Farm Accounts, MTD & Benchmarking
Accounts & Benchmarking: For Farmers
What Accounts & Benchmarking changes for the person actually doing the work.
For the person running the business, the test of any farm software is whether it removes work or adds it. A whole-farm profit figure conceals which enterprise is subsidising which. This module allocates costs and revenues to enterprises and to fields, produces gross and net margins that stand comparison with published benchmarks, and handles the digital record keeping and submission obligations that now apply to income tax.
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.
Farm business owner
Deciding what to stop doing
Needs enterprise margins, not a single farm profit figure.
- Set the enterprise structure and apportionment rules
- Record transactions with enterprise coding
- Allocate shared costs on defined bases
- Reconcile physical and financial records
Farm accountant
Preparing accounts
Needs physical and financial records reconciled.
- Record transactions with enterprise coding
- Allocate shared costs on defined bases
- Reconcile physical and financial records
- Produce enterprise margins
Business consultant
Benchmarking clients
Needs comparable enterprise data across a client base.
- Allocate shared costs on defined bases
- Reconcile physical and financial records
- Produce enterprise margins
- Benchmark against comparable businesses
End to end
How Accounts & Benchmarking 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
Set the enterprise structure and apportionment rules
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Record transactions with enterprise coding
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Allocate shared costs on defined bases
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Reconcile physical and financial records
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Produce enterprise margins
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Benchmark against comparable businesses
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Report and submit as required
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
Budget and monitor variance
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Accounts & Benchmarking 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
- Enterprise-level cost and revenue allocation with defined apportionment rules
- Field-level costing rolled up to enterprise and whole farm
- Gross margin and net margin by enterprise per hectare and per head
Operate and monitor
- Making Tax Digital compliant digital record keeping and submission
- VAT handling including agricultural flat rate considerations
- Cashflow, profit and loss and balance sheet reporting
Comply and evidence
- Benchmarking against published comparable data with like-for-like grouping
- Support and scheme income shown separately from trading income
- Capital allowance and asset depreciation tracking
Analyse and improve
- Budget preparation with variance reporting through the year
- Payroll and labour cost allocation to enterprise
- Integration with mainstream accounting packages rather than replacing them
Obligation calendar
What accounts & benchmarking 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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March 2 entries
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8 March: Reconcile physical and financial records
A recurring step in accounts & benchmarking.
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18 March: Set the enterprise structure and apportionment rules
A recurring step in accounts & benchmarking.
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April 2 entries
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20 April: Adding Value Grant
Round-based.
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27 April: Allocate shared costs on defined bases
A recurring step in accounts & benchmarking.
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June 2 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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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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15 August: Farming Resilience Support
Programme dependent.
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September 1 entry
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2 September: Record transactions with enterprise coding
A recurring step in accounts & benchmarking.
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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 Accounts & Benchmarking
The problem: Needs enterprise margins, not a single farm profit figure.
What they do
- Set the enterprise structure and apportionment rules
- Record transactions with enterprise coding
- Allocate shared costs on defined bases
- Reconcile physical and financial records
What changes
- Gross margin per hectare by enterprise
- Cost of production per unit
- Support income as a proportion of profit
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.
- 01Gross margin per hectare by enterprise
- 02Cost of production per unit
- 03Support income as a proportion of profit
- 04Budget variance
- 05Return on capital employed
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.