Farmer-friendly Finance

Our Farmer-friendly Finance course, a progressive, modular training pathway tailored to the rhythm of the agricultural calendar, is aimed at farmers eager to strengthen their financial literacy and confidence. 

 

Who is the course suitable for?

Farmers keen to:

  • Take control of and build confidence in financial planning and regular monitoring to elevate their business strategy and discussions with advisors
  • Enhance their planning, budgeting and debt management
  • Strengthen their mental wellbeing through financial clarity

What you’ll achieve at the end of the course

Delegates will learn:

  • Foundations of finance and terminology
  • Practical tools for constructing, interpreting, managing and benchmarking financial performance
  • Advanced techniques for long-term budgeting, debt structuring and strategic investment planning

How is the course delivered?

We offer the course face-to-face on our RAU campus at Cirencester over three days between October and February.

We combine practical exercises with the delivery of jargon-free theory to promote understanding of and engagement with course content amongst delegates.

About the course leader

The course is delivered by Abby Cook, a farm business consultant, agricultural training deliverer and farmer based in Gloucestershire.

Abby's areas of expertise include financial and budget management, business strategy and long-term planning, policy and procedure, and succession and transition strategy.

With fifteen years of experience as a consultant, combined with her practical farming skills, Abby brings a wealth of experience, delivered in a farmer-friendly, jargon-free way to breakdown the barriers to farmers taking control of their farm business confidently.

Apply now

To book a place or for further information, please get in touch via our continuing professional development enquiry form or call +44 (0) 1285 652531. 

Our modules dates are:

  • Introduction to Farm Finance - Tuesday 21 October 2025, £400 + VAT per person
  • Intermediate Farm Finance - Tuesday 18 – Wednesday 19 November 2025, £700 + VAT per person
  • Advanced Farm Finance - 16 February 2026, £400 + VAT per person
  • End of Tax Year Planning for Farmers - TBD - Spring 2026, £400 + VAT per person

Please scroll down to view module content for each date.

All prices include lunch. When you book all three finance modules together, you will receive a reduced booking cost of £1300.

Located in the heart of the Cotswolds – Cirencester - we offer comfortable accommodation, with free on-site parking and sustainable catering using local suppliers.

Module content

Introduction to Farm Finance

  • Why is understanding finance important and what do we mean by finance 
  • Key financial terms 
  • Stock valuations, depreciation and CAPEX – just jargon or important to understand? 
  • Aim and objective setting – for the business and more detailed financial aims and objectives 
  • Yield vs margin – what do we mean, what is more important and why? 
  • Financial year vs. calendar year vs. cropping year – how do they differ, why and why is it important to understand? 
  • Key financial documents – what are they and what do they look like, how are they constructed and what information do they contain

practical session on how to construct simple gross margin, profit and loss, and balance sheet
  • Who do the financial records serve? 
  • Introduction to key types of borrowing, what they might look like (bank loans, HP agreements, leasing agreements, hire of kit and private loans) 
  • Introduction to sources of funding (banks, private lenders, grant funding and public funding)

 

Intermediate Farm Finance
  • Recap of key financial terms 
  • Legal structures and the impact on finance
  • Profit vs cashflow – what are they and which is more important 
  • Management accounts vs tax accounts – what are they, what do they look like, what do they tell us, who do they serve, how are they constructed, tools to help put them together, why are they useful to the agri-business 
  • Introduction to software that can help with construction of management accounts
  • Introduction to VAT principles 
  • Key terms specific to tax accounts – private apportionment and depreciation
  • Details of the cashflow – why is a cashflow important, what does it contain, break it down into sections

practical session on constructing a cashflow and once constructed how can this be used by the business 
  • Sensitivity analysis and how to stress test the business
  • Business analysis – how to determine the financial health of the business through use of tools such as benchmarking, key performance indicators and target setting 
  • Overdraft management and bank communications

 

Advanced Farm Finance
  • Recap of key financial reports in management and tax accounts 
  • Introduction to budgeting and forecasting – scenario planning and partial budgets – how can we use gross margins, profit and lost cashflow to help us planning for the future of the business
  • Planning a lending proposal – what you need to approach a lender and/or the bank 
  • Planning a tenancy application – what you need to include to highlight the financial viability of your proposal and your ability to manage finance 
  • Risk management 
  • Debt, equity, gearing and borrowing – debt and capital position 
  • Introduction to supply chain finances and funding
  • Negotiating finances – how to convince them to lend to you 
  • Business planning for long term resilience 

 

End of Tax Year Planning

TBD

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