Margin analysis, or marginal analysis, is the practice of examining the cost of a good or service versus the potential benefit of that good or service. Even if you hadn’t heard of the term before, odds are you’ve made this comparison for yourself countless times as a farm owner or operator. However, there’s a danger to basing margin analyses on general assumptions—which is why it’s important to utilize activity-based costing.
Topics: farm management accounting, cost accounting, agricultural managerial accounting, Cost center allocation, activity-based costing, farm accountant, FBS Systems
Roman naturalist and philosopher Pliny the Elder once said "The master's eye is the best fertilizer." If expertise and knowledge are truly the best paths to growth, and if that’s true in farming, then what must the master know? What information must the master have? Thankfully, modern technology means we have proxy eyes all across our farm operations. Does that naturally mean, since we can see more, we know more? That depends.
Topics: cost accounting, farm benchmarks
For a long time, in the agricultural sector, technology, beyond farm equipment, was relegated to the back office. Thankfully, farms don’t operate that way anymore. In fact, most have learned to leverage ag tech to assist in improving productivity and profitability.
Topics: farm management accounting, cost accounting, accrual accounting, agricultural managerial accounting, farm inventories, farm software, agricultural decision support, agricultural software, enterprise analysis, farm budgeting, farm profit centers
As a farmer, your day is filled with tasks. As a farm manager, your day is filled with decisions. From small to large, every decision you make will impact current and future operations. While a farm ERP solution helps you gather the data you need to make those decisions, you’re still left with options on when and how you implement it. It’s one reason we suggest creating a growth path decision tree, even when it comes to accounting. Each decision leads to more decisions and different outcomes. So, understanding the accounting implementations options before you, and the ways those decisions can impact your growth, is important.
Topics: cost accounting, accrual accounting, agricultural managerial accounting, farm accounting, ERP
"Labor and machinery variances are just awesome," according to the latest corn and soybean cost of production benchmarks presented by John McNutt, LattaHarris and Moe Russell, Russell Consulting Group at the FBS Ag Software Success Summit on August 20, 2019 in Moline, Illinois.
Other observations by McNutt and Russell:Topics: cost accounting, LattaHarris, Moe Russell, corn cost of production, soybean cost of production, John McNutt
Topics: farm management accounting, cost accounting, farm financial statements, accrual accounting, farm financial reporting, agricultural managerial accounting, farm accounting, agricultural inventories, cost analysis, inventory valuation
Life's been good…and easy…for most crop producers in the past seven years. Changing conditions, though, will require a new emphasis on proven farm management accounting principles aided by 21st Century technologies.
Topics: cost accounting, agricultural managerial accounting, farm budgeting, farm mamanagement accounting, Dick Wittman, Farm Futures, farm cash flow projections
Two recent articles in the farm press validate how far farm management technology has come, yet how far it has yet to progress to make a serious business impact.
Topics: managerial accounting, farm management accounting, cost accounting, farm financial statements, accrual accounting, farm financial reporting, agricultural managerial accounting, farm inventories, farm records, farm software, ag software, agricultural decision support, business processes, agricultural software, farm accounting, enterprise analysis, precision farming
“Choose your rut carefully. You’ll be in it for the next two hundred miles.”
Topics: managerial accounting, cost accounting, farm financial statements, accrual accounting, agricultural managerial accounting, farm records, farm software, best practices, farm budgeting, agricultural inventories, activity-based costing, Dick Wittman
You can count on the "Extra" edition of Farm Futures magazine to concentrate on relevant management topics. The 2012 edition, Power Up Profits, contains two articles that dovetail nicely with the objectives of FBS Software.
Topics: managerial accounting, farm management accounting, cost accounting, agricultural managerial accounting, activity-based costing, Mike Boehlje, Purdue Ag Economist
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