MSU Extension Farm Management

MSU Extension has developed a Financial Wellbeing Worksheet where you may input summary information and you will automatically get a Scorecard that will show you a quick color-coded picture of your financial well-being. You’ll also get accuracy checks, a summary comparative balance sheet report, an accrual adjusted profit and loss statement, break-even prices, and an enterprise analysis. You may need to pull information from your accounting system, tax forms, balance sheet, bank statements, depreciation schedule, purchase and sales records, and some will have to be estimated by you.  

A video is available that provides a walkthrough of the main tabs in the worksheet: input tabs “Farm & Ranch” and “Depreciable,” and output tab “Reports.” The Depreciable tab is for entering details on depreciable assets. The Farm & Ranch tab is for entering everything else, such as: cash received and spent, assets owned and debts owed, opportunity costs (marked in yellow to the left on the spreadsheet) and the percentage of each of these things that correspond to a specific portion of your operation. 

If you would like help filling out, adapting or interpreting it, get in touch with Florencia Colella or Cheri Burk. Your local MSU Extension Farm Business Management educator can do a software-based farm financial analysis for you as well. 

This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2020-38640-31522 - H008917110 through the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LNC20-437. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.