Filing ,paperwork,farm office and IT

1. I have a dedicated space and computer for me to work, it's dual purpose farm/WFH space, but it is not pretty.
   

2. I do everything I can on computer, Herd Software for cattle, excel sheets for Accounts, I use Gmail for e-mail and have filters to automatically move e-mails from vets, suppliers etc into dedicated folders for easy finding later, I pay for Microsoft 365 so everything important stored on my computer gets automatically stored on OneDrive.

3. All receipts for the past 2-3 years is in a filing box beside me (hanging files and zip pouches), along with other important documents, cards, insurance, lease agreements and anything for inspections. Anything older gets put in a larger plastic box with a lid and stored elsewhere.

4. Not really, cattle/land stuff done in real time with apps on phone, everything else when pile of receipts gets too big in dashboard of car or a deadline makes me do it.

I used to file everything away in seperate folders but now I have a few main folders that are needed. So one is Bord Bia/Compliance and all knackery dockets, movement certs, vet receipts, spray and medicine purchase receipts etc go in there. The main one is Accountant folder, so everything the Accountant will need at end of year goes in there, Co-op and Bank statements, cattle sales receipts etc. Then at end of year its just ready to hand over, and not looking in different folders to put it together.

Phone is my office now at this stage. 90% of stuff is emailed. Except the feed merchant but I get them to email a statement when accountant asks for it. Herdwatch for all the movement and medicines. Have a biscuit tin for the cattle cards and I just throw any knackery dockets in there. Have a shoe for each year. Few once off purchases would be thrown in there. Pensions investments and medical stuff goes in there aswell. It wouldn't even be half full the last few years. One mistake I have made is not setting up an email for the farm. I probably should instead of trawling thru my personal email. Speak with accountant every few months so there's no big panic looking for stuff at end of tax year. Have a printer for the odd lad that wants movements printed but I actually don't think I did any of that this year.

Factory and mart dockets go in shoe box

Or The dashboard in the jeep or the overall pockets!

There is no need other than I am in the habit of doing it and I have all the receipts in one place if I want to look back for something.

buy inputs in bulk as much as I can so don't have that many receipts. I try to avoid buying inputs in small amounts, I think you are paying a premium, nice saving to be made if you price around

My background has always been accounts. I remote work and I have a separate office for the farm accounts so that nothing can get mixed up plus it separates work from personal life.

I use tas books to keep the farm accounts and at least once a week I input the invoices, payments etc & double check that the bank balance corresponds with the actual bank account. I give the accountant a set of accounts at the year end & never have to give invoices or bank statements. They transfer the information to the Form 11 including depreciation, stock values etc & submit to Revenue.
As we don’t live at the farm, OH records any doses/vaccine info etc on a yellow post-it with the date recorded, I input those into the Bord Bia book & keep the blue herd register as no internet access at the farm for Bord Bia inspection.
The blue cards are kept in a clear plastic box, within that are 3 plastic bags with the cards for each batch of animals for each year as we are a dairy calf to finished beef system - makes it easier to find the cards when in a hurry.
I keep a spreadsheet of tag number which records date of birth, date when animal is 28 & 30 months & how much animal cost to buy, this doubles as my list & value of stock for the accountant.

I keep a spreadsheet for fertiliser & spray purchased which I update when processing the invoice. I have another spreadsheet for Tractor diesel purchases for claiming the carbon tax relief.
I also have a spreadsheet for electricity usage as we have 3 electricity accounts, handy when comparing electricity usage/charges when changing providers, easy update when inputting invoice onto accounts package without having to pay for their analysis - put it down to being bored one wet Sunday afternoon about 5 years ago…
(I also keep spreadsheets for remote working relief & health expenses which I keep updated as invoices/receipts arrive)

I use an A4 ring binder with A-Z dividers and everything is filed alphabetically in that, around this time of the year I end up splitting the files into 2 A4 ring binders. I have a separate A4 ring binder for household bills such as electricity, insurance, laya etc.

At the end of the year the folders go into a large clear plastic box which can hold up to 3 years of folder’s which stay in the office for easy reach if needed (plus the box acts as a place where to leave the herd book, blue card box & Bord Bia book on top of & off the desk), after that they go up into the attic.

My OH wouldn’t know where to start with accounts or where to find anything but knows right well not to come home without an invoice or docket for any purchases……

Yes you can

Do you need to keep receipts for Diesel, the purchase will be on your bank statement when paying by card?

Yes, I originally created my spreadsheet by extracting the information from Agfood, now I just add & remove animals as purchases / sales take place and I put in formulas to give the information we want.