There is an App For That

Hello RIU

I am posting this App which is actually a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet that has been put together by our fellow member EdGreyfox, he will be checking in to this thread to answer questions

I am posting it after beta testing it and archiving it so you all can get it

It is a really cool App that lets you fill in a few worksheets and get the total cost of your grow. This could be very handy for folks running dispenseries and such as there is a place to enter all your cost (including labor) there is also a depreciation worksheet for doing taxes (if your a legit business)

Even if you do not run a business it will tell you how much it cost you to get your grow on

I want to thank Ed for doing this and hope everyone enjoys

NOTE; you must have Microsoft Excel for this to work

WOAH!!!!!!!!!! THANK-YOU SO MUCH & YOUR FRIEND! Ah thats amazing, I always wanted to be this organized but never had the time to create something, that is pretty amazing once again thanks a ton..

Oh yeah, I guess I should tell you there are numbers in it already but just to show you what it does by example just delete those numbers & values and type in your own

riddleme said:

Oh yeah, I guess I should tell you there are numbers in it already but just to show you what it does by example just delete those numbers & values and type in your own

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Got it, thank-you so much!! This is wonderful!! YES

Hi all. If you have any questions or suggestions about the spreadsheet just let me know. All the calculations are done according to GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) standards, and should be useable for both business and personal purposes. I am an accountant, so rest assured that i really am following proper accounting rules and am not making them up as I go along.

A few notes about the spreadsheet: First, and most important- The colored cells on the spreadsheet all contain formulas and will fill themselves in as long as the corresponding white cells have data entered into them. The colored cells are NOT locked or password protected, so don't enter any data into them or click on them and change any of the formulas or you will mess up the calculations for the entire sheet. My suggestion would be to save an original copy of the spread sheet and then save a new copy for each grow so that you always have the unused original handy in case one of the copies gets messed up.

The labor worksheet- This is a very basic worksheet and doesn't include payroll tax calculations. Those vary so much from location to location and from person to person that there was no way to create a single sheet that would work for everyone. I can write the sheet (or sheets) to do it if i have all the needed informaton, but that's getting involved enough that I would have to charge for my time and services. Also, note that the labor worksheet calculates the costs for the entire grow, not just one week or month of it. It takes the total labor cost figure from the worksheet and then divides that by 3 to get the monthly rates, not the other way around. Once again, i can do something that goes into more detail and breaks things down by the day, week, month, etc, as well as by the job type (watering, harvesting, etc).

Anyway, let me know what you think. This started out as a personal spreadsheet to track my own growing costs and has morphed from there, so there is still plenty of room for improvement. If you have any suggestions for items that need to be added or changes that would make it easier to read/understand feel free to say something.

Wow,

I would have thought more people would have been interested in keep tracking of what it costs them to grow their stuff. After all, thats what you base your sale prices on, or it should be. It's not like this sheet takes a lot of time to fill out or is tough to use either. I've got figures plugged into a few of the white cells to serve as examples, so just replace them with your own figures or zero them out.

Anway, bit more about how to use the sheet. The first page is basically your totals page, and the only things you need to plug in there are the costs for things like rent, security, etc, that don't require any sort of serious calculations to figure out. Be aware that the sheet is set up to automatically figure the cost for the full three month grow period based upon whats entered into the monthly costs column, so one time expenses need to be divided by 3 before entering into the monthly costs column. Licenses and fees should also be divided by the number of months they cover (i.e. a 12 month license that cost $24 would be 24/12=$2 per month) and that figure entered into the monthly cost column.

The light cost worksheet is designed to let you calculate your electrical costs in advance based upon anticipated usage of various lights. The only real variable here is the number of days in the grow, so if you're on a solid vegging schedule that figure should always be dead accurate. You can get the figure you need to plug into the Kilowatts cost per hour from your public service bill. If it doesn't break it down for you, just figure out the total kilowatt hours used and divide by the charge for electrical usage to get the kilowatt rate per hour.

The nutrients cost sheet is pretty self explanatory. Just plug in the price and the percentage of the package used. You can include insecticide, soil, nutrient supplements like mollasses-pretty much anything thats directly going into growing and/or keeping the plant healthy.

The equipment costs worksheet- This is actually a very basic fixed assets depreciation schedule, and can serve multiple functions. Besides feeding in the equipment costs for each grow it will also serve as the basis for the monthly depreciation adjustments that need to be done to your fixed assets (equipment) ledgers for accounting and tax purposes, and can serve as your primary fixed assets list for your accountants/auditors. Because most of the assets involved fall into the "fixtures" category I've set this sheet up to use a 3 year straight line depreciation schedule for everything. The formulas WILL need to be adjusted if this is used to record any item that is legally required to use a different depreciation time period (1 or 5 years are fairly common) or a different depreciation method.
The days in grow figure is the total number of days of the grow, not the number of days any particular item was used.

