Xero for fresh produce packers and food manufacturers. Pack, sort, grade, process fresh produce, mix salads, manufacture coleslaw and value added fresh produce: Integrates with Xero accounts payable, accounts receivable, Xero items and more.... Full inventory, quality control, orders, sales and shipping.

99% less fresh produce packing waste

Accurate fresh produce & food inventory management reduces waste through better FIFO stock rotation, stock-takes, and inventory alerts. RFID pallet control (optional) for precision inventory tracking. 

Save time packing fruit & vegetables

Increase the efficiency of fresh produce inventory using options like scanning incoming bar-codes to reduce data entry & errors, integrate with scales for automatic weighing, ore RFID for automatic fresh produce inventory tracking.

Better fresh produce quality control

Guarantee the quality of your fresh produce packing with flexible fresh QC testing systems from your phone or tablet. Customer feedback management, supplier quality control and more...

Reduce fresh produce packing errors & control production

Project required inventory (and shortages), schedule orders to be packed in batches , automatic alerts to prodution line managers.

100% accurate fresh produce order shipping

Shipping teams are guided through the dispatch process from picking using a phone or tablet (optional bar-code scanning), automatic picking, thru bill of lading, invoice, and automatic shipping notifications for customers, transport, and sales teams.

Reduce fresh produce packing administration costs by 40%

Automatic generation of fresh produce labels, bill of lading, invoice, picking documents and more; reduces administrative burden.

Easy audit & recall systems reduces compliance costs.

Faster fresh produce inventory storage  inventory

Accurate fresh produce & food inventory management delivers reduced waste and increased employee productivity. Manage FIFO, improve stock-take accuracy, scan harvester data, and keep a watchful eye on your inventory... Easy stock-take identifies shrinkage and helps reduce waste from ageing. 

100% accurate fresh produce traceability

Maintain strict fresh produce traceability and high food safety standards always. Perform recalls based on lot/batch, pack date, invoice #, inventory #, pallet #, delivery date, purchase order #, or perform a recall on your own user defined data. Perform instant recalls both up and down the supply chain. Makes audits easy and instant. COVID-19 food safety & auditing available. 

Reduce fresh produce waste by 99%

Inventory control ensures there is no 'shrinkage', food inventory is FIFO managed, and expiring inventory always monitored.

Reduce administration time by 60%

Automatic paperwork, labels, and reporting reduces the burden on administration teams and saves everyone's time.

Better fresh produce quality now

Quality control and food safety has never been easier with industry standard quality tests, food safety checklists; or configure your own tests. 

100% accurate orders!

Guarantee only the correct inventory is shipped for each order, on time, every time.

Xero for fresh produce packers and food manufacturers. Pack, sort, grade, process fresh produce, mix salads, manufacture coleslaw and value added fresh produce: Integrates with Xero accounts payable, accounts receivable, Xero items and more.... Full inventory, quality control, orders, sales and shipping.

Farmsoft fresh produce packing app is for fruit & vegetable packer, processor, import/export.  Full fresh produce traceability, auditing, inventory control, and fresh produce business management app.

Quality inspection for fresh produce

Consistent and accurate quality control ensures higher customer satisfaction and adherence to industry, de-facto, and in-house quality control standards. Track supplier quality performance, customer feedback & complaints, create QC tests for any part of the fresh produce & food manufacturing process (incoming goods, raw materials, finished goods, expiry test, export/shipping tests), daily factory hygiene, machinery calibration, employee checklists... 

Fresh produce logistics

Manage orders, pack to order, picking and auto picking, dispatch & shipping process. Generate invoices, bill of lading, pick slips, export documentation and other sales documents... Dispatch teams are guided through the dispatch process ensuring every order is filled perfectly, and on time. Paperwork such as BOL, freight documents, export documents are automatically generated based on the customer and destination to guarantee no rejected shipments or issues at borders.

Fresh produce labels

Generate fresh produce SSCC pallet labels, GS1 case & PTI labels, bin labels, batch labels, traded unit labels, harvest labels and more. Use the built in industry standard labels for Walmart, Woolworths, Aldi, Tesco, Loblaws etc - or design your own with the built in label & report designer. Our team can design all of your fresh produce documents to ensure farmsoft matches your requirements perfectly.

Fresh produce packing control

Sales, Quality, Profit, Dispatch, Pack, Farm...... Dashboards for sales teams provide instant impressions of customer orders and current inventory levels. The dispatch dashboard helps plan shipments, order of loading, and transport companies & drivers... The Profit analysis dashboard shows margins per unit and most profitable customers. Use our API to access your data however you like.

Fresh produce batch packing

Project required raw materials needed to pack/manufacture orders, potential shortages, schedule multiple orders to be packed in batches on selected production lines with a few clicks, automatically send new job alerts to managers, schedule additional harvests, analyze outstanding orders. Manage entire packing and manufacturing process with ease.

Fresh produce alerts monitoring

Automatic alerts for shipments can be sent to customers, transport providers, or even team members. Every time a batch is finished processing, receive an alert with the pack-out breakdown and percentages of grades & quality and waste. Alerts can include simple shipment notifications, or even invoices and original order details. Other alerts include order changes/modifications, yield reports, new order alerts, and low inventory alerts... 

Farm app option

Implement the farmsoft Farm Management suite to provide a comprehensive integrated business management solution from seed to plate. Includes automatic task management, best practices, budgeting, farm inventory, PHI enforcement, audits, residue reporting, USDA reporting, dashboards, recalls and more... 

Fresh produce supplier quality control

Suppliers must know that your business is measuring and tracking their performance. Any trends that effect the quality of fresh produce can be quickly detected, automatically traced back to the fresh produce supplier (especially if a result of a customer complaint / feedback), management and purchasing teams are automatically alerted when a supplier quality issue happens. Quantify your suppliers quality using the Supplier Quality Dashboard. 

Fresh produce finance apps

Share data with your Xero finance app, Quickbooks, MYOB, SAGE, using our API, or request our team perform a custom integration for your fresh produce company. This is an optional module, please ask your consultant for additional details and discuss your specific requirements, additional costs will apply for integration with your chosen finance app. 

Fresh produce RFID

Automatic tracking of each pallet’s exact location. Makes loading orders accurate and easy, stops errors during shipping. Very low costs to setup your hardware using farmsoft’s innovative RFID for fresh produce solution. Pallets put onto truck are auto added to order, and checked for accuracy. Pick up a pallet and its RFID instantly selected. Add pallet/bin to production line and its auto added to batch for traceability.

Fresh produce API

Integrate with virtually any other app or software solution using the farmsoft API. It's open! Anyone can use it. Your in house I.T. team, or any external I.T. vendor you want to help you with integration. Add your own reports, extract special data, or even create new interfaces between farmsoft and any app such as accounting, payroll, B2B, B2C. Other integration in farmsoft includes the ability to integrate with selected weigh scales to capture fresh produce net delivery weights.

Fresh produce bloch-chain

Increase customer confidence and prove the credentials of your traceability integrity and transparency with block-chain ledger technology.   We use the chain-trace.com blockchain solution. (Optional module not included with standard Packing / Food Manufacturing ERP solution).

