The last twenty years have seen the development of many techniques designed to provide management information. Despite this, comparative budgeting is still the most commonly used analytical technique in applied farm management. There are moves, however, to change this situation through the development of systems designed to enable management aids to be readily available. These systems usually rely on the use of a computer. In this paper the current situation is reviewed by outlining system categories that have been developed and through discussing the important questions in the successful development and use of automated management aids designed for farmer use.