Helping Farmers Adjust to Lower Commodity Prices

IFAC'S RESPONSE

The secret of the value of the IFAC response is that you will have access to a suite of invaluable management reports without having to enter any original accounts data. Why reinvent the wheel? You already have had your accounts recorded for tax purposes. Central to the suite of the IFAC Accountants Farm Management package will be the availablility of this information to you, through a password on the IFAC Website. From this information will be generated the following

 

ONLINE SERVICES

Profit Monitor/Online Services Login

A   Current Financial Management Report

B   Teagasc Profit Monitor, completed on-line

C   Cost Budget Analysis and Monitoring Statement on-line

D   Cash Flow

A. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT REPORT

• Designed to assist farmers to analyse the financial performance of the farm business! How ?
• It's different from annual taxation accounts
• Issued before tax accounts
• Stock values based on market values to give a better picture of financial performance and net worth.
• Objective is: Get a better understanding of your business and how you compare with others.
• Poor financial management is a weakness on many farms. Needs to be addressed especially in a time of lower commodity prices.
• Farmers must be as good at financial management as they are at grassland management or animal husbandry.

Learn more about the Financial Management Report

 

B. TEAGASC PROFIT MONITOR INPUT SHEET

Dairying , drystock and tillage

• Data collected by Recorder
• Exported to IFAC website
• Farmer through a series of secure passwords accesses his data on-line
• Profit monitor input sheets are available with data already entered.
• Farmer reallocates as necessary e.g. vet/medicine allocated to dairy/cattle/other
• Essential here is:
  • Accurate data entered, therefore the reports produced are correct and meaningful.
  • Data is entered in the Input Sheets awaiting re-allocation by owner/advisor.
  • No software to be loaded on home PC, therefore no installation problems arise.

Learn more about the Teagasc Profit Monitor

 

C. Cost Budget Analysis and Monitoring Statement

A key element to running your business is the ongoing monitoring of costs and reducing costs where possible. To do this successfully, you have to have access to critical data, and a means of calculating budget costs and the ability to compare actual with budget forecasts.

The IFAC cost budget analysis utility is a response to farmer discussion groups telling IFAC what would be of benefit to them in helping to control their farming costs on an on-going basis.

The system works as follows:

• 3 years historical cost data plus a field for budget values is presented on one screen.
• The last available full accounts year is used as a base year for budget forecasts.
• A breakdown of each item of expense in the base year may be viewed to help decide on budget values.
• Budget values are saved for review purposes.
• Budget values are updated to a page which compares actual with budget on an on-going basis. (This is made possible with the unique IFAC Recorder Book-keeping system).

Click Here for an example of what your 'Cost Budget Analysis' would look like

 

D Cash Flow

Cash flow is the life blood of any business and its management is of vital importance. A cash flow statement produced using historical data as a reference will determine if and when your business will encounter a cash flow problem in the coming year. Action may be taken to fund the problem period.