Key takeaways
What this article covers, in order:
- The chart of accounts for a farm
- The 3 entries a farm gets wrong
- What a farm can claim
- The reports to run every month
- Frequently asked questions
- Where to go next
Your stock is alive and changes value without a transaction, your costs land in one season and your income in another, and a subsidy payment arrives on a calendar that has nothing to do with either. Standard inventory accounting simply does not describe a herd.
This is the bookkeeping side of that problem: the accounts to set up, the entries that go wrong, and what you can claim. If you are still choosing software, the round-up linked at the end compares the options.
The chart of accounts for a farm
Start from these rather than the default template. The codes are illustrative; the separations are what matter, because each one answers a question you will be asked later.
1400 Livestock — breeding herd
1410 Livestock — trading stock
1250 Growing crops — work in progress
1200 Feed, seed and fertiliser stock
4000 Crop sales
4100 Livestock sales
4200 Subsidy and support income
5100 Feed and veterinary
5200 Contracting and machineryThe 3 entries a farm gets wrong
Calves born on the farm
They are an increase in biological assets, recognised at valuation — not a zero-cost windfall that appears only when sold.
Fertiliser applied to next season's crop
Work in progress on the growing crop, not a cost of the year you bought it. Expensing on purchase moves profit between years.
A support payment covering a future obligation
Recognise it as the conditions are met, not on receipt, and keep the conditions with the entry.
What a farm can claim
Deductibility follows the rule in your own jurisdiction, so this is a checklist to take to your accountant rather than an answer. For a farm the cost lines to review first, and the record each one needs, are:
| Cost line | The record to keep |
|---|---|
| Feed and veterinary | The invoice, and the business-use split where the cost is shared |
| Contracting and machinery | The invoice, and the business-use split where the cost is shared |
Whether each of those is deductible, and how much of it, is a rule your tax authority sets and changes. Keep the record either way; take the question to your accountant with the figures in front of you.
The reports to run every month
- Biological assets — review it monthly, not at year end.
- Enterprise costing by field, crop or herd, so a loss-making block is visible — review it monthly, not at year end.
- Growing crops held as work in progress across the season — review it monthly, not at year end.
- Subsidy and support payments recognised in the right period, with their conditions recorded — review it monthly, not at year end.
Frequently asked questions
Farm accounting tools providing comprehensive livestock tracking and crop cost reporting features?
Published prices move, and the figure that matters is the one including the module you actually need — inventory, payroll or multi-currency are often a tier up, so the headline price is rarely the price you pay. Price each shortlisted option at the tier that carries what you actually need, on the vendor's own page, on the day you decide.
What is the best accounting software for farms?
There is no single best one; there is a best one for a shape of business. For a farm, work down the criteria in the section above and stop at the first option that clears all of them — that list is short, usually two or three.
The criteria that eliminate most options fastest are: Biological assets; Enterprise costing by field, crop or herd, so a loss-making block is visible; Growing crops held as work in progress across the season.
Give me a list of accounting software for farms that offer the best security?
Ask for evidence rather than adjectives. The things worth checking, in order: an independent audit you can see (SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001, with the report date), encryption in transit and at rest, enforced multi-factor authentication, role-based permissions fine enough that a bookkeeper cannot export your whole ledger, an immutable audit trail of who changed what, where your data is hosted and under which country's law, and a stated backup and recovery position.
Then ask the question the brochure will not answer: can you see, after the fact, who changed a figure and what it was before? For a farm that audit trail is worth more than any single feature on the security page. A vendor who will send the audit report under NDA is telling you something; one who answers with the words "bank-grade security" is telling you something too.
Is there free accounting software for farms?
There are free tiers, and they are real — but the limit is what matters, not the price. Find the cap before you move your books: how many documents or transactions a month, how many bank accounts, how many users, and whether the free tier includes the one thing you came for. HelloBooks has a free plan; /pricing lists what it covers today.
How much does accounting software for farms cost?
Published prices move, and the figure that matters is the one including the module you actually need — inventory, payroll or multi-currency are often a tier up, so the headline price is rarely the price you pay. Price each shortlisted option at the tier that carries what you actually need, on the vendor's own page, on the day you decide.
How do I switch accounting software without losing my history?
Migrate on a period boundary and bring three things: opening trial balance, open customer and supplier balances, and your chart of accounts. Transaction history can usually stay in the old system as a read-only archive — attempting to re-import years of detail is where most migrations lose a week and a reconciliation.
Where to go next
- HelloBooks for farming and agriculture
- The farming and agriculture accounting software round-up
- HelloBooks in the UK
- HelloBooks pricing and what each plan includes
This guide is written for businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Tax treatment differs by country — check the rule for yours before you act on it.
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