Intuitive software and excellent customer service

CASE STUDY

Intuitive software with excellent customer service

H Snelson & Son Ltd were early adopters of Farmplan Business Cloud. They were keen to comply with MTD regulations and identified Business Cloud as the right software for the job. They already had a longstanding relationship with Farmplan as active Gatekeeper users, and therefore felt reassured that we would support them on their transition to digital VAT.

Here, Andrew Nicholls of H Snelson & Son Ltd talks about Farmplan Business Cloud, Gatekeeper and his experience of the Farmplan team.

Farmplan Business Cloud

“Managing VAT digitally was a real learning curve for us.  We wanted to get ahead of the game and ensure we were ready before the HMRC deadline, and so we invested in Farmplan Business Cloud. We had received such tremendous support from Farmplan over the years that we knew they’d make the move to digital VAT as pain-free as possible. Sure enough, the tutorial was very good, in fact everyone is very good with lots of patience, which is a wonderful asset. I cannot speak highly enough of the support we have received from the Farmplan team.

“Farmplan Business Cloud is a very clever program. It automatically prompts you to complete certain actions, so you know you’re doing it correctly and at the right time. We have found it to be user friendly, and we’re now working more proactively to simplify our farm accounts. For example, we can now easily put our invoices through the system rather than uploading them in bulk every quarter. This approach really takes the pressure off the team.

Even though the software is easy to use, this way of managing our accounts is very different for us, but help is always on-hand. The speed at which the Farmplan support team answers the phone is another big plus point! Farmplan has always been good at looking after existing customers – you don’t feel abandoned once you start using the software, and I personally wouldn’t go anywhere else.

Andrew Nicholls, H Snelson & Son Ltd

Gatekeeper

“Gatekeeper is a superb program; we’re really impressed with it. We wanted to get the most out of Gatekeeper and so it was important for us to make use of the training programs and support resources available from Farmplan. We have completed a number of training sessions and we’re confident we’re getting maximum value from the software. It’s ideal for all agricultural activities, but the mapping functionality really must be seen to be believed!

“Mapping is my passion and Gatekeeper has the best mapping program I have ever seen. Other mapping tools are alright, but Farmplan is better; the things we can do with Gatekeeper are so impressive.”

Farmplan Business Cloud is a very clever program. It automatically prompts you to complete certain actions, so you know you’re doing it correctly and at the right time. We have found it to be user friendly, and we’re now working more proactively to simplify our farm accounts.

Mapping is my passion and Gatekeeper has the best mapping program I have ever seen. Other mapping tools are alright, but Farmplan is better; the things we can do with Gatekeeper are so impressive.

75%

of Farmplan customers use more than one of our products, including H Snelson & Sons Ltd

Gatekeeper


Business Cloud


Making Tax Digital: Hidden benefits

CASE STUDY

The Making Tax Digital initiative has forced the hand of many businesses to accept a change in business operations. Paper-based or manual systems are quickly being dropped in favour of a more technological way of managing business accounts. And whilst some farms may feel that they’ve been pushed to do something they weren’t keen to, many are pleasantly surprised by the additional benefits of digital record-keeping.

Fiona Ives, a self-employed farm secretary has helped many farms move away from manual, paper-based accounts or excel spreadsheets to embrace the benefits of digital accounts software such as Farmplan’s Business Manager.

“Many farms are reluctant to go down the digital route, comfortable with the way they’ve always done things. But I’ve found that most of them would now say it’s been a really positive change.”

Anna Cianchi, Product Manager at Farmplan would agree with Fiona’s assessment. “We’ve found that once reluctant adopters move across to our Business Manager software, they are surprised by lots of hidden benefits. From easing cash flow management to analysing business performance. And now with the Making Tax Digital functionality, customers can comply with the new regulations without any difficulty at all.”

People are worried about how the Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative works but Fiona believes they’ll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is, especially if you are already using digital accounts software.

“People were concerned how MTD was going to work. However, submitting VAT returns via MTD has been nothing but straightforward.”

If you’re already using compatible accounts software such as Farmplan’s Business Manager, it’s a simple 3 step process:

  1. Update your software to the latest version which includes the MTD functionality (no extra cost for existing customers) and follow the MTD set-up wizard.
  2. Sign up to MTD on the HMRC website
  3. Once HMRC confirms you’re signed up, go back into your accounts software and finish the set-up.

When your VAT return is due, all you need to do is check that all your daily transactions are up to date and accurate and then it’s simply a click of the button and all the relevant data is sent to HMRC and your VAT return is automatically completed for you.

Fiona enthuses about the initiative but accepts that it represents a change in culture: “Although MTD has perhaps necessitated farm businesses to take the leap to digitising their accounts, I believe computerised accounts brings so many other benefits to the business – for the farmer, their accountant and their book-keeper!”

People were concerned how MTD was going to work. However, submitting VAT returns via MTD has been nothing but straightforward.

Making Tax Digital: Nothing to be afraid of

CASE STUDY

It’s easy to fear the changes that come with every new Government initiative and when it effects tax returns, the anxiety levels increase even further. But, in the case of Making Tax Digital, your fears may be unfounded. Just ask Jennifer Day, who works as a mobile farm administrator for several large multi-enterprise estates in South Wiltshire and is also a member of IAgSAi.

The whole point of Making Tax Digital is to modernise things, decrease errors and reduce the administrative burden on small businesses. And Jennifer believes it does just that, she says: “It is so straightforward, you’ll wonder what you were so worried about!”

Jennifer has been a long-term client of Farmplan, using their products for over 35 years and is a beta tester for their software meaning that she tests the system to ensure it works and is fit for purpose. As a result of this involvement, Jennifer saw first-hand the enthusiasm for the project.

“I was very impressed at how HMRC and Farmplan collaborated to make the system work. I was Farmplan’s second client to submit a business VAT return using the new system and I found it so easy that I set up all my clients on it in early 2019.”

Jennifer is a particular advocate of Farmplan’s Business Manager for two reasons:

  1. It has been specifically developed with farm businesses in mind and has been tested by farm users. This means that it can cope with the type of complex, multi-enterprise businesses farms tend to be now.
  2. Farmplan worked with HMRC on Making Tax Digital at a very early stage and so the system works beautifully – there’s nothing to worry about, it does it all for you, seamlessly.

So what exactly is Making Tax Digital? Put very simply, it removes the need for a manual VAT returns to be completed. By using compatible accountancy software, such as Farmplan’s Business Manager, you have a secure connection with HMRC systems allowing you to submit the relevant figures to calculate your VAT payments at a click of a button. No additional paperwork to fill in!

It is so straightforward, you’ll wonder what you were so worried about!

Business Manager provides greater financial insight for Holkham Farming

CASE STUDY

Business Manager provides greater financial insight for Holkham Farming

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.

One of the biggest differences between the two programmes os the level of detail that you can achieve with Business Manager. With our previous software it was just not possible to gain the level of information that I wanted. Business Manager makes it extremely easy to drill right down as far as you want to go

Previously when invoicing, if you made a mistake it was difficult to correct and 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.

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.

Managing YPTC records with YPTC Business Manager

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.”

I find the software and reporting functionality enables me to focus the mind on cost savings and keep a close eye on our spending.

Joanne Rooke, Owner

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.

Joanne Rooke, Owner

Saved £2,500 per year on reduced accountants fees alone.

Joanne Rooke, Owner