Quicken Class Being Offered - Holt Boyd Extension Podcast

Quicken Class Being Offered - March 7, 2024 - Amy Timmerman - Extension Educator

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• [0:00] Today's Extension Update from Amy Timmerman,
• [0:02] a Cropping and Water Educator.
• [0:04] An online Quicken course is being offered by Nebraska Extension for
• [0:08] farmers, ranchers and agricultural business managers who want to
• [0:12] learn more about the program and financial record keeping.
• [0:15] The course is led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s
• [0:18] Center for Agricultural Profitability and was first
• [0:21] developed by Oklahoma State University.
• [0:24] It leads users through hands-on
• [0:26] sessions to develop a simple set of
• [0:27] financial records and reports using Quicken.
• [0:31] Exercises based on scenarios from a case farm allow participants to
• [0:35] practice many of the steps that they might
• [0:37] use to keep records on their farm or ranch.
• [0:40] The course is available through NU Advance, the University of
• [0:43] Nebraska’s non-credit and professional development learning system.
• [0:47] Course elements include videos, engaging learning activities,
• [0:51] quizzes, a Q&A board as well as access to content experts.
• [0:56] The course is divided into seven modules which can be completed at your own pace.
• [1:01] The total class time is approximately 3 ½ hours.
• [1:05] Participants have 60 days to complete the course.
• [1:09] “Strong financial management is the backbone of any successful
• [1:12] farm or ranch,” said Jessica Groskopf, an extension educator
• [1:16] with the Center for Agricultural Profitability.
• [1:18] “Our course empowers farmers and ranchers with the necessary
• [1:22] tools to come away with a strong foundation in Quicken, tailored
• [1:25] for the demands of the agricultural industry.”
• [1:28] Course development was funded by a grant from
• [1:30] the Southern Risk Management Education Center.
• [1:33] So what is Quicken? Since software created
• [1:37] specifically for agricultural is often cumbersome and expensive,
• [1:41] Quicken has quickly has become a popular commercial record keeping package that is:
• [1:45] One - Very user friendly.
• [1:47] Quicken is easy for people unfamiliar with accounting terms
• [1:51] to use making it a good place to start when changing from
• [1:53] hand-kept cash accounting system to computerized records.
• [1:57] Two - It is inexpensive and readily available.
• [2:01] Three - Flexible, allowing record-keeping for a wide
• [2:04] variety of agricultural and non-ag business enterprises.
• [2:08] And finally - Widely Used.
• [2:10] Users can compare notes with neighbors on its application and use.
• [2:14] The Quicken interface itself looks like a checkbook register
• [2:17] and makes for a familiar environment to begin computerized record keeping.
• [2:22] Although Quicken includes only home and general
• [2:24] business income and expense categories,
• [2:27] farm income and expense categories are easily added.
• [2:30] Import options allow you to add a farm category list created by
• [2:35] Oklahoma State University that matches the Schedule F,
• [2:39] minimizing the effort required to develop a beginning chart of accounts.
• [2:43] The "tag" feature in Quicken can be used with categories to further identify and sort
• [2:48] transactions to allow cash reports by enterprise, by partnership share, or by farm.
• [2:55] QuickFill features recognizes and completes repetitive
• [2:58] transactions to reduce the typing required.
• [3:01] Splits of transactions allow specific transactions to be divided into as many
• [3:06] as 30 components with different categories and/or tag assignments.
• [3:10] For example, a check written to a farm supply store could be separated
• [3:14] into expenses for fertilizer for wheat, feed for hogs and fuel for checking cattle.
• [3:21] Reports - transactions, cash flow, account balances,
• [3:25] balance sheet, comparison, tax summary - are all easily
• [3:29] generated, information filtered and layout modified.
• [3:33] Although tax schedules are not generated,
• [3:36] tax schedule reports summarize information
• [3:39] recorded that pertains to a specific tax schedule,
• [3:41] and data can be exported to other software such as TurboTax.
• [3:45] Built-in financial planning and monitoring features are also useful.
• [3:49] Loans can be amortized with scheduled payments retained for future use.
• [3:53] Whole farm budgets based on historic Quicken data can be
• [3:57] generated quickly and easily, as can budgets developed from “scratch.”
• [4:01] Comparison reports highlight budget versus actual figures.
• [4:06] Quicken files can be imported easily into QuickBooks, a popular
• [4:10] small-business accounting package, if a more sophisticated financial
• [4:13] record-keeping system is required in the future.
• [4:16] If you are acquiring more information regarding this upcoming class
• [4:22] please visit cap.unl.edu/quicken.
• [4:26] This has been Amy Timmerman with Nebraska Extension