A change from a generic business financial software package to Farmplan’s Business Manager has enabled Holkham Farming to gain a far greater financial insight into the business, resulting in improved efficiency and cost savings.

Agriculture has always been at the heart of the Holkham Estate, home to the agricultural reformer Thomas Coke, the 1st Earl of Leicester, who in the 1700’s was one of the instigators of the agricultural revolution and the famous 4-course Norfolk rotation.

Today, the north Norfolk estate has developed into a complex farming business, with 3,495ha managed by Holkham Farming Company. Within this there are five in-hand family farms totalling 3,160ha, for which Holkham Farming supply inputs and contract services, plus the company also incorporates a large potato growing business, Holkham Emerald Ltd, and the Holkham National Nature Reserve.

The decision to change from the generic software package to Farmplan’s Business Manager was made two years ago, and has revolutionised the company’s financial management according to Farm Accountant, Suzanna Gascoigne. In addition, the company also uses Farmplan’s Gatekeeper crop management and Cattle Manager software packages within its arable and livestock enterprises.

“One of the biggest differences between the two programmes is the level of detail that you can achieve with Business Manager,” she says. “With our previous software it was just not possible to gain the level of information that was required. Business Manager makes it extremely easy to drill right down as far as you want to go, as well as making it easy to export information to Excel which can then be analysed even further.”

“Previously when invoicing, if you made a mistake you would have to raise a credit note. With Business Manager you can just go back in and amend the invoice, or change the heading code, etc. I also regularly use Items Inspector which makes it very simple to analyse expenses, view transactions and see invoices raised, in addition to the Quick Pay and Bank Reconciliation functions, which are all very user friendly tools within the accounting software.”

“Because the data is live, at the touch of a button I can instantly provide the farm manager with any information needed and pull off really good, easy to read reports, which is fantastic and not something I could do before. Now at board meetings, there is nothing but praise from the board members about the level of information I am able to provide them.”

For Holkham Farming, as a contact company supplying goods and services to the in-hand and other farms, the ability within Business Manager to quickly and easily set-up individual reports for each farm into which inputs such as seeds, sprays and fertiliser can be allocated and re-invoiced, has been a great benefit and time saver.

“Another really useful feature of Business Manager is the Asset Register module. Again it makes it very easy to set-up headings and search codes, and then analyse anything that you want. Each asset has its own card, to which we can attribute costs.”

“Taking that a stage further we are looking to install a coded fuel system which will then allow us to precisely allocate fuel cost to each vehicle. As a contracting company this function is invaluable in enabling me to see exactly the operating and maintenance cost for each vehicle and machine, so again to ensure that this is reflected in the operating charges.”

“The VAT element within Business Manager is also excellent. Due to the number of businesses there is a lot of VAT to administer, but Business Manager makes it very easy to calculate and store records and returns. At the touch of a button I can quickly create reports and print those off, and send the returns electronically to Customs & Excise.”

“The great benefit for me of Business Manager is how easy it is to use, which means I have confidence in it. Apart from the initial training I have mainly self-taught myself but I am now keen to have additional training to see how much further I can go with the programme and the reporting functions it offers. In addition, the support from Farmplan is fantastic and I love the reassurance that if you do have a problem you can quickly ring them for a solution and they have never let me down yet, which was something we never had before.”

“For a farming business, I think that Business Manager is so impressive and invaluable. The programme is easy to use and quick to get around, which is essential and helped reduce my workload while at the same time allowing me to gain a far higher level of information. I can’t praise it high enough,” concludes Suzanna.

CASE STUDY

Managing YPTC records with YPTC Business Manager

Joanne and Christopher Rooke run a family farming business in Newton on Ouse in York, currently farming c350 acres of mixed arable and beef.

“We used to employ a farm secretary who produced the books for us, however this was all done by hand. Each year the accounts were sent to the accountants and I was often inundated with queries about activity that had happened many months before, I didn’t have enough information or had to spend hours finding additional paperwork. As a result I felt I needed to understand the operations day-to-day more fully and be more involved in the farms accounts.

We looked closely at our costs and realised that by moving to a farm management software package, we could do more ourselves and reduce the cost of our accountant producing our farm accounts, which equated to £2.5k each year.”

Joanne was introduced to Farmplan’s Business Manager software by a local farm secretary who had used the software for many years.

“We now use Business Manager on farm and have a much more detailed and quality record keeping process as a result. I can separate debtors and creditors, check records against our bank and find errors and omissions quickly which is a great help. I can also add extra information for the accountant which again saves us time at the end of the year. I am confident that as I have put data into the system throughout the year I can spot any errors and deal with them quickly.”

Joanne has been using Business Manager for just over 12 months, she adds, “I have just completed our first year with Business Manager, we run two businesses on the software, the farm and YPTC. The YPTC is an assessment centre for City and Guilds. Whilst this is a simple set up it has allowed me to work with the system continuously and have a much better understanding of inputting data and reporting on our figures.”

“We complete our VAT returns easily with the software, at the end of the quarter I close down the VAT and the system produces the complete VAT return, it couldn’t be simpler.”

There are a range of tools and features available in Business Manager to help you improve your farm financial management, Joanne adds, “I like to look at the financials in particular profit and loss; I can then see how we have done this year. I use the supplier information to check what we are spending and where and if potential savings can be made. I like to compare commonly bought products to ensure there is not a massive movement in cost, for example sprays. Now into the second year of data, I am comparing last year’s costs with this year’s, we should see a reduction in costs, and I like to see if this is reality.”

“It is also good to see how the cattle prices are moving batch on batch and see trends of highs and lows, over the farming calendar. I am now looking ahead and want to use more of the software functionality to manage individual enterprises and enhance our accounts management.”

One of the key benefits of Business Manager is the ability to analyse and report on specific areas of the business. Joanne manages two businesses with the software and finds this functionality straightforward. “Thinking about how we manage the YPTC records, my inputting balances back to the bank, so it works extremely accurately. What also works well for me is being able to use the data to report the trends back to the committee. Plus I now know much more finite details of the debtor position, Profit / Loss and any potential exposure in terms of debtors, which is invaluable.”

“I understand why many farmers and rural business owners may be reluctant to move to electronic records, it does feel strange not handing over a paper cashbook to the accountants. However I am confident that my records are saved and backed up correctly and I can provide the accountant with the necessary files. In terms of the benefits we have realised by using Business Manager, the VAT data is fantastic and saves loads of time and I know my profitability now, so I am aware how the business has performed and don’t have to wait for the bad news from the accountants. We have creditor management information at the push of a button, and lastly I find the software and reporting functionality enables me to focus the mind on cost savings and keep a close eye on our spending.”