Young Farming Champions Geoff Birchnell and Felicity Taylor are very excited so see FARMECCO, the software program program that they have been working on with rural entrepreneur and visionary James Walker reach the market place
The program aims to help Australia’s 70,000 beef producers improve their business skills and take control of their beef enterprises and finances.
‘I have been involved in some of the platform testing . It’s a great feeling to be involved with something that will shape farm management as well as seeing the hard work behind how it came together.
Farmecco is user-friendly, forward-looking and encourages farmers to innovate financially. I see several useful applications for my own business, both presently and as I plan for the future. I’m so fortunate that products like this will be available to farmers of my generation for the lives of our businesses. said Felicity
Felicity Taylor Beef Producer and FARMECCO Reviewer
The program is based on the concept of producing a level of meaningful insight into a user’s business that will directly drive improved performance. Users can typically input all elements of their business within 30-40 minutes and the program will then prepare a 12 month forecast for the business. This forecast is rich in information and provides a level of insight and analysis that is not commonly practiced in small-medium business. The results of this insight and analysis facilities more meaningful engagement of internal & external stakeholders of the business. When everyone intricately understands the business strategic plans and better decisions are readily made.
Some of the features of the program include;
- Instant 30-40 page report containing a detailed overview of the business and personal aspects of the user;
- Increased user awareness of business performance including cashflow requirements, livestock production, sales revenue, business equity and household wealth;
- Increased financial literacy for users including benchmarking business performance against regional and national peers;
- Live valuing of livestock based on daily market data;
- Unrivalled simplicity of data entry to calculate key financial metrics;
- Ability to run scenarios of change in business structure – particularly beneficial for young farmers with expansion aspirations or older farmers looking to succeed their business to family;
- 12 month forecasting of business cash flow;
- Detailed information inc Cashflow Budgets, Asset/Liability Summary, Livestock on Hand Schedules etc are instantly generated for financial focussed external stakeholders;
According to Geoff Birchnell who accountancy background was instrumental in fine-tuning the program over 80 users have reviewed FARMECCO and they have been overwhelmingly positive.
To start with a vision and work to see this materialise is immensely fulfilling. When you then see your effort generating real benefits to beef producers it is beyond satisfying. In agriculture, challenges are all too common, but I truly believe beating these challenges and achieving dreams is now within reach.
Beef Producer and accountancy guru Geoff Birchnell
The program is being launched via a webinar on Wednesday March 10th 2017. You can registered for the webinar here
Want to know more check out this Beef Central wrap up
