Leech & Partners are a well-established accounting and advisory business and, with offices in Christchurch and Ashburton, the practice has a large portion of Canterbury’s rural businesses covered.

Director and Shareholder Nick Walls, an agri-business specialist with a farming background, says for him Farm Focus is a key business tool that helps him keep track of what’s happening on farm.

“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 says he relies on having a good system, with equally good data, that delivers timely information and 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.

“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.”

Nick says farming is like any other business and in fact can be more demanding than your average business which has support staff.

“Farmers need to be astute, wearing many hats. They are often Chief Financial Officer, Compliance Manager, scientist and farmer.”

He says time is money for both parties and being able to access a set of business accounts from anywhere at anytime 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.”

He says the Dairy Forecaster is another great aspect of Farm Focus.

“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.

Nick says Leech & Partners have used Farm Focus (and its previous incarnations) from day one because 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!