National Farm Viability Conference: Full Schedule

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8:00am MDT

Thursday September 24, 2026 8:00am - 9:30am MDT

Right-Sizing Farm Accounting Systems is intended as an interactive workshop for farm service providers, business advisors, and technical assistance practitioners who help farmers navigate bookkeeping, spreadsheets, taxes, and financial management systems. Many advisors are being asked to support clients on the numbers side of the business- yet onboarding farm clients into practical systems can feel daunting. Every farm has different records, business complexity, management goals, and overall comfort with financial tools. This session would introduce a practical (whiteboard-use) framework, for helping practitioners match accounting systems to the real needs of the farm business. Participants will utilize a three-tier framework, as a way to ground our conversation around when farms are best served by simple analog tools, transitional spreadsheet systems, or integrated software platforms. Rather than promote one software or bookkeeping method, the session focuses on fit: matching tools, teaching approach, and decision-making needs to the real-world capacity of the business owner. While I have personal experience as both a former farm owner/operator and current farm business advisor, this workshop is intentionally designed to be collaborative, and welcomes additional panelists from other regions and organizations- to broaden perspectives and share what is working in their own client onboarding processes. Attendees will come away with: - A practical framework for diagnosing mismatch between client needs and accounting systems - Strategies for helping clients move from underbuilt or overbuilt systems toward better fit - Stronger confidence onboarding farm clients into usable bookkeeping and financial tools - New ideas for scaling both tools and teaching approach across different farm sizes and stages - A shift in perspective from "Are the books clean?" to "Are better decisions being made?"

Speakers

Gina Simmons

Farm Service Provider, Intervale Center

I grew up in Maine, and after moving away, came back and spent over a decade as the founder/operator of a rapidly growing poultry business and USDA-inspected processing facility. Stepping down to concentrate on my education, I then graduated from the University of Maine with a BS... Read More →

Thursday September 24, 2026 8:00am - 9:30am MDT
Turquoise

Farm Financial Management