Fieldays 2019: How financial sustainability can benefit your farming business

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Fieldays 2019 will be my second time at the event as Xero’s New Zealand Head of Agribusiness and Practice Strategy, and I’m really excited to engage first hand with some of the thousands of small businesses in the agri sector.

The agri sector is a driving force behind our economy, and as a principal sponsor of the event we are committed to making sure every small business in this industry is thriving. We work alongside those working in agriculture, forestry and fishing to understand what challenges they are facing so that we can try to alleviate them through technology.

Power of the cloud

Our theme this year is sustainability – of the environment, the community, the mind, and of your finances. We believe that by getting your finances in order, it makes it easier to focus on sustainability elsewhere in the farming world.

One way we help the agri industry achieve this is through our partnership with Figured. Figured is a farm financial management software which integrates with Xero’s online accounting platform. Using Figured and Xero together creates a culture of connectivity by bringing together the entire farming team – the banker, accountant, farmer and farm consultant – to work from one accurate dataset on their finances.

With the power of cloud technology everyone in the farming team can work on the same single ledger so there is no doubling up of information. This financial data is also updated in real time, meaning that at any stage decisions can be made accurately and quickly, based on the farm’s current financial situation. Farmers are more equipped to deal with changing environments and pressures, such as bad weather or poor crop yields if they have all the information available to them and access to accurate financial data plays a big part in this.

The Xero, Figured combo also allows the farming team to get through bookwork faster. Figured pushes livestock, and crop sales and purchases directly across to the Xero account, keeping both the farm and the financial side of things in balance, without the need for double entry. This leaves farmers with more time to get stuck into the farm and focus on the things they love doing.

What’s in store at Fieldays this year

Come join us for a coffee, to chat about any challenges or burning questions you might have, or if you want to hear more about how our cloud technology can benefit you. Our #beautiful stand will be located in the main pavilion, just inside the main doors from the M Road entrance this year, with the coffee flowing and some awesome giveaways. We’ll be there along with the Figured crew, demoing the best financial farm management solution available.

Xero will also be involved with this year’s Fieldays Rural Catch, hosting a challenge where contestants participate in “Nail your numbers with Xero & Figured”, to see whether they can transfer their skills on the farm into skills with the books.

We will also be hosting small business sessions this year where you can come along and learn tips and tricks for how to get the most out of your Xero subscription. You can find out more here.

Finally, we’ve got something exciting in store for you too! Every day of Fieldays, you’ll get to nominate your (or your mates’) small business for a chance to win a free Xero subscription for a year. Winners will be drawn at the end of each day. More details to come soon.

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