Meat & Animal Shares with TallyTill

What this does for you

Selling a whole animal in one piece is a lot to keep straight: who claimed which cut, who's paid, and who still owes you once the processor tells you the real weight. TallyTill's Animal shares keeps all of that in one place.

• No spreadsheets. One animal (a "lot"), its sizes, its claimants and its money, in one page.
• Nothing is priced until it's real. If you sell by hanging weight, nobody is charged a guess — you enter the real weight after processing, and TallyTill does the math.
• A pickup sheet built for the door, and a separate list you can hand straight to the processor with no dollar amounts on it.
• Members reserve online, the same way they join a CSA box — no phone tag.

If you sell beef, pork, lamb, goat or any other animal by the half, quarter or whole, this is for you.

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Find your way around

Animal shares live under the same Shares tab as CSA boxes.

If your farm sells both CSA boxes and animal shares, a small switch sits at the top of the page:

💡 Pro Tip: This switch just decides what you're looking at right now — it doesn't turn anything off. If your farm only does animal shares, you won't see this switch at all; you'll land straight on Animals.

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Part 1 — Offer an animal (once per animal)

Step 1: Add the lot

A lot is one animal (or a small group) going to the processor on one date.

1. Click Shares, switch to Animal shares if you need to, then click Add lot.
2. Give it a Name members will recognize, like Beef — October harvest.
3. Pick the Animal (product) — this must already exist in your catalog.
4. Set the Processing date — the day it goes to the processor.
5. Set Reservations close — the last day someone can claim a share. This has to be before the processing date; custom-exempt meat has to be sold before slaughter.
6. Pick a Pickup site, and set Total portions — the number of equal shares the animal is cut into.
7. Add a Description in your own words — it's shown to members exactly as you type it, like "Grass-fed, dry-aged 14 days."

⚠️ Watch Out! Reservations close has to land before Processing date. TallyTill stops taking new reservations the moment that date passes, even if a spot is still open.

Step 2: Choose how you're pricing it

There are exactly two ways:

• Fixed price. You set a dollar price for each size up front. Good when you know your cost per animal ahead of time.
• By weight. You set a rate per pound (or kilogram), and TallyTill charges the real weight once the processor tells you what it was. Nobody is charged an estimate — not even you, until the animal is actually on the scale.

Under Pricing, choose Priced: Fixed price or By weight. If you choose By weight, fill in the Rate (like 4.25) and Per (the unit — pounds or kilograms).

💡 Pro Tip: There's no third option and no "estimated weight" field anywhere. If you don't know the exact weight yet, that's exactly why By weight exists — you settle it later, for real.

Step 3: Set your sizes

A size is one way to buy a piece of the lot — Whole, Half, Quarter, or anything else you want to call it.

1. Under Sizes, click Add a size for each way you're selling it.
2. Type a Label (like Half) and how many Portions of the lot's total it claims.
3. On a fixed-price lot, also set the Price and how many Payments it can be split into (1 means paid all at once).

Example: an 8-portion lot might offer Whole (8 portions), Half (4 portions) and Quarter (2 portions) — a member can only claim as many portions as are left.

Step 4: Add any extra charges

Processing, packaging, delivery — anything beyond the meat itself — is its own fee, never folded into the price of a size.

1. Under Fees, click Add a fee.
2. Pick the Product it's billed as (it has to already exist in Products), and optionally a different Label to show instead of the product's name.
3. Choose the Basis: Flat charges it once per reservation, on any lot. On a by-weight lot, you can instead charge per pound of hanging weight.
4. Set the Amount, and Charged on — every size, or just one.

💡 Pro Tip: Fees don't carry sales tax unless you say so. If your state taxes processing fees, open the fee's product in Products and give it a tax rate.

⚠️ Watch Out! There's no "deposit" here on purpose — every charge is either the price of a size or a fee, always shown as its own line. Members always see exactly what they're paying for.

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Part 2 — Every reservation

Step 5: Let members claim a share

There are two ways, same as a CSA box:

• They reserve it themselves, from your farm page. See the Your Farm Page manual — a section called Animal shares lists every open lot, its sizes, prices (or rate), fees and how many are left. They click Reserve a share and tell you what they want done with their cuts.
• You take it for them. On the lot's page, click Take a reservation, then pick the Customer and the Size, and fill in Cut sheet — what they want done with their cuts.

A new reservation starts as Requested. Click Confirm on their row once you're sure — that's the moment the portion is spoken for and can't go to anyone else. Cancel releases it back to the lot; a charge already made is not undone automatically.

💡 Pro Tip: Before it actually confirms, TallyTill shows you exactly what's about to be charged — the size's price (or its instalments) and any fee — so you see the number before it hits anyone's account.

Step 6: After processing — weigh it in (by-weight lots only)

Once the processor tells you the real weight of each portion, come back to the lot.

1. Under Hanging weights, type each reservation's actual weight — the number straight off the processor's sheet, never a live scale reading.
2. Check the Charges column: it fills in as soon as a weight is saved, showing exactly what that reservation will owe.
3. Click Charge accounts. TallyTill charges every priced reservation at once: rate × weight, plus any per-weight fee.

⚠️ Watch Out! Nothing is charged until you click Charge accounts, and every weight has to be the real number off the scale — there's nowhere to type an estimate.

Step 7: Pickup day

1. On the lot's page, click Print pickup sheet.
2. It lists everyone who's Confirmed or already Collected: their name, phone, size, hanging weight (if this lot is by weight), cut sheet, and what they owe — or Paid up.
3. Tick each box as they collect. Click Print for a paper copy.

💡 Pro Tip: Handing cuts to a processor instead of your own crew? Click Processor list for the same names with no dollar amounts on the page at all — safe to hand over.

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Turning it on and off

Under CSA Settings, two switches decide what your farm offers: Boxes / Shares and Animal Shares. Both are on by default. Turn off whichever one your farm doesn't use, and its tab — and the mode switch — disappears.

See the Tenant Settings & Setup manual for every setting that changes by what you sell.

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Troubleshooting

I don't see Animal shares at all. It's switched off for your farm. Turn on Animal Shares under CSA Settings.

A member can't reserve a share on my farm page. Every portion of every size may already be claimed — check Sizes for how many are left. If Reservations close has passed, that's also why: TallyTill stops new reservations the moment that date passes.

I confirmed the wrong reservation. Click Cancel on it. Its portion goes straight back to the lot for someone else to claim.

A customer's charge is wrong after weigh-in. Check the weight you typed under Hanging weights — the charge is always rate × that number, plus any per-weight fee. Clicking Charge accounts again does not double-charge an already-posted line; fix the weight and post only the reservations still waiting.

I need to hand the processor a list with no prices on it. Click Processor list on the pickup sheet page.