Farm Finances Simplified - The New Barn2Door Finance Academy
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we talk finances with Taylor Bridges. Taylor is an accountant, Farmer, and certified Quickbooks ProAdvisor working directly with Farmers to help manage their books. She's also the instructor of Barn2Door's new Finance Academy!
Gain a sneak peek of what to expect in Barn2Door's three-course Finance Academy, including best practices for agricultural book-keeping, how to streamline your finances, and tips to ensure your books are in order!
barn2door.com/resources
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Rory Loughran: Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. I'm Rory, your host for today's episode. We've got a great conversation for you today with Taylor Bridges. Taylor is an accountant certified as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor working with Farmers. She and her family are also a hobby Farmers themselves at their home in Virginia, and she is the instructor of the new Barn2Door Financial Academy.
Welcome Taylor, I'm really excited to have you here and dive into today's topic.
Taylor Bridges: Hey, Rory, it's really exciting to be here today.
Rory Loughran: So first to start out, you have a little bit of a background in agriculture. Could you tell us about that?
Taylor Bridges: Absolutely, yeah. I grew up in [00:01:00] rural Virginia in a really pretty area in the mountains. Middle school and high school, I was a member of FFA. I showed Katahdin sheep locally and really enjoyed that. We always wanted to show steers cuz it looked like so much fun, but we didn't have the land for that, so we did gardening and showed produce and stuff at the fair as well.
Rory Loughran: That's awesome. Yeah. I actually, I grew up doing 4-H a lot and we kind of had the same thing. We had the room for pigs, but we didn't have the room for cows. All right, well, so yeah, what was that experience like as an FFA member? Could you tell us about that and how you went through that program?
Taylor Bridges: Yeah, I absolutely loved being part of the FFA. I was super blessed to be part of a really incredible and active chapter. We hosted education days where we could bring in animals and things like that to the local elementary school and teach the kids all about things ag related, and that was probably my favorite day every year cuz you got to miss school to play with animals, right?
Yeah, I used to go to food science competitions and a public speaking style contest called, "Agricultural [00:02:00] Issues". When I was a senior in high school, we placed first at the state level, which meant we got to go to Indianapolis to national convention and compete again, which was probably one of the best experiences, very wholesome.
My only regret would be not being more active in the competition sooner and not running for an officer position.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. I mean, those conventions, especially that national convention in Indianapolis, Barn2Door actually was able to go last year and it is something else. It is quite the experience. I think there were last year, there were like, 60,000 kids at the Indiana Convention Center. It is wild.
Taylor Bridges: Absolutely. You can't imagine there's that many kids from so many different places, all in one little building, which I guess is really a big building, but...
Rory Loughran: Yeah. no, they definitely make it work.
Well, so what kind of farming do you do now? I know you're in a rural area of Virginia and you guys have some stuff going on at your place. What are you guys kind of doing just as for hobbies?
Taylor Bridges: Right now we raise horses and bees. So we do a lot of trail [00:03:00] riding and I am training my horse right now to do mounted shooting competitions, which is super fun and a little different. You get to dress up in Renaissance wear and everything. It's really nice. And we're looking at getting back into chickens in the Spring. So that'll be really cool. And we are currently looking for a Jersey cow that will be named Maggie right now.
Rory Loughran: That's awesome. That's really cool and great to hear that the farm is expanding. That's super fun.
Taylor Bridges: it's a good time for it. Virginia's really lucky right now to really have the rains and the grass and everything, so...
Rory Loughran: Yeah, we talked about this history and this passion, I guess, that you had for agriculture growing up. How did you end up as an accountant? Where did you take that turn and how did you end up as you are today?
Taylor Bridges: So in school, I really always liked numbers and things that had concrete answers. There wasn't wiggle room. In high school, I worked on an Associate's Degree in business administration and we had a course in finance required and I realized I really liked that, and when I got my hands on some actual books in-house [00:04:00] at a job later on, I was hooked.
