I would like advice on how to start using Manager (Version 25.10.29) to manage accounts for my farm (agriculture). I am not doing this for tax purposes but only for my own sake and better bookkeeping. I am in the process of taking over this business from my father, who was maintaining accounts in MS Excel or in registers/books. I will mention my queries in parentheses alongside the bullet point.
Just a brief on how our operations work:
We plant crops based on their season/cycle. (I’m not sure how to track/report the profitability of each crop individually. I see an option for Division). Additional information here is an example of the crops I currently have:
Maize/Corn ‘25 (Spring) - already harvested and in storage. In the process of being liquidated). Planted in Feb harvested in May/June of same year
Potato (Fall) ‘25/26 - just planted. Planted in Fall and harvested in Feb of following year.
Wheat (Fall/Winter) ‘25/26 - preparing to plant and currently buying raw material for it. Planted in Nov/Dec and then harvested in May of following year.
Rice (Summer) - Harvested and in the process of being stored/sold directly. Planted in June and harvested in November of same year.
Orchards: Annually harvested/picked but doesn’t follow calendar year.
Our farmland is in two areas geographically, so we can call the first one Farm A and Farm B and then to store these crops we have a godown/storage facility, which has its own staff and incurs its own expenses as well. (I was thinking of making 3 divisions but not sure since I am already considering divisions along the lines of crops. Can I do both or do I have to choose?)
The main business model is: we buy raw materials like fertilisers, seeds, pesticides → plant the seeds → manage the crop → harvest the crop → sell the crop. (If someone has a similar business or ideas on how to bookkeep for such a business better, I am all ears)
For purchases/sales: I have tried the purchase/sales orders and invoices tabs and they seem to work great. I have also understood that only when sales are recorded will the COGS be listed in the inventory - cost account (on an accrual basis). I have listed the main raw materials involved as inventory items. (However, I would like to see in some report form crop-wise my total spending regardless of how much has been sold. And I want to also see the profitability of each crop, at any instant and also when the entire crop has been liquidated/sold).
I’ve noticed that if sales/purchase invoices are made but no customer/supplier is selected, it assumes that they are already paid. (Is there a way to change this? While making entries due to human error I could miss mentioning something in this field but then it wouldn’t show up in Payables/Receivables so I’m concerned about this)
I created a dummy production order for a crop and selected inventory items as raw materials but also added a non-inventory cost into production - transportation of finished product from farm to storage facility. That showed up as Retained Earnings. (Can someone explain this to me please. I was assuming that since the expense had accrued it would show up in the expense category/head I selected).
Most of our receipts and payments are made through our bank accounts and some cash transactions. (What is the best way to record the bank transactions. Bank does give an option to export the account statement in csv/xlsx format).
This is all I want to share and ask right now. Looking forward to your responses. Thanks.
We plant crops based on their season/cycle. (I’m not sure how to track/report the profitability of each crop individually. I see an option for Division). Additional information here is an example of the crops I currently have: Divisions could work, but if you want to separate the two farms that way, then you couldn’t use it for crops, and I’m not sure it would work the best any way. You have two other options: 1. Projects - create each crop for the year as a project (i.e. ‘Maize/Corn ‘25) and assign all transactions relating to each crop to that project, this is probably the best option, though profit reporting on projects is currently somewhat limited; 2. Custom Fields - create a custom field for each crop and assign transactions for that crop to that custom field, then use custom reports or advanced queries to analyze by crop
Maize/Corn ‘25 (Spring) - already harvested and in storage. In the process of being liquidated). Planted in Feb harvested in May/June of same year
Potato (Fall) ‘25/26 - just planted. Planted in Fall and harvested in Feb of following year.
Wheat (Fall/Winter) ‘25/26 - preparing to plant and currently buying raw material for it. Planted in Nov/Dec and then harvested in May of following year.
Rice (Summer) - Harvested and in the process of being stored/sold directly. Planted in June and harvested in November of same year.
Orchards: Annually harvested/picked but doesn’t follow calendar year.
Our farmland is in two areas geographically, so we can call the first one Farm A and Farm B and then to store these crops we have a godown/storage facility, which has its own staff and incurs its own expenses as well. (I was thinking of making 3 divisions but not sure since I am already considering divisions along the lines of crops. Can I do both or do I have to choose?) Division is probably your best choice
The main business model is: we buy raw materials like fertilisers, seeds, pesticides → plant the seeds → manage the crop → harvest the crop → sell the crop. (If someone has a similar business or ideas on how to bookkeep for such a business better, I am all ears)
For purchases/sales: I have tried the purchase/sales orders and invoices tabs and they seem to work great. I have also understood that only when sales are recorded will the COGS be listed in the inventory - cost account (on an accrual basis). I have listed the main raw materials involved as inventory items. (However, I would like to see in some report form crop-wise my total spending regardless of how much has been sold. And I want to also see the profitability of each crop, at any instant and also when the entire crop has been liquidated/sold). Either projects or custom fields could probably work for this, if you use projects the built-in reports in the Projects tab might work; you probably could also use custom reports or export data and pull the actual report together yourself in a spreadsheet or something.
I’ve noticed that if sales/purchase invoices are made but no customer/supplier is selected, it assumes that they are already paid. (Is there a way to change this? While making entries due to human error I could miss mentioning something in this field but then it wouldn’t show up in Payables/Receivables so I’m concerned about this) These show up in ‘Suspense’ on the ‘Summary’ page, always deal with anything in Suspense, and that won’t be a problem.
I created a dummy production order for a crop and selected inventory items as raw materials but also added a non-inventory cost into production - transportation of finished product from farm to storage facility. That showed up as Retained Earnings. (Can someone explain this to me please. I was assuming that since the expense had accrued it would show up in the expense category/head I selected). If the non-inventory cost was an expense account, then that flows through to retained earnings automatically because it affects net income.
Most of our receipts and payments are made through our bank accounts and some cash transactions. (What is the best way to record the bank transactions. Bank does give an option to export the account statement in csv/xlsx format). This is a general bookkeeping question that’s up to you, bank imports can be very useful, but you should still reconcile it every so often; also, using bank imports can lead you to forget to find source documents (receipts, bills, etc.) that you need to save for tax purposes, as it allows you to reconcile you books without finding source documents to enter everything.
This is all I want to share and ask right now. Looking forward to your responses. Thanks.
Crops cost, crops inventory, crops sales and use inventory write off for allocate farm materials to crops cost account and use journal entry for allocate labour and other expense such as
Debit: crops cost
Credit: materials inventory or labour or other expenses
At the end of the harvest crop use journal entry for transferring crops cost to crops inventory such as
Debit: crops inventory
Credit: crops cost
When company make crop sales on credit use sales invoice tab
Debit: account receivable
Credit: crops inventory
In case of cash sales debit: cash or bank
Credit: crops inventory
Also you can add each crop as a project to track the crops cost separately.