Agricultural Finance & Lending
Farm Finance: For Advisers & Agents
What Farm Finance changes for agronomists, agents, vets and consultants.
Advisers need scoped access, defensible records and a way to work across a client base without re-keying. Agricultural lending is dominated by asset security because lenders lack visibility of operational performance. This module assembles the business case, cashflow and performance evidence a lender actually needs, compares facilities on true cost, and manages covenant compliance through the life of the facility.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Asset finance broker
Machinery funding
Needs the asset and its earning capacity documented.
- Register existing facilities and security
- Build the cashflow forecast
- Identify the funding requirement and timing
- Assemble the application pack
Farm accountant
Preparing the case
Needs accounts, budgets and physical performance reconciled.
- Build the cashflow forecast
- Identify the funding requirement and timing
- Assemble the application pack
- Compare offers on true cost
Agricultural relationship manager
Lending decisions
Needs reliable, comparable performance data from applicants.
- Identify the funding requirement and timing
- Assemble the application pack
- Compare offers on true cost
- Draw down and record terms
End to end
How Farm Finance runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Register existing facilities and security
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Build the cashflow forecast
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Identify the funding requirement and timing
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Assemble the application pack
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Compare offers on true cost
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Draw down and record terms
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Monitor covenants continuously
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Report to the lender and plan refinancing
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Farm Finance does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Facility register covering term loans, overdrafts, asset finance and leasing
- True cost of borrowing comparison including fees, arrangement and early repayment
- Cashflow forecasting with seasonal working capital requirement
Operate and monitor
- Lending application pack assembly with accounts, budgets and performance evidence
- Covenant monitoring with headroom tracking and breach alerting
- Security register showing what is charged and to whom
Comply and evidence
- Asset finance appraisal against outright purchase and contract hire
- Interest rate exposure and sensitivity modelling
- Grant match funding integration with the scheme engine
Analyse and improve
- Refinancing appraisal when facilities approach renewal
- Lender reporting pack generation on the required cycle
- Debt serviceability stress testing against price and yield scenarios
Obligation calendar
What farm finance asks of you, and when
Windows, deadlines and recurring obligations for England. Set a different nation and the calendar reconfigures; farm across a border and it shows both, reconciled.
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February 1 entry
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3 February: Animal Health and Welfare Pathway
Rolling application.
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March 1 entry
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12 March: Identify the funding requirement and timing
A recurring step in farm finance.
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April 1 entry
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20 April: Adding Value Grant
Round-based.
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June 3 entries
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5 June: Farming Transformation Fund
Round-based by theme.
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15 June: Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Two windows in 2026: window one from 30 June, window two from September.
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25 June: Register existing facilities and security
A recurring step in farm finance.
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July 2 entries
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14 July: Slurry Infrastructure Grant
Round-based.
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17 July: Water Management Grant
Round-based.
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August 1 entry
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10 August: Build the cashflow forecast
A recurring step in farm finance.
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September 1 entry
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12 September: Assemble the application pack
A recurring step in farm finance.
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October 1 entry
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5 October: Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Round-based, usually open for a defined application period.
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November 2 entries
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12 November: Improving Farm Productivity Grant
Round-based.
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27 November: Environmental Land Management Capital Grants
Round-based, with rapid allocation once open.
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December 1 entry
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26 December: Countryside Stewardship
Rolling and round-based depending on the tier and option group.
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Worked example
How a business like yours would use Farm Finance
The problem: Needs a lending case built on operational evidence, not just land value.
What they do
- Register existing facilities and security
- Build the cashflow forecast
- Identify the funding requirement and timing
- Assemble the application pack
What changes
- Cost of borrowing
- Covenant headroom
- Peak working capital requirement
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Cost of borrowing
- 02Covenant headroom
- 03Peak working capital requirement
- 04Interest as a proportion of farm business income
- 05Application approval rate
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.