CenterPoint^® Accounting for Agriculture - Distribute General Revenue and Expenses by Acre

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Account Distributions per Acre Video - Duration: 14 min 47 sec

Account Distribution - Overhead Expenses by Percentage Video - Duration: 13 min 16 sec

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Account distributions allow you to distribute financial activity to your production details using the production information stored in the crop production details. This document explains how to distribute by acre.

General revenue and expense transactions can be distributed to your crop production details based on the number of acres in each crop production detail multiplied by the distribution factor of that profit center. The distribution factor allows you to weight the various crops you produce based on labor intensity, utility usage, equipment usage, or other overhead costs. A distribution can be set up for all the cominations you need on your different accounts. Distributions can be used on any account types.

Step A - Assign the Distribution Factor

Step B - Create an Account Distribution

Step C - Assign Accounts to the Distribution

Step D - Test the Distribution (optional)

Step E - Apply Distribution (only if distribution in Step A was setup with the apply later timing option)

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Step A - Assign the Distribution Factor

Various crops you raise may require more or less than the average cost per acre of your whole operation. This can vary because of the amount of labor to prepare, plant, maintain, and harvest the crop; the equipment required to produce the crop; utilities to dry or process the crop after harvest; and other expenses that are not directly allocated to the crop production center detail. The Distribution Factor provides a way to more accurately assign the expenses by a scale of one crop to the average crop. The Distribution Factor automatically assigns 1.0. 1.0 represents average; Crops that cost less than average will be less than 1.0, Crops that cost more than average will be more than 1.0.

Example Calculation of Distribution Acres: If there are 200 acres of wheat and it is assigned a distribution factor of 1.5. The distribution will use 300 for wheat ( 200 actual acres multiplied by 1.5 (distribution factor).

To assign the scaling factor:

1. Select Setup > Profit and Production Centers > Profit Centers.
2. Select the Profit Center.
3. Select the Detail tab.
4. Enter the Distribution Factor.

5. Click Save. Repeat steps 2-5 for each crop profit center.

Step B - Create an Account Distribution

1. Select Setup > Accounts > Distributions. Click New.
2. Enter an Abbreviation (optional), Name and Description to easily identify this account distribution.
3. The Active check box will automatically be selected, clear the check box if this distribution is no longer active. If the check box is cleared, accounts cannot be assigned on the Assign Accounts tab and if accounts are assigned when the distribution is inactivated, a message displays reminding you that the accounts will be removed when the distribution is saved.
4. Select the Distribution Detail tab. The Distribution tab will be used to identify how the expenses should be distributed. A distribution can be dispersed to an unlimited number of profit centers or production center details.
5. Click New in the lower left corner.
6. Enter a Name for this portion of the distribution, such as Crops by Acre.
7. Select Per Acre as the Type.
8. Select the appropriate Timing option. Choose between:

• Later: This option will record the revenue or expense to the account but won't distribute it to profit centers or production center details until later when the Apply Distributions process is completed (defined in step D below). This option is for those that won't know at the time of purchase how they'll be using it, thus how they'll want it distributed.
• At Transaction: At the time the transaction is entered, it will record the revenue or expense and it will automatically distribute it to the previously defined profit centers or production center details.

Enter the Percentage of Total Amount for this portion of the distribution. In this example, 100% of general overhead expense is allocated to Crops by Acre. Distributions can be combinations or more than one distribution detail. For example, you could assign a percentage of the total to livestock and the remainder to be distributed by acres to all the crops. Distributions can be made for any combination required in your operation.

9. In the By box, select the production center detail records to distribute by either Profit Centers or Production Centers.
10. All profit centers/production centers will be displayed on the left in the Available section. Use the right arrow to move profit centers/production centers to the right (Selected) for this allocation.
11. Repeat step 4-10 for each distribution needed.
12. Click Save.

Step C - Assign Accounts to the Distribution

1. Select Setup > Accounts > Distributions. Highlight the appropriate Distribution and click Edit.
2. Select the Assign Accounts tab.
3. The Assign Accounts to Distributions area will list all accounts not already assigned to other distributions on the left side of the screen. Each account that should use this distribution should be moved to the right side of the screen by double clicking on the account or using the green arrow buttons located between the account lists.

4. Once all appropriate accounts for this distribution have been selected, click Save. If you have additional distributions that need accounts assigned, you can also use the green left and right arrows to the left of the Close button to move to the next or previous distribution. The distribution name will be displayed directly below the tabs.
5. You can verify the distributions you have assigned to accounts by printing any of the Chart of Accounts reports found in Reports > Reports > Setup Lists > Chart of Accounts, Chart of Accounts with Levels, or Chart of Accounts by Distribution.

Step D - Test the Distribution (optional)

The Test Distribution step allows you to verify that a distribution has been setup correctly. The test does not actually distribute the amounts, it just displays an example of what would happen if transactions were entered for that amount.

1. Select Setup > Accounts > Distributions. Highlight the appropriate Distribution and click Edit.
2. Select the Distribution Detail tab and click on Test in the lower left side of the screen.

3. Enter an amount in the Distribute This Amount field and click Distribute.
4. The total dollars are allocated based on the distributions defined on the Distribution Detail tab.
5. Click Close.

Step E - Apply Distribution (only if distribution in Step A was setup with the apply later timing option)

If you have chosen Later as the timing option on a distribution (step B6 above), there is an additional processing step that manually distributes the dollars. We recommend being consistent on the frequency and time you run Apply Distribution, such as at the end of each month.

 

1. Select Processes > Periodic > Apply Distributions.
2. Click Create New.
3. In the Company box, enter the company name that the apply distribution transactions should be created for.

4. In the Transaction Date box, the next "calculated" date to create apply distribution transactions displays. The date is calculated by taking the last date transactions were created and incrementing the date one month. The day of the month will default to the last day of the month, but can be changed.
5. In the Transaction Number box, enter the transaction number for the apply distribution transactions or click the sequence number icon and select the next available sequence number. See the Maintaining Sequence NumbersMaintaining Sequence Numbers topic for more information.
6. In the Memo Line 1 box, enter an optional memo for the transaction. In the Line 2 box, if the transaction is assigned a name that was setup with a default memo, it will display automatically and can be overridden.
7. Enter an optional Notation.
8. Click OK.
9. If you wish to change the distribution amounts in the Amount column before posting, type over the existing amount. Click Edit to add/change/remove account distribution detail lines and recalculate the remaining details (click Reset to set the distribution back to the amounts prior to any changes).
10. Click Post to complete the process.

 

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