# Excel database



## Sweet to the Soul (Sep 1, 2010)

Have any of you set up a excel database to track your beekeeping business? Would you be willing to share the template for it? 

I need to put my record keeping system together for cost, hive maint, hive treatment, etc. and thought I'd ask before reinventing the wheel. 

Thanks
Kevin


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## jrbbees (Apr 4, 2010)

get a copy of Quicken at Walmart.
You can run the whole business on it.:thumbsup:


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## DeeAnna (Nov 5, 2010)

Have you seen this discussion from 2005: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=191537


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## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

get the book learning microsoft office and the year your program is.

http://shop.ebay.ca/?_from=R40&_trk...ng+microsoft+office&_sacat=See-All-Categories

I recommend the pearson/ddc books. Mine is 2003
It teaches you how to set up workbooks, formulas, linking books and charting. An amazing how to book! worth every $ 

Depending if you just sell bulk or sell bulk and retail, 2-3 workbooks. If you just sell bulk, one book with income and expenses. Two books if you do alot of retail sales.
Book one would be bee treatments, set up by yards or hive and honey production
Book two, if you are into retail sales (ie farmers markets, farm gate sales) would be an income workbook
Book three would be expenses. 
Since book three would be bigger than book two, i would use book two to also set up the income expense reports. This is where linking would come in handy.
Some of the expense headings i use are:
Livestock purchases
-Bee purchases...packages/ nucs
-queen purchases
Capital Asset
-Capital Asset (CA+) Equipment purchases...ie bee boxes, frames, bottom boards
-CA+ building purchases
-CA+ vehicle, machinery
Operating Expenses
-hive health(vet) expense...includes treatments like mite, AFB preventin, and nosema, SHB and what ever else. Includes all chems and EO's, and icing sugar costs...not the date treated, jsut costs
-Rations. This includes all feed given to the bees which you purchased
-small tools hive..includes things like suits, gloves, smokers, hive tools, feed pails etc
-small tools honey house...strainers straining cloth, pails barrels for storing honey don't forget light bulbs
-machinery repairs small....bee blower, hive carts, extraction equip
-machinery repairs large...vehicle, trailer etc...if this is your only vehicle...need to subtract a % for personal...same if you buy a vehicle
-diesel/gas
-building repairs --hive
-builing repairs--honeyhouse
-labour expense...paid...learn the difference between arms length and non arms length.
-fencing
-hydro
-booth rental fees (if you sell honey at markets and such)
Administrative Expenses
-office expense
-cleaning supplies expense
-advertising
-memership fees and subscriptions (ABJ)
-legal/accounting
-meals and travel---in Canada we can claim only 50%...look up your tax codes
-telephone %
-internet%
-
anything else you can think of...
Each workbook can have as many sheets as you want. You can set each sheet to reflect each expense category or each sheet can be a month or quarter.

i detail my headings so i see where the $ go. You can make it as detailed or a simple as you like. You might be the type of person that does not worry about two different small tool entries. Your small tools might include all small tools both hive and honey house. Same with machinery repairs
just some ideas


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## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

Once upon a time I use to keep my bee income/expense in excel. I just created a sheet for each of the expense categories listed on 1040 Schedule C, and kept track of date, amount and description for each expense. That way come tax time, it was easy to add up each sheet and stick it on the form. Income was just tracked on a single sheet of the workbook as well.
(Check Schedule C for the categories the IRS wants to know about, or F if you are tracking it as a farm. Chances are you'll only need a few of the categories on the sheet)

But now I've got too many expenses and have been using quickbooks for several years. It is easier than the spreadsheet, but I still basically have my expenses broken down into main categories that match Schedule C to make taxes easy (I may have sub categories for my own reporting).

-Tim


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## WillH (Jun 25, 2010)

Excel is not a database. You need to use Microsoft Access (also included in office package) if you need a database.


