The Budgeting Wizard guides you through creating crop and field plans and a budget. But why use Conservis to create a budget? The budget provides a plan you can take to your lender, helps ensure you have a profitable operation for the coming year, and gives you a way to see if you are on target through the course of the year. It also sets up fields for the planned year with the correct crops and acres.
In addition to the budget and plans you'll be able to generate:
A lender report
An inputs shopping list
Setup of crops and planted acres for all fields for 2023 with one click.
Budget vs Actual reporting
Profitability analysis of fields and crops in Insights using budget data
Here's a quick video highlighting how it works:
To get started, go to the BUDGETING menu, and click Crop Plans and Budget:
Then select the New Budget button to get started.
Before you begin:
You have two options - create a totally new budget, or copy from a previous budget. The following instructions will guide you through creating a totally new budget, but keep in mind once you have created a budget, you can copy from that budget in later seasons and then just change a few details to make budgeting easier.
Here's what you should have ready before starting your new budget:
In Settings:
Activate the crop year for this budget. [go to PRODUCTION > SETUP > Settings and confirm the default crop year includes the one you want to budget for. If it does not, scroll down and click Edit. Then change the crop year, Save, and click the Create button to add fields for the new crop year.]
If you have new fields you are adding this year, create those fields in Conservis. [PRODUCTION > SETUP > Fields > New Field]
Assign default costs to all of your inputs
[PRODUCTION > SETUP > Inputs > Edit Inputs > Change Default Costs]
If you have new crops to add, create them.
[PRODUCTION > SETUP > Crops > New Crop]
Your agronomic plan:
Crop mix
Inputs and their application rates
Expectations for:
Crop Yields
Crop Prices
Land Costs:
Before you begin your budget, add in any land agreements by going to
BUDGETING > Land Costs. Any land agreements already added to Conservis will automatically flow into your budget.
Step 1: The Basics
Give your Budget a name and select the crop year.
Choose your approach:
Assign fields to plans: [the instructions below will follow this path] We recommend assigning fields to plans. It’s a small amount of additional work but gives you a plan for profitability down to the field level and enables plan vs actual reporting. If you have any of the following situations, on any fields in the coming crop year, you must select assigning to fields:
Double cropping (sequentially planting 2 or more crops on a field)
Split cropping (concurrently planting 2 or more crops on a field)
Assign acres to plans: This approach is typically only used in early stages when you know roughly how many acres you want to devote to each crop but you aren't ready to assign those crops to fields yet. If you have crop share agreements on some fields, indicate that by selecting the checkbox.
Step 2: Crops
Plan your Crop mix by adding a crop plan for each crop you plan to grow. From the dropdown, select "Add Crop Plan" and select your first crop to add.
Tip: If you will have more than one variety to plant, select that crop again from the drop down and now you can name each variety.
Add your fields to each crop plan - if you will be doing a simple rotation you can filter for prior year crops and check the "only show unassigned fields" box. Tap Confirm.
Add your estimated yield
Add estimated price
Repeat for all crops until you have planned crops for each field.
Select Next.
This will allow you to review your crop allocation before moving on to step 3.
Step 3: Direct Expenses
Add your direct expenses (seed, fertilizer, chemicals, contract services, etc.) for each crop plan. You will need to know the application rates and estimated cost per unit.
As you populate expenses, the estimator will calculate the price per bushel, your Breakevens (cost per bushel) and your Margin per bushel so you can keep an eye on profitability as you do.
In the Other section, enter any additional direct expenses that you will add during the year as tickets, rather than treat as overhead expenses. These might include crop insurance, irrigation costs, and equipment, labor and fuel. Enter here any expenses for a cover crop (a crop with no yield).
Repeat for each crop until you have completed expenses for each of your crops. Click Next.
Before you move on, you will get a visual view of your Direct expenses to confirm this looks as you expected.
Step 4: Land Costs
Any land agreements you’ve entered in Conservis for this year are automatically shown. Any edits you make to land agreements will be automatically reflected here unless you lock the budget. For any fields not covered by land agreements, use a field group for each different cost/acre you have.
Step 5: Overheads
There are two ways to add overhead expenses:
(recommended) Export last year's overhead actuals from your accounting system and use the Upload Spreadsheet button to import the categories and actuals as a starting point for your budget
Use the Add Category button to build an overheads budget from scratch.
Once you have added all your overhead expenses, click Next.
Step 6: Other Revenue
If you will have revenue not associated with crop sales, add it here. (upload a spreadsheet if there are many line items)
Step 7: Review
Take a moment to review your plans and make adjustments. Save and Finish when you are satisfied with your plan. Now you can use the Export Button to export a pdf of Excel spreadsheet of your budget, or export an Inputs Shopping List in Excel format.
If you need to make changes, click Edit Budget. And when you are ready to export your crop assignments to your field setup, click Export to Field Setup.
We think you’ll find this Budgeting Wizard refreshingly easy to use, but powerful. If you have any questions, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.