Best Farm Accounting Software in 2022

Running your farm is hard work. After a long day out in the fields or in the barn, the last thing you want to think about is your business accounting. But, just like any other business owner, having accurate accounting records for your farm is crucial to your financial success. And, just like other business owners, the first step to having good accounting records is choosing the right farm accounting software. Here are our top picks.

First up on our list of best farm accounting software solutions is QuickBooks Pro Plus, part of the QuickBooks Desktop suite. This accounting software is easy to use and supported by most accountants and many outsourced bookkeepers. Although QuickBooks Pro Plus is not specifically a farm accounting software, you can easily customize the chart of accounts and the native financial statements to fit your farm’s accounting needs.

QuickBooks Pro can handle all of the accounting functions your farm needs, including:

• Keep your check register up to date and reconciled to your bank statement.

• Track vendor bills, quickly analyze balances due and record payments all in one spot.

• Manage your assets, so you always know the financial value of your farm.

• Quickly produce the reports your accountant needs to file your tax return.

QuickBooks Pro Plus requires an annual subscription that costs $349.99. For this price, you get a desktop-based software (no internet required unless you use the bank feed feature) with one user login. If you need payroll capability, it comes at an additional investment starting at either $50 per month or $500 per year when billed annually, and an additional $2 per employee per month (internet is required for these services).

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While QuickBooks Pro Plus is a locally hosted accounting solution — meaning it lives on your desktop and can be accessed without an internet connection — QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based product. QuickBooks Online provides anytime, anywhere access to your bookkeeping records, and it also allows your accountant or outsourced bookkeeper to assist you without having to host the software on a remote server — an option that often costs $60 per user per month or more.

Like QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online is not farm-specific, but you can easily customize the chart of accounts and native reports to give you the data you need to make wise business decisions about your farm and to produce the information your accountant needs at tax time. And as an added bonus, QuickBooks Online includes a receipt capture feature, making record retention easier than ever.

QuickBooks Online pricing starts at $25 per month for the Simple Start plan, $50 per month for the Essentials plan (may be perfect for small farms) or $80 per month for the Plus plan (required for more complex farming operations). Large farming enterprises might benefit from QuickBooks Online Advanced ($180 per month). Additional payroll functionality for all four options starts at $45 per month plus $4 per employee per month.

If you don’t want to customize an accounting solution to work for your farm bookkeeping, but instead want to choose an accounting solution created specifically for farm businesses, check out Farm Biz. This no-bookkeeping-experience-required software has a specially designed chart of accounts for your farming business. You don’t need to understand bookkeeping or accounting to use the software, either.

Farm Biz is a desktop-based farm accounting software, meaning you don’t have to have an internet connection to use it. Just make sure you have a good backup protocol in place to protect you from accidental data loss. There is a one-time purchase price of $249 for Farm Biz, making it the most cost-effective solution on our list.

If you need more robust features than those included in Farm Biz, their sister product — Ultra Farm Accounting — is a good next-step-up option. Ultra Farm Accounting includes more customized reporting like livestock analysis and your Schedule F for your tax return. Payroll is also included for the $550 purchase price.

Robust reporting can help you make informed business decisions about your farm, and FarmBooks Accounting Software has the most robust reporting of all the farm accounting software we analyzed. With nearly 20 reports built into the software, you can easily access farm-specific reports to see how your farm is performing and make adjustments proactively. Your Schedule F is included in these reports, making tax time a snap.

FarmBooks has robust support and training options and also provides remote support to help you make sure you are using this farm accounting software correctly and getting the maximum benefit from all the features. They also offer offsite backups (FarmBooks is a desktop-based solution) starting at $5 per month.

FarmBooks costs $395 for a single farm, plus an $85 yearly maintenance fee. If you have more than one farm, you can contact them for special pricing.

Although it’s not accounting software per se, Dext Prepare (formerly Receipt Bank) helps manage your record retention requirements. With your cell phone and the Dext Invoice and Expense Reports app, you can snap pictures of receipts and documents and store them in the cloud for later use and review. This can cut down on the hassle and stress of keeping — and finding — your important financial documents at tax time, during an audit or while applying for financing for your farm.

If you are using a QuickBooks product, you can integrate Dext Prepare with it to save time on data entry. Dext Prepare starts at $25 per month ($20 per month when billed annually).