Computerized Farm Record Keeping with Quicken® 2003

Bulletin 908

Introduction to Computer Records

Quicken Organization

Using Quicken begins with setting up a File (see Quicken Organization Flow Cart, Fig. 1-3). A Quicken File contains all of the records for a particular business whether it be a farm business or another home business. Typically, users work with only one file in organizing their finances. See Chapter 2.

Within a Quicken File the user sets up various Accounts corresponding to different bank accounts, loans, credit cards, asset accounts and other liability accounts. For each account there is a corresponding register where transactions are entered. See Chapter 3.

As transaction entries are made into an Account register they are assigned a Category which allows for easy categorization and summarization when generating reports. Examples of categories include feed, seed, fertilizer, fuel, grain sold, and milk sold.

Transactions can be broken down further for more detailed record keeping by assigning them Subcategories. For example, the category fuel may have several subcategories: gas, diesel, and oil. A transaction in Quicken for purchase of diesel fuel would be assigned the category fuel and subcategory diesel.

Lastly, transactions can be assigned Classes and Subclasses. Examples of Classes are: corn, soybeans, wheat, dairy, and swine. Often, classes are used to summarize transactions for reports by enterprise, by field, by farm or another grouping. Subclasses can be used to further detail a transaction. See Chapter 4, Categories & Classes.

An example of a transaction assigned a category, subcategory, class and subclass might be: Diesel fuel purchased for harvesting corn for farm 1. This transaction would be assigned the following: category=fuel, subcategory=diesel, class=corn, subclass=farm1.

Back | Forward | Table of Contents