Prepare a harvest inventory cost pack from field activity to saleable lots

The workpaper should follow crop, field, harvest date, receiving load, and packed lot. It should preserve measurement changes and approved cost allocations rather than forcing field totals to equal packed output without explanation.

Start with the harvest log or field ticket population. Capture crop, variety, ranch and field, harvest date, crew or contractor, container count, field weight, load identifier, destination, and dispatch time. Retain the unit of measure for every quantity.

Reconcile sequential tickets or load identifiers and investigate gaps, duplicates, and cancelled records. Compare dispatched loads with packing-house receipts. A ledger report cannot show product that was harvested but never matched to a receipt.

Keep corrected field tickets with the original value, correction reason, date, and approver. Overwriting the first quantity removes the evidence needed to explain a receiving difference.

At receipt, record scale ticket, gross and tare weight, net quantity, receiving time, condition notes, and receiving location. Match the load identifier to the field ticket. If several field loads are combined before weighing, document the combination rule and preserve each source load.

Differences may arise from field estimates, container tare, moisture change, spillage, timing, or an identifier error. Record the measured difference and operational explanation. Do not create an unidentified shrink entry merely to force the two systems to agree.

Route missing tickets and questionable quantities to the operations owner who can verify them. The offshore bookkeeper can calculate and document variances but should not decide whether a loss is normal or acceptable.

Create packed-lot records that link input loads to saleable grades, package sizes, processing output, culls, and waste. Capture pack date, line, lot identifier, units packed, standard weight, actual weight when available, and inventory location.

Reconcile total input with documented output and remaining work in process. Keep conversions between bins, pounds, cartons, and other units explicit. A missing conversion factor can look like yield loss when the quantities are simply expressed differently.

Consider a field load received on the last day of the month but packed the next morning. The close pack should show the received quantity as open work in process under the approved policy, then link it to the next period's packed lots. Assigning all cost to whichever report is available at close would break the lot history.

Separate harvesting, hauling, receiving, cooling, sorting, packing labor, packaging, and outside processing. For each cost, retain vendor or payroll source, service date, amount, quantity driver, field or lot reference, and ledger posting.

Purchase orders show commitments, while invoices and payroll show recorded costs. Keep open commitments visible without counting them as posted cost. Flag invoices without service dates, duplicate bills, labor with no crew or shift reference, and packaging issues that do not match production.

Management should define which costs enter each pool and which allocation drivers apply. The preparer can assemble costs and apply approved drivers, but allocation policy, estimates, and materiality remain management decisions.

An allocation can hide a bad population. Resolve or isolate missing loads, unposted packed lots, unit mismatches, and unexplained yield differences before spreading cost. Show excluded quantities and their effect on the calculation.

Apply the approved driver, such as field weight, received weight, packed units, labor hours, or another documented basis. Retain numerator, denominator, rate, and resulting amount for each field or lot. If management changes the driver, record the effective period and approval.

Keep by-products, culls, and waste in the quantity bridge even if they receive no allocated cost under the approved method. Removing them would make saleable yield appear higher than the operating evidence supports.

Match packed lots to inventory movement, shipment, and sales records. Record quantity shipped, customer or destination, shipment date, invoice reference, and remaining inventory. Investigate negative lot balances, shipments without pack records, and packed lots with no location.

Tie the inventory schedule to the exact ledger accounts, entity, crop, and period. Separate quantity differences, cost-allocation differences, and posting timing. One net reconciliation amount does not tell the reviewer which process needs correction.

The review packet should show the field-to-receiving bridge, receiving-to-pack yield, open work in process, cost pools, allocation drivers, packed inventory, shipments, and unresolved exceptions. Management reporting support can carry the approved results into the close packet.

Archive field tickets, scale records, pack reports, cost-source extracts, allocation approval, inventory movement, and posting support together. Carry open loads and lots forward with their original dates and identifiers.

An offshore bookkeeper can compile populations, match loads and lots, prepare quantity bridges, assemble approved cost pools, calculate allocations, and verify postings. Client management retains cost policy, normal-loss judgments, estimates, allocation methods, write-offs, and final approval. Bookkeeping services can support recurring preparation within those boundaries.

• U.S. Small Business Administration, Manage your finances
• IRS, Recordkeeping