When we spoke with Kirrily and Cody Hickey in 2020, they had just moved north from Taranaki to contract milk 700 cows at Matauri Bay, near Kerikeri. It was another step towards owning their own farm. With staff to manage and a young family, they needed farm accounts that were easy to pick up from the start, even with no accounting background.
“We've taken on a massive challenge here milking 700 cows, managing staff, and raising our four young children and Focus has really helped us keep planning and pushing forward to achieve our goals.”
When their financial planner recommended Farm Focus, Kirrily wondered if she'd be out of her depth. Cody's parents had used the earlier Farm Focus software, so the idea wasn't new, but the tool itself was.
“She said if you are serious about planning and budgeting why not get the best package in place right from the start.”
She needn't have worried.
“Focus was quite easy to pick up – there's much that's simply common sense so you can't go too wrong.”
One of Kirrily's favourite things is how simple coding is.
“I enter the first letter of an invoice and a selection box pops up so I'm not trying to figure out where it belongs as was the case before, especially with codes I didn't create.”
GST returns were another win.
“I wasn't 100% confident when I set out but, with the information you need already loaded the tricky work is done. Apart from saving time there's real satisfaction in easily completing tasks that used to routinely challenge.”
Seeing the budget clearly works for the whole team.
“Cody is visual so he now can see exactly where we're at – we're always on the same page even though we absorb information in a different way.”
New to farm accounts? You won't be on your own. Every Farm Focus customer gets free onboarding to get set up, and phone support from a team that knows farming, in New Zealand and Australia.
