Farm spending - How to record

patsy_mccabe

Just finished going through the accounts for last year. Bit of a pain having to sort out all the receipts. Anyone have any tips on how to make this task easier?
How do you pay for things? Do you have a cheque book and credit card, or is it all cash?
I try and shop around and so end up with a lot of small recipts from various places. I pay cash for all the small items. I get a lot from the local COOP. We have an account there for years so all bought on credit. Last year I forgot to pay within the month a few times, so anded up being charged 'Service Charges'. Really annoyed over that.

It would be ideal if everything could be paid for the same way, like all on the same credit card.

Dinzee Conlee

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Just finished going through the accounts for last year. Bit of a pain having to sort out all the receipts. Anyone have any tips on how to make this task easier?
How do you pay for things? Do you have a cheque book and credit card, or is it all cash?
I try and shop around and so end up with a lot of small recipts from various places. I pay cash for all the small items. I get a lot from the local COOP. We have an account there for years so all bought on credit. Last year I forgot to pay within the month a few times, so anded up being charged 'Service Charges'. Really annoyed over that.

It would be ideal if everything could be paid for the same way, like all on the same credit card.

I have a dedicated farm account.

Pay for as much as I can on debit card - very few places now that dont take cards. Don't buy anything with cash...

But, after this - the receipts all go into a drawer til end of year time... Not the best system I admit... :rolleyes:

grange mac

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Just finished going through the accounts for last year. Bit of a pain having to sort out all the receipts. Anyone have any tips on how to make this task easier?
How do you pay for things? Do you have a cheque book and credit card, or is it all cash?
I try and shop around and so end up with a lot of small recipts from various places. I pay cash for all the small items. I get a lot from the local COOP. We have an account there for years so all bought on credit. Last year I forgot to pay within the month a few times, so anded up being charged 'Service Charges'. Really annoyed over that.

It would be ideal if everything could be paid for the same way, like all on the same credit card.

Have separate acct for farm...and separate card with that acct. Cash items are minimal...you be surprised how much hardware you buy in aldi & lidl!! So try not throw away those receipts.
Coop always charges credit....thats first thing I knock off when looking for my discounts when paying. Cheque book is for larger items only...
When you buy from coop we get summary reports which I use instead of going through 150diff invoices....I know which ones to look for the vat back on from them.
Hope that helps!

restive

I simply put every receipt I have into a box file. I use my debit card for most of my purchases so I always have a receipt. I pay for larger items by cheque. Every March I simply hand it into ifac. I do not keep a set of accounts myself.

emaherx

Revenue have an app that allows you to photograph receipts as you get them. Also removes the need for you to hold onto original the receipts.

Have no experience of it just seen it last time I logged on.

Good loser

I use an A4 Lever Arch file. Double punch each receipt and file it.
Also enter recs and exes in small notebook, each week a new page - handy for finding back prices paid for stuff.



Give file to acct. at year end.

Stationmaster

From the accountants point of view there's nothing worse than getting a big bag or box full of random receipts and invoices at the end of the year. Takes hours to go through them and you can charge feck all for it!

Have a separate account and put as much through on a debit/credit card as you can. Use an app also - they're very handy once you get used to them.

KatyMac

I run account with coop which I try to pay off every couple of weeks.
Receipts etc are put into a wallet folder which I staple together at the end of each month (in date order), so by the end of the year I have 12 bundles of paper. Some evening in January I create an Excel sheet and input everything and give the Excel sheets to accountant with the bundles of receipts. He can do the accounts from the sheet and if there is a query it is easy enough to go to the June bundle and see what I bought for €0.99 and want VAT back on!!
I use a cheque book to pay for machinery and parts, the contractor generally gets 2 during the year, BVD testing, and calves - and that's it.

Sami23

KatyMac wrote: »

I run account with coop which I try to pay off every couple of weeks.
Receipts etc are put into a wallet folder which I staple together at the end of each month (in date order), so by the end of the year I have 12 bundles of paper. Some evening in January I create an Excel sheet and input everything and give the Excel sheets to accountant with the bundles of receipts. He can do the accounts from the sheet and if there is a query it is easy enough to go to the June bundle and see what I bought for €0.99 and want VAT back on!!
I use a cheque book to pay for machinery and parts, the contractor generally gets 2 during the year, BVD testing, and calves - and that's it.

That's exactly what I do myself here. Only other thing I do is if say I'm buying something off DoneDeal for eg. I'll print off the add showing the price as I'd b paying cash. If no price on add I then keep advice slip from pass machine when I take money out for the purchase as my record.

MfMan

I have a filing cabinet, with separate folders for outgoings (receipts), cattle buys, incomings and other correspondence (Dept. letters etc.) Very handy for being organised. Open new ones then at the start of every year. Also have a separate farm alc. with debit card and cheque book so it's easy to keep track of transactions (banking online is a must nowadays). Any and all transactions are recorded in an Excel sheet, again a new one for every year. I keep separate worksheets for recurring and once-off expenses (handy for comparing costs between different years); also, record how you paid for each entry, i.e. cash, cheque, card, and whether VAT can be reclaimed back on the item. It's not all that labour intensive and makes it handy for producing annual accounts, price comparisons, identifying areas where costs may be controlled etc.

Farmer

Sami23 wrote: »

That's exactly what I do myself here. Only other thing I do is if say I'm buying something off DoneDeal for eg. I'll print off the add showing the price as I'd b paying cash. If no price on add I then keep advice slip from pass machine when I take money out for the purchase as my record.

Same here but I've often wondered would a revenue auditor accept it, even with the item sitting in your shed?

Muckit

I use a lever arch box. A ring binder is no good for small receipts! And sometimes it's the small receipts that can have big amounts on them. I keep it in a press in back kitchen. When l come in that evening after buying something for farm, the receipt goes straight in. l also have an accounts copybook and biro in there. Few cent in pound shop. A page a month easily does me. l make a manual entry for every receipt. It only takes 5min if you do it straight away. On each page l put column with date, what l bought, cost, how l paid for it and where bought it.

Come year end, l could just hand this to accountant but l make a softcopy and everything is done electronically right down to me paying the accountant by EFT. I do VAT reclaims myself.

Sami23

Farmer wrote: »

Same here but I've often wondered would a revenue auditor accept it, even with the item sitting in your shed?

Well if it's there they can't really argue with you imo.
Different story if there's no sign of the machinery you claimed you bought

jntsnk

Farmer wrote: »

Same here but I've often wondered would a revenue auditor accept it, even with the item sitting in your shed?

Ask for a receipt if paying by cash

Sami23

jntsnk wrote: »

Ask for a receipt if paying by cash

But would anyone want to give u a receipt

satstheway

Sami23 wrote: »

Well if it's there they can't really argue with you imo.
Different story if there's no sign of the machinery you claimed you bought

So the days of cash are gone. Never thought of printing proof.

Stationmaster

MfMan wrote: »

I have a filing cabinet, with separate folders for outgoings (receipts), cattle buys, incomings and other correspondence (Dept. letters etc.) Very handy for being organised. Open new ones then at the start of every year. Also have a separate farm alc. with debit card and cheque book so it's easy to keep track of transactions (banking online is a must nowadays). Any and all transactions are recorded in an Excel sheet, again a new one for every year. I keep separate worksheets for recurring and once-off expenses (handy for comparing costs between different years); also, record how you paid for each entry, i.e. cash, cheque, card, and whether VAT can be reclaimed back on the item. It's not all that labour intensive and makes it handy for producing annual accounts, price comparisons, identifying areas where costs may be controlled etc.

Do you do your accounts as well? If not, then you are an accountants dream!!!!