by Anne-Marie Flanagan
Speakers at the Financial Analysis event along with Anne-Marie Flanagan IGA Regional Development Officer in the South East
and Philip Donohoe IGA President
The Irish Grassland Association held their Regional Financial Analysis Morning in Kilkenny on Thursday the 21st of October. The event was sponsored by IFAC and AIB and a crowd off over 90 farmers and industry people attended to hear speakers from IFAC, AIB and the Irish Farmers Journal. This was the second regional event in the south east and was an admission free event. The proceedings where kicked off my Anne-Marie Flanagan Regional Development officer for the IGA for the South east and organizer of the event.
The first speaker was Eoghan Drea, Branch manager of IFAC Dungarvan. Eoghan out lined IFAC‘s Ten step Progressive Tax plan and also outlined IFAC s thoughts on the coming budget some of which sent chills through the room. The tax plan included looking at items such as Stock relief, income averaging, pensions, investment and other relief’s all with the view of reducing your tax burden. Eoghan also out lined the Advantages and disadvantage of setting up a Limited company. The main areas where Eoghan felt Irish farmers should be concerned about, regarding this year’s budget, were changes to Stock relief, Capital gains tax and Agricultural relief. Eoghan gave a very clear concise presentation and gave excellent answers to questions from the floor.
Shane Harrington, business development officer from IFAC in Cahir, was the second speaker of the day. Shane outlined how to get the most out of your farm accounts. He also out lined the services provided by IFAC to help people both understand and keep their accounts up dated. He outlined the use of their financial management report through using their comparative analysis so as to identify KPI’s for your business. He also outlined the Dairy management report they use and its uses. Shane showed us how IFAC would work out repayment capacity and he stressed the importance of not just looking at one year of accounts.
The third speaker was AIB s Tadhg Buckley, Agri advisor based in Mallow, Co. Cork and who is also a dairy farmer. Tadhg gave an excellent presentation and confirmed AIB’s commitment to the Agri sector. He also showed us the extent of the understanding that he and fellow Agri advisors have of the Agri industry. Tadgh began his presentation by out lining the present economic climate and its relevancy to the Agri sector. He admitted that it is only in very recent months that most farmers have come back into credit from 2009. He confirmed that investment is still taking place on farm and AIB are still lending to those that demonstrate they can handle the debt. The key points AIB take in to consideration when some one is seeking finance are
• Repayment capacity based on 3 years of accounts
• Farm profitability Trend
• Level of Security required,
• Farmers track record
• Liquidity
• Purpose of the loan
• Ability to control drawings was also some thing that banks where looking at.
Advice for meeting your bank manger from Tadhg was,
Be prepared! Know basic farm details, have up to date finanicals, list of borrowings and repayments, off farm income and amount of drawings. Tadgh also emphasized the need for a simple business plan when approaching the bank. Tadgh outlined his own thoughts on the possibility of a superlevy situation and suggested that dairy farmers should look at having a plan b in the event of one. He concluded by saying that 2010 was a good year for farmers despite farms only emerging from 2009 difficulties now and reminded us that agriculture will continue to be an integral part of AIB business.
The Final speaker of the morning was Irish Framers Journals’ money mentor Peter Young. Peter gave an energetic presentation but spoke simply and got some great points across to the audience. Peter helped us identify who in our lives it’s important to keep happy and most importantly don’t forget about your self. He highlighted that there are many things with inside the farm gate that we can address to improve our situation. Peter asked the audience how many of them where updating cash flows on a monthly basis and only a very small amount where. Peter went on to out line the main parts of doing a cash flow budget and the importance of up dating it on at least a monthly basis. He also stressed the importance of entering data based on when money actually came in and out of the account but most importantly he urged us to react to what it tells you.
There were a lot of questions to all of the speakers on the day which showed the great interest and need for such an event. The event was chaired by Irish Grassland Association President Phillip Donohoe and was kindly sponsored by IFAC and AIB.
For further information contact Anne-Marie Flanagan
our Regional Development Officer on (087) 915641
or email annemarie@irishgrassland.com
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