I was wondering how everyone else keep there receipts and records for taxes .I was so good last year and this year mine consists of a draw stock full of receipts .I kept saying I was going to get a computer program to load it on ,never happened .Does anyone use a computer program that is easy to use spread sheets and keep farm records ? Thanks

-- Patty (fodfarms@slic.com), December 26, 2000

Answers

Ive been looking for a spreedsheet program also,, cant seem to find one the works like I want

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), December 26, 2000.

I have Quicken installed on my computer but find it's much easier and quicker to just keep things in a simple ledger.

-- JT in Florida (gone2seed@hotmail.com), December 26, 2000.

The more I study the Excel program the more impressed I am with what I can do with it. Found Quicken to be a big frustration, couldn't make it do what I want it to do. It is really hard to correct a mistake in it. With Excel you basically design your own bookkeeping formula. I am going to start it the beginning of the year after fighting with Quicken this year. You can have more than one spreedsheet in a book and easily move from one to another. It does take some study to know how to use it and I am really just getting started.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 26, 2000.

from a business partner: Quicken is very easy to correct, if you set up your categories properly. A simple ledger might be easier to set up and use, but if you want to do things like cash flow analysis, month to date, quarter to date comparisons, and budget analysis, Quicken has all the recording built in. Just one perspective. If you are referring to Quickbooks, that is a different story; much more complex.

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), December 26, 2000.

Thanks earthmama, I liked what Quicken can do, like all the things you mentioned, I will study harder on the mistake corrections. Like I said, I am new to the whole thing on the computer, this is my first year. I made a couple of wrong entries months ago and am still struggling trying to get it straightened out so things will balance.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 26, 2000.

A simple ledger program like qbasic money can be utilized pretty efficiently, however, I have found a notbook with a bootbox suffices very well. Simply keep the notbook ledger/journal style and use corresponding ID numbers on each reciept in the bootbox (I pencil them in the notebook and at the bottom of the reciept). Big plus is no harddrive crashes.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 26, 2000.

I like my Quicken, it's easy to use, more so than a business program like Quick Books or Peach Tree. Maybe there's a difference between the Mac and IBM version. As for my receipts, I have an envelope for each month and put them in there. At the end of the month or quarter (depends on what's more interesting around to do) I divide them up and put them into category envelopes like feed, medical, auto, etc. It's easier than waiting until the end of the year, which is what I use to do. What a nightmare!

-- jennifer (schwabauer@aol.com), December 26, 2000.

I use a simple low-tech approach. Write down everything spent on a calendar page and total it up at the end of the month. Then total up all the months for a yearly total and save these in a trash-picked binder. I have them for the last 25+ years. Save all receipts in a shoebox, with the latest in front. Put a rubberband around each year's worth with the year plainly written on the top. By cross- referencing with the calendar pages I can find any receipt in a flash.

-- Sandy Davis (smd2@netzero.net), January 02, 2001.