Overview

Attention Dairy Accountants and Financial Managers: Are you up to speed in the latest software, best practices, tax breaks and pricing information?

Attend IDFA’s Dairy Cost Accounting Workshop 2009, to increase your accounting efficiency, strategy and skill.

Learn what you need to do right now to ensure your company is performing at maximum capacity in the accounting department. This two-day workshop will give you the latest information to remain or become a top dairy accountant or financial manager.

The Dairy Cost Accounting sessions are designed to bring you up to date on the current issues and best solutions the industry has to offer. Whether you're new to the position and need to increase your cost accounting know-how or simply want to know how to streamline your plant’s finances, this workshop is for you.

From milk pricing to depreciation, from risk management to strategic planning, these 18 highly informative sessions will give you the tools you'll need to expand your knowledge of the dairy industry.

Exploring top trends in the dairy industry and how they apply to dairy cost accounting will give you the skills you need to enhance your company’s bottom line and your career.

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Agenda

Day One — May 12, 2009

8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.    What’s HOT in the Dairy Industry? ?This session will outline important trends and current events and how they affect dairy financial professionals.
 
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.    Go to the Head of the Class: Basic Milk Pricing?This session will review the basics of milk pricing regulations and how they apply to dairy cost accounting. Learn what Federal Milk Marketing Orders are, how milk prices are calculated, which products are in each class and more. Case studies on fluid milk costing, monthly milk price changes and calculating prices for component values and classes will help you understand how milk pricing applies to your daily job.

10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.    Milk Pricing and the Finished Product?With a basic understanding of milk pricing regulations, this session will take a look at how to apply the basics to determine costs for fluid cream, ice cream, cheese, condensed skim and more. It will also cover costing and yield for nonfat dry milk powder and butter, and show how additional processing, such as shredding or grating cheese, can affect your costs. Case studies on ice cream and cheese costing will be presented.

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon    The Tax Man Cometh, but Tax Credits Are Available?Expenditures for product improvement and plant efficiency can result in significant tax savings. Explore how the Research & Experimentation Federal Tax Credit for a dairy manufacturer applies to your operation and how to take advantage of this valuable tax credit.

12:00 noon – 1:00 p.m.    Group Luncheon

1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.    Cost Segregation: How to put depreciation to work for you. ?The Internal Revenue Service offers a much faster depreciation method for some types of buildings and building components than others. Learn how cost segregation can help your company at tax time.

1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.    The “NEW” Dairy Cost Accountant?Dairy cost accountants play an important role in strategic planning for a dairy company, and this role is particularly important in raw milk acquisition. Some of the controversial and evolving areas the session will cover are:

• Paper pooling, distant pooling and de-pooling
• Over-order premiums
• Federal order regulated vs. non-regulated plants
• California milk pricing
• New products with longer shelf life (ESL and aseptic)

2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.    Keeping the Glass Half Full?Explore accounting strategies that will help to keep costs down and profits up. These include:

• Analytical costing of purchased products and containers
• Cost accounting for container and packaging
• Product line cost analysis
• Delivery dynamics—warehouse vs. store door
• Route distribution analysis and profitability

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.     Checking All the Boxes ?Preparing accurate and timely federal order and state milk reports are a major component of the dairy cost accountant’s job. This session will explore proven preparation techniques for improving these reporting tasks.

Day Two — May 13, 2009

8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.    Trend Setting: Using Lean Manufacturing to Your Advantage?Lean manufacturing—breaking each production step down to its essentials to increase efficiency—is becoming increasingly popular in dairy plants. Learn how you can work this trend to your advantage by applying the same concepts to the accounting department. This session will also explore how to use lean manufacturing to more accurately demonstrate the cost of adding a new line, such as drinkable yogurt or milk beverage processing, to your plant.

9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.    The Customer Is Always Right: Cost Accounting for Customer Contracts?This session will examine standard costing techniques to use when a customer’s invoicing depends on specific costs in your operation.

10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.    Financing in the Best and Worst of Times ?From borrowing for capital investments to obtaining working capital, access to financing is critical to the success of a dairy plant. This session will explore financing strategy that can work during tough financial times and will examine leasing as an alternative financial model.

10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.     New Software for Accountants?Up-to-date accounting software can be the difference between a headache and a hallelujah. This session will discuss the selection and installation of new dairy software and review how to troubleshoot roadblocks associated with software installation and daily use.

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon    Speaking the Same Language: Financial Statements and Reporting?Learn how the accounting and finance department can redesign financial statements to communicate more effectively with management. This session will also cover how to provide a dashboard view of the business to your colleagues that includes:

• Activity analysis and key performance indicators
• Reporting cost per gallon
• Financial reporting to non-financial managers
• Balance sheet analysis and key ratios

12:00 noon – 1:00 p.m.     Group Luncheon

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.    Controlling Shrinkage?This session will help you determine the source of shrinkage in your facilities, and then outline the steps you need to take—in processing, accounting, distribution, and sales and marketing—to control it.

2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.    Developing Cost Centers?You’ll learn how to setup and apply cost centers to each product your plant produces. The session will highlight specific examples of a variety of product lines, including cultured products, cheese, milk and ice cream.

2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.     Accounting Accountability: Best Practices and Industry Benchmarks?Every successful financial manager needs to know effective ways to measure plant efficiency. You’ll learn proven best practices and industry benchmarks used to account for dollars, product pounds, butterfat, people and hours.

4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.    Managing Milk-Price Risk?Recent changes to the Federal Milk Marketing Orders allow forward contracting for fluid milk. That’s good news for financial managers, but just how does that affect your plant’s accounting function? Learn the latest techniques to help your plant manage risk.

4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.    Dairy Formulas: A “How To” Workshop?This session will look at the costing of several complex dairy products not already covered over the past two days. Attendees are encouraged to bring batch formulas to discuss with the workshop leaders.

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