I've already talked a bit about the labor cost worksheet, but I wanted to point out the time spent per plant calculation. I'm still a noob when it comes to growing, but even i can see that you rarely need to spend more then a minute or two on any one plant during the course of the day. I've had many people tell me how much time they spend on their plants, so it got me wondering how much of that time was really necessary. Well, this calculation is the beginning of my search for an answer. By figuring out how much time each person spent actually working on the plants during the grow you become better able to control your labor costs, so when your idiot nephew Jimmy trys to tell you that he spent 2 hours watering the plants yesterday you can look at the chart and tell him that it should only take about 10 minutes on average. I'm still working on expanding that portion of the sheet, and plan to add a daily time spent per plant calculation. Something else I've considered is doing a sheet so that you can tie each plant and each yield to a specific person assigned to tend it, which would allow you to see not only how much time/money each person was spending per plant, but also how that spending effected (or didnt effect) those plants yields. If that's of interest let me know and I'll see what i can do about adding it.

Final note- I still need to add a line for costs that aren't big enough to warrant depreciation, and that's full expense will be put on the books at the time of purchase. This category would be for things like pots, mylar film, cheap fans (under $100), etc.

EdGreyfox said:

Bumpity bump

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Hello, I just downloaded your app. Thanks for sharing it. I only require the express form of it tho.
What I would like to know is what is a good way to keep a growing journal on my computer?
Thanks, Arvada

Depends on what you want to include. If it's just for notes, observations and an occasional data table then you can do it microsoft word easily enough.

More Bumpity... GREAT spreadsheet Ed! Well done and +rep my friend.

Thanks Mac! Glad you like it.

Yes the journal would be notes, dates and stuff like that. Something I can use for reference as I grow so I can look up when I fertilized and with what and so on. I have the microsoft Office package on my computer with six programs, but didn't know what does exactly what.
Thanks, Arvada

Arvada said:

Hello, I just downloaded your app. Thanks for sharing it. I only require the express form of it tho.
What I would like to know is what is a good way to keep a growing journal on my computer?
Thanks, Arvada

Click to expand...

I use Outlook's calendar to schedule res changes, etc. I add comments to each appointment to track EC before and after, PH, any additives I have used. It's nice to have that little ding ding ding tell you its time to take care of your girls.

Ed, this is awesome.
Now get your ass in gear and make a version for mobile windows that way I can play with the numbers anytime I am bored.
jk man, great work!

Arvada,

Microsoft Word is basically a word processing program. It's good for letters, memos, notes, etc, but is very limited when it comes to data processing or displaying relationships between different groups of data. Excel is a spreedsheet program, and it's great for creating reports that require relatively simple calculations. It's good for building charts, graphs, etc, but is lousy when it comes to putting in notes explaining what the data means. PowerPoint is the program for people that like visual presentations. It basically allows you to create business slide show presentations, presentation notes, etc. You can import graphics like pictures or charts to the slides, type in comments or key points you want the audience to see, etc. Access is a true data base program. In many ways it's just a really advanced form of excel, because it lets you create things that are a lot more complicated and that incorporate a lot more lines worth of data then excel can handle.

Personally, i would use Word , though guitarded's suggestion about using Outlook's calender might be worth trying out. I've got Outlook, but only really use it's email functions.

That's great! I appreciate all the wisdom. I am running Outlook also, and didn't know the calendar had a reminder bell feature. That is a good tip. I will experiment with useing Word.
This will be the first time I use my computer for recordkeeping. I used to write on paper, but my hands are bad and I can't hardly write anymore.
Thanks, Arvada

EdGreyfox said:

Arvada,

Microsoft Word is basically a word processing program. It's good for letters, memos, notes, etc, but is very limited when it comes to data processing or displaying relationships between different groups of data. Excel is a spreedsheet program, and it's great for creating reports that require relatively simple calculations. It's good for building charts, graphs, etc, but is lousy when it comes to putting in notes explaining what the data means. PowerPoint is the program for people that like visual presentations. It basically allows you to create business slide show presentations, presentation notes, etc. You can import graphics like pictures or charts to the slides, type in comments or key points you want the audience to see, etc. Access is a true data base program. In many ways it's just a really advanced form of excel, because it lets you create things that are a lot more complicated and that incorporate a lot more lines worth of data then excel can handle.

Personally, i would use Word , though guitarded's suggestion about using Outlook's calender might be worth trying out. I've got Outlook, but only really use it's email functions.

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Nice job! Being a Linux user I did want to add that any program that reads .xls will work. You do not need to use/pay for excel. Openoffice spreadsheet which is free/opensource works just fine. They actually have a whole free openoffice suite. http://www.openoffice.org/

Excellent Ed. Thanks for your time and effort.

Someone found an error in the original app it is a simple error in the page that calculates electric use/cost. Ed has fixed it and here is the updated/fixed download, I added an "a" to the end of the title so you know it is the fixed one


Enjoy!

sounds like a useful app to have i might dl and try it out for a bit ...thx for taking the time out and making it ^__^

EdGreyfox said:

Bumpity bump

Click to expand...

this thing is awesome. Great for making a close approximation! I don't grow (yet!) but wow is it much more expensive than I imagined.