Getting started

Choose a farming template best suited to your farming business: Sheep and beef or dairy and we do the rest.

You'll find your code list is geared toward farming, complete with livestock codes for financial and non-financial events and other farmer-specific coding such as Land Management - Riparian Planting.

Farm codes help you to:

Calculate your GST returns
Report on income and spending
Create and maintain plans

Structure of farm codes

The code structure is organised into 4 levels:

1. Section
This level groups similar codes together like income i.e. sheep and beef sales, milk production and other farm income. Sections determine how your reports are structured.

2. Totals
This level creates totalling areas for reporting and analysis i.e. total Income minus total Purchases equals Net Income.

3. Category
Are broad management areas such as livestock sales or purchases or animal health costs. While you can customise your categories, they must mimic a standard structure.

4. Extended code
These are a subgroup of the category and offer more detail. For example, water supply is a subgroup of repairs and maintenance. Extended codes can be personalised to your business.

Farm Focus allows you to have an unlimited number of codes. However, having too many codes can be confusing. Code to the level you are going to use the data. ie if you are interested in knowing what each motorbike costs, code to individual motorbike level. If you just want to know the total amount of what all motorbikes on farm cost, code to that level.

The demonstration databases contain what Farm Focus considers best practices for your farm codes. Click here to learn more about the demonstration databases.

Sections

The recommended best practice for your section structure is:

This structure is recommended because:

Income minus your purchases equals net income
Net income minus farm expenditure equals farm surplus (also known as economic farm surplus or EBTIR - Earnings before Tax, Interest and Rent)
Farm surplus minus interest and rent equals operating surplus
Operating surplus minus other (tax, personal drawings, principal repayments etc) equals financial year surplus

Farm surplus is an important metric as it shows how much the farm makes (or loses) without being distorted by ownership structure. Farm surplus allows you to compare across different enterprises.

Interest and rent are the cost of owning or leasing a business. Interest and rent can be very varied between businesses depending on how much debt the farm is servicing or how much land is leased.

While we recommend this structure, you can personalise the structure to suit your business needs. Consult your Accountant about the best section-level structure for your business.

Add a new farm code

Build your code list to suit your farming business. This can be achieved by adding a new section, category or extended code.

You can add a new farm code in two areas of Farm Focus:

in your Settings and
within your Invoices (for extended codes only).

Add a new Category code in your Settings:

Click on Settings > Codes > Farm Codes
Click on the 3 vertical dots on the appropriate Section code
Select New Category
Enter the Category code, this will be a shortened version of the name
Enter the Name
Choose your GST type, this will be automatically applied each time you use this code (You will be able to change it manually each time if you wish)
You may choose to apply a tag, as with the GST this will be automatically applied to the line each time you use this code
Choose a type for your code:

Income - This is used for any regular Income codes
Expense - This is used for any regular Expense codes
Product - Allows you to track the quantities of a product, used for items like wool or honey.
Stock - When the stock code is selected, it will generate a mirror code (one for income and one for expense).

8. You will need to select a KPI reporting group for your category code, the KPI reporting group determines how your information is displayed in some reports

9. Click Done to save the new Code

Add a new extended code in your settings

Select the 3 vertical dots on the category code that you want to enter an extended code underneath.
Select new Extended code,
Follow steps 3-9 for creating a Category code

Use the +symbol while in Farm Codes to create codes (alternative option)

Click on Settings > Codes > Farm Codes
Click on the + symbol at the top left corner of the screen and you will be able to select if you want to add a new Section, Total, Category, Extended code Codes from template
Follow steps above

This method also gives you the option to enter a new section and total.

Add a new code while you are coding an Invoice in your Actuals (for extended codes only)

If you are in your Actuals > Needs Action and are part way through coding an invoice, you can also add a new extended code directly from here.

Click into the coding area and your code list will drop down. At the bottom, you have the option to Add a new extended code.

Edit an existing farm code

You can edit an existing farm code to suit your Farming business.

Go to Settings > Codes > Farm codes

Find the code you want to edit

Hover over the code and select the 3 vertical dots

Click edit

NOTE: You cannot have duplicate category codes. Learn what a category code is. You can have the same extended code under a different category code (eg: Feed Grown: Hay and Feed Purchased: Hay).

Scenario:

John’s existing extended code for farm fuel was combining all farm fuel purchases under one code. John would like to code the diesel used in his tractor separately from the petrol used in the farm bikes.

In the edit code screen, John will

Edit the extended code:
F will become DI.
Edit the name:
Fuel will become Diesel.
Check and save the changes by clicking Done.

What happens now:

John will then add a new code for petrol transactions (see above chapter: Add a new extended code in settings)
When a fuel-related transaction is coded, John will have specialised codes available
The edited code and the new farm code will show in the Farm codes list as shown below

You can rename a code and the new code name will appear in both historical and current reports and budgets.

Delete, deactivate or reactivate a farm code

You can customise your code list at any time to suit your farm business. This includes the ability to delete, deactivate or reactivate codes.

Deactivate or delete codes that you no longer require to make your reports less cluttered. You cannot delete a farm code if you have used it in transactions or plans. Instead, you need to make it inactive (deactivate) which will hide it in your code list, meaning you won’t be able to select it when coding transactions or building a plan. These deactivated codes will still be reported on in historical reports but moving forward deactivated codes won't be shown in reports.

If you deactivate a Category that contains Extended codes, these codes will also be deactivated.

Sections and Totalling areas can’t be deactivated, you will need to delete any that a no longer needed.

Deactivate a farm code

Go to Settings > Codes > Farm Codes. Scroll down to the Category or Extended code you want to deactivate. Click on the 3 vertical dots of the code you want to deactivate.
Select Deactivate.

Once you select Deactivate, the code will be hidden immediately so make sure you’ve selected the correct code, otherwise you will need to activate the code again.

Reactivate a farm code

Go to Settings > Codes > Farm Codes. Click the Show inactive code status bar at the top left of the Code List page to Show inactive.
Deactivated farm codes will appear greyed out in the code list.
Click on the 3 vertical dots of the code you want to reactivate.
Select Edit.
Shift the Code status bar at the bottom of the code page to Active. It will change colour from grey to green.
Click Done to save.

Delete a farm code

If you have never used a Category or Extended code in either a transaction or a plan, you can delete it from your code list. If you have used the farm code before you will need to deactivate the code (see chapter Deactivate a farm code)

If you want to delete a Section or Category, it must first be empty. For example, if you want to remove a Category like Grazing Fees (because you don’t graze animals off the farm), you need to delete the Extended codes such as Wintering and Freight first.

Go to Settings > Codes > Farm Codes. Scroll down to the Category or Extended code you want to delete. Click on the 3 vertical dots of the code you want to delete
Select delete

Re-positioning a farm code

Sections, categories, extended codes, sub-totals and running totals can be re-positioned by dragging and dropping the code or total. It is recommended you order your farm codes in an order that best suits your business. For example, order your extended codes so the ones used most are at the top. This is the order in which the farm codes will appear in your plans and reports.

It is best practice to use the drag and drop function when:

re-positioning extended codes within their category, or
re-positioning a category within a section

If re-positioning a code outside a category or category outside a section drill into the code page.

Print a list of your farm codes

To help familiarise yourself with your Farm Focus farm codes, you can download a printable copy to have on hand while coding.

Go to Settings > Codes > Farm Codes. Click the print button to print or download a PDF of your code list, ready for you to print.
Note: the view you see on the computer screen will be what is printed. Use the chevrons to collapse or expand the code list to the detail you require.

The PDF also displays additional information including:

The GST type on category codes
The extended code will display the GST type if it differs from the category code
Your accountant’s GL codes, if they have been mapped