Improve fresh produce production planning

Efficient management customer orders, and the ability to analyze orders gives you new production planning tolls in farmsoft. Ensure each order is filled to exact specifications, on time, every time. Increase customer satisfaction and retention, and reduce stress in the packhouse with confident production planning using work orders/batch orders, sales contracts, sales orders, and sales order items. Are you manufactruing or processing chili products? Try farmsoft for chili processing. 

Accurate fresh produce traceability

Quality officers are guided through the quality control process, presented with images and instructions for each test, ensuring they know what to look for at all times, corrective actions are presented if a quality issue is detected. This makes training new fresh produce quality control officers fast, and ensures consistency in the quality control management processes for incoming fresh produce, post pack/post processing, storage, and dispatch. 

Efficient use of fresh produce cold stores

Maximize your cold store use and rotation of stock using farmsoft's pallet maps, and precision traceability tracking with expiring inventory reminders.
Cold store management software for fruit importers, exporters, packers, cross docking, and short and long term fruit storage.

Xero for fresh produce packers and food manufacturers. Pack, sort, grade, process fresh produce, mix salads, manufacture coleslaw and value added fresh produce: Integrates with Xero accounts payable, accounts receivable, Xero items and more.... Full inventory, quality control, orders, sales and shipping.

The farmsoft inventory control app provides business wide quality management inspection systems for fresh produce, food manufacturing, seed processing, meat packing & processing, and flower packing.


Salad manufacturing & packing for food service & convenience packs: Easy management of the salad processing, mixing, and packing environment. Pack salad convenience products, mixed fruit, mixed vegetable products.


Salad manufacturing & packing for food service & convenience packs: Easy management of the salad processing, mixing, and packing environment. Pack salad convenience products, mixed fruit, mixed vegetable products
The best salad dressings are those that enhance the overall taste while still allowing the individual salad components to shine. Today many varieties of salad dressings and sauces can be found everywhere which means we can add interesting twists and flavors to our salads and other dishes. Therefore, MF Food has presented its wide unique range of salad dressing that cater to all its customer’s desire.

Freshness is everything when it comes to salads; the crisp and refreshing taste, the vibrant colours of the different ingredients – not to mention the nutritional values - are the qualities that make a salad appealing for your customer, and all of them are quickly lost right along with the freshness of the vegetables. As such, choosing the right packaging for your salads becomes an important choice. By using the right salad containers, you can keep your salads at that perfect level of freshness for quite a length of time.

Fresh produce RFID inventory app manages fresh produce inventory for packers of fruit, vegetable, meats, and seafood. Fresh produce RFID solution from farmsoft is inexpensive to implement and uses easily available inexpensive RFID hardware for fresh produce.  Fresh produce RFID inventory app fruit & vegetable handling & control
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the reference scenario, highlighting main problems. The proposed reengineered model and its implementation in a real pilot project are reported in Section 3. Main details related to the software system architecture are summarized in Section 4. In Section 5, a description of the hardware adopted in our work is reported. A system validation is discussed in Section 6. Finally, Section 7 summarizes the conclusions and sketches future works.

RFID inventory control for fresh produce: Main Requirements and Open Issues in the Fresh Vegetables Supply Chain.

Fruit and vegetable inventory management: manage fresh produce inventory, fruit & vegetable rotation FIFO and expiry of fruit & vegetable inventory.  Fruit and vegetable inventory management and fresh Produce Stock Control
Fresh Produce Stock Control
Fruit and vegetable inventory management
FarmSoft provides extensive fresh produce stock control of incoming fresh produce & fruit/vegetables from the very moment it is delivered to the pack shed. Comprehensive Fresh Produce Stock Control is delivered via labeling, movement tracking, temperature control, quality control, documentation, and registration of incoming produce – all of which is essential in creating a strong traceability audit trail. FarmSoft provides comprehensive Fresh Produce Stock Control for fruit, vegetable, hop, grain, flower, and other fresh produce.


Business management app for salad packer processor wholesaler: manage entire salad packing process from raw salad materials to salad mixing, salad packing, and salad sales & logistics.  Mixed salad loose leaf salad lettuce packing
Use farmsoft to manage the entire mixed salad loose leaf lettuce packing operation for any loose leaf specialty products including spinach, baby kale, green coral, mignonette, butter lettuce, 4 leaf salads, baby cos, rocket, arugula, chives, basil, bunch dill, bunch kale curly, bunch kale deck, bunch mint, bunch silver-beet, bunch tarragon, bunch thyme, tuscan kale, chard, continental parsley, cochran iceberg, cochran cos, mizuna, chard, salad blends, organic salad packs, Asian mix, braising mix, frissee, organic raw, raddichio, Lollorosa, red romaine, spring mix, wild arugula.

Configure the ingredients for each loose leaf salad & lettuce recipe, project the required materials, produce orders based on requirements (or schedule new harvests or new plantings) to ensure mixed salad loose leaf lettuce packing is accurate and easy to manage.
Salad Processing – Creating Spring Mix
Salad Processing – Creating Spring Mix
Business management app for salad packer processor wholesaler
Post published:April 9, 2019
The spring mix harvesting process has been documented previously on the blog (see post HERE), and in this week’s blog, you get to see the salad processing step, showing what happens to those different types of lettuce varieties after they are harvested. The continuation of this process takes place with the same company, Babé Farms, at their processing facility (Fresh Venture Foods) in Santa Maria, California.
What Lettuce is in Spring Mix?
Although we are accustomed to the name “spring mix”, all companies use their own unique mixture to create their specific mix. For Babé Farms, they create multiple different types of lettuce mixtures. In the picture below, you can see how they dictate what types of lettuce are included into each mix.


Manage your seed, oilseed, cereal inventory traceability, orders, seed storage, seed sales, wholesale and export. Organic and conventional. Silo storage, cleaning, packing. Print Canadian Grain Council (CGC) forms and reports.  The app manages your seed, oilseed, cereal inventory traceability, orders, seed storage, seed sales, wholesale and export. Full business management solution for grain, seed, and cereal handling.

Organic and conventional. Generates paperwork for CGC and other government requirements; saves your time.
Create Purchase Orders to order seed inventory, or receive seed inventory from your own farms without needing an order
Record your customers orders of seed (optionally allow customers to order online using the shop, or B2B portal)
Receive bulk seed deliveries and store in silos, traceability is full maintained from the instant you receive the seed inventory, to post sales auditing and mock recalls.
Perform a quality check during the delivery process to determine waste % or dockage.
Generate Form 7 for CGC Canadian Grain Commission (sample here!) Ask us if you need more forms for your local region
Report rapidly on the total seed inventory stored in each silo, including off-site storage locations
Processing seed: Clean, sort, perform safety scanning (x-ray, magnetic) on seed stocks
Store cleaned seed inventory in clean silo
Bulk load trucks directly from seed silo for bulk sales
Pack cleaned seed inventory into 1MT, kg bags, and LB bags
Controlled seed sale process tells shipping teams exactly which inventory should be shipped to which customer
Shipping container management, temperature recorder numbers, seal number, and more for exporting seed stock
Generate reports that give you all the information you need for auditing and reporting such as CGC Weekly report, CGC Monthly Liability Report, CGC Receiving report, CGC Settlement report.

