When we spoke with Spectrum Group in 2022, it was milking 7,600 cows across 10 dairy farms on 2,575 ha: six in Canterbury and four in the Waikato, including two sharemilkers, with a target of more than 3.1 million kg milk solids a year. The numbers for a business that size are run by a small team: Business Manager Shona Quinlan, in-house accountant Meredith Kerr and office administrator Di Gunson.
“It’s about understanding the business, and having good back up in the way of the best tools in place.”
How does a multi-farm dairy group manage its finances?
Meredith says the business is large by any measure. Everything the team gathers goes into cash flows and monthly accounts for each entity.
“Everything is closely budgeted. The actuals are compared to forecasting which gives an excellent snapshot of exactly where each entity is at.”
Software that fits the way they work
Spectrum Group has its own way of doing things, and Farm Focus fits in.
“We run our own reporting for example and, because Farm Focus is compatible with Excel, it’s super simple to pull info straight out of the General Ledger (GL) and into our system. We love it!”
An overview of every farm
“Focus delivers useful features such as the Stock Activity Report which we use to maintain an overview of each farm and we can see how this may benefit us further in the near future.”
Di adds that creating large numbers of invoices across such a complex business is a simple process.
Room to grow
As the group grew, so did its use of Farm Focus.
“We have another couple of business entities which we are pulling over to Farm Focus because the application makes our job so easy.”
Since then, Spectrum Group has kept bringing more of its entities into Farm Focus. Most of its farms now connect to PaySauce payroll, Fonterra and Farm Source, with the Invoice Scanner taking care of the paperwork.
Built by farmers, for farmers
Farm Focus was started in 1981 by three Wairarapa farmers, and it has been developed in New Zealand ever since. That’s 45 years of building farm financial software around what farm businesses need, from family farms to large multi-entity groups like Spectrum.
What is Farm Focus support like?
For Di and Meredith, the support team is the icing on the cake.
“The Support Team is based here in New Zealand so they speak our language, as in they know farming with many of them farming in their own right. The team understand what we’re talking about and how to address concerns.”
Every Farm Focus customer gets free onboarding and phone support from a team that knows farming, in New Zealand and Australia.