So when my husband and I decided that we were ready to have kids, we knew I was gonna stay home with them. And while I was home, I decided it was the right time to go back into school again and pursue a degree in accounting. So I finished a Bachelor's Degree in accounting and I'm actually wrapping up a master's degree as well, and all of that eventually just led to me opening my own firm, and I really love what I do.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, that's awesome. And that's a really cool thing that you can do as a mom still being at home and congratulations on almost finishing up your Master's. That's awesome.
Taylor Bridges: Thank you. One day at a time.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. Well, we kind of mentioned in the intro there as well that you're QuickBooks ProAdvisor. So maybe to start out, how is QuickBooks helpful as a tool? Obviously QuickBooks online, it's a really common tool for small businesses, but how is it helpful as a tool to Farmers running a small business?
Taylor Bridges: Yeah, absolutely. QuickBooks is probably the number one accounting software right now anyways. It rocks really. It's mobile and it's really accessible anywhere for [00:05:00] you or for anyone who's helping you with your books, which makes life just a lot easier for really busy Farmers. I think things that are easier, like having the app on your phone, means that you're a lot like more likely to utilize them and really keep up with it.
And it's that QuickBooks integrates with a lot of other apps and anything else you can make a sale on. So all that information goes into their QuickBooks without any extra work for the farmer and I think that is a really key feature. QuickBooks even keeps copies of their receipts, so there's no more shoebox in the closet or scrambling come January when you wanna do your taxes. Their reports really make the planning a lot easier, so Farmers can guide their business in the right direction.
Rory Loughran: Awesome. Yeah, definitely just saving so much time and like you said, it integrates with so many things. One of the things it integrates with is Barn2Door. I also mentioned that you're a QuickBooks ProAdvisor and for someone that doesn't know, including myself, what does that mean?
Taylor Bridges: So a QuickBooks ProAdvisor is someone that has a lot of experience with the nuances of QuickBooks in accounting and they can prove it. So they're really good [00:06:00] at the day to day operations and at troubleshooting issues, and really just getting the most out of the different options that the QuickBooks software platform offers.
It's like having your own outsourced accounting department at your fingertips when there's a ProAdvisor involved.
Rory Loughran: Okay cool. What did you have to do to get that certification?
Taylor Bridges: To get ProAdvisor certification, you have to sit through hours of courses, pass a series of tests that Intuit develops it just proves that you know the software and you know what you're doing. And then additionally, there's also annual recertification courses and exams that you have to do in order to keep being certified with them.
Rory Loughran: Well, I know you work with a few different farmers today as their accountant. What are the ways that you work with Farms and Farm clients today, and what does that work entail that you're doing with them?
Taylor Bridges: Today, I get to work with a lot of different farm clients in different ways. I regularly handle the bookkeeping task to help keep them organized and paid. I help my clients with invoicing their own customers, paying bills, and cleaning up historical data. Sometimes even doing their payroll [00:07:00] for them.
Usually I handle their behind the scenes tasks and then we will touch base regularly and just address issues as they arrive. But no two days are ever really the same because my Farm clients are all really unique. Some grow and sell meat animals, or artisanal dairy products. Some run horse barns and Airbnbs, and I even have an international llama fiber cooperative.
Really unique and it has its own set of different issues that I wasn't expecting. Honestly you never know what I'm gonna expect whenever I open my computer every morning. One of my favorite things to do is run reports. So we can kind of help plan the growth of the Farmers and how their businesses are gonna go, so they can really rise to their full potential. And I think that benefits everyone really. That's what it's about.
Rory Loughran: I feel like that's something we've always continually been learning at Barn2Door as well, is that Farmers run into very unique challenges and cases and being able to have, I mean, at least somebody with your background and a little bit of experience and a little bit of a specialization working with Farmers, that's [00:08:00] gotta go a really long ways when they reach out to you and are working with you.
