The Spreadsheet
The Veggie Compass Spreadsheet
The spreadsheet is designed as an intuitive system for data organization for diversified vegetable farms. It is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with three input pages and three output pages. Expenses are entered on the first spreadsheet page, and sales information on another. A third sheet requires growers to allocate detailed expenses to each crop including production labor hours. The spreadsheet uses the data from the input pages to calculate each crop’s cost per pound ($/lb), breakeven price, and gross margin by market channel.
Financial data needed for the tool can come from accounting programs, checkbooks, receipts and invoices. Sales data can be gathered from sales receipts, harvest logs, and from the weekly sales chart available on the Forms page. Labor data will need to be recorded by crop and activity through the growing season, and growers will enter their labor totals into the spreadsheet at the end of the season. Labor forms are also available for download on the Veggie Compass Management Forms page.
To download the Veggie Compass spreadsheet, click on the link below. In earlier versions of Veggie Compass, the User Manual was a separate file but for ease of use, it is now contained within the spreadsheet file.
Important notes:
1. Because we continue to update and improve Veggie Compass, we highly recommend that people who download the Veggie Compass spreadsheet sign up to receive email updates when a new version has been posted. You will only receive notices when a new version of Veggie Compass is available and your email address will not be shared with others. To sign up, use the box on the right side of the webpage.
2. Thanks to our partners at the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, there is now a complete Veggie Compass Tutorial Video Series! This is a step-by-step demonstration of how Veggie Compass can be used to give farmers a much fuller and illuminating picture of their farm finances than regular record keeping systems provide. Hosted by a real farmer!