We want to ensure our partners have the tools they need to help their farming clients through unprecedented times of uncertainty and that farmers are informed and empowered to understand their business in the current climate.

What does it do?

With Scenarios, you can create a long term, high level budget that provides a three way view (profit & loss, cash flow & balance sheet) of an agribusiness operation. You can now create “what if” scenarios and assess different opportunities quickly and easily. You can base your scenarios using existing Figured and Xero data or start from scratch and plan out an entirely new scenario, the choice is up to you.

You can look several years into your business’s future based on a major financial proposition, variances in commodity prices or key performance figures without having to complete a full cash flow budget. Then, take this high level of insight and create a tailored and accurate 12 month plan using Figured’s Planning Grid.

We expect that over the coming month’s farmers will be under increased pressure to re-evaluate their immediate financial future while maintaining their current level of productivity, helping to ensure that our largest industry remains the backbone of the economy.

As trusted financial experts to farmers, your knowledge and support will be of significant importance to helping your clients planning, and likely be in high demand.

What are the core components of Scenarios?

• Create, or import, your source of income & expenses
• Figured has an easy to use ‘import’ function so that you can import Figured forecast & trackers or Xero actuals data.
• Enter Assets & Liabilities for the farm.
• Bring your entire financial position to one place using Figured’s A&L function. We’ll calculate handy stats like your LVR & Equity Position.
• Model the change that you want to make.
• Changes to A&L, purchases of a new herd, taking on a new loan, or even just business as usual, in order to see what impact this will have on your farm business.

How will it help you?

This tool helps give accountants financial clarity around both small and large decisions, and therefore facilitate better conversations with clients. This is especially important in unprecedented times, with fluctuations in commodity prices, and changes in government regulations. “At the end of the day, it’s about helping people to take ownership of their financials to drive profitability, so they can achieve their goals, both on and off farm,” Tom Hanning, Rural Advisor, Polson Higgs.

For banks, it gives them the ability to rapidly assess the validity of credit applications and push automatically into their credit risk systems. The Scenarios product helps bankers quickly run scenarios up to 5 years in the future, work with the farmer to secure funding, and allow them to take ownership over their plans. Craig Turnbull, Rabobank Rural Manager, tells us that from a bankers perspective it’s fantastic, because they get real live data that they can drill down. More requirements are coming in from a banking perspective that encourage farmers to take ownership of their own budgets.

Check out this blog on how Polson Higgs and Rabobank used Scenarios to model and plan for their client’s future.

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