Turning crops into profit is one of the most challenging parts of farm management. One of the key processes here is sales. Selling the crops is one thing that sets all other farm activities in motion. After all, sales is the only activity that actually brings money to the farm. Not only this, it also provides valuable information to a farmer.
Why Is Sales a Crucial Indicator for a Farmer?
Did you know that there is a quite interesting story behind every sales invoice? Tracking sales can provide several benefits for a farmer. They are as follows:
1. Information about the buyer
Tracking sales reveals information about the profile of our customers. For example, whether the customers are large suppliers, supermarkets or individuals. This is essential in order to understand their needs and manage the sales strategy in the future.
2. The date of transactions
Crop production is a seasonal business. For this reason, tracking the time in which most sales occur, can help farmers organize the activities that are related to sales (such as packaging, transport, marketing, etc.) and plan their income.
By doing so, some farmers will plan most of the sales immediately after the harvest. On the other hand, some farmers will store their crops and delay the sales for the following months, or even the next year.
In the picture below, is an example of tracking sales in AGRIVI farm management software. The picture shows the case when sales is managed from July to December. According to that, a farmer knows that from January until July, there is plenty of time to focus on other activities, instead of managing sales and customers. On the other hand, in the second half of the year, the sales is heating up. The period from September until the end of the year should be reserved for selling the crops and managing the customers.
3. Information about the product or service
Every successful farmer should know where his money comes from, as well as which items will generate the most income. Since farmers usually sell more than one products or services, tracking sales is particularly important.
For example, a farmer can offer few different crops and varieties. Besides selling the crops, farmers can also extend their standard product range by including various processed products (such as wine, juice, jam, etc.), machinery or even a service. In that case, tracking the percentage of income per each category can significantly facilitate farm management.
4. Due date
Due date is a valuable part of every sales invoice which provides information about the date until which a customer should pay purchased products or services. For a farmer, this means the final date until which the money should be received.
5. Information about receivables
The term “receivables” represents the amount of money for the goods that are sold, but still not paid.
For example, in many cases when a farmer sells a product or service, the customers prefer to delay paying. This means that money for sold goods or services is not always available at the time of creating the invoice.
In order to manage a farm successfully, every farmer should know who owes him and which amount is still unpaid. Therefore, it’s extremely important to stay focused and track receivables.
Keep up with Your Sales
Being a farmer and growing crops is one thing. However, managing farm finances is another thing that can be challenging for farmers who are already too occupied with their land.
Managing a lot of invoices or payments that are still unpaid and dealing with different due dates can be a tiresome job. For this reason, organized and successful farmers use AGRIVI farm management software.
Besides the fact that in AGRIVI all sales invoices are in one single place, a farmer can also upload invoice photos from his computer or smartphone and keep all important documents secured.
What’s even better is that with intelligent financial alarms AGRIVI reminds a farmer about the upcoming due date for the payment.
Imagine what you could do by managing your sales in AGRIVI farm management software. There would be more time to focus on other farm activities instead of managing a bunch of invoices and transactions.
So, let AGRIVI manage your sales.