Do you or your family do your own bookkeeping?

Rob91

Member
Livestock Farmer
My Mum has always done ours, but as we're getting bigger and more complicated, I don't think I have a clue.
How much do bookkeeping services cost?
Thanks in advance.
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
We have 5 businesses within 1 business. I do books for them. Just would have been doing them for past 6 months.

I do them in a afternoon per week.

It's a great way to get a insight to the financial strengths and weaknesses of your business and who is spending what.

I enjoy doing it. If at all possible do them yourself.
 

Bald n Grumpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Do ours , but not a huge business . Good to do your own as you know exactly what's going on, just as important as milking the cows, used to try helping my mum with it but that didn't work, know do it my own way
 

vantage

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembs
Mrs vantage does the financials, changed from longhand that my mother did to Landmark computerized system, surely 20 years ago. It takes an afternoon, but reports for accountant are easy.
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
I do mine, have done for a number of years since mum stopped. In that time the business has grown quite a bit. I started on farmplan and have now been on Xero for 6 years.

It does take quite a bit of my time, however I find it very rewarding to know the financial position of the business at any time. I’m not bad at keeping up to date but it does get a little wonky in the autumn when I’m really busy.

@Rob91 i would say give it a go yourself the only real downside is the time, you may also find others in the business think doing accounts doesn’t count as work, ignore them. Have a word with your accountant if they are any good they will help you. If you use the same software as them it will help.

Xero is really easy software to use and learn you can start really basic with it and as you get more confident do more. And there is a great thread on TFF for it,

you will learn so much more about your business if you know and understand what the money is doing.

Bg
 

easy farming

Member
Livestock Farmer
We have a relatively uncomplicated business, but I do all the books and are now into our second year of Xero, moved from Sage, it is brilliant. I enter any bills and reconcile to bank after post arrives it only takes a few minutes a day. It easy to compare periods and information easy to find.
Use app on phone to set future payments to people as bills arrive.
Have even started scanning invoices and storing digitally, as half come by email anyway, so I won't even have to take a file of paper to the accountant, just email it to them. Do have two back ups for it all.
I find it hard to believe how simple things have become now.
 

curlietailz

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Sedgefield
There are farm secretarial services
Vicky Anderson in Northallerton is a largish one in North East

I do all my own but I got the accountant to set it all up on Sage when I took them on, that way the nominal codes etc are all in the right order
 

robs1

Member
I do everything here including all tax returns, I made my own template and link each month to the vat report and end of year sheet which links to the profit and loss sheet, I know a running figure all year and if I enter a sale or input it goes automatically to the others as required. I'm no computer geek but it wasnt that hard to do
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
I used to use an old software program called Quicken. Then it became corrupted and started doing weird things. The replacement, Quickbooks (?), is, I think, leased. That is contrary to my philosophy and I am dead against leasing software, or anything come to that.

Then I discovered that some clever fellow had released a pirate copy of Quicken which I now run on a PC that is not connected to the internet. Problem solved.

Quicken is quite adequate for my purposes and it now works away quite happily free from interference from the internet and external forces. My old computers still have a job to do and there is no danger of infiltration as they are not connected to anything except mains electricity.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
We have 5 businesses within 1 business. I do books for them. Just would have been doing them for past 6 months.

I do them in a afternoon per week.

It's a great way to get a insight to the financial strengths and weaknesses of your business and who is spending what.

I enjoy doing it. If at all possible do them yourself.
100% this (y)
 

MCook

Member
Trade
Location
Kent
Most agricultural bookkeepers/accountants will be charging in the £20-40 / hour rate, depending on level of experience/qualification. The frequency of bookkeeping will depend on the size of the business and the services required, such as VAT return submissions.

As others have said, if you have the time/inclination then software such as Xero is pretty intuitive these days. I am an agricultural accountant/bookkeeper myself and would be happy to have a phone call with you, free of charge of course, to give you some pointers or things to consider when deciding what route to go down.
 

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