Farm Paperwork Overhaul

Ms. Chanandler Bong

Hi all,

I’ve been volunteered/drafted to help sort out the farm paperwork. There’s an overflowing filing cabinet and no one knows exactly what’s in it but it appears the general modus operandi is “if in doubt, shove it in a drawer” and now it’s spilling over into random folders/boxes!
What sort of paperwork absolutely has to be kept and for how long?
What paperwork can be binned once the latest edition is available, ie if we have 2019, can we get rid of 2008-2018? etc.
What paperwork is not essential but nice to have in case you ever need it?
Anything else I should keep an eye out for?

Any help is very much appreciated!

timple23

Are you dairy farming/sucklers/drystock?
Are you on Agfood?
Are you in any schemes? (Bord Bia/GLAS/BEAM)

Blue cards for animals.
Current listing of animals on farm, sales and purchases of stock. (Agfood will have this)
Medicine records. Purchase and usage.
Animal feed purchase records.
Sprays for weeds etc.

Thats all I can think of at the minute.

893bet

I have an excel file for tracking that I am happy to share for tracking bord bia stuff.

Have an accounts one also that I update live when I buy something. Impossible to know what’s what otherwise

Lime Tree Farm

I hold on to everything, but the requirement is 6 years for Prescriptions, Medicine Register, Biocides, Pesticides, Herbicides etc. Any of the records for current schemes will have to be held for the duration of the scheme, GLAS, BDGP, BEEP-S. Would be a good idea to hold on to all the annual accounts from the accountant, along with the relevant receipts, sales, bank statements etc in separate folders for each year..

If I was tasked with an overflowing filing cabinet, I would place it in piles for each year first. Then sort it, discarding newspaper cuttings, flyers, envelopes. Clip stuff together with a stapler.

minerleague

Lime Tree Farm wrote: »

I hold on to everything, but the requirement is 6 years for Prescriptions, Medicine Register, Biocides, Pesticides, Herbicides etc. Any of the records for current schemes will have to be held for the duration of the scheme, GLAS, BDGP, BEEP-S. Would be a good idea to hold on to all the annual accounts from the accountant, along with the relevant receipts, sales, bank statements etc in separate folders for each year..

If I was tasked with an overflowing filing cabinet, I would place it in piles for each year first. Then sort it, discarding newspaper cuttings, flyers, envelopes. Clip stuff together with a stapler.

I think revenue can go back 7 years for financial records ( maybe wrong )

blue5000

I'm going to suggest something radical here. Buy another filing cabinet, they're usually fairly cheap in 2nd hand shops, 30-40 euro. Then start from scratch with 2020 paperwork.

Gradually then go through the old cabinet, file what you have to keep in the new cabinet, get rid of the rubbish and if you are not sure get a drawer clear in the old cabinet and keep it there.

Hope this helps.

PoorFarmer

I invested in a decent scanner and hold everything as a soft copy. Everything can be compartmentalised in folders etc. Just make sure you have 2 copies. One on your laptop/PC and another on an external drive. Keep last year and current year as hard copies. Everything else gets the road

Ms. Chanandler Bong

Thanks everyone for the help!
They have both beef cattle and sheep so I have to split them up as well as gutting the paperwork.
I don’t think they’re in Bord Bia but I’m sure I’ll find out over the next few days! I might take those spreadsheets anyhow since my gut tells me there’ll be more delegation down the line ¬_¬ Thank you for the kind offer, very much appreciated!
I had decided to sort into years and bin as I go, hence wanting to know exactly what NOT to bin in case my helper/knowledgeable person disappears.
I’ll let ye know how I get on, if I get out alive!

nhg

I get a Lever Arch file with alphabetical dividers (I end up with 2 lever arch folders by year end with the same alphabetical divider split between both) to hold all paperwork in alphabetical order. Every week as dockets come in I enter them on the Tas Books accounts package that I have, if I hadn't that I would use a spreadsheet and then once recorded I file that docket. If it's a feed or vet medicine docket I enter the details in the bord bia book before I file the docket away. Every time my OH injects or doses an animal he leaves a note on the desk with ear tag number, details of injection/dose & date so that I can record it into bord bia book. I have a simple spreadsheet on which I record every animal we purchase (calf to finished beef system), on that I record Date of Birth, Tag Number, Date when 30 Months, Cost & who we purchased from - that gives me my stock value for year end & makes it easy to see when an animal needs to be sold by, once sold that animal is deleted off the spreadsheet. I started it by extracting the info from Ag food but it's simple to keep updated now. We don't live on the farm & have no internet out there so still use blue book to record animal details.
I start a new folder for each year. I keep the previous year's folders where I do my accounts so that there handy if I need to check back on anything and the older ones I store up in the attic in a big clear plastic storage box to keep them all together. All paperwork MUST be retained for 6 years.

It's a simple system that works for me and about half hour or less every week keeps everything up to date.

blue5000

nhg wrote: »

I get a Lever Arch file with alphabetical dividers (I end up with 2 lever arch folders by year end with the same alphabetical divider split between both) to hold all paperwork in alphabetical order. Every week as dockets come in I enter them on the Tas Books accounts package that I have, if I hadn't that I would use a spreadsheet and then once recorded I file that docket. If it's a feed or vet medicine docket I enter the details in the bord bia book before I file the docket away. Every time my OH injects or doses an animal he leaves a note on the desk with ear tag number, details of injection/dose & date so that I can record it into bord bia book. I have a simple spreadsheet on which I record every animal we purchase (calf to finished beef system), on that I record Date of Birth, Tag Number, Date when 30 Months, Cost & who we purchased from - that gives me my stock value for year end & makes it easy to see when an animal needs to be sold by, once sold that animal is deleted off the spreadsheet. I started it by extracting the info from Ag food but it's simple to keep updated now. We don't live on the farm & have no internet out there so still use blue book to record animal details.
I start a new folder for each year. I keep the previous year's folders where I do my accounts so that there handy if I need to check back on anything and the older ones I store up in the attic in a big clear plastic storage box to keep them all together. All paperwork MUST be retained for 6 years.

It's a simple system that works for me and about half hour or less every week keeps everything up to date.

Oh this is the whole secret of it......;)