THE Liebe Group last month held a capacity-building workshop that focused on providing practical steps to understanding your financial position.
The workshop was designed to support women to develop their knowledge of financial management to help them make more informed decisions for their families, businesses and community.
Open to all Liebe members and the wider community, the workshop produced benefitted the diverse group of 19 attendees.
The workshop included presentations from guest speakers Greg Easton, Farmanco, Glynn Judd, RSM, and Michael Monaghan, Rabobank.
Each presentation introduced the group to the basic financial calculations and farm budget worksheets that are required to keep track of farm income and expenses.
Mr Easton spoke about the importance of developing and maintaining a budget and explained that a budget has a living document that allowed you to assess business performance and financial position and could be used to help set financial goals.
He said the first principle of budgeting was to avoid budgeting on the basis that everything would turn out as expected and to be cautious about optimistic forecasts.
Mr Easton provided an overview of the types of budgets and their applications and an introduction to financial ratios and how to calculate and use a statement of position.
Workshop participant Robyn Cousins, Manavi Farms, said it was worth attending the Farm Finance 101 workshop in Dalwallinu.
“I found the day to be interactive and a good, basic introduction to farm finance and I especially liked the section on different programs or cloud-based apps that could be useful for our business,” Ms Cousins said.
Mr Monaghan discussed the important aspects of farm business finance, which the banks will use to assess a business’s capacity to manage debt.
He highlighted that banks look for businesses that approach their budgeting in a realistic manner, claim ownership and responsibility for the management of their budget and demonstrate the ability to manage debt through good communication, experience, skills and knowledge, business liquidity, equity and strategic direction.
The three speakers noted that having a sound understanding of the drivers of growth within a business was key to understanding the balance of the financial ratios that reflect its businesses financial position.
No two farming businesses are the same.
Mr Judd guided the group through several case studies and activities which challenged the attendees to test their understanding of financial calculations.
Participants calculated gross profit from working out total sales and cost of goods sold, carefully selecting the correct items that form a profit and loss statement and learned to identify errors in their balance sheets.
Mr Judd also introduced the group to Xero and Figured accounting and cloud-based planning software.
He explained that cloud-based accounting and management tools such as Xero and Figured are continually being improved and are increasingly user-friendly, saving farmers time when managing their budgets.
“As farmers we are always looking for innovation in our sector, it is encouraging to see this happing in the agricultural software space,’’ said Liebe member Kate Keamy.
“The integration between Ag World, Xero and Figured enables us to get production plans to sync with our budgeting and cash book management software.
“I think it is exciting and I look forward to its evolution.
“The possibilities for this integration are going to be a huge asset to farmers, directly linking our productions plans to financial outcomes will finesse businesses performance even further.”
The workshop was a great success and received all positive feedback.
It provided participants with increased confidence and the practical skills and experience for application in their businesses, families and community.
The Liebe Group thanked Mr Easton, Mr Judd and Mr Monaghan for presenting to the group.
The workshop was funded through the Grants for Women Program, which is a Department of Local Government and Communities initiative.
