Computerized Farm Record Keeping

Bulletin 890-01

Accounts

Accounts are set up within your data file to track your income and expenses. We've already set up a CASH ACCOUNT in the previous chapter to track cash income and expenses. Additional accounts you set up will be added to your existing data file. You can have up to 255 accounts within a data file. Each account will have a register of its own.

You can transfer amounts from one account to another. For instance, using an ATM card will reduce the amount in your checking account and increase the balance in your cash account.

The types of accounts that can be set up include:

• checking, savings and money market accounts - these are used to track transactions and balances in these different accounts.
• cash account(s) - this account is used to track your cash transactions for the business and family. One cash account is usually sufficient.
• credit card account - used to track credit cards and lines of credit. For more information about using credit card account(s) to track credit card and lines of credit transactions, see Credit Cards and Lines of Credit in the Additional Quicken Topics section later in the manual.
• investment accounts - used to track various types of investments.
• asset accounts - used in addition to bank, cash and investment accounts. In a farm business, examples of asset accounts would be capital purchases, livestock purchased for resale.
• liability accounts - used to track loan balances and accrued liabilities such as payroll withholdings.

For a farm business, the most common accounts are checking, savings, cash, asset and liability accounts. If your business uses a line of credit for operating credit, you might want to consider using a credit card account. As you become more experienced with the Quicken program, you may want to add more accounts to track your personal and non-farm finances.

Setting Up New And Additional Accounts

From the menu bar Click Finance, Click Account List to open the ACCOUNT LIST window. You can also open the ACCOUNT LIST window by pressing [Ctrl+A] or Click Account if you have added it to the main toolbar. At the top of the ACCOUNT LIST window, the buttons on the toolbar are:
Open - use the selected account,
Hide(x) - hide or unhide the selected account,

New - create a new account,
Edit - change the selected account,
Delete - delete the selected account,
Options - change the display settings for this window,
How Do I - help for the account list window,
X - close the ACCOUNT LIST window.

To set up a new account, Click New on the toolbar of the ACCOUNT LIST window. Click on the type of account you want to create, Click Next and answer the questions regarding the particular account.

Note - most account balances will be as of January 1 of the current year except for your checking account(s). The beginning balance for checking accounts will be the ending balance on your last bank statement prior to January 1.

Note - when setting up a liability account, you will be asked at the end of the account questions "Would you like to set up an amortized loan associated with this account?" If you answer YES you will need very specific information about your loan(s), especially if they are existing loans that you have been paying on for some time. If you don't have the information or don't want to set up the amortized loan, answer NO and enter the principal and interest for each payment that is made during the year.

Setting Up The First Checking Account

After you have named your checking account, identified it with an financial institution and given it a description, if desired, Click Next and go to the Enter starting point information window. **IMPORTANT** If you want a January 1 start date for your records, you will need the December bank statement for this checking account. When the program asks for the balance to begin the account with, you will enter the ending balance on the December statement and the beginning date for the account will be the statement date. Click Done when you have entered the required information.

To get your checking account(s) to reconcile properly with the bank statements as you start to use the program, you will need to enter into the checking account register all the outstanding checks and deposits that are not shown on the December bank statement making sure to enter the correct check number and dollar amount of the checks and any deposits. You will also then need to enter all checks and deposits between the date of the December bank statement and January 1. All these transactions will be dated prior to January 1 and will not show up on the following year's reports dated January 1 through December 31.

If you have entered all the previous transactions into the checking account register you should be able to reconcile this checking account with your January bank statement. If you cannot reconcile the January bank statement with your computer records, review this section and the entries you have made. To start your checking account(s) properly, you must be able to reconcile with the first bank statement.
See the Setting Up Your First Checking Account example later in this chapter for the procedure to properly set up your checking account so it will reconcile correctly with your first bank statement.

Getting Into An Account

From the menu bar Click Finance, Click Account List (or press [Ctrl+A] or Click Account on the main toolbar) to open the ACCOUNT LIST window. Click on an account to be opened, Click the Open button on the toolbar and the account register will open. An alternative is to double Click on the desired account to open the account register. Opening the ACCOUNT LIST window will add Accounts to the Quick Tabs list under My Finances. You can then Click Accounts within Quick Tabs to open the ACCOUNT LIST window at anytime.

When you open a register for a checking account, a money market account or a savings account, there will be information regarding using this "bank" account for paying your bills on-line. If this is an option you are not interested in Click the X to the right of this information to close this part of the register. Once closed, this information will not appear again when you re-open this account register.

Once you are into an account register, all the accounts that have been opened are shown on the Quick Tabs list to the right of the register. To move from one open account to another, Click the account tab to open that account's register. If an account is not open that you wish to use, Click Accounts under My Finances in the Quick Tabs list and follow the steps outlined in the paragraph above.

Setting Up Your First Checking Account - An Example

Following is a copy of a page from the 20X1-X2 check register for George and Betty Carter. The December 24, 20X1 bank statement was used to reconcile the check register. Cleared items are marked with a _. The ending balance on the December 24, 20X1 bank statement was $14,495.47. There are no checks or deposits outstanding prior to 12/14/X1. Examine the check book register and answer the following questions.

Questions -

1. What is the beginning balance to use for the Quicken checking account? a) $17,339.71 b) $11,120.00 c) $14,495.47

2. What deposits and checks from 20X1 should be entered into your Quicken checking account so it will reconcile with the next bank statement.

Deposits: $4900.00 $3750.00 $4554.80 $612.50

Checks: $134.00 $365.56 $235.00 $1369.00 $126.00
$875.00 $210.00 $1357.65 $985.94 $800.00
$1000.00 $2688.62

Answers -

1. The beginning balance for the Quicken checking account is the ending balance on the December 24, 20X1 bank statement - $14,495.47.

2. The 20X1 deposits that are entered in the Quicken checking account because they did not show up on the December bank statement are the December 24 deposit of $4,554.80 and the December 26 deposit of $612.50. The December 15 deposits of $4,900.00 and $3,750.00 are marked and have been reconciled with the December bank statement.

The 20X1 checks that would be entered into the checking account register are $134.00, $365.56, $126.00, $875.00, $210.00, $1357.65, $985.94, $800.00, $1000.00 and $2688.62. These checks either were written prior to December 24 (date of the bank statement), but did not show up on the bank statement or they were written December 24 or later.

The deposits and checks of 20X1 that did not show up on the December bank statement must be entered into the Quicken checking account to have the checking account reconcile properly with the January 20X2 bank statement.