3 Farm Accounting Software for Australian Farmers
Software to Handle Your Farm Accounting Smarter
Even though farming is different from many other businesses, simply because its success relies heavily on livestock or crops, farm accounting has the same goal as the others: filing accurate tax returns. There are many software or tools that can help farmers keep their accounts in order. Before listing some of these tools, let’s see why farmers need them.
Unlike many other businesses, the average farm does not have an office with desks, file cabinets, dossiers, and such. That’s why keeping records can be hard sometimes. Also, land and livestock can leave no time for paperwork. So, the best accounting software for farmers should simplify the job. Here’s why farmers need farm accounting software.
Tracking Expenses
As a business owner, you want to see the size of your income if you are making profits or not, or which part of your business drains your resources. A good farm accounting tool can help farmers keep track of their financial situation so that they can run a profitable business, learn the size of their income or the value of their farm business.
Tracking Production
In addition to your expenses, you also want to be able to track your production. How many livestock you have, how much milk do you produce, deaths and births of livestock are among the things a farmer should be able to see all the time. There are some tools solely built for helping farmers run their businesses smarter.
Managing Cash Flow
Farmers do not have a steady cash flow. An accounting tool is needed to keep track of these irregular cash sales, payments made via check, or bank transfer.
Tax Purposes
You don’t want to lose your hard-earned money to tax penalties, do you? What about spending hours or days to file your taxes? Well, farm accounting software helps you file taxes much easier. Also, you can easily let a professional go through your records before you file your taxes, in order to avoid any errors.
Saving Time
Manual bookkeeping is out of the question nowadays. Accounting tools that took the place of manual bookkeeping are getting better and better at saving time for business owners. You can prepare bank deposits, create invoices, write checks and more using these tools. The best part is that all your records are automatically saved in the system for you. You also don’t want to enter every receipt or statement manually. Thankfully there are tools that make it easier for farmers to enter all these documents into accounting systems. Some of these tools work together with other accounting tools so simplify your life.
Features for Farm Accounting Software
Now that we know that some farm accounting software are necessary for Australian farmers, let’s find out what features you should be looking for in a farm accounting software. Would any off-the-shelf tool work for you? Do you need a tool specifically developed for farmers? Is there one tool that does it all?
Unfortunately, there’s not a single tool that lets you handle all aspects of your farm business. But thankfully there are solutions that work together seamlessly. Here are some things you should pay attention to when deciding which software to use.
Cost
We know, this is pretty obvious, but it should be mentioned. You want to find a too that is not going to break your budget.
User-friendliness
Most business owners are not bookkeeping experts, which is the same for farmers. That’s why the farm accounting software you select should be easy to use for those who do not have a background in accounting. The same way, tools you use for production tracking or data import should be easy to use.
Backup
Things break, data gets lost. A well-designed tool comes with a feature to back up your data in case something happens to your computer or hard drive. Cloud-based solutions are best in terms of this.
Connected to Accounts:
As we mentioned you will be using these tools to keep track of your expenses and control your cash flow. Having a tool that is connected to your bank account and credit card takes away the mundane tasks of keeping receipts, monthly statements, and such.
Tax Compliance
From keeping the records to easily filing taxes your accounting software should come up with features that save you time while handling taxes. You don’t want to store your receipts, save your records or statements in a way that’s not accepted by ATO.
Reporting
Reports are a great way to visualize your records, performance, profits, or any other performance metrics. Good accounting software should be able to create a variety of financial reports that helps you understand or track your records.
Integration with Other Tools
As we said before, Australian farmers might need to use different tools to manage their business. These tools should be able to work together by sharing data.
Additional Features
In addition to all of those above, it’s also nice to have some of the features below in your accounting software:
Budgeting and Forecasting
Payroll Management
Password Protection
Collaboration
3 Farm Accounting Software Farmers Can Use To Simplify Their Life
As we mentioned above a good farm accounting software for farmers should simplify your work and help you run a profitable business. It has to be cost-effective, easy to use, compliant with ATO requirements, and more. Here are some of the farm accounting tools we think can save you time and effort so you can focus on making your farming business profitable.
Xero
Xero is one of the most popular accounting tools with features that fits the needs of farmers as well. Their intuitive dashboard with great reporting features helps you visualize your business’s situation, while their mobile apps let you manage your farm business on the go. You can find some other core features below:
Invoicing
Inventory
Payroll
Bank connections
Bank reconciliation
Pay bills
Expense tracking
Another thing we love about Xero is the integration with other tools. There are over 800 tools and apps you can connect to Xero. Their plans start $25 AUD /month. For all other options, you can check their plans and pricing on their website.
Sensible Solutions is the Silver Partner and Certified Advisor of Xero.
Hubdoc
Hubdoc converts receipts, bills, statements, emails etc. into usable data for your accounting software. That way your statements and bills will be synched with your account. These features are great for farmers who do not want to spend time entering their data manually. Since its acquisition by Xero in 2018 it works as a great complementary tool for Xero, but it is also compatible with other popular accounting software.
You can start using Hubdoc for free to see how it can help you. After that, you need to pay $27.50 AUD per month. Check their pricing here.
Sensible Solutions is a Hubdoc Certified Xero Partner.
Figured
Figured is a software specifically designed by two farmers and accountants. So, you can see how it’s suited the needs of farmers. Simply, it’s a farm financial management software. It lets you see your livestock and crop information as well as financial data, all in one place. Some of its features are below:
Livestock, Crop and Milk Production Tracking
Budgeting and Planning
Stock Valuation Calculation
Reports
Multi-farm Management
Integration with Other Tools
You can try Figured for 30 days without paying anything. After the trial, you can either select Figured Lite for $7 AUD + GST or Figured for $50 AUD + GST. You can find the details of their pricing here.
Conclusion
These are all great tools that will make your life easier and help you run your business smarter. As an Australian farmer, you are also a business person and your business requires your attention for growing. It’s better to use your time and resources to grow your business than spend with daily accounting tasks.
You can also get in touch with us to see how we can help you with our Australian farm accounting and bookkeeping experience.