5 Ways to Reduce Fresh Produce Inventory Waste Right Now
5 Ways to Reduce Food Waste Right Now
“Sometimes the simplest lessons are the most groundbreaking.” That truth is over 30 years old, but its words still resonate loud and clear.
The goal of today’s post is to share a some surprising, yet logical ways to reduce inventory right now…
The key to reducing inventory is not to buy LESS; the key is to buy LATER. Teams that use this inventory reduction strategy and mindset will free up incredible amounts of capital for their organizations.
THE KEY TO INVENTORY REDUCTION IS NOT TO BUY LESS; THE KEY IS TO BUY LATER.
So as you might guess, the opposite absolutely holds true:
The key to raising service levels is typically not buying MORE; it is buying EARLIER. Perhaps we’ll save that breakdown for another day. Here we’ll explore ‘buying later’ as a strategy to reduce inventory and challenge you to see if there’s opportunity to do so in your organization.
How to reduce inventory in supply chain planning: those first few days
Let’s start with a quick word about your initial days using an advanced supply chain planning solution. Most companies experience a dramatic and welcome inventory reduction when they first move from the world of old buying reports and spreadsheets to a best-in-class inventory planning solution. The advanced forecasts offer dramatic results as expected, and the proper safety stock amounts finally being placed on each item often offer a shocking inventory reduction.
This common benefit is based on the fact that most companies carry too much safety stock on their fast-moving, or smooth ‘A’ items. Once those victories are realized, much more opportunity typically unfolds. Even a strong team with an advanced inventory planning and replenishment solution will continue to see deeper results as they increase their knowledge and be more open to coaching and growth.
When safety stock gets inflated, here’s why


Optimizing Fresh Produce Inventory Management.  oday’s PlanningPosts chat is with long-time veteran in the inventory optimization world, Tracy Coon, along with PlanningPosts evangelist Dan Craddock, on the topic of Optimizing New Item inventory.

Summary: New item forecasting is a troubling area because of its tremendous profit impact. If a company has $50M in inventory, New Items could be $5M or more of that investment. Yet, as Tracy explains, so few demand forecasting teams make optimizing new items a key focus. Download now to learn some strategies for putting a sense of urgency behind improving the performance of your new items across the portfolio.
Todd Intro: I am here with two people who consider themselves lifelong inventory optimization professionals. They love the profession and their careers have been built on educating inventory analysts and inspiring inventory planning and demand forecasting excellence.
Welcome, Tracy Coon and Dan Craddock! It’s great to have you both on the show and I know you want to dig into this topic in a big way. You were both replenishment analysts for wholesale companies prior to becoming education consultants.
Dan & Tracy: brief introductions
Todd: Despite this passion for the profession, you both say that you continue to be frustrated by the lack of success in one key aspect of a company’s inventory:
Optimizing Fresh Produce Inventory Management
Optimizing Fresh Produce Inventory Management.

Fresh produce supply chain planning, demand forecasting, pricing: fruit & vegetable packing
Demand Forecasting,
Inventory Optimization, and
Price Elasticity
Supply chain planning relies heavily on science and algorithms for better demand forecasting and inventory management. This includes forecasting independent customer demand, which changes with customer preferences. It also includes dependent demand that aggregates demand streams at a stocking point upstream to other echelons of the supply chain.
Let’s look at how science and machine learning in Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is streamlining demand forecasting, inventory optimization and price elasticity to improve long-/short-term planning for complex distribution supply chains.
Why is the Distribution Supply Chain So Complex?
Many factors are contributing to increasing complexity in these forecasts, including outbound customer demand volatility, managing multiple suppliers with long lead times (especially overseas), constrained transportation capacity, and increasing inbound supply line volatility.
Fresh produce supply chain planning, demand forecasting, pricing: fruit & vegetable packing
Fresh produce supply chain planning, demand forecasting, pricing: fruit & vegetable packing
Large Assortments
Distributors face even greater complexity in managing their supply chains. Large assortments to serve existing customers has become key to differentiation, but introduces an ever larger assortment with intermittent, lumpy and sparse demand in the “long tail.”

Essential Steps to Expert Demand Planning in fresh produce supply chains.  Order Analysis: Essential Steps to Expert Demand Planning in fresh produce space

You’ve taken care of your customers’ needs. You’ve created your replenishment order, but you left a few stones unturned… What about those Special Orders? Before you send the replenishment order to your supplier, don’t overlook the opportunity to boost revenue and cut costs in these 3 Special Order areas:
Events and Promotions,
Investment Buys, and
Overstock Transfers and Balancing
It has been almost 23 years since we first heard a phrase we’d love to borrow from the beloved Jerry McGuire… “Show Me The Money!” That’s exactly what Special Order analysis does for your business.
We are stoked that you are here today for Step 6 of our 7 Essential Steps to Expert Demand Planning series. We’re here to Show You The Money. Well… more like you are here to Show Yourself The Money through strategic Special Order analysis. We’ll give some strategies you can use to optimize Special Order opportunities and drive incremental margin on all your promotions, investment buys, and overstock transfers/balancing. These areas offer a fast, easy win for boosting sales, expanding margins, elevating your products, and balancing overstock.
Special Order analysis happens after basic replenishment and before the final rounding of buying multiples and supplier brackets in the demand planning process:
Demand Forecasting
Lead Time Forecasting
Order Cycle Optimization.

Post harvest traceability software for for fresh produce packing, processing, export/import, sales – for fruit, vegetable, seafood packers.   Better handling of FIFO, monitor expiry dates, and accurate fresh produce inventory control & labeling help to reduce waste in packing, processing and storage. Further waste reduction can be achieved with other handy farmsoft features like Quality Control that ensures ‘waste’ is actually waste, waste reports that automatically calculate waste from a batch based on inputs and outputs – allowing you to identify potential areas of shrinkage, incorrect categorization, or mishandling.

post harvest traceability software
post harvest traceability software
Improve dispatch accuracy
Let farmsoft improve the accuracy of your dispatch processes by managing orders, allowing assignment of inventory to orders and invoices from phone or tablet (directly from the forklift) or by PC/Mac. Documentation required for each specific customer can be automatically generated based on each customers requirements. Ensuring correct documents accompany every shipment reduces the possibility of a shipment rejection.
Consistent quality control
Quality officers are guided through the quality control process, presented with images and instructions for each test, ensuring they know what to look for at all times, corrective actions are presented if a quality issue is detected. This makes training new qual

Fresh produce marketing


Fresh produce marketing software reduces shrinkage, increases efficiency, and makes compliance easy. Turbocharge your profits now with farmsoft!Fresh produce marketing software reduces shrinkage, increases efficiency, and makes compliance easy. Turbocharge your profits now with farmsoft!
One hundred percent accurate traceability starts at the purchase order or delivery phase, and follows the fresh produce through all of the fresh produce processing and storage phases all the way to the customers doorstep and beyond. Recalls can be performed based on only a small amount of supply chain information, making farmsoft one of the best fresh produce traceability software solutions on the market. Trace software marketed to customers using any of the following: pallet number, inventory number, batch number, customers reference, purchase order number, sales order number, contract number, delivery date, invoice, delivery docket number and more. Farmsoft makes fresh produce marketing, importing, exporting, and sales and distribution easy with a range of handy features to ensure maximum traceability and efficiency in the fresh produce sorting, grading, packing, processing, warehousing, wholesaling, and sales & distribution processes.
Farmsoft fresh produce marketing software has solutions for all produce marketing enterprises and packhouse and pack shed.

