The Farmcaster program has many tools to help you manage your farm. At its core, the program helps users to better understand their current financial picture and offers context to make decisions about the future.
To get the most out of the program, it is recommended that the most recent 5 years of accountant-prepared financial statements (income statement and balance sheet) are entered. This is not a small task, but it is an important first step to maximizing the benefit you get from using the program.
Some common challenges users encounter during this phase of implementation are:
- How to categorize expenses into “Production” “Operating” or “Administrative and Overhead”
- Sometimes the expense categories on your income statements are not the same as the categories in Farmcaster.
- Time availability
- Most users want to start using the program right away, and some of those new users may face difficulties finding the time to do the data entry part.
- Not having corporate financial statements at all
- A lot of farms are still run as sole proprietorships. These farms may only have their personal income tax returns as a record of the farm’s financial performance.
- These statements can be used in Farmcaster, but there are some steps that need to be taken to convert them into accrued statements. This can be challenging.
This is where Farmcaster’s Implementation Services can be a huge help to new users. Over the years, our team has built up speed and expertise in the data-entry portion of setting up new users. Why not put us to use and save yourself a bit of time? You can trust that the data will be handled securely, privately, and just as importantly, it will be entered accurately. Please contact us at sales@farmcastersoftware.com if you want to get started, or if you have any questions.