Inventory Tracking

Farm Owners and Farm Managers in LiteFarm will have different needs in regard to keeping track of the items on their farm. For small farms that are not interested tracking “seed-to-sale” for organic certifications, just knowing what is in the ground or at the market may be enough. On the other hand, operations with stringent traceability requirements (e.g. organic) will have much greater needs for keeping track of inventory, particularly when and how it was purchased and used. To this end, LiteFarm will offer a tiered approach to inventory tracking. Each additional tier offers the user additional control and insights but requires additional inputs as well. In line with our https://lite-farm.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/LITEFARM/pages/78905350 of Accessibility, the default value is “None” (the least required data input) and we prompt and inform the user of their options when contextually relevant.

What can be inventoried?

Product

As an input into a … task

Product

As an input into a … task

Seeds

planting

Fertilizer

fertilizing

Pesticide

pest control

Cleaning product

wash and pack

Equipment

Maintenance

 

Inventory Tracking Tiers

Level

Description

Impacts

Level

Description

Impacts

None

There is no concept of inventory on the farm. All seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and cleaning products come directly from the “available” list that is pre-loaded in LiteFarm (or that the user has added to custom added values) in the system. For example, when planting a crop, the list of crops available to be planted comes from this generic list rather than an inventory.

  • Active by default

  • No concept of what’s at the farm before planting or after harvest

  • Many users will be able to use the pre-loaded crop list out of the box without any additional configuration

  • Does not provide enough traceability to receive Organic certification

Basic

Provides the basic concept of whether something exists at the farm or not. With basic inventory, users select which seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and cleaning products exist on their farm directly from the “available” list that is pre-loaded in LiteFarm (or that the user has added to custom added values) in the system. Once added to inventory, these “in stock” items will form the source list for their related tasks. This option is basic in that it does not deal with quantification of stocked items and has a lower threshold for what inputs are required.

For example, when planting a crop, the list of crops available to be planted comes from this basic inventory list rather than the pre-loaded values.

  • Introduces additional work by requiring that a Farm Owner or Farm Manager chooses which seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and cleaning products are available for use at their farm from the pre-loaded lists

  • Introduces the concept of “available” or “not available” for use

  • Allows farmers to optionally document the pathway for a product entering their inventory (e.g. by photographing a seed package and receipt)

  • May provide enough traceability to receive Organic certification

Double-entry

Provides a double-entry bookkeeping concept to products used on a farm. With this inventory scheme, users select which seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and cleaning products exist on their farm directly from the “available” list that is pre-loaded in LiteFarm (or that the user has added to custom added values) in the system. Furthermore, when adding an item to inventory, there must be a quantity associated with that inventory entry.

Once added to inventory, these “in stock” items will form the source list for their related tasks. For advanced double-entry inventory tracking, any “deposit” to a task mirrors a “withdrawal” from inventory and vice versa.

For example, when washing and packing a harvest, the list of cleaning agents a user can indicate comes from the farm’s cleaning agent inventory. If the user indicates they used 6 oz during the task, then 6 oz of inventory will be deducted from that cleaning agent. Likewise, a purchase (with accompanying receipt) of 12 oz. of cleaning agent would be treated as a “deposit” of 12 oz. of that cleaning agent to the inventory.

  • Introduces additional work by requiring that a Farm Owner or Farm Manager chooses which seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and cleaning products are available for use at their farm and in what quantities

  • Introduces the concept of a ledger for all products used in the organic process

  • Tasks have a relationship with the inventory and performing tasks automatically updates ledger quantities based on this relationship (e.g. planting reduces inventory of seed)

  • Requires users deal with the somewhat sticky concept of using a product that may not exist in inventory

  • Requires farmers to document the pathway for a product entering their inventory (e.g. by photographing a seed package and receipt)

  • Should provide enough traceability to receive Organic certification

 

https://app.lucidchart.com/invitations/accept/3829c894-5f34-47b3-9c8e-00f9b98e524c

Prompting a user to set their Inventory Tracking preference

By default, LiteFarm should assume an Inventory Tracking preference of “None”. If a user indicates interest in Organic certification, this should be changed to “Basic”.

 

Changing Inventory Tracking after it’s been Initially Set

A Farm Owner or Farm Manager can choose their preferred inventory tracking from the farm configuration page.