Fresh produce processing software delivers reduced waste and shrinkage, increased traceability and profit. Make fruit and vegetable packing easy, automatic paperwork generation, reduce administration cost.
Fresh produce processing software
Fresh produce processing software
Farmsoft is a full featured fresh produce processing software solutions. Delivering comprehensive management from the delivery of goods, through the entire storage, washing, sorting, grading, packing, processing, and sales, marketing, and dispatch of fresh produce. Farmsoft includes many optional modules from which clients can choose to build a perfect solution for their fresh produce processing enterprise. Access farmsoft from the cloud, or install on your local server. User your PC / Mac / iPhone/Android / tablet / industrial PDA to access farmsoft. Improving the traceability and reducing post harvest loss is the cornerstone of the farmsoft Packhouse solution. Farmsoft enforces good manufacturing practices to ensure minimal waste and maximum pack shed profit. Comprehensive quality control systems ensure quality testing is fully standardized and quality managers are alerted immediately of any significant quality deviations.
Fresh produce processing refers to the the conversion of one or more fresh produce inventory (for example fruit, vegetable, seafood, herbs, hop, flowers) into a value added product. The value added product may be simply a dried herb, or may be a more complex product such as a mixture of processed juices. Fruit and vegetable production and consumption in Asia and the Pacific region have shown a marked upward trend over the past several years. Rising consumer demand in the region has come with greater awareness of food safety issues and increased need for convenience and quality.

Packhouse management software from farmsoft delivers comprehensive packhouse management for fruit, vegetable, and fresh produce processors, packers, importers and exporters.
From inventory control through to sales and dispatch. farmsoft packhouse management software fills in the gaps and ensures your fresh produce processing business always has maximum quality, minimum waste, and extreme traceability.
Packhouse Management Software
Packhouse Management Software
The farmsoft packhouse management solution can manage fresh produce from delivery, short and long term storage, washing, packing, processing, and even full food manufacturing and value adding processes. To complement these features, farmsoft packhouse management solution also manages sales orders, sales contracts, export documentation, dispatch, shipping containers, and invoice preparation. Talk to a farmsoft consultant today to find out how packhouse management can be implemented in your packhouse to increase traceability and at the same time, reduce waste through better fresh produce handling procedures.


Fresh produce management software from farmsoft delivers rapid traceability, waste reduction, and packer accountability for fruit, vegetable, hop, and coffee. For use in medium to large packhouses, and co-operative packing.
Improving the traceability and reducing waste is made easy for fruit and vegetable packers and processors using farmsoft. The farmsoft fresh produce management software suite provides a comprehensive management system that addresses modern packing concerns including waste reduction, employee management and labor capture, traceability maintenance, export documentation, sales, orders, contracts, purchase orders, multi-pack site management and more.
‍As an optional feature,farmsoft is also ready for corporate deployment, where one company can have multiple packing sites. Each packing site can operate independently, and users at each site can only see the data relating to their activities. Of course, head office is able to view all sites, monitor packing progress, assign sales orders to be fulfilled at specific sites, and track performance and all KPI’s from each packing site. Download fresh produce management software specifications, or download sample packhouse reports.
Fresh produce management software
Farmsoft fresh produce management software for enterprise management of simple and complex packing operations including receipt, sorting, grading, processing, packing, storage, sales and dispatch.

Fresh produce distribution software makes fruit and vegetable supply chain management easy! Manage the entire ordering, storage, packing, sales and distribution processes with farmsoft.


Farmsoft fresh produce distribution software makes fruit and vegetable supply chain management easy! Manage the entire ordering, storage, packing, sales and distribution processes with farmsoft.
Farmsoft fresh produce distribution software does everything you need to manage a busy fresh produce packing, sales, and distribution enterprise. Handy features like instant traceability, mobile point of sale interfaces, and print on demand solutions make farmsoft the most sophisticated – yet easy to use Fresh produce distribution solution.
Farmsoft fresh produce distribution software makes your packhouse more efficient and reduces post harvest waste.
fresh produce distribution software for fruit importers, exporters, packers, cross docking, and short and long term fruit storage.
fresh produce distribution software
Farmsoft’s easy to use functionality covers all operational requirements for import, export, packing and processing of fresh produce. Use farmsoft’s cold store quality control modules to ensure minimum waste, and maximum customer satisfaction.

Fresh produce management system for inventory management - Orders - Quality - Packing - Sales - Shipping - Recall & audit.  Fresh produce management systems gives fresh produce packers & processors reduced waste and increased traceability.

The farmsoft produce management system is a complete business management tool for fresh produce packers, processors, and import/exporters and wholesalers. The farmsoft system ensures maximum traceability and minimum waste with an overall process based on systematic management.
Fresh Produce Management System slashes paperwork and administration costs, improves compliance, and reduces waste.
The farmsoft fresh produce management system takes the headache out of fresh produce processing and packing by generating fresh produce documents & food safety management systems. Easily generate paperwork for your fresh produce packing and processing operations.
farmsoft fresh produce management system
farmsoft fresh produce management system
Today's complex supply chains render firms susceptible to diverse risks and require robust fresh produce management systems; however, SMEs of PFSCs are found to be more vulnerable to risks due to exposure to extremely uncertain weather conditions and consumer concerns about product quality and safety attributes. These firms, however, constitute a major part of the world's economy and provide raw material for many industries such as food and beverage using their fresh produce management system.
These firms, constitute a major part of the world's economy and provide raw material for many industries such as food and beverage, fruit & vegetable fresh produce management systems. A disruption in their supply chains could result in food shortage, high inflation or economic decline. Most of existing studies on fresh produce management systems predominantly focus on perishable industries such as fresh food, fruit, vegetable, meat, seafood, and flowers.

Perishable inventory management software, Reduce perishable inventory waste with FIFO and strict inventory management & monitoring.
Perishable inventory management...
Implement a simple traceability solution, or comprehensive business wide perishable inventory solution – the choice is yours….Perishable inventory management software, Reduce perishable inventory waste with FIFO and strict inventory management & monitoring.
Detailed perishable inventory management video...
Perishable inventory management software for fresh produce and more...
Download the detailed product specifications here.
Perishable inventory management software, Reduce perishable inventory waste with FIFO and strict inventory management & monitoring.
Perishable inventory management software, Reduce perishable inventory waste with FIFO and strict inventory management & monitoring.
Perishable inventory demands attention. Specific inventory-tracking methods help with the job of managing and accounting for perishable inventory. Perishable refers to items that have an expiration date, such food that will go bad if not eaten in a certain amount of time. Single-period inventory control and first-in-first-out, or FIFO, inventory valuation are commonly used to deal with perishable goods.
Much of operations is about being able to match supply to demand. This can be difficult with certain business models that sell perishable goods. As a result, managerial accounting has come up with methods for recognizing inventory for perishable goods. Perishable goods, or goods that may have no value in the next period, can be difficult for managers to track; however, the single-period inventory control system can help to alleviate many issues involved with automatically replenishing inventory when it's down.

