BakerAg Agribusiness Consultant Gary Massicks is based in Feilding but his territory covers most of the lower North Island with a particular focus on sheep and beef properties.

Gary says he particularly enjoys working with family farming businesses where the opportunities to provide input and assistance to ensure they reach their goals are endless… the more complex the better!

“Budgeting, planning, decision making, and reporting are crucial and this is where I see Focus as a key financial tool. Focus reporting provides hard evidence that a farms business plans are solid which is especially important right now when more information is being sought to underpin decision making by a range of suppliers.”

He says Focus also delivers the ability to plan well in advance which helps farmers keep on track – “monitoring will signal where changes may need to be made by the business well before this becomes an issue for the bank for example.

“With Focus I also have an overview so am able to identify possible issues early on rather than playing catch up.”

Gary says he is a fan of management tags and the endless opportunities these provide for information gathering.

“Management tags bind often complex businesses together. I have a number of large-scale businesses where farmers manage multiple properties, multiple stock types across a wide geographical area and having one set of accounts is a real positive.

“I really like this functionality. If your client is running an operation with more than one property for example, how could anyone know what’s happening … where changes could be made?”

He says another key thing for him is Focus is a great tool for sharing as well as monitoring which sets up good communication and strong confidence levels within the business.

"How do you achieve confidence… by having a plan and reporting against that plan! This provides solid evidence the business is adhering to the plan that’s in place to ensure success.”