and your team when you need them. We understand that no farm is an island and you need strong support to get the job done. Our technical support team offers you empathy, understanding along with prompt problem resolution that is unrivaled in the industry. Whether it is responding to your outbound support request over the phone, creating a handy video tutorial for you to use out of hours or responding to you on social media. Often considered the helping hand of the bush, the support team at AGDATA are here for you. If you are looking for a agriculture management system that includes farm accounting, payroll, farm mapping, livestock management systems, cropping management and farm budgeting software. Ideal for the niche small farm software requirements but equally as comprehensive for farm data management in corporate farms. The Phoenix software package continues to evolve with technology and changing farming needs.

AGDATA Australia is a leader in the AgTech space and has developed a position of trust within the sector having established back in 1984. The software is flexible with the ability of scaling to the farm size and business complexity. Phoenix is often reported as being the best farm management software package on the market.
