Accounting Department (L to R): Janet Delaney, Cheryl Riedel, Kathy Rasmussen and Kevin Roth.

Even though accounting departments work quietly behind the scenes, no business can survive without them, and the accounting department at Holly Sugar is no exception. Kevin Roth, Factory Controller, and his four year-round staff members, work diligently at paying factory employees, looking after grower payments, tabulating hours and pay for part time harvest help, paying vendor invoices, accumulating and processing data on a daily basis, invoicing the by-product sales and accounting for beet seed sales. The accounting staff also reviews factory financial records.

The accounting department generally works regular day shifts, but during beet harvest, most of the staff works 12-hour days, 7 days a week. "We are busy year round," Roth says, "but harvest is especially busy. During harvest, we hire additional help, so if growers are harvesting beets, we are here at the office processing that data."

The Sidney Holly Sugar factory has had an in-house accounting department since the factory opened its doors in 1925. However, recent staff members have seen more operational changes within the department in the last ten years than former staff members saw in the previous 65 years of the factory's existence. Automation and computers have increased the department capabilities of handling more information in a more efficient manner.

"In the early years, all accounts were handled by ledger cards," Roth explains. "The payroll, the grower payments, everything was handled by ledger cards."

Today, computers have replaced the ledger card system, handling more information in less time. "Computers track all sorts of information, and as we step into the future, we'll be able to track things even further and faster," says Roth.

Roth sees a developing close relationship between the Ag Department and the Accounting Department. Computers will process data on individual fields, checking fields on a contract basis. Computers will calculate tonnage, fertilizer management and other farm management practices. "We'll be able to analyze how an individual field performs, know the rotations on fields, and what fields are profitable," Roth points out. "Tracking systems will increase profitability, telling producers what fields make them money."

Not only will computers aid in assessing fields, tonnage and other farm matters, but these same computers save time, allowing for faster, more immediate decision making by both the growers and Holly Sugar.

"With the increased technology, we are looking at more real time with more immediate details," Roth remarks. "Before today's technology, we'd look at numbers a month old and try to determine what we did right or wrong. Now we look at those numbers immediately and can make more timely assessments of what those numbers mean, so decisions can be made more quickly."

Computers and automation in general have allowed the accounting department to handle more and broader-based responsibility without increasing staff size.

"Automation has taken us to the next level," Roth says. "With continual advances in technology, who knows where we'll be able to go next."

Roth began his career as an accountant with the Sidney factory 15 years ago. Three years ago he accepted the promotion to Factory Controller.

Roth maintains that a successful department has good staff. "I have a dedicated staff," he says. "A department is only as good as its weakest link, and I have no weak links in this department."

He adds, "I don't have one person who is afraid to work. The staff does what it takes to get the job done, quickly and efficiently, always assuring that the work is done with accuracy."