Grain Bin Inventory Tracker Excel - Free Template

1. Open the Inventory Log sheet and review the headers before you start entering data. The first row is the title, and the second row holds the field names.
2. Enter each receipt or movement as a separate line. Use one row per ticket, transfer, sale, or adjustment so the totals stay clean.
3. Fill in the facility, bin ID, grain type, grade, variety, and transaction type first. Those fields tell you what the grain is and where it sits.
4. Add the numbers next: quantity in MT, unit price, moisture, dockage, test weight, and storage fee. If you are entering 450 MT at $320.00 per MT, the gross value should be easy to verify against the ticket.
5. Use the invoice or ticket number and supplier or buyer name to tie the line back to the source document. That is the easiest way to resolve a mismatch later.
6. Check the Dashboard sheet after updating the log. Use it to review totals, compare bins, and spot entries that need another look.
7. Keep the Instructions sheet for your own process notes so anyone else in the office enters the file the same way every time.

This workbook is for the person who has to know what is in each bin before the truck shows up. In practice, that is often a farm operator, an elevator clerk, a grain buyer, or the bookkeeper who checks settlement tickets at the end of the week.

The Inventory Log sheet (image 1) is laid out for that job: record ID, transaction date, facility, bin ID, grain type, grade, variety or class, quantity in MT, unit price, gross value, moisture, dockage, test weight, supplier or buyer, invoice or ticket number, storage fee per MT, net value, notes, and a helper status column. If you receive 450 MT of wheat at $320.00 per MT, you can see the gross value, then compare the moisture and dockage to the buyer ticket without rebuilding the math elsewhere.

Who uses it during the season

A farm with 6 bins might update this after every delivery or bin movement. A commercial operation with 300 tickets a month uses the file to keep receipts and sales from drifting apart, especially when one facility is in Saskatoon and another is in Regina.

Why the fields are arranged this way

You need the quality fields beside the value fields because grade deductions affect the payout immediately. If a load of canola comes in at 380 MT with a $895.00 per MT price, 2.0% dockage and 67.0 kg/hl test weight tell you more about final value than a plain list of tonnes ever will.

This is not just an internal yard sheet. Once you are using grain sales in a business, the records support your GST/HST reporting, your income tax file, and any later review of settlement income or storage charges. The CRA expects you to keep business records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.

If you are a sole proprietor, the grain income normally flows into T2125 with your personal return. If you are incorporated, the same records support the corporate balance sheet, the income statement, and year-end inventory valuation.

Why the numbers need to be complete

Suppose you sell 1,200 MT over a month at an average $315.00 per MT. That is $378,000 in revenue before freight, storage, and quality deductions. If your records are missing ticket numbers or bin IDs, you lose the trail needed to explain why one load settled at a different net value than another.

What to store with each transaction

Keep the invoice or ticket number, buyer or supplier name, facility, and the date in the file. If you later need to match a grain cheque to the books, the combination of bin ID, transaction type, and net value makes the reconciliation far easier than a stack of loose slips.

The first problem is partial recording. Someone enters the receipt, but not the later sale or shrink adjustment, so the bin total is wrong by 20 MT or 30 MT by month-end. At $320.00 per MT, a 25 MT error is an $8,000 inventory mistake before you even talk about grade deductions.

The second problem is ignoring quality fields. A load with 1.5% dockage and 78.5 kg/hl test weight is not the same as one with 4.0% dockage and lower density, yet many files capture only tonnes and price. That leaves you with a neat-looking spreadsheet and a wrong payout estimate.

Errors that cost money

If you miss the storage fee field on 200 MT at $4.50 per MT, that is $900 that never shows up in the file. If the buyer ticket says 380 MT and your sheet says 385 MT, you can spend an hour or more untangling the difference during settlement review.

Why loose notes fail at audit time

A note like “good load” does not help when you are checking six months later. You need the actual ticket number, buyer name, and date so the record can stand on its own when the grain cheque, settlement statement, or year-end review comes up.

The file works best when you update it at the same point in the day every time. For most operations, that is after the scale ticket is issued or at the end of the afternoon yard check, not a week later when you are trying to remember which bin changed.

Simple habits that keep it alive

• Enter the ticket while the truck is still on site, so the quantity and quality fields match the paper slip.
• Copy the previous line when the next load is the same crop and facility, then change only the ticket-specific fields.
• Review the Dashboard once a week so you catch a 20 MT drift before it becomes a 200 MT problem.
• Use the instructions sheet as your office standard so a second person can enter data the same way.

If you are handling more than 500 rows a season, or you need live links to accounting and grain settlement software, a spreadsheet may become too small. At that point, you should move to a dedicated inventory or grain accounting system and keep this workbook as a control file rather than the main ledger.