For example, the amount of seed per acre to be planted would be entered in the seed input screen, while the method of planting would be entered as an operation. The software can handle either cash lease arrangements or crop share lease arrangements. If the lease arrangement is cash, then the actual cash lease would be entered in the Summary screen under Cash Rent. For a crop share arrangement, the percent that the land owner would either pay or receive would be entered in the share lease column on the Summary screen. Once the production process has been completed, the user enters the fixed costs.
Examples are property taxes, land payment, depreciation, and interest on equipment notes.
It is important to recognize that a sufficient volume of business must be conducted over which total fixed costs can be spread in order to keep them as low as possible. Machinery costs are a part of fixed costs. The software allows the user to include all his equipment. This equipment can then be allocated to the budgeted acres using the percent allocation column in the equipment screen. As an example, if the user were analyzing an entire operation, the percent allocation in the final column would need to be 100 percent.