Export fresh produce using farmsoft fresh produce business management suite...
A modular solution including comprehensive business management options to choose from to help manage and increase efficiency in your fresh produce packing, processing, and food manufacturing business. With functionality built specifically for import/export of fresh produce including export documentation, certificate of origin, phytosanitary certificates, and other food export requirements.
MANAGE FRESH PRODUCE EXPORT ORDERS
Track your fresh produce export orders from order to dispatch.
MEET FRESH PRODUCE EXPORT STANDARDS
Ensure all fresh produce handling and traceability is managed accurately.
GENERATE FRESH PRODUCE EXPORT DOCUMENTATION
Rapidly print fresh produce export documentation such ass hipping, invoice, and customs.
CAPTURE PHOTOS OF EACH SHIPPING CONTAINERS CONTENTS(INSURANCE & QC)
MANAGE SHIPPING CONTAINERS, TEMPERATURE MONITORS, AND MORE...
RECORD QUALITY CONTROL TESTS ON EACH EXPORT SHIPMENT
Manage fresh produce export for fruit & vegetable packer, processor, and importer...
Easy fresh produce exporting with the farmsoft fresh produce export management suite.
Export fresh produce
Manage export processes for fresh produce fruit & vegetable
Turbocharge your fresh produce export...


Coles order management for fresh produce, fruit & vegetable sales...


IMPORT COLES FRESH PRODUCE ORDERS
Rapidly import order files from Coles, saves time, and increases accuracy. You can even import updates and deletions that will be automatically managed.
Coles order management
GUARANTEE COLES ORDERS ARE FILLED WITH ACCURACY
Sell fruit and vegetables by scanning pallets and inventory onto orders, farmsoft will manage the balance remaining on each order to ensure each dispatch is sent with the correct content, at the correct time.
REDUCE MISTAKES ON COLES ORDERS AND INVOICES
Coles invoices are captured automatically during the dispatch process (or entered by administration team) ensuring accurate Coles orders and invoicing processes.
MONITOR PICKING PROGRESS AND ORDERS READY FOR DISPATCH
ENSURE CORRECT DOCUMENTS ARE INCLUDED WITH EACH ORDER DISPATCHED
DISPATCH AND INVOICE DATA SHARED WITH ACCOUNTING PACKAGE


Fresh produce traceability app for fruit, vegetable: inventory, processing, packing, sales & distribution.  
There are currently more than one billion smartphones in use across the world – and that figure is projected to double by 2015. As the use of “smart” mobile devices continues to grow, apps have become an incredibly effective way of providing information and resources to a wide audience. farmsoft provides access to food traceability information directly from smartphones, tablets, and PC's. Essential traceability information can be accessed at any place in the fresh produce supply chain.
An increase in smartphone use happens to coincide with the growth of a consumer demand for more sustainable food – “organic,” “locally grown,” “seasonal,” and “pesticide-free” are becoming more and more common in the vernacular of food sales. In the United States alone, annual sales of organic foods and beverages grew from US$6 billion in 2000 to US$26.7 billion in 2010. And there are nearly three times as many farmers markets in the United States today as there were in 2000.

Fresh produce software for more profit & reduced waste.  Fresh produce software delivers efficiency & traceability improvements for fruit and vegetable packers, processors, & import / export.

Farmsoft fresh produce software provides end to end business management for fresh produce processors and marketers. Farmsoft fresh produce software manages all facets of the fresh produce process from incoming produce, to processing, sorting, grading, packing and even value adding. The functionality of farmsoft fresh produce software is rounded off with comprehensive quality control, sales, dispatch, and invoicing functionality.
Farmsoft fresh produce software provides comprehensive labeling, inventory management, pallet management, pallet control, audit functionality, quality control and other fresh produce tools to make every day business management easier.

Xero for fresh produce packers and food manufacturers. Pack, sort, grade, process fresh produce, mix salads, manufacture coleslaw and value added fresh produce: Integrates with Xero accounts payable, accounts receivable, Xero items and more.... Full inventory, quality control, orders, sales and shipping.

Integrate your farmsoft app with Xero in the fresh produce space.
Xero fresh produce software
Xero integration allows Producepak to automatically convert PO's from farmsoft into Xero Invoices for AP (accounts payable); essentially this is converting deliveries of fresh produce into AP records for management by Xero. Xero > farmsoft integration is an optoinal additional item when purchasing farmsoft, please request pricing details. Addtional integration with Xero can be added on request.

Xero integration for fresh produce packers and shippers, full inventory and traceability management with Xero's powerful accounting.

Using farmsoft and Xero, you can take advantage of all the special fresh produce functionality such as traceability, recall & audit, quality control, shipment planning, fresh produce label printing (with built in industry standards for Walmart, Woolworths, Loblaw, Tesco and more..), inventory management while keeping your accounts accurate using Xero accounting solutions.

Xero & farmsoft will manage your sales orders (customer purchase orders) and you can even manage price lists in farmsoft by setting prices for any part and its associated produce & variety, and features, and even individual pricelists for different suppliers and customers. When orders are created in farmsoft, the price list is used to default current prices.

Combine the power of the farmsoft cloud based fresh produce business management solution with Xero accounting and finance management.


Xero integration allows farmsoft to automatically convert PO's from farmsoft into Xero Invoices for AP (accounts payable) and Invoices issued by farmsoft become AR records; essentially this is converting deliveries of fresh produce into AP records for management by Xero. Xero farmsoft integration is an optional additional module with additional cost and not included in our standard offer. Additional integration with Xero can be added on request.

Xero & farmsoft = Less waste
Reduce fresh produce waste with better stock-takes, FIFO, and inventory alerts.



Xero integration for fresh produce packers and shippers, full inventory and traceability management by farmsoft, with Xero's powerful accounting.
‍Using farmsoft and Xero, you can take advantage of all the special fresh produce functionality such as traceability, recall & audit, quality control, shipment planning, label printing, inventory management while keeping your accounts accurate using Sage accounting solutions.

Xero might be a relatively new player in the U.S. accounting industry, but it’s quickly gaining in popularity. A New Zealand-based company, Xero’s reach has grown substantially with it’s U.S. offerings, even competing with big business accounting software players like QuickBooks. Built “in the cloud for the cloud,” Xero appeals to a wide range of accounts as well as business owners, forgoing accounting jargon in favor of everyday terminology. Plus, with Xero’s wide breadth of features and functionality, mobile friendliness, appealing interface, and reasonable pricing, it’s no wonder their subscribers continue to grow.

As with any accounting software, new users will want to take some Xero training courses to familiarize themselves with the platform and ensure they understand the processes and capabilities. If you’re looking to get started with Xero accounting for your business, you’re probably wondering where the best places are to get Xero courses online. With the vastness of the Internet, there are a variety of options out there and you want to make sure you’re getting reliable and helpful information. Should you invest in paid training or is the free Xero training sufficient? We’re here to sort through all the possibilities and help you decide the right resource for your Xero training.

