Course Tutors: The course is led by Dan Powell (business advisor and organic farmer) and Liz Pannell (gardener, book-keeper, musician and leather worker) and will include classroom-based participative learning.

Outline of the day: There are many book-keeping courses available but very few (if any), are tailored for the small-scale self employed vegetable grower. The vocation of growing vegetables and marketing them locally comes from a love of tilling the earth and growing food for the local community. No wonder that the book-keeping and records side of the business can lack lustre and attention. This course aims to help the grower set up a system that is easy to use and meets the needs of the tax man, the bank manager and of course the grower. Over the course of the day we will lead the participant through a series of practical sessions that will give the grower confidence to design a system that suits their business. Minimal maths skills required! Using the system will yield important and accessible financial and physical information. It aims to give you the confidence to set up and run a system where the essential book-keeping tasks of recording and invoicing can be carried out in an efficient manner. Ultimately this approach will result in accessible and valuable information for planning and testing change in the business, keeps the tax man happy AND gives you more time in the field or garden! 

Session 1: Why do we need to keep the books? Who and what are they really for?
This opening session explores WHY we keep account of our growing activities. WHO is it really for and WHAT information can we use from it to our advantage. This will lead us to value the book keeping activity help us in the next session to design a recording system that works for our business.

Session 2: How to keep the books balanced and complete?
In this session we will look at structure and systems! How do we design a book-keeping and recording system that does not confuse, easy to use and extract and manage the information it contains to satisfy the tax and management needs of the business. We will look at practical applications for your own business based on the single entry book-keeping system using the cash analysis approach. Once we have grasped this we will look at manual and computerised systems and avoid the carrier bag technique!

Session 3: The nuts and bolts of the book-keeping system
Where have all those receipts gone! Now we will look at dealing with invoices and receipts in a timely manner to maintain positive cashflow. We look at the advantages of accounting for tax and VAT and how to properly use a petty cash system.

Session 4: Using the information for forward planning!
Finally we will wrap the day up by looking at how we can use all the information we collect through the book-keeping department! We will touch on enterprise and whole business budgeting and how to use information for marketing to develop a dynamic forward plan to work from for future seasons.

Session 5: Questions Questions Questions!
Lots of time for questions and a wrap up to review the day. We look forward to seeing you!