Nick Walls is a director at Leech & Partners, an accounting and advisory firm with offices in Christchurch and Ashburton. The firm works with a large share of Canterbury’s rural businesses. Nick is an agribusiness specialist with a farming background. For him, Farm Focus farm accounting software is much more than a place to keep the books. It’s a key business tool that shows him what’s happening on farm, and helps him help farmers plan, forecast and reach their goals.
“Farm Focus is a key support tool that helps many of my clients manage their business. It’s more than a simple accounting system…it’s an excellent management/forecasting and planning tool which helps me do my job of educating and assisting in the management of their farming businesses…helping them meet their goals.”
Nick sees farming as a business like any other. In fact, it can be more demanding than most businesses, because few farms have support staff.
“Farmers need to be astute, wearing many hats. They are often Chief Financial Officer, Compliance Manager, scientist and farmer.”
That’s where an experienced adviser makes a difference. Nick works closely with his clients, and part of the job is showing them how to use their numbers.
“We work closely with our clients so need really good tools to manage our overview and educate clients on how to get the best from this software for their business.”
Good advice needs a good system, with equally good data, that delivers timely information. Nick says Farm Focus delivers.
“Gone are the days when accountants made a once-a-year trip to visit clients’ on farm. Today agriculture is a fast-moving industry requiring quick decisions supported by good information and, for us, being able to access timely and accurate information is everything.”
Time is money for the farmer and the accountant. Because client accounts are online, Nick can review them from anywhere, at any time, and that has been a deal maker.
“I can be parked on the side of the road anywhere and still able to review financial information and offer comment - this access is a win-win for all parties.”
For dairy clients, the milk price drives the budget. When we spoke with Nick, he rated the Dairy Forecaster, which brought updated milk prices straight into client budgets.
“We need to make assumptions around milk income into the future so having a system that provides automatic updates, as milk prices change, which can be downloaded directly into a client budget is a real advantage for us.”
Leech & Partners have used Farm Focus, and its earlier versions, from day one. For Nick, the reason is simple: “the most important thing for our business is having a system we can rely on…one that gives accurate and actionable information for our review. Priceless!”
Today, accountants and advisers can manage all their client farms from one dashboard with Focus Workspaces. Farmers can share the same live numbers, budgets and forecasts with their accountant. Since July 2026, the AI Farm Assistant can also answer quick questions about actuals, plans and reports. Every Farm Focus customer gets free onboarding and phone support from a team that knows farming, in New Zealand and Australia.