Xero Training Courses and Resources
As we mentioned, in this Internet age, there are numerous options when you’re looking for Xero accounting training. You can find and pay for training online or in-person, read how-to guides, watch videos, or even meet with an expert to help teach you. Out of all of the available possibilities, the simplest and cheapest option, as you might have guessed, is to head online. As long as you ensure that your information is reliable and up-to-date (more on that later), the Xero training online resources are substantial. Here are four of the best:

1. Xero U
When it comes to Xero training, going straight to the source is hands-down the best choice. Xero offers free online training on their education portal called Xero U. With this platform you have access to both live and online Xero training courses, as well as webinars and additional resources. The courses on Xero U cover the basics such as getting set up, completing invoices, managing security, and more. Additionally, Xero U extends to more advanced topics like payroll, sales tax automation, and inventory management. Investigating these advanced topics can help you see how the Xero software applies to your specific business, whether you need accounting for your retail store or ecommerce business. The videos are thorough, up-to-date, and easy to navigate—making learning at your own pace simple. Even more important, online courses and webinars are generally free through Xero U.

Furthermore, Xero U breaks down suggested course trajectories based on the user: one track covers Xero training for business owners, while the other focuses on accountants and bookkeepers. Each track is further divided into categories to help the user follow a logical progression and choose courses based on their specific need. For accountants and bookkeepers, training is categorized as “explore Xero, “getting set up,” “day-to-day,” “get certified,” and “going further.” If you’re looking specifically for Xero certification training online, the “get certified” category is where you’ll find it. Here, business accountants and bookkeepers can participate in specific courses to earn their Xero certification.

For business owners, the categories are essentially the same, however, the “get certified” category is replaced with “apps.” The “apps” section, as you might imagine, offers courses that guide you on integrating other software with Xero.

2. XeroTV
Like Xero U, XeroTV is managed directly by Xero, so you know that the videos are providing you with the most accurate and relevant information. All of the materials on XeroTV are free.

The XeroTV platform feels less formal than Xero U—instead of training courses, you have shorter, more individual videos. These videos are also divided into different categories ranging from “how-to” to “app marketplace.” While shorter than the course videos on Xero U, the XeroTV videos are expansive and high-quality. These videos even expand into an advisor series, startup series, as well as an influencers series. The platform also has customer stories, business and Zero accounting app reviews, and information on updates to the Xero software.

Imagine arriving at work today and all your orders have been entered into your industry designed order management system? QuickB2B saves hours and hours of the day-to-day processes a Food Wholesaler goes through.

Clients download your app (or the generic app) from the Google Play and Apple App stores. Orders are placed in minutes through their phone. Since your clients enter their own orders you eliminate errors.

The Inventory Manager answers the question of what stock do I need to supply today's orders? At the click of a button purchase orders are generated and can be emailed straight from your tablet before pushing the data to Xero for supplier invoice matching.

Picking Slips, Delivery Dockets, Delivery Run Sheets, Portion Control, Random Weights and very Complex Pricing are part of your system. Step through today's order processing before sending the data to Xero for invoicing.

QuickB2B. Innovative. Simple. Smart.

Explore all features of QuickB2B Order Management System
QuickB2B Order Management SystemPlay Video
, opens in a dialog
QuickB2B Order Management System + Xero
With seamless integration your Order Management System sends order data to Xero as invoices awaiting approval. Random weights etc are entered off before pushing this data to Xero so simply select them all, approval and leave Xero to do what it does best. Manage your financials.

If you elect to make use of the inventory manager, purchase orders are sent to Xero making matching purchases with supplier invoices so much easier.
3. Xero Central
By now, you might be sensing a theme. On the whole, Xero themselves have the most extensive, free online training resources for their accounting software. In addition to the previous two video-based resources, Xero has a forum and topic hub called Xero Central. Although you might not think of this as your traditional training course format, Xero Central is another great resource, either on its own or as a supplement to XeroTV and Xero U.

Xero Central offers step-by-step guides to help you learn how to navigate and best use their platform. These guides range in overarching topics from payroll to fixed assets and cover issues as specific as accounting balance sheets and adjusting tax amounts on paid transactions. If you prefer to learn by reading as opposed to listening and watching a video, Xero Central is the place for you. Not only does the platform offer topic guides, however, it also contains a discussion forum where you can ask specific questions and receive answers from other users. Xero Central also gives you the ability to direct your questions to Xero’s support team.   Xero Picks Freshen toothpicks are available in refreshing mint flavors. We use a patented technology to infuse these toothpicks with mint, xylitol, sucralose, flavors and jambú, a concentrated extract of spilanthes acmella. Jambú has strong saliva-inducing effects and is responsible for the tingling sensation in the mouth and lips often experienced during salivation. Recommended Use: Suck and flip. Lightly imprint teeth once wood has softened to release more ingredients. Suggested 20-25 minutes for maximum use. Use and discard. Do not swallow. To open tube – simply squeeze both sides of tube to pop the top. These tubes are child resistant by design.
Cooling Fresh Breath: Xero Picks Freshen is a great way to keep fresh breath and a great alternative for gum and mints.
Feel the Tingle: Every product in the Xero Picks line of infused toothpicks is formulated to fight dry mouth. Our toothpicks are infused with jambú – a Brazilian herb used for centuries for its ability to stimulate saliva production. Jambú – also called spilanthes – is where Xero Picks get their signature tingle.
Infused to the Core for Long Lasting Flavor and Effects: Xero Picks are made with a patented infusion process that allows flavor and ingredients to penetrate the splinter-free birchwood for long-lasting effects. Our toothpicks last for an average of 20-30 minutes of usage.
Versatile: Use discreetly anytime, anywhere - around friends and family, at work or when traveling. Stop and start use as needed until flavor fades.
Little Device with Big Benefits: Xero Picks toothpicks are packed full of flavor for seriously fresh breath and remain zero calorie, sugar free, gluten free, vegan and keto-friendly.

4. Social Media
Although social media can be a headache in this day and age, it can also be extremely useful—if you know where to look. In terms of online training for Xero accounting, you can find free beneficial resources on both Facebook and YouTube.

Facebook
Facebook can be a great resource for finding groups for business owners and accounting professionals. The Xero Official North America – Accountants & Bookkeepers group is a combination Q&A forum and education platform, which is great for both Xero training information and getting help with one-off issues you might encounter while using Xero. Group moderator Jay Kimelman is the Xero ambassador for the Southeastern United States region, so the information in the group is always current and accurate.

Some of the Xero groups on Facebook are geared exclusively toward accountants and bookkeepers, while some are meant for small business owners and other end users. You’ll want to keep this in mind when you request to join a group. Also, when choosing a Facebook group for Xero questions or training, your best bet is to stick with the “official” groups. While other “unofficial” groups can also be good resources, they’re typically not moderated or monitored by Xero or Xero partners.

