The Farm Financial Platform Built for NZ Dairy

Figured is available to contract milkers and sharemilkers.

As an early-stage dairy operator, you’re running a business with real income, real costs, and real decisions to make. Having a clear, current picture of your cashflow, your position against the plan, and your breakeven milk price is essential when margins are tight.

Figured also has financial services available specifically for contract milkers and sharemilkers. That includes access to milk price hedging and unsecured working capital finance, plus, for sharemilkers building toward farm ownership, pathways to secured livestock finance, and land-based lending through Figured’s banking partnerships. Talk to your accountant about what options might be available to you.

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While you can absolutely use Figured by yourself as a farmer, we do recommend checking to see if your accountant is already using it.

Getting the Milk Tracker and livestock records configured correctly, connecting to your accounting software, and making sure the opening position is right all benefit from someone who knows the platform well. Trying to do it without an adviser tends to mean a slower start and more things to unpick later.

Once you're set up, though, you have your own access to the platform and can see your financial and stock data at any time — not just when your accountant runs a report. The goal is for both you and your accountant to have access to the same live data, which you can view at the same time.

Figured connects to Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks Online. If your farm accounting runs through any of those three, you can use Figured on top of it.

If you're on an alternative accounting system, or using spreadsheets or paper-based records, you'd need to migrate to one of the supported systems first. While migrating to a modern platform can seem daunting, most farms never go back — there's a reason they're so popular.

It may help to talk to a Figured-enabled accountant about what you need to do next to upgrade your accounting system, then get onto Figured.

Yes. Banks want more than year-end accounts, they want forward cashflows, a current debt position, and a financial picture that's been kept up to date throughout the season. Figured produces all of that from your live data.

When a lending conversation comes up, you and your accountant can update assumptions, run a scenario at a different milk price, and have something credible ready in hours, if not minutes. Some NZ banks are already looking more favourably at farming clients who can bring this kind of visibility to a review.

Figured can also help you build your relationship with the bank. The farmers who get the most from their lender give them visibility throughout the year, and often include them in regular farm meetings. With the bank on your farm team throughout the year, they don't need to be caught up every time you bring them into the conversations — making it easier to have the big conversations, and get the outcomes you need.

Your job is keeping the underlying data current — reconciling bank transactions in Xero and recording stock movements as they happen. The more current that is, the more useful Figured is for both of you.

Your accountant's job is to work with that data inside Figured. They configure the Milk and Livestock Trackers, manage the planning and reporting, and handle the year-end financial work: stock valuations, accruals, and the reports that go to the IRD and the bank.

When both sides have done their part, the conversation between you shifts from what happened last year, to what's going on right now and, more importantly, what might happen next.

Figured is a monthly subscription, and the cost depends on which product tier your accountant sets you up on — Farm Reporter for reporting, or Farm Manager if you want planning and forecasting on top of that.

Most farmers don’t manage the subscription directly. Your accountant handles the setup, and depending on how they work, they’ll either pass the cost on to you separately or fold it into your fees. The best person to ask is your accountant — they can tell you exactly what applies to your farm before you commit to anything.

If you want to see current pricing for your market, it’s available on our pricing page.