Tips From The Farm's Back Office

5 Year-End Bookkeeping Tips to Get Your Farm Ready for Tax Season TL;DR: After harvest, clean up the books while the year is still fresh. It’ll make tax season easier, and it should also help you see cost per acre, profitability by crop or field, and where the business is actually making money. There’s never really a slow season on a farm. Planting, spraying, harvest, hauling grain, fixing equipment, watching markets — and somewhere in

The Next Farm Productivity Gain May Come From Better Data TL;DR: U.S. agriculture has become dramatically more productive over time, but that growth has not moved at the same pace every decade. USDA data show that total factor productivity growth slowed for long stretches after 2000 before rebounding in recent years. For farmers, the next efficiency gain can come from better information: knowing costs sooner, seeing cash flow clearly, and using farm financial data to

Free Winter Webinar Series: Get Your Farm Books Ready for Tax Season TL;DR:  Our free Winter Webinar Series starts Nov. 12 with Farm Bookkeeping Basics. We will help farmers organize their records, build a simple bookkeeping routine, and head into tax season with a clearer picture of their finances. Register for FREE Tax Season Tips Webinar Harvest is busy enough without worrying about receipts and spreadsheets. As things slow down, winter is a good time

National Farmers Day: A Thank You to Our Farmers Harvest moves fast. Today, on National Farmers Day, we want to slow down long enough to say something simple: thank you.   Thank you for the early mornings, long days, unpredictable weather, changing markets, and all the work that happens long before the food reaches our tables. Farmers Keep More Than Farms Running Nearly everything we eat, and much of what we wear, starts with agriculture.

Standing Out When Everyone’s Selling the Same Thing 1. Sell the story, not just the tomato You set up your table. The tomatoes look great, the eggs are fresh, and everything’s priced fairly. Then you glance down the row and see somebody three stalls over selling the same tomatoes and the same farm fresh eggs, maybe for a little less.   If you’ve ever wondered why a customer would pick that table over yours, you’re

Farm Bookkeeping Services: What Farmers Need to Know TL;DR: Good Agriculture handles farm bookkeeping for farmers and ranchers so you can spend less time on receipts and more time running your operation. We offer monthly or quarterly bookkeeping, cleanup, financial reports, and tax filing for bookkeeping customers. Farming is hard. Your finances don’t have to be.   Between planting, harvest, markets, livestock, and whatever broke this week, bookkeeping is often the first thing to slide.

It’s easy to think of bookkeeping as paperwork, something that exists mostly for tax season and not much else. But for a farm, good bookkeeping does two jobs at once: it helps you run your operation with clearer information, and it shapes how lenders, and anyone else you do business with, see your farm from the outside. Here’s why that matters more than it might seem. How Your Books Are the Story Lenders See When

Farmers Market Marketing: Small Habits That Keep Customers Coming Back Market season keeps you busy. Between prepping products, loading the truck, and setting up your booth, marketing is usually the first thing that gets pushed aside. That’s normal, but a few small habits can help customers find you, remember you, and keep coming back—all without adding much to your plate.   Here are three to start with, but you don’t have to do them all