YouTube
For even more video resources, you can check out the Xero YouTube channel, as well as other Xero training materials posted on the platform. Xero’s own channel is pretty robust, featuring similar resources to XeroTV. Although other YouTube tutorials may not come directly from Xero, you can definitely still find helpful content. Many small business bookkeeping, accounting, and general industry professionals share training resources on YouTube—you can use your best judgment when deciding which videos to watch, which are the most up-to-date and reliable, and which will be the most useful for you.

Bonus: The Xero Advisor Directory
If you’re thinking a directory doesn’t sound quite like a training course, you’d be right. However, many Xero advisors encourage their clients to become knowledgeable about Xero and can also help them in doing so. The Xero Advisor Directory lists accountants and bookkeepers who are certified in Xero. You can search the directory based on your specific industry and location. You also have the ability to search for “Xero champions,” which are firms whose teams are highly trained in Xero.

If you decide to work with a Xero advisor, they can help with your training, offer Xero tips, and serve as a general resource for you. Furthermore, your advisor can work with you on the aspects of Xero that you personally need to know and that will benefit your business the most. Developing this knowledge allows you to become more involved in your business’ finance (if you weren’t already) and has been a proven way to encourage financial intelligence and profitability.

Additionally, while not necessarily specific to Xero training, it’s still worth noting that the Xero website offers other resources including podcasts, guides, and reports for small business owners as well as accountants and bookkeepers.

Farm accounting: 10 points to consider
Farming is a different type of business to any other. Find out the top ten factors to consider for farm accounting.

A farmer looking at their accounts on a computer
Accounting for the way you run your farm
Farming is unique. There are few other types of business that rely on living produce, whether it's crops or livestock. That makes farm accounting more complex than other businesses when it comes to assets, liabilities, costs and revenue.

Depending on the country you’re in, farming can be quite a regulated and subsidised industry. Then there's the weather, of course, which can have a dramatic effect on profit and loss.

Accounting for all these factors is far from straightforward. But with a little thought and planning it's possible to get into a routine of managing the finances for every aspect of your farm's operation. Here are ten important points to bear in mind about farm accounting.

1. Your land is an asset
Properly managed agricultural land shouldn't depreciate – it might even go up in value. But mismanaged land can take many years of careful nurturing to return to productivity, especially if it's become highly acidic or drained of nutrients due to over-farming in the past.

The cost of maintaining your land should always be accounted for.

Fertiliser: This is an unavoidable expense if you want to keep your fields productive
Irrigation: Nothing grows without water, and irrigation is a major cost in dry countries
Drainage: Soil that doesn't drain well will rot crops and harm livestock, and improving drainage is a costly process
Soil pH management: Different plants require different pH levels and careful analysis is required in order to add the correct nutrients to maintain soil pH at the appropriate level
Weed removal: Whether it's manual extraction or spraying, weed removal is an ongoing expense
Pest control: If you're growing crops you'll need to manage pests and this can be a continuous fight with natural selection as pests develop resistance
If looked after well, good quality land should remain productive year after year. So whatever it costs to keep your land in good condition it is likely to be money well spent. Make sure you account for all these expenses.

2. Stay up to date with government subsidy schemes
Farming is a critical industry. If a country doesn't have the resources to feed itself, it will have to rely on imports to keep its population alive. For that reason, most governments provide subsidies to farmers to help them out during the lean years, to make particular types of farming more appealing, and to ensure that the country never runs out of food.

he Farming Team
Posted 4 years ago in Advisors
Posted by
Bryan Williams

In an endeavour to help make Aussie farmers more profitable, Xero has collaborated with Figured to launch the Farming Team. The initiative aims to educate farmers on how to run their farms more efficiently and effectively using eight integrated cloud-based apps in conjunction with a network of trusted advisors.

One of the key drivers behind the collaboration is to give farmers ongoing support for useful apps which they may not otherwise be able to get in their local area.

The innovative companies partnering in the Farming Team include Figured, Agworld, AgriWebb, MarketCheck, TrueCrop, Agmarket and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Equipping farmers with the right tools
Xero’s National Partner Director, Rob Stone explained that it’s important to equip our farmers with the tools and training they need.

“The $60 billion agricultural industry is one of Australia’s most important sectors, so we’re keen to provide support and education to farmers on the best ways to harness cloud software and modern technology.”

“The collaboration between software providers and financial institutions is a unique opportunity to help our agricultural businesses grow, and one we’re proud to be a part of as champions of small business,” he said.

When farmers look for new apps to help them make better business decisions, they sometimes don’t know how to begin and don’t have access to training or ongoing support. The Farming Team aims to sort out the confusion by bringing all of this together in the one service.

How it works
Farmers can go to the Farming Team website to submit their details and request a setup and training session on any of the cloud applications relevant to their businesses. The Farming Team will set up, integrate and train the farmers in these apps. Farmers can also request a connection to a professional services provider in bookkeeping, tax and compliance, business advisory, succession planning or agri-banking services.

The general manager of Figured Australia, James Black, hopes the partnership will help farmers look beyond production.

“The goal of this collaborative effort is to change the Australian farmer’s mindset from focusing purely on production and yield to focusing on long-term sustainable profitability.

Recent upgrades to Xero HQ mean Xero partners can easily identify which clients are in agriculture. To get started, go to www.thefarmingteam.com.au or @farmingteamaus for more information.
These subsidies are different in each country and they often change. One year you might find there's a big subsidy on cheese production, another year it might be beef that's subsidised. Quite often governments get it wrong, leading to surpluses that drive down prices too far. The so-called 'butter mountains' and 'wine lakes' in Europe towards the end of last century were partly a result of poorly-managed subsidies.

Today subsidies are managed more efficiently, but that can mean they change more often too. So make sure you keep track of subsidies and account for them, especially if they're made as direct payments. The more knowledge you have about subsidies, the more you can plan your farming strategy to make the most of them.

3. Adjust your farm accounting calendar to suit the government's
When is a lamb not a lamb? When the government decides it's a hogget. Farmers know that nature doesn't follow strict timetables. For example, if lambs are born early, late or out of season, they might not fit into the government's rigid definition of age. This can cause long-term headaches if you're trying to keep a tally of the animals on your farm.

Resolving this can be a problem, particularly when farming breeds of animal that reproduce all year round or outside the usual seasons. Usually the simplest solution is to go with the government's definition of significant dates and livestock ages when doing your accounts. It may not always be factually correct, but it'll save you going through more complex calculations in the future.

4. Record changes in land use
As economies change, so does the type of farming that's carried out on the land. For example:

Pasture to crop production: A shift towards a more vegetarian society can lead to pasture being given over to cereal, fruit or vegetable production
Arable to native bush and plants: Some governments may pay farmers to return farmed land to its 'native' state by planting indigenous species and letting them grow wild
Carbon capture schemes: These pay farmers to change land use to forestry, as a way of 'locking up' carbon in new tree growth
Forest to livestock: In some parts of the world forests are cleared to make way for meat production, mainly beef for sale to burger chains
If your use of land changes, even if it's just a few fields, be sure to record it in your accounts. Make sure the land value (the asset) is adjusted if necessary and that you account for the sale of any stock that was on the land before. Or, if moving to a livestock farming model, be sure to record the cost of buying stock.

If you record these changes as they happen, it will make it much easier to keep your business accounts up to date.