Taylor Bridges: It really does. I understand that they're up at 5:00 AM or business does not end at Saturday at two o'clock and...
Rory Loughran: yeah, exactly. Yeah, no days off. So when it comes to farming and accounting really, and managing their own books; cuz a lot of farms are trying to do this on their own. But if they do reach out to you, what are some of those kind of biggest or most common challenges that you see Farmers running into when they are managing their books?
Taylor Bridges: I think the most common issues I find with Farmers is making things more complicated than they have to be by trying to wear all the hats, like you said. Handling just everything themselves and never asking questions. Maybe not utilizing things that make their life easier and not keeping them current because it's not easier.
For example, I think I find a lot of Farmers don't realize the QuickBooks app has a receipt capture feature, so they don't have to keep those paper receipts all the time and find them in glove boxes. I think that [00:09:00] using some of those tools would probably make life a lot easier for them.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. And then also, you know, kind of working with someone like you, could you maybe speak to that as well? What is the added benefit? Say a farmer starts using QuickBooks online to manage their books. What's the additional benefit of working with an accountant like you that might make their lives even more easier?
Taylor Bridges: So I think one of the biggest benefits is the time and stress savings. If you have someone on your side that knows what they're doing, they take so many hours off your plate where you could really just work on things that only you as the Farmer and the person in charge can handle.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, definitely. I think that's something we see a lot here too, especially with our Farm Account Managers and being able to provide just that additional support too. Even just to have somebody, if you run into an issue or sometimes things update and it's like, "oh, this is a whole new thing I didn't know existed before", and having somebody to go to and be able to help you through that goes a really long ways, especially when Farmers are so pressured for time and every hour counts.
Taylor Bridges: Absolutely and especially [00:10:00] when you have someone on your side and they can answer your questions before there's an actual issue and you can solve it and it doesn't have to be a problem. That makes a world of difference too.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. Especially in this realm where a problem is a very big problem. Like If your financials are off or if you're not keeping your books right, especially in the off chance that you're getting audited or anything like that, it is a really pressure filled place where you don't wanna make mistakes. So having that extra help definitely goes a long ways.
I'm curious how do you specifically, as a Farmer accountant, how do you help Farmers navigate those challenges?
Taylor Bridges: One of the best things I've found to help Farmers navigate those challenges is to help them develop and implement systems that make it really difficult not to be successful and taking some to load and the stress off their plates so they can handle all those higher level decisions I mentioned, and do the things that they're made to do best.
So we work on automating processes like transaction entries or paying bills so they don't even have to worry about those kinds of things. Just poof, gone. We like to come up with routines and accountability for other [00:11:00] things like receipts are getting paid as a business owner. So planning and their lives in general just become a lot easier for them and their families.
Of course, a lot of times they enjoy handing off tasks that take up hours and hours of their time. So they get the peace of mind and they don't have to do it anymore. But it really works out well this way, because I know the ins and outs of their operations and I keep open communication with all my clients so we can really prevent problems before they happen and it's not such a big deal.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, wow. That is awesome. I feel like one, the time savings alone is so great. But then also kind of walking through and what you spoke to there about having a little more foresight with where you're headed and the direction of your company is so helpful for Farms, especially if they are trying to grow or if they have goals to expand their business.
That's gotta be a really helpful asset that you're providing.
Taylor Bridges: Absolutely. It's really hard to grow if you don't know where you're at right now.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. So what role, I guess does an accountant play in farm business, I guess to break that down a little further?
Taylor Bridges: Well, whether an operation's small or large, running a Farm [00:12:00] requires a lot of hard work. I know it's something Farmers, usually they invest their entire lives into. It's not a Monday to the Friday, sign off at five o'clock and you're done. So it's really a lifestyle and that's something I totally understand.
It's also important to get help when you need it though. And accounting is something that a lot of people could probably use help with because there's just so many different niches and nuances and it's not like the regular retail store in a mall, there's always something different. Every operation has something special and unique about it, which is what makes it so awesome.
