The Gibson family farm sheep and beef at Whareama, east of Masterton, on flat and rolling country split into two blocks. Sue and Ian Gibson live on the home block. Their son Alex and his partner Mel live on the other, and Alex has bought into the business through a succession agreement.
How do you hand over the farm finances?
Alex studied commerce and agriculture at Lincoln University, majoring in finance, before coming home to farm. Now he does the budgeting and planning, while Sue and Ian keep an overview.
“He does all the budgeting and forward planning, while we keep an overview. Farm Focus is online so we know we’re both working from the same page which is important right now as we work across a new property.”
For Alex, everyone seeing the same numbers is what makes it work.
“My parents can see where I’m headed and are supportive and completely open to me making all stock changes myself – the system is great in that respect because we’re looking at the same set of figures all the time.”
“I like to track spending and, if for example, we’re not as profitable as expected in a particular area I can go in, review and take something out of expenses – it’s that easy to manage.”
Ready to step back
Sue and Ian have been working towards stepping back. As Sue puts it, “it’s easy to think you’re bullet proof and keep on keeping on, but we’ve achieved what we set out to do and are ready to hand over the reins while we are fit and well.”
A little each morning, GST at the push of a button
Sue found the start daunting, and the support team helped her through.
“There were definitely a couple of things I couldn’t get past so I called the Farm Focus Support Team for help and they were superb. Patient and very understanding, and they were able to get me back on track without any fuss.”
“Now I find I open Farm Focus each morning and can code any transactions quickly, rather than having to do them in one lump at the end of each month. GST is also a non-event now because the information is already saved in the system. Just push a button and it’s done.”
Still on the same figures today
The Gibson family partnership still runs its accounts in Farm Focus. Bank feeds and Farmlands flow straight in, the Invoice Scanner handles the bills, and a working budget sits alongside the actuals. GST is filed every two months from the same numbers. Since July 2026, they can also ask the AI Farm Assistant quick questions about their 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.
