Sick of not knowing what's going on in the farm's finances without hours of data gathering? Let's talk about how continuous visibility is reshaping how Australian farmers and accountants work.
When beef prices start to drop, what’s going to make you (or your livestock clients) the most money: selling…or holding?
For the majority of Australian livestock farmers, that decision is made alone. In fact, Department of Agriculture research shows roughly 87% make major financial decisions without the support of good strategic planning, not because they don't value their accountant, but because by the time someone working on traditional accounting tools can pull together the right details, the decision window has closed.
However, in a volatile economy, going it alone creates risk. There’s too much at stake. Farmers need visibility. Accountants need to be able to work with it.
Look across Australia and you’ll see a gap between the moment most farmers are making their judgement calls and the moment they receive the evidence to make them well.
Traditional accounting tools (like spreadsheets) can't close that gap. They're great at looking backwards, but they take so long to set up, maintain, and share that it's often not possible to get a really thorough analysis done before making time-sensitive financial decisions.
"We find that, typically, when a client makes a decision to buy [new property], they talk to the bank, talk to us, and want all the cashflows and up-to-date financials done yesterday," said Tony Olsen, co-founder of Mackay-based accounting firm Flor-Hanly, in a recent webinar.
"We have to drop everything and make that happen for our clients. And the traditional approach of building that in Excel-type spreadsheets would kill you."
In a system of continuous visibility, when a client calls with a decision to make, the data should already be waiting.
Continuous visibility isn't a dashboard or a feature—it's a standard that you set. It means the farm's financial picture is current, always, so that when a decision lands, everyone on the farm team has what they need to have an informed conversation (and make an informed decision).
So how do you get it?
Visibility like this relies on modern tools working together:
The first captures your financial picture. The second records what’s happening out in the paddock. Then they both feed into the third, bringing all of the farm’s data together.
With this system in place, when a farmer calls on a Friday afternoon about a mob of cattle at the saleyards, their accountant can pull up a current position and run scenarios while the call is still going. If all the information you need is in one place, it’s relatively easy to test ideas, check outcomes, and talk realistically about cashflow, overdraft limits, and what’s possible.
For farmers, it means never going into a big decision, or a bank meeting, without a clear picture of where you stand. For accountants, it means being the expert who can respond whenever a client calls—with the numbers already there.
"If you want peace of mind, if you want transparency, if you want to control and manage what you're actually doing—if you want that data you're probably madly collecting to be meaningful and help you make decisions—then Figured is definitely the program for you. It certainly has been for me."
"And what has it given me? It's given me all those things. It's given me peace of mind, it's given me a sense of control. My financial literacy is so much better now."
"I'm no expert in Figured, but I know what I need to know as a manager of this farm and this business. Being able to jump in there any day of the week has been great, and feeling like I know exactly where invoices are going. I know the cashflow."
- Charlie Arnott, Regenerative Farmer, NSW
Compliance is good work, but advisory services can add considerably more revenue to the business.
Putting it into numbers: Xero/Figured research shows that a farmer’s value perception of their accountant lifts from 23% to 83% when advisory is added, along with an average revenue uplift of 198%. There's a significant business opportunity sitting among those high-value clients who need help, and who want you to be the one to help them.
Learn more: How to Increase Your Value to Clients as an Australian Agri Accountant
If this has got you interested, the next place to go is our free guide, “Closing the Strategic Planning Gap: Continuous Visibility”. Inside you’ll find:
Continuous visibility is also the first step in a three-part framework built around how livestock farming works: including forward planning and building proactive relationships. To maximise success, you can’t just do one—you need all three.
Read next: