The Working plan is made up of the following:
Cashflow which is all about dollar values,
Livestock grid which is all about stock quantities, and
Dairy Forecaster (if you are a dairy farmer) which is all about milk production.
The Working plan extends each year so the closing numbers from last year become your opening numbers for the next year. As the year progresses, the Working plan automatically updates, so your actuals for each month sit on top of your planned items. You can add a description for each of your plans to personalise them, and this name will be visible on the Landing page below the corresponding plan. This description will move with the Plan whether you make it a Draft or a Baseline, or move it into another financial year.
The dollar values from your Livestock grid and Dairy Forecaster will flow through to your Cashflow.
Initial Set-up
When you create your farm business in Farm Focus, a working plan is automatically created for the current financial year, including any Actuals to date, plus your Planned items for the year ahead.
If a bank balance is recorded in Settings - Bank accounts, with a start date earlier than the current financial year, a section called ‘year Actuals’ will be created.
The Landing page view:
Your Working plan is set as a continuum along the top from one year to the next with your Actuals to date and your Plan going forward. The red revision line tells you where your actuals finish and your planned items start. You can view the name of each plan, the description, and also who created the Plan with a date to help keep track of multiple plans. You only have one Working plan.
The Baseline plans are set below the Working Plan and are a locked, read-only version of the Working plan at any given point in time you choose. You can create as many Baseline plans as you like.
The Draft plans are your scenario plans. They are handy for exploring opportunities such as buying the neighbour's farm or changing your farm system. You can create as many Draft plans as you like. They are listed in alphabetical order. use the arrow to drop down each draft to view the name, description and user detail.
Working Plan in the current year
Your working plan for the current financial year will display actual transactions up to the revision date and planned transactions for the remainder of the year.
This view will change month by month as actual transactions come into your farm business from bank feeds, and manually imported bank transactions in the Actuals screen.
The following areas may change as a result of your actual transactions replacing planned transactions for the same period, especially when there are timing or production differences.
Monthly bank balances
Livestock tallies
Milk production
Monthly revision and re-forecasting help you to easily identify these differences and update your plan to accommodate them.
Get to know your icons in the Working Plan
Print: click this icon to print the Working plan, create a PDF to save or export to Excel. Only the lines that are populated with information will print.
Compare Data: click this icon to show a comparison on Line 2 in your Working Plan
The Actuals option will allow you to select the Actuals from a previous financial year to populate Line 2. This is handy for when you are building your budget for the new year; you can populate the second line with your previous information to give you a guide.
The Plan option allows you to select any other plan to go in Line 2. This could be a baseline plan you have previously saved to compare the monthly variances from your initial plan or use a draft plan to view the seasonal changes of your current system with a different scenario.
Quantities will show all of your quantities on Line 2. This includes things like stock numbers, milk solid kgs, litres of drench or hectares cultivated etc. Any quantity information you have coded in your actuals or forecast in your plan will show in Line 2.
Filter: click this icon to filter for specific bank accounts or tags (management or cost tags). This is handy if you want to build up your budget for various tags before combining them to create an overall budget.
Viewing Options: click this icon to see the viewing options available.
The Cash view option means you are viewing your plan based on the payment date.
The Accrual view option means you are viewing your report based on invoice or event date. Read more here.
If you select 'Show financial year items', Farm Focus will flag with blue any cells that have payments relating to a previous financial year, such as deferred fertiliser payments, or your Accounts Payable at the end of the previous Financial Year. This option will also add a column called "Future FY" which will show any items that are invoiced in the current year but will be paid in a future financial year.
The other viewing options relate to livestock and you can read more about them here.
Keyboard shortcuts: click this icon to view a few handy keyboard shortcuts if you prefer to use your keyboard when entering information into your Working Plan.
Settings: click this icon to change the name of your plan, amend the opening livestock numbers or add in Opening GST.
The tick icon means that your latest changes in the Working plan are saved and up to date.
Copy Line 2 in your Working Plan
When you are creating a new plan you can use the powerful Compare Data icon to put relevant data in line 2 as a guide to developing the plan. This allows you to use a prior year's actuals or a plan or quantities as a guide to building your plan.
You can choose to copy this information from line 2 into your plan. This allows you to quickly build up your plan.
As long as you have the Compare Data option active, then Copy Line 2 will be available to select. You can choose to copy an entire category or at the extended code level, and also choose to copy livestock events.
You can use the Copy Line 2 option when you are in Cash and Accrual View.
TIP: When printing your budget/plan, ensure you select display background graphics which is usually found under Options in your printing settings. That way the shading of Line 2 will be visible in the printed budget/plan. Line 2 will also be displayed if you select Export to Excel.
Adjust by a percent increase or decrease
You can add a percentage increase or decrease to items in your plan while using the Copy Line 2 option. This is handy as it allows you to adjust your plan for market or inflationary changes. The increase or decrease can be applied to price or quantity. There is no limit on the percent increase but the percent decrease is limited to 99.9%.
In the Livestock grid, the increase or decrease can be applied to price, quantity or weight. Read more here.
Working plan in a future dated year
Your Working plan for a future dated financial year such as 2024/25 will display only planned items for the entire year. Actual transactions won't play a part in your plan until that financial year starts.
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