Building your farms annual plan in Figured comes together quickly by using your actual bank balance and past transactions sitting in your accounting software as a starting point for how you want the next year (or more!) to go. With rolling plan, any forecasts you've put in will carry over to the next year if need be too.
When you're working within your farm, there are two financial "views" available:
Actuals: Actuals are what's actually happened, either on the farm (like a stock movement) or in your accounting software (like an electricity bill paid). Selecting actuals will only display actual movements
Actuals + forecast: An actual + forecast view lets you view actuals up to a certain point, with the remainder of your year coming from your forecasts. Forecasts are Figured only - they represent your plan, what's to come next. Your A+F view can be set to actuals to none, actuals to last month, or actuals to a certain month
We recommend that to build your plan, your global date selector is set to Actuals + forecasts with actuals to Last month.
The reason for this is that even if you are new to Figured and your preferred accounting software, your conversion balances will be there and last month should always be the most up to date view.
Your annual plan comes together with 3 steps:
Working in your planning grid
Working in your production trackers
Approving the plan (or take a snapshot if you've already approved your plan on the farm)
Working in the planning grid
The planning grid is a 12 month table view of all of your accounts that sit within your accounting account's chart of accounts.
To build your plan in the planning grid, all you need to do is enter values into the grid and it'll auto save as you go along.
Wanting to add transactions with a bit more detail? Check our the article on using detailed transactions / account schedules.
Setup the interest on overdraft calculator to automate the monthly interest payments that go into your plan as your actuals and forecasts happen.
Unsure about whether to enter values as a positive or negative? This article explains when you should use a - and when not to!
Working in the production trackers
Production trackers are where you keep track of and record production movements - that could be recording milk production, adding a livestock sale, or planning a crop harvest.
For any type of production you want to track, you'll need to setup a production tracker. The trackers share common elements between them, but also have different setups and options available depending on how you'd like to use them.
Check out the collections below on how to best setup and use your trackers:
Approving the plan
With your numbers in, it's time to approve your plan in the planning grid.
Hit approve plan, give your plan a name, and set the actuals to selector - I've chosen February 2020 as that is what last month is for me. You can give it a description if you'd like!
The first snapshot you ever take for a year will always be marked as your annual plan.
Your plan has been built, you can now move onto running reports, re-forecasting, or other fun farm financial activities.
Your snapshots, including annual plans, can be found under Planning > Snapshots.
You can also use any of your snapshots in our reports.
