Quickbooks and Accounting: Advanced Business Planning with Julia Shanks

This full-day workshop is designed to help both established and beginning farmers understand the financials of their business and learn how to make informed decisions to increase profits. It is best suited for those with at least one year of farming or similar experience. The goals of the workshop are to plan for profit, examine YOUR farm enterprises, better understand financial statements and learn about recordkeeping. Attendees should come prepared with their farm’s financials (in whatever form you have): income statement, balance sheet and budget from the previous or upcoming year. It’s okay if you don’t have any formal or “proper” financial records … bring what you have! Also bring a calculator and/or computer.

The workshop covers the following topics:

• Overview of Basic Accounting Principles – this will give participants a foundation for the QuickBooks and Enterprise Analysis sections
• QuickBooks – how to setting up the chart of accounts, enter basic transactions, and track revenue and expenses across multiple enterprises and sales channels
• Enterprise Analysis – with all the data well tracked in QB, we’ll discuss how to analyze the numbers, understand which products and customers are most profitable, and how to make decisions to increase profits

Instructor Julia Shanks is the author of “The Farmer’s Office: Tools, Tips and Templates to Successfully Manage a Growing Farm Business.” She works with farmers throughout New England to develop bookkeeping systems and manage their businesses for profitability and growth.

Interested in a partial or full scholarship? Please fill out a scholarship application form.

This workshop is held in collaboration with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) and the Maine Small Business Development Center.

Please register here to attend.