Let us take stock of progress. We have discussed the importance of having a record keeping system and compared the different versions each of us use. We looked at one system, the Enterprise Record keeping system, which can exist in either a hand or computer based format. To investigate computer based systems we have started to build an ‘Enterprise’ spread sheet grid and in the next lesson we will populate our spread sheet with records and analyse the data.

The main points of this lesson you need to be familiar with before you continue include:

• It is necessary to have a record keeping system so that a farmer can track both production and financial activities.
• Any record system needs to be accurate if it is to support a farmer in tracking and analysing his data.
• The Enterprise Record Keeping system can be kept in either a hand or computer based formats but is useful because it allows a farmer to organise expenditure and income against various agricultural activities.
• In terms of computer systems there are many commercial accounting packages but a popular simple tool used to keep records is a spread sheet program. An example of a spread sheet program is MS Excel.