Big fan of you both. Incredibly great video. I am NOT a farmer, but a good enterprise generalist. Already referred this to a client, my friends, my employer at a start up. Viola. Fantastic! Thank you so much Ms. Julia and Mr. Curtis! Bravo!
This video was Very very helpful on how important it is to keep up & keep good accounting and bookkeeping on your small business and yes QuickBook is great 👍🏼
I have been following Curtis & was excited to see this Video as I run a Virtual Bookkeeping business and have begun to Specialize in service for growers. Everything she is saying is so accurate and can make a business tremendously profitable when practiced.
One of the first things I did was get QuickBooks. I haven’t sold anything yet but I knew from your book and others that this was an important first step. Thanks for the great content.
This was a great video, Curtis! I found it very helpful, even though I ran a business before (and I'm a nut for detail and a bit OCD, which helps in business actually). Julia seems like a great gal & very knowledgeable. Thanks for sharing!
Great video Curtis! I Completely agree with Julia in her concerns at 10:00 of the video. I usually do not post anything in any comment section but I feel my experience can hopefully be helpful for anyone watching this Vid. I used the online version of quick books for my first two years of farming. When I got it I also "thought" it was amazing to have the bank account sync up and how great it was that it would learn and start to input transactions for me. I learnt the hard way that when trying to keep your books in order you DO NOT want a program to start doing anything that isn't exactly what you want. I cannot encourage people enough to use the desktop version of quick books and not the online version. The online version is made to look super easy to someone who is not an accountant or a bookkeeper. However, I have literally just spent the past few months re-inputting my last two years into the desktop version because the online version got so far out of hand that my accountant had a hard time figuring it out. The main issue is that it is difficult for bookkeepers and accountants to get past the surface and into the nitty gritty of the numbers and the program. This problem is compounding by the fact that the program starts to input the synced bank account data without you knowing. Just a heads up to anyone, that if you google anything to do with "quickbooks online support" you will get a ton of different numbers that are all scams. Make sure that if you need help to connect directly with your local or national quickbooks branch they will help you for free and not charge you anything. I didn't fall for the scams but just a word of caution. Also, it is good to know that the desktop version data can transfer to the online version however if you start with the online version be careful because in Canada you can't transfer the data from the online version to the desktop version. I literally cannot stress enough how much better the desktop version is and how much easier it is for my accountants and bookkeepers not to mention how much more safe all my numbers are. I hope this is helpful to anyone looking at getting quickbooks. topsoileatlocal.com
You are correct, RJ, you can't be too willy-nilly in the structure. But within the confines of basic accounting rules, it doesn't matter if an account is named "soil amendments" or "nectar of the gods." If it's an expense account, appearing on the income statement, you can name them what makes sense for your business. You'll have an easier time entering in data consistently. And when it come times to run reports you'll understand better what the numbers tell you. Further, if you do make a mistake, it's easy enough to edit the account and make sure things are laid out correctly.
Hi RJ -- "confines of basic accounting" -- understanding the transaction type and classification. I agree, you want to track transactions consistently and appropriately. You may have misunderstood my comments - it's not necessary to enter all your customers and items at the very beginning. It is helpful to have a basic chart of accounts to start out (and an idea of what information you want to garner). I don't recommend creating the complete structure at the very beginning for two reasons: 1) it's a burdensome task to tackle all at once. For many farmers, bookkeeping is a dreaded chore, and I want to remove barriers for successful implementation. 2) More importantly, it's hard to know exactly how you want things to be categorized until you start entering your data. As you go along, creating transactions and viewing reports, you may decide that a different structure or classification system makes more sense. If you've created your entire set-up for your chart of accounts, including items and classes, then you have a more challenging task of reorganizing. Working with an accountant can be helpful, but remember -- their primary goal is helping you file your taxes and not making managerial decisions. The set-up of your bookkeeping system can be vastly different for these two purposes. I suggest, setting up your bookkeeping system for making managerial decisions.A good accountant can easily translate the reports for tax purposes. RJ - it sounds like you have a system that works for you, and that's great!
Really cool that you made this video! I mean it sounds like a very boring topic and you won't get as many views, but it's so awesome you talk about this despite all the odds. It helps a lot, thank you! 🍄💋🍄💋
Thank you for this! Glad you are addressing this issue. I am QuickBooks certified and do a lot of the operational side of farms, small businesses, non profits, and real estate trusts.
