Farm Financial Advising: Professional Development Training

58 South Main Street,Northfield VT 05663

05 December, 2022

Description

Organized by: Vermont Farm & Forest Viability Program, UVM Extension, Intervale Center, and the Ag Viability Alliance Date and time: December 5th, 9:30 - 5:00 and December 6th, 9:00 to 1:30. Cost: $80, includes coffee, lunch and snacks both days. If this fee feels prohibitive, please reach out to Jillian at [email protected]. Location: Howes Hall at the United Church of Northfield, 58 South Main Street, Northfield, VT Parking: Parking is available and free at the United Church. Food: Coffee and light pastry from Carrier Coffee will be provided both mornings. 12/5 Lunch: Salad bar, chips and cookies from Good Measure Brewing 12/6 Lunch: Sandwich bar, side salad, chips and cookies from Good Measure Brewing. GF bread will be provided with the sandwiches. Lodging: Lodging is not provided but can be found in nearby Berlin or Montpelier, as well as Airbnb and B&Bs. Below are some recommendations: Capitol Plaza (Montpelier) Inn at Montpelier Comfort Inn (Berlin) Reynolds House (Barre) Stagecoach (Waterbury) Best Western (Waterbury) Fairfield Inn (Waterbury) Covid-19 Policy: If you have any symptoms, regardless of Covid status, we ask that you stay home. We encourage everyone to take a rapid test before arriving to the church. If you don't have a rapid test on hand, we will have a limited quantity available at the door. Masks are not required but certainly welcome. Weather Date: There is no scheduled snow/weather date for this training. Advisor learning objectives: Improve ability to support farmers on developing and understanding financial statementsLearn what a high quality farm income statement looks like, what a high quality farm balance sheet looks likeLearn to identify issues, errors or omissions that make business records NOT high quality and/or problematic for analysisIncrease knowledge of how to read into statements in order to ask high impact and timely questions that enhance technical assistanceDevelop a better understanding of lost capital, what it is, when it occurs and how it shows up (or not) on financial statements. Improve ability to ask questions, guide technical assistance based on financial informationUnderstand how the Farm Financial Scorecard might be used for decision makingIncrease understanding of metrics ratios, including ratio metrics with a universal application vs. metrics of importance for specific business systems or life cycle stagesAgendaDecember 5th: 9:30-10:00: Arrival, coffee, snacks, get set up with materials for the day 10:15 – 11:00: Income Statement features, what to look for, Chart of Accounts 11:00 -12:00: Accrual adjustments, non-cash factors on income statement 12:00 - 1:00: Lunch 1:00 - 2:00: Basic Balance sheet valuations, Fair Market Value vs purchase price - Detailed straight-line method vs quick method (8% on total equipment) - Lost capital, and non-standard inventory/improvement valuations 2:00 - 3:30: Key metrics and ratios, Farm Profile #1 activity (late stage biz) 3:30 – 5:00: More metrics and breakeven concept, Farm Profile #2 (High leverage start-up) 5:00: Optional get-together and dinner (not included in cost) at Good Measure afterwards if you want to stay! December 6th: 9:00-9:30: Fun/interactive activity reviewing concepts from day 1 9:30-11:30: Lender/Accounting/Appraiser Panel - Andy Wood, Nick Bullock, Rob Guay - 15 min each: how I use statements (45 min + break) - 1 hour panel , facilitated questions live and from Day 1 11:30 – 12:00: Wrap-up, ideas for next training – what other topics/trainings/formats do people want to see next? 12:00- 2:00: Lunch discussion and head home * Agenda subject to slight changes