Dollars and Sense

Overview:

Matthew Petersen - Director, Accounting discusses the benefits of Business Management Accounting for Agribusiness and how it can save you time, money and enable better visibility of your financial position.

With another financial year done and dusted, the annual task of preparing and lodging income tax returns is unavoidably on your “to do” list. For most, this feels like an obligation for compliance purposes that provides little or no benefit to your farming enterprise.

However this once arduous task doesn’t need to feel like a yearly chore; by adopting a modern management accounting and reporting system it can be simple, cost-effective and a by-product of something that will actually deliver more value to your farming enterprise throughout the entire year.

These days, the financial and business requirements of a modern farming enterprise have advanced far beyond tax compliance and include business performance, strategy, banking, cash flow, commodity sales programs and family succession plans. Old financial accounting systems have not kept pace with the fast-evolving world of agribusiness, remaining firmly focused on the mundane requirement to lodge BAS and Income Tax Returns, resulting in a failure to equip users with the information required to make knowledgeable and agile business decisions.

Modern management accounting and reporting systems use the cloud, or a hybrid of cloud-offline accounting systems, to provide a platform for any farming enterprise to produce meaningful, accurate, real-time financial insights and reports. Once set-up, these systems can be predominantly managed in-house or supported through your accounting adviser’s team.

Using the “smarts” of the technology to do the heavy lifting, tailored with a selection of agri-specific add-on programs, can result in greater information and functionality output. The best part is, it frees up your time to concentrate on running your business, instead of crunching numbers.

With up-to-date financial information and business insights at the fingertips of all members of your family farming enterprise, you are in a better position to make strategic decisions. It also allows better visibility to your agri-advisers and accounting partners so they can help guide you with high-level advice.

It’s a great way to keep stakeholders on the same page and effectively collaborate at family or advisory board meetings, even if some of the parties cannot be on-site. If implemented the right way, Business Management Accounting can empower you to get on the front foot for complex decision making; assessing actual business performance, proactively considering any seasonal specific actions and evaluating opportunities from a well-informed and accurate financial perspective, without the hassle.