Very informative, I have been having a hard time just being able to stay organized on what I spend, but like was said the stacks of receipts that build up are easy to put off for a later time, this video makes me feel good about what I do have, but seems I still need a lot more done as to putting them into quick books or spreadsheets, I have a more cave manish method of writing it down, as I am trying to be more tech savvy, I seem to mess up more on the computer then on paper lol, thanks for sharing going to have to order that book for sure
Yeah, I have a small business, just me, and I work from home. I don't like doing invoices and taxes, so I set up the spread sheet to easily track everything so it moves towards invoices and tax time. Doing my year end for taxes takes maybe an hour, including double checking. I know other people doing the same thing who are still adding invoices by hand, for some reason. Not a very techy area. It's not hard to add things into the spreadsheet to track profitability. It's nice having almost instant results whenever I want them.
LOLOLOLOL I guess I should wait until the end before commenting. Sorry. I will head over to Ms Julia's webinars. I am in the process of getting in to farming, a newbee. Can you maybe have a session with either Ms. Julia, or someone else, to show us newbees how we should get started with our business / bookkeeping / etc..., or maybe guide us to a good resource for further information. Thank you.
Nice job and video! A wake up call for me, as well! I keep the numbers running in my head all year, but tax time always kicks my ass! For one thing I need to do a end of year review, before the end of the year!!! What I was thinking was enough was not enough. It took me a Damn long time to get to this point, but I need to utilize what I can.
if you leave it to the end of the week, and then to the end of the month, then you are drinking more than one or two bourbons, (maybe the entire bottle from the stress, LOL)...
Curtis I have a question. Are you better off doing your bookkeeping first thing in the morning rather than at night when your tired from the day? I could see that you could be more accurate in the morning over a cup of coffee rather than at night when fatigue could be a factor affecting your memory.
I'd suggest doing it when you're most likely to get it done! :) I appreciate the need for accuracy and wanting to be fresh when doing your bookkeeping. There's also benefit to doing it at the end of the day when you still remember what happened. If you have a concern for accuracy, it's probably better to set time aside in the morning until you get the hang of things. When it becomes a more 'mindless task'... which it will, I promise, then you can handle it at the end of the day.
It does take time to get accustomed to QuickBooks (or any new software for the matter). I used Quicken for a while, but it doesn't actually keep accurate books. Of course, I'm biased, but I think it's worth the investment (time and money) to make the switch).
I love the long format, and definitely enjoy the tips and tricks. Have you been using tend.ag? If so, I would be really interested in an interview depth dive similar to this video with QuickBooks.
Julia I just bought your book. I have a quick question if you have time. Do I need two separate quickbook pro desktop programs if I have a full time job and a ranch?
Hi Chasity! I assume you got your question answered by now… you don’t need to get two programs if you’re using the desktop version. You can just open separate companies.
www.juliashanks.com/video-tutorials/ Here is a link to one of her Video Tutorials & Webinars. I would not recommend bourbon prior to watching them though.
I already made my own version of quickbooks in google docs. to save money. It took me 30 minutes to create all the formulas and attach the pages together. After using the online quickbooks do you think that its worth the money or should I continue using my own books?
Hi Mike, Great question! Certainly you can track your revenues and expenses in an excel spreadsheet. As your business grows, though, it will be more difficult (and take longer) to sift through the data to get meaningful information. The real goal of all this (IMHO) is you want to make decisions how to grow your business and earn more profits.If you can get that from your excel spreadsheets, great! In quickbooks, you'll have an easier time tracking cash from different revenue streams (farmers markets vs. CSA vs wholesale) and products (veg vs. flowers vs. livestock). You can also better manage cash flow. The online version can get expensive with the monthly fees (as much as $600 per year)-- if you can get the PC desktop version, it will cost $200 and last you the life of your computer.
If you don't know what your bottom line is and where it needs to be, your not in business. Doing the books is a required part of operating the business. Most start-ups don't understand it's importance and most of them fail quickly.
Hi Curtis, I want to be a microgreens farmer in Malaysia, but the seeds is hard to find here, I have to import from US or other country. It makes the cost of buying the seeds expensive. Is there other way to help me lower the cost? Or is it still possible to be a micro greens farmer here pls advise. Thanks
I am certainly no expert. But I'm curious. Are you trying to grow north american microgreens? Are there local Malaysian greens that you could grow? Micro green is more a technique than a plant.
There are better applications than quickbooks for accounting. Fresh books is a web based one that has a setup for farms. If you prefer offline there's a bunch of open sources options for open source native applications but they tend to be simpler. www.freshbooks.com/accounting-software/farmers
You must have ESP. Every time I have a question pertaining to farming, or the business thereof, your video answering or at least addressing the issue is uploaded within 20 hours. It's creepy, but I'm kinda ok with it.
555###liu embassador ecology lets do the same thing fix the planet and get off the eart let the hustle go its healthy let go i got no patience money its not real last chance
