Farm Accounting with Quicken: Going Beyond the Basics
Agricultural Economics & Community Development
Wm. Bruce Clevenger
Associate Professor and Field Specialist, Farm Management
Ohio State University Extension
Napoleon
Abstract
Quicken is a commonly available personal accounting software that uses the single entry, cash accounting method. Quicken has flexibility to be used for farms and ranches that maintain a cash basis accounting system for tax management and decision making. Quicken can easily record income and expense transactions using a flexible chart of accounts, but it can do more. Farmers have asked “Can Quicken do…” about a variety of specific functions and needs on the farm. Examples include: tracking income and expenses to an enterprise, tracking performance of specific farms or production buildings, tracking expenses in one tax reporting year when the income earned is in the following tax reporting year, tracking pre-paid expenses, and separating family living expenses. Quicken can also be used to collect information for partial budgeting used to evaluate decision making options in the business. The software features in Quicken that makes it possible to go beyond the basics are tags and the memo line. Tags used in combination with categories and subcategories can provide farm managers necessary information to run accurate reports with accrual information and yet maintain the cash basis accounting needs for annual income tax filing. The memo line can provide a place to record data that can be summarized quickly on reports. Extension professionals working with agricultural producers and/or teaching farm recordkeeping systems can benefit from learning the flexibility of Quicken to help farmers and ranchers maximize their financial records.
Authors: Wm. Bruce Clevenger
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Wm. Bruce Clevenger Associate Professor and Field Specialist, Farm Management, Ohio State University Extension, Ohio, 43545