Budgets
☰ More → 💰 Finances → Budgets
A budget sets an expected figure per category so you can see, mid-year, whether you're tracking or drifting.
Setting One Up
Choose the categories that matter — usually feed, veterinary, and whatever your farm's third-largest cost is — and set an expected amount. Actuals come from the expenses you're already logging; nothing extra to maintain.
Building the First One
If you've been tracking expenses for a year, last year's actuals are the honest starting point. If you haven't, estimate and correct as you go — a rough budget you actually review beats a precise one built once and forgotten.
What Budgets Are Good For
Less about restraint, more about seeing seasonality. Goat farm costs are lumpy: hay bought in a couple of large purchases, vet costs clustered around kidding, registration fees in a burst. A budget makes the shape visible, which is what turns "we spend a lot on feed" into "we spend most of it in October, so that's when cash gets tight."
Feed, veterinary, and bedding usually account for most variable cost on a goat farm. Budgeting fourteen categories is a chore that gets abandoned; budgeting three gets kept up.