Quicken Resources & Information

Quicken's checkbook register makes for a familiar environment to begin computerized recordkeeping. Although Quicken includes only home and general business income and expense categories, farm income and expense categories are easily added. Import options allow you to add a farm category list created at Oklahoma State University that matches the tax Schedule F, minimizing the effort required to develop a beginning chart of accounts.

Quicken's "tag" feature can be used with categories to further identify and sort transactions to allow cash reports by enterprise, by partnership share, or by farm. Splits of transactions allow a specific transaction to be divided into numerous components with different category and/or tag assignments. For example, a check written to a farm supply store can be separated into expenses for fertilizer for wheat, feed for hogs, and fuel for checking cattle.

Reports—transactions, cash flow, account balances, balance sheet, comparison, tax summary—are easily generated, information filtered and layout modified. Although tax schedules are not generated, tax schedule reports summarize information recorded that pertains to a specific tax schedule and data can be exported to other software such as TurboTax®.

Built-in financial planning and monitoring features are also useful. Loans can be amortized with scheduled payments retained for future use. Comparison reports highlight budget versus actual figures. Quicken files can be imported easily into QuickBooks®, a popular small business accounting package, if the producer later requires a more sophisticated financial record keeping system.

For agricultural users, a major shortcoming in Quicken is the inability to easily summarize physical data associated with individual financial transactions, making it hard to integrate production and financial records in reports and analysis. Within Quicken, physical quantities and price per unit information can be stored in memo lines and exported to spreadsheets for further summary and analysis.