All Budgets in farmerswife share a common Account Structure which is basically a tree of Categories and Accounts, used to organize financial data.
You can prepare your Account Structure for import into farmerswife by using a spreadsheet software such as Excel.
Attached to this article you can find some example structure to download, ready to import.
The first level of Accounts is called Budget Categories. In this structure, 'Pre Production' and 'Production' are examples of Categories.
The second level of Accounts is just called Accounts. In this structure, 'Producer' and 'Location Scout' are example of Accounts.
A third and fourth (etc.) level of Accounts are available, but bear in mind that there are some limitations when printing out your budgets/quotes. Please check with your farmerswife Project Manager for suggestions.
When defining the structure in Excel, the B column is the Account Number and the C column is the Account Name. The A column is used for defining which Accounts are contained inside which Categories. E.g., 'Producer' is contained inside 'Pre Production', because it has the number 1 in the A column. Categories are not contained in any parent Account, so their A column is left empty.
To import the structure into Farmers WIFE save the file as CSV (Comma Delimited) (*.csv) file in Excel.
The main Budget settings are located in the Financial tab of Server Setup.
- Import From CSV File
- Delete All Categories And Accounts - use this option with caution
As you select Import From CSV File, a window opens to Select File To Import From.
Once you have selected the CSV file, the import window opens.
The bottom of the window holds four selectors. These are used to define which columns in the CSV file map to the Parent Account, Account Nr, Account Name and Description. If you prepared your Budget Structure in the three columns as explained above, then the following mappings are to be used:
- Parent Account should be mapped to "Col 0"
- Account Nr should be mapped to "Col 1"
- Account Name should be mapped to "Col 2"
- Description: If you would like to add a comment about that Category or Account, you can add this on a fourth column in your Excel. So in the mapping you need to select "Col 3".
When you click OK, the Account Structure is imported. The result appears like this:
Imported Structure in farmerswife
To be able to compare Budgets to each other, they must use the same Budget Structure, i.e. have the same Categories and Accounts. However, when quoting a customer, it is sometimes necessary to create the quote using the customer's own Budget Structure. This is possible by creating an 'Alternative Budget Structure' in the Budget Settings window.