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## DeeAnna (Nov 5, 2010)

I agree with you, WillH, from a purely technical point of view. But a spreadsheet is more accessible, understandable, and immediately useful for most people ... and it works just fine as a "database" for many applications. For example, I could easily make an Access database for the membership database I maintain, but an Excel spreadsheet works just fine for what I need it for. 

On top of that, most folks ~don't~ have access to Access, because the most common versions of MS Office -- the "Home" suites ($150 to $280 MSRP) -- only provide Excel, not Access. Only MS Office Pro ($500 MSRP) includes Access. --DeeAnna


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

And for those who want to challenge themselves in the world of MS Products you can even link MS Excel workbooks to form a psuedo database. 

With that said Microsoft is our leader in the software world of what we like to call undocumented features.


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## Sweet to the Soul (Sep 1, 2010)

Thanks for the great input.

I do have quick books pro 2010 for my store (which by the way I am closing to put more time into beekeeping). I bought quick books last year and am sad to say I still have not set it up for the store. Been way too busy to set down and figure out how to run the software, but I think I'll just have to make the time. :s

Based on all your input , the quick books idea sounds like a better long term plan than trying to use excel.

Thanks
Kevin
PS: And thanks to honeyshacks list I have a few more items than I had thought of.


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## Naturegoods (Mar 12, 2010)

DeeAnna;617924On top of that said:


> I have and use Excel for accounting worksheets and have for decades but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND and I also have used the TOTALLY FREE OFFICE PACKAGE available as a 150 mb download from OPENOFFICE.ORG. Sponsored by Oracle who bought the previous companythat sponsored it. It will open Excel and IMBs LOTUS files. Not sure about lotus but I know you can edit excel files and then save them back as excel files for use in the microsoft software.
> Some folks don't believe that the microsoft monopoly on windows and other software is right and have developed these 'open source' programs. That is where the alternative operating systems and internet browsers come from.
> OpenOffice is the same idea and provides database, worksheet, word processing and something else I don't recall or use.
> No more trying to bootleg microsoft software from work! Of course microsoft has gotten quite good at preventing too many installations of bought software.
> Open is free and they encourage people to download, copy and distribute.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Open Source is always a nice open. User BEWARE open source is free until you do not have the expertise to modify it the way you need it modified. Then you will have to pay consultants to customize the Open Source software. The pay for these consultants is extremely high.

I suppose what I am trying to say is sometimes in the long run its cheaper to use the hated MS monopoly. MS Access and Excel are both very valuable tools especially for the cost of them. MS Access offers full application development as well as database administration from within the same tool. Who offers that for under 20K? I have written applications and created databases in Access that you would think where written in another language until you see it running in the Access shell.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Anyone want to help set up my yard sheet in Access, so I can sort entries? I find the tutorial too confusing. The example just doesn't fit...or I'm too ignorant to understand it.


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## winevines (Apr 7, 2007)

Michael Palmer said:


> Anyone want to help set up my yard sheet in Access, so I can sort entries? I find the tutorial too confusing. The example just doesn't fit...or I'm too ignorant to understand it.


if none of these beeks have something in the can, I'll be glad to help you. Will take less than an hour I bet. 
Teaching you how to sort, and work excel however? Hmmm... I am sure you will get it..
You are probably getting tripped up because some of your data is in single collums and some of if it is in one collum. Might have to play with that a little. Also I would make each YARD a separate worksheet instead of data up top on header.

Email me off line what you want to sort by. That will be important in set up. Also first line is Colony #?


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## Sweet to the Soul (Sep 1, 2010)

Michael Palmer said:


> Anyone want to help set up my yard sheet in Access


I am working on an access yard database right now. I will share it with you when I'm done. I'm not sure how it is all going to come together.

I have about 15% completed, so it will be a bit yet. My son has his driving permit. While he is driving to bee yards, I'll be working on it. Should give me hours of dedicated time.

I will create forms that allow user friendly data entry, as well as reports which will pull data out of the tables. 

I'm not a access expert, but have had a little training on it, plus set up a database at my previous employment for the training department.

If anyone already has something they could share, it would be great


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