Cloud-based record-keeping a vital tool for farmers during harvesting season
With the 2023 growing season at an end, farmers nationwide are shifting their attention to harvesting. Undertaking long days of fieldwork and equipment maintenance – not to mention preparing for next year – does not mean you should ignore crucial accounting tasks. Traction Ag’s suite of cloud-based capabilities will help organize your bookkeeping, save you time and increase your efficiency during this busy time of year.
Making a connection
Growers have numerous year-round financial responsibilities including maintaining inventory balances, tracking payroll, production costs and field-level profitability.
Yet, farmers simply don’t have time to manually transcribe every transaction when there are crops to be harvested. Connecting an online bank or credit card to robust accounting software provides growers with real-time financial analysis while in the field.
With Traction, farmers can effortlessly send transactions into their account using any connected device. Having updated finance and operational data at their fingertips enables growers to bookkeep during downtime. Additionally, Traction is secured with end-to-end encryption so your financial details are kept protected and private.
Accessing accurate data anytime, anywhere
While finances are vital to a farm’s overall health, the harvesting crunch limits the time spent recording accounting entries on a personal computer. Any application that increases a farmer’s efficiency is worth investigating, particularly options that make it easier to enter transactions and capture receipts on-the-go.
The Traction Wallet app allows for easy and secure management of accounts from a phone. Instead of dealing with paper records, growers can snap a picture of their receipts and tag it to a transaction at the point of purchase. This is a huge time savings with the ultimate reward of updated farm financial reports.
Caleb Finck, a fifth-generation farmer from Tripp, S.D., has been using Traction since early 2021. “Being able to have one place to put all of our operation and financial data from any location, any time – that is the thing that we are the most excited about,” says Finck.
Making decisions easy
Profitability per acre is a key data point that requires a solid foundation of field records. Especially, tracking metrics including expenses, labor, and yield is both required by law and critical for making important business decisions.
Connecting field records to online farm management systems like the John Deere Operations Center provides growers with a seamless flow of information for easy analysis. Reviewing these records during slower harvest times can have a huge impact on your operation.
Traction is constantly updating its services to maximize farm profitability. The new Traction Mobile app, released in October 2023, makes it even simpler to review and approve your harvest records. Utilizing the app on the phone, as opposed to logging into a web application, is a necessary time-saver when field-level profitability is at stake.
Trust in the cloud
Cloud-based farm management is a straightforward solution to accurately evaluate your harvested crop inventories and grain storage locations. Bringing this information into one program instead of multiple spreadsheets results in easy-to-manage records where farmers make adjustments as necessary. Adapting on the fly is essential for precise record-keeping, especially when time is of the essence.
Conclusion
Cloud-based bookkeeping software will help your farm business make sound management decisions during the hectic harvesting season. Tackling your finances now with Traction can position your farm for greater success in 2024 and beyond.