5. Know your stock
Most farmers will know how many animals they have, of what type, breed and age, to within a small margin.

But animals breed and die, so the number will not remain static. And the old saying – where there is livestock, there is also deadstock – still applies, especially during cold winters and lambing or calving season.

So your stock numbers will change over time and it's important to record these changes in your accounting software. Every head has a value, and that value should be recorded.

6. Understand depreciation
In most countries, the cost of new equipment can be offset against tax. And its value will depreciate over time as it becomes older, wears out or is made obsolete by newer technology. Make sure you understand the rules for depreciation in your country, because the value of your equipment will affect your tax bill.

Tractors, trucks, harvesting equipment and other farm machinery: Built to last, but undergo heavy use and wear and tear in all weathers. Good quality equipment may hold its value but new technology is moving fast in this area, making older machinery less valuable.
Computer equipment: Increasingly essential for managing a farm efficiently, computers depreciate faster than almost any other type of equipment.
Hand tools, machine tools and repair equipment: Often long-lasting with a long depreciation tail, though low-quality items can fail sooner and be a poor investment.
Keep track of what you buy and account for its depreciation each year.

7. Account for loss
Farming is dependent on the weather, and sometimes the weather wreaks havoc. A hot, dry summer might be great for wine growers but it can be catastrophic for dairy farmers. Unseasonal storms can destroy an entire wheat crop and unexpected rain can leave hay rotting in the fields.

It's important to record any losses in your accounts, because that will reduce your overall tax bill. You won't want to be taxed on something that's been destroyed, or on a profit that you haven't made.

8. Keep track of your profitability
Farm profitability can be difficult to measure. There have been various attempts to do so, including:

Economic Farm Surplus or similar schemes: Favoured by accountants, this uses various farm accounting metrics to give an overall performance rating
Month-to-month profit: A useful quick guide to how your farm's performing right now, but no help in predicting future cash flow or profits
Working costs to milk solids: A popular one for dairy farm calculations, though be sure to keep your figures up to date and based on current milk solid prices
Revenue or profit per unit area: A measure of how much revenue or profit is generated for each unit area of farmland, for example dollars per hectare. While this gives a good idea of current farm performance, it doesn't always take underlying costs into account. Almost any farm can appear temporarily profitable if it's had enough recent investment.
The only way to truly understand farm profitability over time is to use good quality farm accounting software. The additional benefit of doing this, is that you can use it to make forecasts and predictions based on past trends.

9. Use the internet and the cloud
Most farmers have some form of internet connection these days. It's not always fast – rural life has its downsides – but it's usually enough for the basics. Some uses for the internet in general and the cloud in particular include:

Checking stock prices and trends: Keeping up to date with these numbers can help farmers decide how best to utilise their land
Accessing kill sheets, tracking milk solid prices, etc: Usually faster and easier than getting this information by mail or word-of-mouth
Long-range and short-range weather forecasting: Vital, required knowledge for just about every type of farm
Using cloud apps: These new tools offer much faster access to information, accounting tools, resources and bank accounts
With the internet, and especially cloud computing, farmers can take advantage of the latest farming software. Good farm accounting software will have direct feeds in place for banks and farm suppliers. This means you can manage all your resources, suppliers and partners from one place.

10. Consider hiring an accountant
It is possible to manage the accounts of a small or even medium-sized farm on your own, but the time and complexity involved mean it will be hard work. If you're running a family farm then you may be able to designate one member of the family to handle the accounts while another looks after the day-to-day running of the farm. However, there will still be a steep learning curve.

A good accountant can take most of the fiddly detail work off your hands, leaving you free to run your business the way you want to.

Although the expense might seem high, good accountants will be able to save you money in the long run. With their understanding of tax legislation they may be able to reduce your tax bill, perhaps enough to cancel out the cost of your accountant's bill.

Account for every aspect of your farm
As we've seen, farm accounting is a big topic. Every farm is different and we've only scratched the surface in this guide.

Luckily, for farmers who want to go it alone there's now a range of good quality software, most of it cloud-based, to help simplify the accounting process.

Even if you do hire an accountant, you'll still need to keep some important financial information at your fingertips. When you and your accountant work together in the cloud so you can both access the figures, it'll help your farming business run much more efficiently.

Disclaimer: Xero does not provide accounting, tax, business or legal advice. This guide has been provided for information purposes only. You should consult your own professional advisors for advice directly relating to your business or before taking action in relation to any of the provided content.

Xero Accounting Online Training: What to Avoid
As we’ve laid out above, it’s pretty easy to find Xero training online. With that being said then, how do you know what to avoid?

One thing to watch out for is paid Xero training that is only comprised of videos. With Xero U, XeroTV and the Xero YouTube channel, there are significant free resources available for video training. Similarly, be cautious of paid Xero “training manuals” that are not distributed by Xero. In both of these cases, it’s worth remembering that the Xero software changes rapidly, and you could easily end up paying for outdated information. Furthermore, with the availability of training from the creators of the Xero themselves, you shouldn’t feel the need to pay for a third-party product that might not be as well-versed or experienced with the Xero accounting software.

Additionally, if you choose to pay for training from a bookkeeper or an accountant, make sure they are either certified or listed in the Xero Advisor Directory. As with any accounting software, knowing accounting concepts, theory, or method is not enough to effectively use Xero or train someone else to use it. Xero certified advisors have proven proficiency in the software, and this, in turn, ensures that you will be trained to use Xero to its fullest potential.

A final word of caution: Since Xero was developed in New Zealand and has been used in New Zealand, Australia, and some European countries longer than it has been used in the United States, many of the online Xero training resources and advice you will find are not U.S.-based. This doesn’t mean the training or resources are untrustworthy or necessarily incorrect, but it does mean they may be geared toward non-U.S. Xero users. Make sure you are looking at information created for U.S. Xero users before implementing any advice you find (unless, of course, you are not a U.S.-based business.)

Farmsoft & Xero will manage your sales orders (customer purchase orders) and you can even manage price lists in farmsoft by setting prices for any part and its associated produce & variety, and features, and even individual price lists for different suppliers and customers. When orders are created in farmsoft, the price list is used to default current prices.



Xero for fresh produce packers and food manufacturers. Pack, sort, grade, process fresh produce, mix salads, manufacture coleslaw and value added fresh produce: Integrates with Xero accounts payable, accounts receivable, Xero items and more.... Full inventory, quality control, orders, sales and shipping.

Come on over to the new discussions in Xero Central. It’s a more intuitive way to connect and chat all things business with one another. Ask questions, dish out answers, and get involved.

You can still view topics in the Xero Business Community to see all the useful knowledge that’s been shared there; and you can restart conversations you feel have been of huge value to you on Xero Central.

If you have brilliant ideas for innovations, you can keep on adding feature requests in the Xero Business Community, and voting on existing requests. There’s more in store, as we come up with the best way to take on your thoughts and share developments

Xero for fresh produce packers and food manufacturers. Pack, sort, grade, process fresh produce, mix salads, manufacture coleslaw and value added fresh produce: Integrates with Xero accounts payable, accounts receivable, Xero items and more.... Full inventory, quality control, orders, sales and shipping.