Two farm businesses, one ledger that never fit either of them.
A grain marketing co-operative pools member deliveries into lots and distributes net proceeds after deducting input, haulage, and storage costs. A farming company allocates seed, fertiliser, and machinery costs to each field and crop, then calculates gross margin per enterprise at harvest.
Neither maps cleanly to the manufacturing or distribution model standard ERP was built for. So the settlements get calculated by hand, and the year-end margins take two weeks to produce because the cost allocation is manual.
We build around the specific business model instead.
Generic ERP models a manufacturing or distribution business. Agricultural operations have different structures: co-operative pooling, seasonal input purchasing, commodity contracts with deferred pricing, and farm enterprise accounting that doesn't map to a standard chart of accounts. Pool accounting, where member deliveries are received, allocated to lots, managed through storage and sale, and settled to member accounts, is a first-class data model here, not a workaround bolted onto a standard ledger.
The 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture counted about 1.9 million farms in the United States (USDA NASS, 2024), and the operations large enough to need an ERP tend to run as multi-entity groups whose books never fit a manufacturing template.
RaftLabs has shipped production software since 2015 for clients across the US, UK, Europe, Canada, and the UAE. This is a build for finance and operations leaders who need the ledger to fit the business, not the business to bend around the ledger. One team scopes your entity structure and commodity accounting, builds the ERP around it, and hands it over.
Custom pays off when off-the-shelf can't model your business.
Everything on the left should already be true for your operation. Even one thing on the right, and a configured off-the-shelf ERP is the smarter spend right now.
A fit01A co-operative, multi-entity farming group, or agri-input supplier whose structure a standard ERP can't model.
02Pool accounting, commodity contracts, or enterprise cost allocation you currently run by hand or in spreadsheets.
03Budget for a project from $55,000, and a decision-maker who can define what the finance and settlement workflow needs to do.
Not a fit01A single simple farm that a standard accounting package already covers well.
02No pooled commodity, multi-entity, or contract complexity to model.
03Shopping for the cheapest hourly team, not a fixed-scope partner.
What we build
What an agricultural ERP build covers
01Farm enterprise accounting
Field activity and input purchases roll up into a gross margin per enterprise at harvest, using actual costs rather than estimates. Fixed costs are apportioned on a method matched to your farm's structure, and each season benchmarks against the last.
02Co-operative member account management
Member delivery intake with weight, grade, and quality data posts to member accounts; pool lot management tracks storage through sale, with settlement calculation distributing net pool price by delivery contribution.
03Procurement and input inventory
Purchase order management, depot inventory with lot and expiry tracking, and reorder point alerts, with input cost allocation maintaining the link from procurement through field use for gross margin calculation.
04Commodity sales and contract management
Forward, basis, and deferred pricing contracts generate accounting entries automatically on delivery confirmation, with contract performance tracking flagging outstanding volume as the delivery period approaches.
05Financial reporting and management accounts
Management accounts assemble from procurement, sales, and cost allocation data automatically, with agricultural-specific VAT rules, bank reconciliation, and integration to external accounting platforms where needed.
06Multi-entity and group reporting
Multi-entity management maintains each entity's data separately and consolidates for group reporting, with inter-entity transaction handling and minority interest and joint venture accounting for complex group structures.
07Lot traceability and food-safety records
Grain and produce move by lot, so the ERP holds the intake, storage, and outload records that link a delivery back to its source and forward to its buyer. For handlers covered by the FDA's FSMA Section 204 food traceability rule, that means capturing the critical tracking events and key data elements the rule requires, in the same system that runs settlement and inventory rather than a separate spreadsheet.
Have an agricultural ERP project in mind?
Tell us your entity structure, whether you run a co-operative or a farming company, your current systems, and the reporting or integration gaps you need to close. We'll scope the right system.
How it works
From scope to live ERP system
- Week 1
01Entity and business model scoping
We map your entity structure, co-operative or farming company model, and current systems. You leave week 1 with a written scope document and a fixed-price quote.
- Weeks 2-5
02Data model and consolidation design
Chart of accounts mapping, pool accounting structure, and contract logic designed against your actual operation.
- Weeks 6-16
03Build and integrate
Farm accounting, procurement, and commodity sales modules built in parallel, tested against real seasonal data.
- Final 2-3 weeks
04Launch and finance team training
Finance and operations teams trained on the reporting and settlement workflow before full rollout.
Where you land in the range depends on scope, not negotiation:
- Single-entity module, $55,000-$95,000
- Farm enterprise accounting with cost allocation, basic procurement, and financial reporting for a single entity.
- Full multi-entity system, $130,000-$250,000
- Co-operative member accounting, pool management, commodity sales contracts, and multi-entity group reporting.
What it costs
Custom agricultural ERP, starting at $55,000.
An initial production-ready module first, then the full multi-entity system with pool accounting and commodity contracts as scope expands.
One production-ready module comes first, whichever is causing the most pain today. Pool accounting, commodity contracts, and the rest of the multi-entity system get added as your operation grows into them.
Starting investment
Starts at $55,000
Most engagements ship a production-ready first module, a validated v1, in 12 to 20 weeks. Start with whichever module is causing the most pain, pool accounting and inventory are common first picks, then grow into the full system.
No hourly billing
Once we scope your first module, that price is locked in writing, no surprise invoices, no change fees you didn't agree to.
One team, start to finish
The team that scopes your business model is the team that builds and ships it. No bait-and-switch, no offshore handoff after the contract is signed.
