| 53 nzdairy Financial monitoring for share milking business Tracey Edwardes Rachel and Murray Perks. Murray and Rachel Perks make use of smart farming software to free up precious time. They have share milked for Murray’s two Uncles and Aunty for the last 12 years at Perks Farm in Kaponga - 45 minutes South of New Plymouth. Figured, a farm financial management software, has created a leap forward for them since 2022, streamlining financial monitoring and decision making for the share milking business. “I used to run an old cashbook system, BankLink, before I went to Jordon of Velocity Accountants. Using Xero’s dairying spreadsheets for budgets etc was good for general overviews, but then a mate suggested Figured, which pulls through the actual numbers you are coding in Xero. “Jordon gave me the online tutorials, showing it was much easier to pre-populate budgets with what had been done to date, looking at multiple scenarios at once. This season we bought 120 more cows, employed a second full time staff member, and joined a 50ha block to make up our 144ha. Before taking on the debt, we looked at cashflow implications and budgets - what year one would look like, and the status quo after that. “ Murray met Jordan who was accountant with the Dairy Trust Taranaki, when he was with the board of trustees. “I really like his well-researched recommendations, as having been burnt with bad advice in the past. He really does his homework, with the assistance of Stacey. It’s not off the cuff. This system has helped our relationship with the bank too. We can show what our numbers are even though we only had retrospective payments from last season’s 320 cows, and not the current 440. “Running multiple spreadsheets was more complicated for someone like me, so the accountant or bank manager did it all. This way, you have more ownership and a better understanding, once you get your head around it. “Most is done on my phone with Xero, while walking to the cow shed, instead of evenings. It’s definitely streamlined things and I’m spending less time on it. The more I do this end, the less I pay the accountants. So, if you look past the subscriptions fees, its better value. Most people in our share milker business discussion groups are using Figured. It has saved money by showing which options are worth pursuing, or how they might work. For example, we’d hate to have taken on the extra cows and staff, if it wasn’t going to support the extra labour unit. We have two full-timers now, and casual help when needed. “Rachel did the calves this year, and covers staff stat days. Our children Callum,11 and Matilda, 8, DAIRY PEOPLE » Murray and Rachel Perks 027 446 0443 19a King Edward St, Eltham o ce@gernhoefercontracting.co.nz At Lloyd Gernhoefer agricultural contracting, we o er you a wide range of Agricultural services. Call Lloyd now for your 2025/2026 season requirements. love the animals, and 5-year-old Jack is into all the gear - jumping on the tractor at any opportunity. We want to give them a good boarding school grounding, and eventually grow our business by purchasing land.” The 40-aside Herringbone shed has a budgeted of 170,000kg of milk solids this year, with 120,000kg produced last season. The 37-year-old now finds monitoring budgets and cashflow much easier. “Once it’s coded into to Xero, GST is done, and it’s all synchronised, you see how your budget is tracking. Figured makes it simpler than entering it manually - partly the reason it used to put me off! For many of my share milking friends budgets aren’t their strong point. Now, unless its a big project, it takes around half an hour a fortnight.” “I used to run an old cashbook system, BankLink, before I went to Jordon of Velocity Accountants.” We are proud to support Murray and Rachel Perks! Is your business performing as well as it could be? We can help... learn more at www.velocite.co.nz
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=