CFO
Checking your Financials more OftenWhat is the CFO Program?
The CFO program originated by request from a couple producers who felt they were just not getting a good handle on their operation until the end of the year when it was too late to make any changes. Their farms had grown so much, so fast, they were realizing that they couldn’t manage it the same way they always had.
The program is designed to put you in charge of your financial risk. Most producers hire a crop consultant to help manage their production risks, a marketing consultant to help manage their price risk, and now it’s time to hire a financial consultant to help manage your biggest risk. After all, you can’t go broke if you always make money.
How Will CFO Help Me?
We’re not looking to run the financial side of your business, but rather help you to take control of it yourself. Through the CFO program, you will have an up-to-date cash flow throughout the year, an evolving cost of production estimate before you start marketing your crop for the year, and a Farm Financial Consultant on your farm 4 times a year for those odds-and-ends sort of questions like:
- What crop insurance option is right for me?
- Should I buy or lease a combine?
- What farm bill option should I take?
- Can I afford to buy that land?
Our job is to put numbers to your questions so you can make sound decisions by knowing the financial impact on your farm.
Who Should Participate?
CFO is not a right fit for everyone. The information you get out is only as good as the information you put in. To benefit the most, you must have up-to-date financial records and a willingness to stay on top of your finances.
The CFO program is really designed for two types of producers: those who have the skills to prepare the financial documents, but lack the discipline to sit down and do it, or those who really don’t understand what it takes to gather the information or prepare the documents. Nothing is wrong with either type, it just means some extra help is needed to manage your farm.
What Do I Need to Do?
Each visit will be 4-6 hours in length. The first visits are always the longest and those extra “odds-and-ends” determine the length of the others. It is our goal that neither you nor the Financial Consultant will have much work outside of the visits. The cash flows and cost of production will be figured on site and printed for you before your consultant(s) leave. The types of things we will be asking you to have prepared would be:
- Your planned acres/production
- Any contracts made to date
- Cost of inputs planned/actually made
- Capital purchases planned
How often will we meet?
- Pre-Harvest
- Year-End
- Pre-Planting
- Early Summer
We also offer a CFO Light program. With the CFO Light program there are 2 on farm meetings each year.
