记录保存和做好准备的重要性

Picture a typical scenario on the farm: you just wrapped up a long day of taking care of livestock, 修理设备, 正在制定今年的作物计划, 还有许多待办事项清单上的其他任务. 你回到家里，看到一堆账单和文件. 这正是你今晚想要的，对吧? You decide to put it off until tomorrow, and then next week, and then next 月. Before you know it your accountant is calling reminding you they need your records before the tax return deadline, and your 信贷员 stops by asking for updated financials for that upcoming loan renewal. What once was a less urgent and smaller task has suddenly become a higher priority and one that will take a larger block of time to complete. Will you be able to focus on this task when the other daily chores still need normal attention? Are you able to take this financial information and use it to manage your business, 或者过于匆忙，以至于你只能专注于完成任务?

上述所有情况都是常见的，但应该这样吗? 在理想的情况下, no, and we will provide some tips and encouragement on how to improve your record keeping and be more prepared to use financial information to manage your farm business and work with your lender.

你怎么吃一块多汁的大牛排? 一次咬一口.

记录保存也是如此. Few people enjoy sifting through 月s or maybe even a year or more of financial information at once. 超出了所需的时间, if there are questions about a particular receipt it’s much harder to remember details 月s after the fact compared to only a few days or weeks when still fresh. It’s much more efficient to get in a habit of carving out a set amount of time once a week, 月, 或者至少每季度一次, 专注于保持你的记录与时俱进. While breaking this task into smaller bites may not significantly reduce the total time devoted to record-keeping over the course of a year, 这通常会让任务变得不那么令人生畏. 尽可能地, try to stick to a schedule that will promote accountability and helps make this part of your normal routine, just like milking the cows every day or changing the oil in the tractor at regular intervals.

保持简单.

When many people think about record keeping they immediately equate this to needing to use professional software, 哪一个肯定不是这样的. 是的, the fancy programs are available at one end of the spectrum but other options such as basic spreadsheets or even a handwritten ledger accomplish the same result. 另一个有用的选择是农场信用记录簿, 哪些是电子版和纸质版. 关键是要找到适合你和你的公司的东西, and a conversation with your accountant or Farm Credit could offer methods to consider.

把钱放在口袋里.

Do you like paying your accountant extra money to sort through your basic receipts, 或者从贷款人那里得到很多关于你财务状况的问题? 如果不是, these are more reasons having good records and higher-quality financial information is an advantage. 是的, 这可能需要你花更多的时间和精力, but will make it more efficient (and likely cheaper) at the next stages with your accountant or lender by focusing at that point on the fine-tuning. It could be useful to have conversations with your 信贷员 to better understand what Farm Credit expects to see in terms of quality financial information, 以及如何用它来分析你的贷款决策. 也, 一般财务信息的质量越高, 就能越快做出贷款决定. 

今天和明天，你想成为哪种类型的财务经理?

Do you want to manage the finances of your operation just by how much you have leftover (or not) in the checkbook at the end of the year? 还是说你更愿意主动面对数字, 设定目标, 增加你农场生意的盈利能力? One example is farmers often don’t consider how one enterprise or another may impact the global operation because everything is lumped together financially. Consider a cow/calf operation that grows corn for silage to background weaned calves to heavier weights. Would it be more profitable to sell the calves after weaning and the corn as cash grain? 也许，也许不是. Decisions like this can be tough to make without considering the numbers and the economic variables that change over time. Beyond the ability to make more informed changes to the operation in the present, 记录可以帮助你确定未来的目标. 你能负担得起更新挤奶室或旧设备的费用吗? The neighbor plans to sell their farm in a few years, will you be in a position to buy it? Often, these are questions posed to your lender, but your lender is not your financial planner. 他们应该是值得信赖的资源和对话的一部分, but ultimately you have to make the decisions as manager of your farm business. Often the first step is right in front of you – have you looked at the tax returns or income statement that your accountant puts together, 或者你和信贷员填写的资产负债表? Do you know how this information translates to income available to service debt or your overall financial health? 如果你需要这方面的指导, talk with Farm Credit to better understand this information to position your operation for that next goal.

在农业, nobody can fully predict the future as there are too many variables beyond our control. This is why it’s so important to have a strong handle on what you can control, 良好的记录保存是一个关键因素. 所有这些在概念上听起来很明显，但执行起来却令人生畏. 关键是从小事做起, 做一些渐进式的改变，这样你就不会不知所措, and remember that even running some rough math or having a high-level breakout of the records can provide valuable management insight for your operation. 一如既往地, never forget the resources available to assist with this such as your accountant, 信贷员, 以及农业信贷知识中心提供的许多工具.

作者的贡献

科尔·海泽，信贷经理

弗吉尼亚农业信贷