CISA Workshops for Businesses

The first class of the series will be an Introduction to QuickBooks class taught by Debbe Dugan from Simply Computing. She will provide a brief overview of your Chart of Accounts (a listing of all your assets, liabilities, income items, costs of goods sold, and expenses) and the Item list (what do you charge for?). This class will also cover the basics of accounts receivable and accounts payable. We will explore your customer lists and how the billings process affects your income. On the flip side, we will explore paying bills and maintaining your vendor list, including ‘specialty vendors’, like contract labor. Accounts receivable versus accounts payable makes up your Profit and Loss statement.

Looking for help exploring funding opportunities for your farm? This workshop will help you learn which grants might be a good fit for your farm, understand the range of loan programs and business assistance that farm lenders offer, and more.

This is the second workshop of CISA's Winter workshop series. This advanced workshop, led by Amy Grabowski will start with a review of the Profit & Loss report and how to locate possible errors. We will then review other reports available in QuickBooks with an emphasis on analyzing reports important to farmers. Other topics covered will include using QuickBooks to budget income and expenses, the reason for classes and understanding journal entries. Participants should come prepared with specific QuickBooks concerns and the instructor will answer as many questions as possible. You are encouraged to bring a backup version of your QuickBooks file, or your laptop, so that you may work on your company file during the class.

This is the third workshop in the series. Do you have a legal structure for your business? Have you been thinking about what option to choose? The legal structure of farm businesses impacts the outcomes available to farmers as they make decisions related to personnel, enterprises, markets, and all aspects of running a business. Attorneys Ryan Barry and Scott Foster from Bulkley Richardson of Springfield will review basic legal requirements for farm businesses, including business structures, filing obligations, and the pros and cons of each type to help you determine what is best for your business. Attorney Rebecca Thibault from Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy, P.C. will talk about legal requirements for leases and employment law.

This is the fourth workshop of CISA’s Winter workshop series. Farmer Missy Bahret from Old Friends Farm will advise on the importance of having goals for your farm operation. A clearly articulated vision allows farmers to make business decisions that help them reach their goals. Business decisions made without thought to the short and long-term goals of the farm run the risk of providing misled results or being harmful to the long-term vision of the farmers. It isn’t easy to clearly identify goals. Learn techniques to help you create your goals for: retirement or farm transfer, inclusion of grown children, financial sustainability, quality of life, and much more. A portion of this meeting will also be devoted to the initial meeting of cohort groups, focused on getting to know each other and identifying goals for the cohort group meetings.

This is the fifth class in the winter workshop series. Structured Decision Making (SDM) is a decision making process that integrates empirical and on-the-ground data with values-based objectives. SDM provides outcomes that are grounded in reality and represent the ethics, values, and desires of those individuals involved in decision making. SDM is the standard decision making process used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and this workshop transfers the steps of SDM from the field of wildlife conservation to the field of sustainable agriculture. During the workshop you will learn about, practice, and apply the steps of SDM to specific on-farm decisions thanks to Assistant Professor, Curt Gervich from SUNY Plattsburgh. At the end of the session you will have the skills you need to implement and adapt this process to your specific farm. Farmer, Marco Turco from Manzini Farm will share his experiences using this tool for decision making.

These meetings will give winter workshop participants the opportunity to network with one another and also provide additional time to discuss and consider their own individual farm needs as it relates to the workshop topics. Each session will have a CISA staff facilitator and a farmer expert (Missy Bahret–Old Friends Farm, Pete Solis– Hampshire College Farm, and Gary Gemme– Harvest Farm of Whately). The topics for the meeting will be determined based on participant interest and determined as the class date gets closer.