The Rural Voice, 1982-05, Page 10Making room for a farm office
by Gisele Ireland
BEFORE AFTER
Office space in this home was just a 4 x 12 room, everything is within easy reach.
Keeping comprehensive and accurate
production records is as important to your
business as your feed conversion in your
livestock or the number of bushels you
harvest per acre. The feed conversion and
bushels per acre harvested cannot be
calculated without good records.
Perhaps there are records, but they're
not easily accessible when you need them.
One of the extension courses offered
this winter in conjunction with OMAF and
local colleges was titled Farm Finances.
This course dealt with the importance of
record keeping and bookkeeping practices
as well as instruction in the various
methods that can be used. They can be as
simple as Targe envelopes, which contain
the month's business and are stored, or as
complicated as computer readouts which
are taken from cancelled cheques. How
PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1982
detailed you want to get is up to you:
some have double entry methods; some
single entry and some are on accrual
basis. Not every system is good for
everyone. It is up to you to find a method
that works for your operation.
If it takes hours to find last year's
chemical requirements, and if you can
only guess at what seed purchases were
made, you are a candidate for a better
system. Some farmers have a "bill box"
into which everything is thrown, and it's
rifled through once in a while until the
year's end. Some farmers write every-
thing down in a little book they carry
around in their back pocket, and if this
happens to get lost or washed in the
machine, you are without a lot of
important farm data.
Your attitude towards bookkeeping is a
key factor in how successful your system
will be. More and more women are taking
over this job in the business and
dedication is required. Trying to remem-
ber what you wrote a cheque for six
months ago could be a problem unless it is
noted on the cheque or in the stub portion
of the cheque book. Working with your
farm records should be a pleasure and a
challenge, not a despised chore. Do the
book work in the morning if you must
when your mind is fresh, not at the end of
the day when all of farming's little hassles
have given you mental fatigue.
One major factor in the success of
bookkeeping is where you do it. Having a
pleasant, orderly place to work and store
things makes the job so much easier.
There need not be a lot of expense or room