Practical Systems

The word ‘audit’ often inspires terror, but for Practical Systems clients it’s just another day in the office. And now you can audit your own data any time you want, avoiding any nasty surprises when the auditor comes to visit.

“The European Union market is growing in popularity but with exportation to Europe comes a lot of expectations,” Practical Systems CEO Mark Morton said.

“You must be able to meet market conditions and be able to provide lifetime traceability, showing where you animal have been and what treatments they have received.

“There are European Union audits taking place already and if you don’t meet requirements they will demand swift action or you will lose you accreditation.

“But with the new NLIS facility in Stockbook you can save yourself the stress of audits.”

Stockbook’s NLIS Audit facility compares the NLIS tag numbers in your database with those registered in the NLIS System.

“Now you can audit your data yourself and fix any problems before it affects your income,” Mark said.

Practical Systems clients Christina Tagg and her husband Ken have been operating a cattle breeding enterprise at Ebor, NSW and have faced two Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) audits with relative ease.

The Taggs keep all the records required for the MLA audits in Stockbook. When their Vendor Declaration books were audited they were asked to show a complete treatment history for a number of cattle that had been sold.

“This information was easy to obtain from our Stockbook records. We could show the dates, the treatments received, the withholding period and the ESI,” Christina said.

“The auditor was so pleased with our records that he provided us with a notation on the audit report, to say that it was a pleasure to complete the audit with us.”

The next MLA audit they had was focussed on the NLIS database. In particular, the auditors checked that that the NLIS tags used and on-hand matched those in the NLIS database.  At the time, Christina had to download the NLIS file and match it to the Stockbook records herself, but with the new NLIS Audit facility the task is now done automatically.

“I was able to fix those records that were incorrect: a recipient of our cattle had not advised the NLIS database of the purchase. So when the auditor came it was pleasing to know that our records were pretty accurate, and we were once again on track with our record keeping,” Christina said.

“We don’t mind having audits, as it is a learning process, and if issues are identified and can be fixed you will not make the same mistakes again. Stockbook easily gives us an accurate recording of the history and lifetime traceability of all of our animals, and can be easily accessed in an interview session.”

For information on how Practical Systems software can make your audits a breeze, visit http://ift.tt/2kuTpO6 or call 1800 624 688.

Practical Systems client Richard Daugherty.

In 2011 Richard and his family moved from South Africa to New England, NSW. While still in Africa, during the homework phase of moving to another country, Richard discovered the Practical Systems accounting package with its Farm Mapping program. He signed on soon after arrival at their farm Balala, a 1250ha property running both sheep and beef breeding operations.

Following the maxim ‘measure to manage’, the Daughertys have begun the process of EIDing their flock because of the importance they place on being able to identify individual animals.

“Stockbook is user friendly and its vast ability made it the obvious choice for us. Having all our programs with Practical Systems is just logical,” Richard said.

Previously, Richard had used pen and paper in the yards to collect weights and transferred the information to spreadsheets in the office, a system that was “almost manageable but fraught with danger”.

“Now we are really utilising Stockbook for daily weight gains and projecting our animals’ performance going forward, plus with the other reports and functions we can see how worthwhile it is to our business.”

Richard praised the “phenomenal” support provided by Practical Systems to ensure their products work effectively.

“Often, crossing over between different products like a weigh indicator and EID reader and getting them all too sync can be fraught and complicated but the help from Francis at Practical Systems is always exceptional. Like any new thing, it took time to learn how to run the systems but now the creases are ironed out it is amazing how easy and smooth it is now,” Richard said.

“Practical Systems continue to improve and develop their products capabilities, upgrades are available whenever you need them, this was very evident in Cashbook with changes in Fuel Tax Credits rates or needing direct bank statement downloads, to mention a few, but getting the hang of them is where the support came in handy again.”

Three of Practical Systems software programs are used on Balala: Cashbook Plus for the farm’s accounting, Stockbook for individual animal management and FarmMap for whole farm planning.

“We are an EU accredited property and as the record keeping and NLIS reconciliations with Stockbook are so straight forward, it is all connected directly to the NLIS data system, so basically all done for you,” Richard said.

“Cashbook Plus is all we need for our size operation and offers far more than we are currently using but with time I certainly feel that we will use more of the capabilities which the product has. Keeping check on cashflows, budgets, enterprise trading accounts, gross margins are fantastic assets to just quickly check every month as to how one is tracking.

“Farmmap is a useful programme to basically work out a Farm plan, areas of paddocks, layouts for fencing and a lot of other quick need to know issues like distances of pipe work, are all right there. We haven’t used the paddock grazing side of the programme for mob/stock movements yet but I’m sure it will be useful when we need to use more and more of the capabilities of the program.”

With the support provided by Practical Systems, Richard knows he is able get the full benefits out of the software and have confidence in his management records.

“The Knowledge Base on their web site has step by step guides in solving a questions, or if you can’t find the topic or the answer, then the support staff are brilliant on the phone too,” Richard said.

“I have no hesitation in recommending Practical Systems to other producers.”

For more information on how Practical Systems can improve your farm management call 1800 624 688 or email sales@practicalsystems.com.au

Originally published by Practical Systems.

Scot Wright knows when he’s on a good thing. The King Island beef producer has been using Practical Systems software to manage his farm since the company’s beginning in the early ‘90s. Although he had never even used a computer before, Scot decided Practical Systems was for him after going to an information day with a mate.

“I was never going to have a computer. But afterwards I thought ‘gee I wouldn’t mind having that myself’ and I’ve gone from there,” Scot said. “I’d never used one but the software has taught me.”

Practical Systems is heading to Launceston for AGFEST 2010 in May to show Tasmanian producers the management system Scot Wright uses almost every day.

 “The best thing about Practical Systems software is that it is user-friendly,” Scot said.  “I even move the cattle in Stockbook as soon as I move them in the paddock, that’s how much I use it”.

Scot uses individual animal management software Stockbook on his laptop, which allows him to make changes on the go while working in the yards. He links it with his Ruddweigh scales allowing weights to be automatically uploaded into the systems.

Scot sells his Angus yearlings for export to Japan and uses Stockbook to ensure his animals meet the export requirements. Both his Japanese export market and his Cattlecare accreditation require regular intensive auditing.

“The auditor is very happy with me. We do two audits, for both my Charlyn Angus Stud and my mate’s property Borradale Park, and we get through them in an hour. He can say ‘show me some cattle treatments’ and I can just click a button and there it is up on the screen without hunting through piles and piles of paperwork.”

According to Scot, using Practical Systems farm accounting program Cashbook Plus! is just as easy.

“I’ve recommended Cashbook Plus! to heaps of people,” he said. “At BAS time you just hit the button, you reconcile everything, it’s all simple and then at tax time I just email in my 12 months. You can ask ‘what did I spend on fertiliser last year?’ And bang it’s there. It’s so easy to find out things like that, with all the programs.”

To find out how Practical Systems software can improve your farm management, visit the team in Carrick during AGFEST 2010 at Block 212 Booth 02 from May  6 to 8. A free Software information and training session will be held on Wednesday, May 5,  at the Quality Hotel Colonial in Launceston (Quality Hotel Colonial).  For more information please call Practical Systems on 1800 624 688.