As the operational year is rounding down, you're gearing up for some vital conversations with stakeholders in your farm operation (landowners, bankers, insurance agents, etc.). You've been using Traction Enterprise to capture operational data throughout the year, and now you're ready to harness that data in order to drive your stakeholder conversations.
Here at Traction Enterprise, our Customer Success Team has fully embraced the phrase, "Good data in. Good data out." It's essential to have your data in good shape in order to use Traction Enterprise as a resource for these stakeholder conversations and negotiations!
To help you do this, we've put together the following checklist to guide you through the process.
Setup
Here's what you'll want to be sure to review and possibly update under the Setup tab:
- Have you added the Entities you'd needed to report on as the year rounds down? Examples include:
- Farm Entity
- Landowners
- Suppliers
- Customers
- Other (ex. third party storage, custom work you do for another farm, etc.)
- Are your input prices for the year up-to-date? Remember, this is how input usage costs will be reflected throughout the application (unless you're tracking input deliveries, read more on that here).
- Have your crop prices been updated? While actual crop revenue is displayed on Profit Analyzer as the weighted average price of open (or settled contracts) * actual yields (as reported via Activity Records), crop price estimates could factor into this equation in instances where contracts haven't yet been fully priced.
- Financial Accounts allow you to keep track of expenses and revenue that aren't necessarily associated with operational costs (as well as those that are!). Have you created and allocated your Financial Accounts this year? Learn more here.
Crops
Here's what you'll want to spot-check and update if necessary under the Crops tab:
- You already know that actual crop revenue on Profit Analyzer is calculated by using the weighted average price of your open and settled contracts. Have you a) added your contracts for the year and b) are they priced? Learn more here.
Inventory Balances
- Double-check your crop balances to ensure harvest data has been flowing in properly.
Inputs
Inputs are one of the major cost drivers in modern production agriculture. Check these places to ensure your input usage has been accurately recorded for the year:
- Run a quick "By Task" report with the planned quantity, planned cost, actual quantity, actual cost columns enabled. Work through this report and identify any applications that seem off. You're then able to drill in and update any associated Activity Records if needed.
Financials
Here's what you'll want to check out on the Financials tab:
- Run a "By Variance" report, and compare each crop you've produced this year. Are your planned vs. actual vs. forecast numbers looking accurate? If not, you'll want to dig into your Activity Records to scope further.
Operations
Do a quick spot check on the following pages on the Operations tab to ensure you've got data flowing through properly as you've been managing your Tasks throughout the year:
- On the Task Review page, sort for incomplete and overdue tasks. Did those that are incomplete / overdue actually happen on your farm this year? Were some Activity Records inadvertently missed along the way?
- On this page, you'll always want to check and see if your incoming field operations are linking to Tasks. This will ensure Activity Records are generating, and that the data is flowing properly through the rest of the system.
Related Articles:
- Pre-Planting Checklist
- Harvest Checklist