The first 92 pages are devoted to the basics of setting up QuickBooks for a farm business--including ideas and approaches for setting up a farm business Chart of Accounts, ways to set up the Classes list to allow enterprise accounting, discussions highlighting QuickBooks features most farm businesses should use--plus mention of QuickBooks features most farm businesses should AVOID!
Pages 93 - 360 are the reason for the "cookbook" moniker, providing detailed, step-by-step "recipes" for farm business transactions. Topics include everything from basic income and expense entries, to details on handling of more unusual farm business transactions--like how to deduct commissions and hauling from a milk check or livestock sale receipts, how to handle grain and livestock inventories in the QuickBooks inventory system, how to get reports quantities with statistics like average price received per bushel, and more.
Most important, the Cookbook's topics are "compartmentalized" to make it a handy quick reference: all of what you want to know about a particular topic is presented on the pages dealing with that topic. If your goal is to learn how to set up farm operating loan accounts, you only need to read the "recipe" devoted to that topic--there's no need to read multiple chapters just to learn how to solve one problem.
Here are just a few of the topics covered in The QuickBooks Farm Accounting Cookbook(TM):
Recording cash income Deducting expenses (hauling, commissions, etc.) from a deposit Withholding cash from a deposit Recording milk checks, capital retains, and revolvements Accounting for resale livestock Recording patronage dividends Tracking quantities of things you sell (bushels, pounds, etc.) Handling grain inventories Recording cash discounts Handling credits on account at the farm supply dealer Recording refunds of expenses The best way to enter farm & personal cash spending & income Tracking quantities of things you buy (gallons, tons, etc.) Tracking family living expenses using equity accounts Farm asset and liability basics Tracking depreciable asset purchases and sales Setting up accounts for loans and notes Recording loan and mortgage payments Borrowing/paying on a line of credit Backing up and storing your QuickBooks records
The QuickBooks Farm Accounting Cookbook(TM) is written especially for beginning to intermediate users of QuickBooks, with only a few topics for advanced users.
