The purpose of this course is to equip working bookkeepers to record, classify and treat every transaction in a South African farming operation correctly, from seasonal income and biological assets to the diesel rebate and First Schedule livestock provisions. It removes the guesswork from farm cash flow, VAT, payroll and tax, so that a farmer’s accounts can be trusted by owners, accountants, auditors and SARS.
R1725,00 VAT incl.
Farming is where ordinary bookkeeping stops working. Income arrives once a year at harvest while costs run every month. A herd grows and changes value on its own. Diesel carries a rebate, produce and livestock fall under their own tax schedule, and the household and the farm draw from the same bank account. A farm’s books behave like no other client’s, and the standard bookkeeping template does not fit them.
Get it right and you become the bookkeeper a farmer cannot afford to lose. Get it wrong and the accounts misstate profit, the tax is calculated on the wrong base, and the rebate goes unclaimed. This course makes sure you get it right.
The course teaches farm bookkeeping the way it is done in a working practice. Across twenty chapters you follow the full bookkeeping cycle adapted to farming, from source documents in the shed to farm financial statements, with worked examples drawn from real South African operations across grain, livestock, dairy and agri-tourism. Every chapter ends with an interactive knowledge check, and every treatment is built on IAS 41, Section 34 of the IFRS for SMEs and South African tax, VAT and labour law.
The course is self-paced and online, pitched for a working bookkeeper. It runs to about 21 hours and earns 10 CPD units. One chapter every day or two works well; spread over about two weeks, the material sticks.
Who this course is for
This course is designed for:
The course builds from first principles, so no prior agricultural knowledge is assumed. It is not a farm-management or agricultural-economics course.
How this course works
After completing this course, you will be able to:
The course follows the real bookkeeping workflow used on a South African farm, from the first source document to the reporting-date financial statements:
PART A · FOUNDATIONS
| # | Chapter | Time |
| 1 | Introduction to Farm Bookkeeping | 60 min |
| 2 | Source Documents on the Farm | 60 min |
| 3 | The Chart of Accounts | 55 min |
| 4 | Double-Entry Bookkeeping for Farmers | 50 min |
PART B · RECORDING THE FARM’S MONEY
| # | Chapter | Time |
| 5 | Farm Income and Revenue Recognition | 70 min |
| 6 | Farm Expenses and Cost Classification | 65 min |
| 7 | Biological Assets and Inventory | 75 min |
| 8 | Farm Cash Flow and Seasonal Planning | 65 min |
| 9 | Farm Debtors, Creditors and Credit Management | 65 min |
| 10 | Farm Fixed Assets and Depreciation | 65 min |
PART C · TAX, VAT, PAYROLL AND COMPLIANCE
| # | Chapter | Time |
| 11 | Farm VAT in the South African Context | 70 min |
| 12 | Farm Payroll and Labour Compliance | 65 min |
| 13 | Farm Financial Statements | 70 min |
| 14 | Farm Tax Compliance | 70 min |
| 15 | Internal Controls and Ethics on the Farm | 60 min |
| 16 | The Diesel Rebate | 55 min |
| 17 | Livestock and the First Schedule | 65 min |
| 18 | Cash Flow: Harvesting Once a Year | 55 min |
| 19 | Farm vs House Money | 55 min |
| 20 | Permanent vs Seasonal Workers | 60 min |
After completing the short course you will receive a CIBA certificate of completion with 10 verifiable CPD units in the Accounting category.
+27 (0) 12 643 1800/2/4 ciba@myciba.org www.myciba.org
Gauteng: Spaces, Byls Bridge Office Park, Building 14 Block B, Cnr of Olievenhoutbosch Road and Jean Avenue, Centurion, 0157
Cape Town: Cape Town Spaces Office, Century City, No1 Bridgeway Road, Bridgeways Precinct, Cape Town, 7441
Namibia: Regus Office Windhoek, Maerua Mall 3rd Floor, Windhoek, Namibia, 10005
Paris: I13 Rue Paul Valéry, 75116 Paris, France (ICFOA)
