Assisting diversified agricultural producers hit the target in maintaining sound financial records.

Photos courtesy of Canola Council, USDA, Alderman's CaseIH, Inc., and S. Clifton Parks   

The Diversified Agriculture Revenue Translation System (DARTS) is a downloadable software application that has been specifically designed to assist the American agricultural producer in maintaining sound financial records and ease the administrative burden of participating in either the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) or AGR-Lite crop insurance programs.  DARTS will also assist agricultural producers in the process of calculating their AGR in addition to completing the other aspects of the application process for either of the AGR-based crop insurance programs.  It will assist the applicant in translating his or her summarized financial information (i.e. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Schedule F, IRS Form 1120, etc.) using a standardized process into an AGR value.  The overall goal of DARTS is to assist agriculture producers in enhancing their risk management practices through better recording keeping practices and, if applicable, participation in the AGR or AGR-Lite crop insurance programs.

DARTS contains two wizard tools the AGR Identification and Accounting Software Starter Wizards.  The AGR Identification Wizard assists producers in identifying their AGR for the AGR or AGR-Lite crop insurance programs while the Accounting Software Starter Wizard will assist them in structuring their Chart of Accounts (COA) in their existing electronic accounting software program or to establish a COA in a new software program. 

The DARTS software program contains both an English and Spanish language version of the wizards controlled by the user's language settings on their personal computer.  The DARTS Introduction screen is displayed below that provides a brief description of the software application, instruction components within the DARTS software program, and the option to launch either of the DARTS wizard tools.

DARTS AGR Identification Wizard

The DARTS AGR Identification Wizard will collect your historic tax return information (e.g. Schedule F, Form 1120, etc.) and guide you through the process of making the adjustments necessary to your historic income and expenses to identify an estimated AGR and allowable expenses that are subject to approval by your insurance agent and an Approved Insurance Provider (AIP).  The Schedule F for Year 1, IRS Form 1120 to Schedule F Conversion, Post-Harvest Activities Response, Special Case Exclusion for Line 4 of the Schedule F, and DARTS Allowable Expense Worksheet screens are presented here as a sample of the screens you will encounter in the DARTS AGR Identification Wizard. Throughout the wizard process convenient help topics with examples and explanations of the information on the screens are provided to guide the user through the wizard in an efficient and confident manner.

The accounting software starter wizard will guide you through an interview process that will determine the level of detail that should be captured in your accounting system's COA.  The level of detail required is dependent on the commodities produced and the activities conducted on the commodities by your operation.  The wizard will produce a recommended COA and provide a file with the appropriate COA structure in one of the DARTS supported accounting software products.

Acknowledgements

DARTS was developed by AgriLogic Consulting, LLC in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency.  As a result of this partnership, the software program is offered as a download free-of-charge to the American agriculture producer and crop insurance industry participants.

S. Clifton Parks, Principle Investigator

Working hard to provide state-of-the-art risk management tools and solutions that preserve, promote, and protect the agricultural community.