Attention Farmers with Livestock!
The 1st of June is fast approaching and we will be asking you to send us your farming records sometime in the following 10 months. Rather than waiting until we request your records and trying to remember your livestock numbers as at 31 May, why not count early!
The more you can do for us prior to annual accounts, the faster and easier our job is and the less questions we will have to hassle you with.
What we will need from you is:
Livestock on hand, of all classes:
Your closing stock on hand as at 31 May (or your own balance date, if different). Having this provided by our clients is important as this is what we reconcile to; it is hard to progress on the livestock reconciliation without this! We “age up” the stock one year from the last financial year’s closing stock, take into consideration purchases, sales, births and deaths, this should (in theory) reconcile to the closing stock you have provided.
If you have sold stock before your balance date but have not yet moved them off the property, don’t count these in the closing stock. If you have brought livestock but they are not yet on hand, count these.
Let us know of any accounts payable (stock purchased before your balance date but paid after) and accounts receivable (stock sold before your balance date but payment received after).
Please don’t include any leased livestock in your closing stock numbers.
Sales and Purchases:
Accurate coding is key when you are coding your livestock transactions! Also, making sure there are quantities in Xero or Banklink for each transaction, and narrating what was being brought or sold saves us time when we are searching for information.
Keeping your livestock invoices in one section of the folder that you provide us at year end makes things faster for us to find what we need. If you are using Xero you can even attach a copy of the invoice to the transaction in Xero. Ask your client manager how you can do this.
Births and Deaths:
We will need to know how many births of each calf type that you keep (e.g. cattle - bulls or heifers), however bobby calves do not come into the livestock reconciliation. Same for deaths, we need to know which class died and how many, and this includes letting us know if any animals have fallen into the freezer!
If you want to email your accountant early with your closing stock rather than waiting for your annuals request, please do . We will save it to your file and it will be all ready for us when we come to do your annual accounts!
