How to add non-financial livestock events

Keep your livestock numbers accurate by recording births, deaths and other non-financial livestock events in your livestock grid.

Why record non-financial livestock events?

Accurate livestock numbers are vital for reliable budgeting, reporting, farm performance analysis and for your accountant, bank manager and consultant.

Some livestock events are financial events, such as sales and purchases. These events affect both your livestock reconciliation and cashflow because they are recorded through coded invoices or transactions and impact the bank balance.

Other livestock events are non-financial events. These events do not involve money and only update your livestock reconciliation. 

When opening livestock numbers are correct and actual sales and purchases have been recorded, non-financial livestock events help you update your stock on hand numbers accurately.

TIP: You cannot enter births or deaths in the cashflow because non-financial livestock events do not involve cash. These must be entered in the Livestock tab.

Non-financial livestock event types

Transfer in and transfer out

Use transfers to move livestock from one stock code to another.

For example, moving bull calves into the steer calf stock code.

Deaths

Use deaths to record natural livestock losses on farm.

Missing

Use missing to record livestock that cannot be accounted for.

Killed

Use killed to record livestock used for personal purposes, such as dog food.

NOTE: Consult your accountant about best practices for recording livestock killed for personal use.

Found

Use found to add livestock that has been located after previously being recorded as missing or dead.

NOTE: Found is generally used when your accountant has completed your previous year processing and you do not want to change historical numbers. If the year has not been finalised, you may prefer to reduce the number of deaths or missing entered instead.

Births

Use births to record animals born on farm.

NOTE: Births are only available for livestock codes set up as Progeny. To check this, go to Settings >Codes >Farm codes, double click the relevant stock class and scroll down to Breeding Status.

How to enter a non-financial livestock event

1. Go to the Livestock tab in your plan.
2. Go the stock class you want to update and click the arrow next to the stock code.
3. Find the event line you want to record, e.g. Births or Deaths and click in the month you want to enter the event.
   This is recommended as the date and the event type will be pre-populated, however you can adjust if needed.
4. Click in the cell and click +Add.
5. Complete the livestock event details in the worksheet. 

The following fields are required for all non-financial livestock events:

• Date.
• Event type.
• Stock code.
• Quantity.

Optional fields include:

• Tag.
• Description.
• Additional note.

When entering births, the parent code is also required. This information is used to calculate the breeding percentage.

Entering actual and budgeted livestock events

Actual and budgeted non-financial livestock events are entered in the same way.

Actual financial livestock events, such as sales and purchases, cannot be entered directly into the livestock grid. These events must come through from coded invoices or transactions because they have a cash impact.

TIP: When entering actual events the paperclip icon in the top right hand corner of the worksheet can be used to save any relevant attachments to the event, for examples photographs for insurance, or death certificates from the vet.