Agribusiness | BDO Taranaki

Agribusiness

Helping farmers make the most of their Agribusinesses in Taranaki

Our local Agribusiness team of 30 will work with you to ensure that we understand your business.

We have a unique skill set including a broad banking background, practical farming experience and a technically competent team with strong industry relationships. Our team approach means there’s always someone available to assist you, someone who knows your business.

In addition to this amongst our local team of over 70 staff and the wider BDO network we have experts in; NZ tax, trust administration, business restructuring, corporate finance, audit, corporate and international tax, business advisory services, risk advisory and estate planning.

As farming businesses become ever increasingly complex, we can draw upon these specialist skill sets which is unique compared to many rural based accounting practices.

The solutions and expertise we deliver are individually tailored for our clients and we specialise in providing high quality, timely services that will exceed your expectations.

We can support all aspects of rural business – from new entrant support (talk to us about our “Dairy Start-up” plans) to experienced farm owners looking at Governance or Succession, as well as offering our range of advisory services to agricultural support businesses.

Some of our key roles include:

Tax preparation and planning
Assistance with financing, cash flows, financial statements, reporting and business plans
Farm accounting software training and support
Restructuring
Succession planning
Governance
Payroll and bookkeeping

The Team

▶ DONNA GREENLEES - Principal

Donna works closely with clients in the agricultural sector providing accountancy and taxation services. Donna is particularly interested in helping young entrants to farming establish and grow their businesses by giving advice on appropriate and effective structures, cash flow management and goal setting.

SPECIALIST AREAS

Agriculture
Business advisory
Business structure
Succession planning
Cashflow budgeting and forecasting
Financial and taxation reporting

▶ RYAN STOCKMAN - Advisory Principal

Ryan works closely with the agricultural sector specialising in providing accountancy and taxation services and advice to clients including developing budgets, forecasts and their business structure to ensure that clients have the best information to make the best decisions.

SPECIALIST AREAS

Agriculture
Business advisory
Business structure
Cash flow budget
Financial and Taxation reporting
Rural software

▶ CHRIS HARVEY - Principal

Chris joined BDO Taranaki as an agribusiness consultant in late 2018. Prior to this he had 10 years in agribusiness banking working across the Central North Island but also large parts of the South Island in various banking roles. His experience has been working with Agribusinesses ranging from sharemilkers to some of New Zealand’s largest farming entities. Chris has assisted in a number of aspects in these businesses including strategic planning, governance, succession, opportunity analysis and structuring. Having come from a farming background he enjoys the strong relationships he has formed in and around the sector and has a passion for driving performance out of grass roots, family farming businesses.

SPECIALIST AREAS

Agriculture
Business advisory
Strategic planning
Succession planning
Financial consultancy

▶ STEVE WAITE - Principal

Having been raised on a dairy farm and having an interest in a dairy farm himself, Steve has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities provided by the industry. He has been advising agribusiness clients, both farmers and those directly servicing them for over 30 years. Steve specialises in strategic planning, structures, succession and governance issues as well as providing strong taxation and accounting solutions for his clients.

SPECIALIST AREAS

Agriculture
Succession planning
Strategic planning
Management consultancy
Business structure
Financial and taxation reporting

Agri Blog & Webinars

Alongside our National Agribusiness team, we collaborate regularly to provide timely insights on topical issues affecting New Zealand agribusinesses – check out the recent blogs, articles and webinars published by our team below.

Software

BDO has a team of software specialists that are certified to help you get the best out of your accounting, payroll and farm reporting software packages.

Our aim is to help you and your farming team to have better visibility of real time financial information at all times

We are happy to work with you and your preferred providers.

Accounting & Farm Reporting;

Farm Focus https://www.farmfocus.co.nz/

Figured https://www.figured.com/en-nz/

Xero https://www.xero.com/nz/

Hubdoc https://www.hubdoc.com/

Payroll;

PaySauce https://www.paysauce.com/

Smart Payroll https://www.smartpayroll.co.nz/

Funding

BDO are accredited service providers with a number of agri industry bodies. Services under these schemes include:

Business Systems; Exploration of current accounting and farm reporting systems and scoping of options available. Coaching / training to upskill when implementing and ongoing support.

Strategy; Business planning sessions and support to help you develop a clearly defined strategy for you and your farming business

Governance; Coaching & development to help you establish appropriate governance and structures, getting your team around the table regularly to help you achieve your goals

Succession; Support in helping you and the next generation understand what the future looks like and to develop a plan that fits everyone’s needs.

Support with your Bank; Developing a plan that sees sustainability with your financier long term, creating a win/win outcome for all parties involved.

Industry bodies / Current Funding available

New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) RBP Voucher Funding Scheme through Venture Taranaki. Key Services; Business Systems, Strategy, Governance & Succession. NZTE will provide 50% of an agreed service in any 12-month period. Vouchers must be utilised within 6 months of approval.

Rural Support Trust & NZ Bankers Association – Farm business advice support fund. The National Council of Rural Support Trusts and New Zealand Bankers’ Association have recently established a fund to provide support for farming businesses suffering financial hardship. Under the agreement, the Rural Support Trust will provide up to $3000.00, depending on an assessment of need, and the relevant bank will match that dollar for dollar for independent advice.

Ministry of Primary Industries – In June 2020 the Ministry for Primary Industries set up a fund to help farmers recover from the 2020 drought and plan for future droughts. Through MPI, farmers have been able to apply for up to $3,500.00 to go towards advisory services used in their drought recovery plan.

What our clients say

We have been with BDO for the past 2 seasons dairy farming, we decided to change after meeting with Kevin Landrigan at a discussion group. Kevin and Sheree Hastie have been amazing! With BDO we have seen a huge difference in what we are able to claim and this has resulted in a dramatic improvement of our finances and tax affairs. We have already recommended and will continue to recommend BDO to any of our farming friends, we have had some great advice and help, we couldn’t be happier with the service.

Neil & Shannon Withers of Get Withers Limited

Working to pay income tax seemed to be the theme of our early years in business. Linking up with Steve Waite and BDO Taranaki has seen our farming businesses grow and prosper and become much more tax efficient.

BDO are always thinking outside the box and their ability to use the National Herd Scheme/Income Equalisation and other initiatives have, more than once, saved our businesses tens of thousands of dollars over the past twenty years.

I can’t speak highly enough of BDO and their involvement and sponsorship of community and sporting organisations, makes us proud to be associated with BDO Taranaki.

Ray & Anne Barron

We moved our farming business to BDO several years ago, and since then they have been a wise voice and sounding board for our business, which comprises two certified organic dairy farms.

Donna and Karley are the super women that we deal with, and it is great to be able to discuss and implement current and future decisions from every angle with all opinions considered.

The BDO team are an important stakeholder in our business, who have also in recent years supported and advised family members in setting up their own entities.

We would recommend Donna, Karley and their team to any prospective clients who want sound, compliant business advice, enjoy a sense of humour, get the opportunity to regularly network with fellow clients, and value for money spent.

Janet and Stephen Fleming

Ryan has been working with us as our primary adviser at BDO Taranaki for the past eight years. In that time, he has come to totally understand our business needs and has been instrumental in improving our systems and financial visibility. We look forward to continuing to work with Ryan in the future.

Trish and Mark Stevenson