Business | Summer 2010
Schedule some quality desk time.
By Joy Gregory
Tips to keep your spine in line
There’s good and bad news for farmers who want to improve what business specialists call "desk-work productivity." The good news is that computers make your job easier. The bad news is that improving desk-work productivity doesn’t necessarily mean less time at your desk. But it does make that time more effective.
Recommending a specific computer software program is difficult because farmers need to work with programs they and their accounting and tax professionals understand and can put to use, says Ron Fisk, an ag services analyst with accounting firm Meyers Norris Penny (MNP) in Moosomin, SK.
Fisk, who helps MNP clients with the record-keeping side of ag stability programs, says good records are paramount for those programs. "You need to know your exact inventory and sales by quantity and dollar value."
While a lot of his clients use the AgExpert management software from Farm Credit Canada, which also helps them with business and tax planning, "all programs are only as good as the information you put in them."
The real issue is often time management, not software, says Chris Corbett, a marketing advisor with Farm Link Marketing Solutions in Melfort, SK. On the marketing front, "a good software program makes it easier for you to access the information you need to make good marketing decisions. It takes less time to analyze data, for example," says Corbett, who helps farmers track and improve their marketing programs.
On the other hand, "with everything else that they have to do, a lot of farmers don’t enjoy the desk part of their work. Consequently, it gets left out, often until they feel they ‘have’ to get to it."
He recommends scheduling desk time for record keeping and marketing. If you need new software, set it up in the winter and always get a service agreement so you can ask for help when you need it.
"A good ag program won’t alleviate desk work, but you will make better decisions," says Corbett.
