Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
Kevin Brooks
Ruth Hambleton
Farm Business Management & Marketing Educators
2005 Extension Risk Management Education Conference
April 7 & 8, 2005
Kansas City, MO
Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
Production
Marketing
Human
• Goals under managing financial risks
Legal
– Educate Illinois farmers about readily available
financial software
• Quicken
• QuickBooks
• PCMars
– Increase adoption of keeping financial records on
computers
– Improve level of satisfaction with keeping financial
records
– Remove the stress of making decisions
Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
• Offer a variety of programs
– Quicken for Farm Producers
– Quicken for Farm Women (Annie’s Project)
– Farmdoc website (200 page manual)
Over a three-year period, 233 farm men and
women trained on Quicken through these
programs.
Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
• Illinois Resources for Teaching Quicken
– Community Colleges
– Traveling Computer Lab (up to 25 laptops)
– Regional Computer Labs (Extension)
Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
• Format
– Multiple sessions (Usually three)
– Meet every week
– Evening and daytime programs
– Three hours each session
– Class size 5 to 20 persons
Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
• Demonstrate achievable purposes
– Reports
– Time savings
– Tax helps
– Convenience
Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
• Publicity
– Local Extension Office newsletters & media
– Annie’s Project mailing lists
– Some programs cancelled for lack of registration
• Cost of Program
– Charge $10 to $20 registration fees
– Some expenses covered by grants
Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
• Our experience:
– Programs are rated high
– In reality, adoption rate is very slow
– Farm women more apt to deal with frustration
of keeping records
• Why
– Habits
– Older farmers do not trust computers
Quicken Education
for Illinois Farmers
• Web Resources
– Farmdoc
www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/
Ruth Hambleton
Extension Educator
Farm Business
Management & Marketing
Mt. Vernon Extension Center
4112 N Water Tower Place
Mt. Vernon, IL 62864
rhamblet@uiuc.edu
Phone (618) 242 9310
Fax (618) 242 9433
www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu
Kevin Brooks
Extension Educator
Farm Business
Management & Marketing
Effingham Center
1209 Wenthe Dr
Effingham IL 62401
kwbrooks@uiuc.edu
Phone: (217) 347-5126
FAX: (217) 347-5150
www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu
Thank You!
Quicken
QuickBooks
Easier to learn and simpler to use (fewer
options)
More features and options (but more
difficult to learn)
Fine for simple checkbook-based income
and expense records
Allows either single- or double-entry
bookkeeping method
Some users complain of not having
enough space for transaction detail
Allows more detail in transactions (larger
Memo field, etc.)
Plenty of reporting capability for most
users
More extensive reporting capabilities,
including more
"standard" accounting reports. Pro version
can export
some data / reports to Microsoft Excel
spreadsheets
Quicken
QuickBooks
Allows using Classes (enterprise codes) to Provides for multi-level (parent and child)
associate income/expenses with specific
Classes, for greater enterprise flexibility
enterprises
Has features for tracking stocks and other
investments
No investment tracking features
No inventory system
Has an inventory system...but it's seldom
useful for farm inventories (grain, livestock,
etc.)--few farmers use it
No payroll system
Complete, easy-to-use payroll system, but
does not
print Form 943, needed by some
agricultural employers.
Quicken
QuickBooks
Allows using Classes (enterprise codes) to Provides for multi-level (parent and child)
associate income/expenses with specific
Classes, for greater enterprise flexibility
enterprises
Has features for tracking stocks and other
investments
No investment tracking features
No inventory system
Has an inventory system...but it's seldom
useful for farm inventories (grain, livestock,
etc.)--few farmers use it
No payroll system
Complete, easy-to-use payroll system, but
does not
print Form 943, needed by some
agricultural employers.
Quicken
QuickBooks
Limited support for invoicing, receivables,
etc.
Many professional small-business features:
invoicing, customer statements, accounts
receivable, etc.
Single-user versions only.
Multi-user (up to 5 simultaneous users)
versions available
No programming interface
Programming interface available since
QuickBooks 2002, will encourage
development of 3rd-party add-ons for
QuickBooks
Street Price: about $30 - $60, depending
on version
Street Price: $150 - $250 for Basic or Pro
versions, depending on version. (Other
higher-end versions also available for more
$$)