An accountant can really help take over a lot of the things that stress Farmers out and help with future planning. So with accurate, real time numbers, they can work with that and they don't have to cringe when they sit down and look at their books because it's already taken care. So having an accountant on their side to handle the heavy lifting really just enables them to have a really solid grasp on the financial side of their operation.
These numbers give Farmers a better chance at getting tax deductions or selected for a grant, cuz they have a much more accurate financial picture. So that seems [00:13:00] to be a big deal.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, that's huge cuz I know a lot of Farms use grants to expand or to pay for some of their different equipment and things like that. So being able to have all that accurate, up to date, financial information, really just that peace of mind that what they're submitting is correct, that's definitely gotta go a really long ways.
Taylor Bridges: Absolutely.
Rory Loughran: So starting in August and this is, I'm really excited to talk with you about this, but Barn2Door is gonna be launching a new Financial Academy and you'll be the instructor. So, academies for listeners that don't know, we currently offer academies in areas like social media or MailChimp.
This one's gonna be completely focused on finances and it's a three week course basically with one class a week. And each class is about an hour long. What are you most excited for about leading this class and specifically leading Farmers in this class?
Taylor Bridges: I'm excited about all of it, really. I'm really excited to help all the Farmers that get to attend, just grow their knowledge and their confidence so they can grow their Farms with all the things that they're gonna learn, and ultimately, I [00:14:00] think that really benefits everyone. Benefits them, their families, and their communities. That's a really wholesome opportunity.
Rory Loughran: Yeah, it's gonna be really great. We're excited to have you do it. So what are some of the areas of farm business finance that, that this class is gonna dive into and cover over the course of those three classes?
Taylor Bridges: Yeah. So like you mentioned, it's a three level course. So each one we'll break it down a little bit differently. So we're gonna look at how QuickBooks and Barn2Door work together. It's like magic. It's hands down, probably the best option, software wise. Best practices for agricultural bookkeeping. We'll look at reconciliations, some financial statements and ratios, and touch base on taxes, and really just a lot of stuff. So it's gonna be really helpful information and it's gonna be a lot of fun, honestly.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. And I think even just hearing you list off all the things that we're gonna cover. It can be a little intimidating, but I think that's the point of this class is to break down some of those barriers and simplify things, walk through it all step by step. I know I've got to see a lot of the content that [00:15:00] we're gonna be working with and it really is gonna be a really great class cuz it, it breaks things down, makes things simple, and you've provided a lot of your great knowledge and input and feedback and screenshots of examples. So I think it's gonna be a really great class to walk Farmers through and help set them up for success on these other areas like we've talked about. If they're looking to grow, if they're looking to just maintain their business, but better manage their books, it's gonna be really exciting.
Taylor Bridges: I think there's gonna be something for everyone during the three classes. It's totally worth it. Yeah.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. Diving into financials, it doesn't always sound like the most fun. So why should Farmers be excited, genuinely excited for this class?
Taylor Bridges: Oh, I think Farmers should be really excited because knowledge is power and having a handle on their business finances really just, it brings an unparalleled level of peace to the table. And if something's unavoidable, like financials are, then we might as well make it a lot easier and pleasant and that's exactly what this class is gonna offer them the chance to do.
Rory Loughran: Yeah. Awesome. That's a great way to [00:16:00] look at it. You gotta do it, so might as well be good at it.
Taylor Bridges: Unavoidable.
Rory Loughran: Awesome.
I wanna extend my thanks to Taylor for joining us on this week's podcast episode. Here at Barn2Door we're humbled to support thousands of Farmers across the country who implement sustainable agricultural practices and support their local community.
For more information on Bridging the Gap Financial Services, you can visit btgfinancialservices.com. To learn more about Barn2Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your Farm, you can go to barn2door.com/resources.
Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next week.
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