It’s important to keep financial books on the ranch for more than just tax time. A Quicken for Farm & Ranch Record Keeping workshops will be held Jan. 31 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Scottsbluff at the Panhandle Research & Extension Center. To register call the Panhandle Research & Extension Center at 308-632-1230.

Nebraska Extension Educators, will teach how to use Quicken, a popular commercial record-keeping package that is user friendly, inexpensive and easy to find. Quicken is flexible for ag and non-ag business enterprises and separates out family living expenses.

Quicken’s checkbook register makes for a familiar environment to begin computerized record-keeping. Quicken comes with home and general business income and expense categories, but Educators will show how to easily import farm categories to match the tax Schedule F.

Quicken allows organization of finances by category and subclasses, but also a tag feature that is useful for splitting enterprises, by partnership share, or by ranch. Quicken allows users to split transactions, so one check written at a local gas station can be divided among several expenses: fast food, oil for the tractor, and farm fuel for the feed pickup.

Reports such as transactions, cash flow, account balances, balance sheet, comparison, and tax summary, can easily generated, information filtered and layout modified. Quicken files can also be exported to QuickBooks®, used by many tax accountants.

The hands-on training will include computer time with Quicken. Educators will also show how to run reports helpful for financial decisions.

This workshop is limited to 10 participants. The cost to attend the workshop is $20/participant.