The farm office

The farm office that runs itself

Email on your own name, files you can find from the field, backups you never think about, and the computer side of Making Tax Digital done so your accountant stops sighing. The office is where the farm's money lives; it deserves kit that works.

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Sound familiar?

What goes wrong

  • The email address ends in btinternet.

    It's served you well, but a farm business with its own domain looks like a business, and an address you own can't be switched off by a provider you leave.

  • MTD wants the books online every quarter.

    Sole traders over £50,000 are already in; over £30,000 join from April 2027, and farmers who average their profits had a year's grace to then. Gross income counts, grants and all.

  • The only copy of the invoices is on that laptop.

    And the medicine book is in a spreadsheet, and the photos for the inspection are on a phone. Nothing is backed up, and nobody is sure where anything is.

  • Logging in to the government takes all morning.

    Rural Payments, the Livestock Information Service, the Government Gateway. Each with its own login, each with two-step codes going to a phone that's in the tractor.

What Daniel does

What he does about it

  1. Email on your own domain.

    yourname@yourfarm.co.uk, on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, on every device, with the old address forwarded for as long as you like.

  2. Shared files, in the cloud and in the office.

    One place for the records, the invoices and the photos, shared with your partner, the office and the accountant as you choose, backed up automatically, and there on your phone in the field.

  3. The computer side of Making Tax Digital.

    A machine that will cope, the software your accountant prefers installed, the bank feed connected, the login secured. Daniel does the IT; your accountant does the tax, and Daniel is happy to talk to them.

  4. Government logins that work.

    Two-step codes going to an app rather than a phone in a drawer, the recovery details filled in, and the whole thing written down somewhere safe. Daniel sorts access; the submissions stay yours.

  5. Backups you can forget about.

    Every file, every night, off the premises, and a test restore every few months so you know it works.

  6. Printing and scanning that just happens.

    Scan the delivery note on the office printer and it lands in the right folder, named properly, before you've sat down.

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What it costs
Under the bonnetFor whoever in the family checks these things.

The kit

  • Microsoft 365 Business or Google Workspace, chosen by what the accountant and the farm software work best with
  • Domain and DNS managed properly: SPF, DKIM and DMARC set so the farm's email is delivered and can't be spoofed
  • OneDrive or Google Drive for shared files with version history; a nightly backup to a second provider, because a cloud is still one basket
  • Accounts packages as the accountant specifies, with bank feeds via the bank's own open banking connection

How it’s done

  • Migration from the old mailbox with nothing lost, and the old address forwarding for a year
  • Two-step login on every account from the first day
  • The accountant looped in early so the software choice is theirs, not a guess

Said plainly

What he won't do

  • Do your tax return or your MTD submissions. That's the accountant's work and the law's line, and he stays on his side of it.
  • Log in to Rural Payments as you. He sets up access and sits beside you; the submissions are yours.
  • Move you to a 'free' email that reads your mail to sell you things.

Questions people ask

Before you ring

Microsoft or Google?

Both are good. Microsoft 365 if the accountant and the farm software live in Excel and Outlook; Google Workspace if you live on your phone and like things simple. Daniel will ask what you use before he answers.

Does MTD mean new software?

It means software that can send quarterly updates to HMRC. Most modern accounts packages can; the spreadsheet can with a bridging tool. Your accountant chooses; Daniel installs and connects it.

Can my accountant see my files?

Only the folder you share with them, and only while you say so. That's the point of doing it properly.

Read first, if you like

Guides that go with this

Also

Jobs that often go together

An office that works from the kitchen, the tractor and the accountant's desk.

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