When commodity prices go down, it’s important to keep financial books on the ranch for more than just tax time.

A Quicken Workshop for Farmers and Ranchers will be held Monday, Nov. 21, from 1-4 p.m. at the Panhandle Research & Extension Center.

Nebraska Extension Educators will teach how to use Quicken, a popular commercial record-keeping software 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.

This workshop is limited to 10 participants. The cost to attend is $20 per person. Call the Nebraska Extension Office in Scottsbluff to pre-register at 308-632-1247 or email jgroskopf2@unl.edu.

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 trainings will include computer time with Quicken. Educators will also show how to run reports helpful for financial decisions.