Build your financial security with OBT Financial Group – Lockyer Valley Business of the Year recipients and specialist financial advisers to individuals, business owners and farming families on accounting, tax, business advice and wealth planning for over 40 years.David and Barbara Simon are directors of one of Lockyer Valley’s medium-sized vegetable growing businesses.
With a consumer market hungry for more than just meat and three-veg, they are busy all year round.
And with farms spread all around the region, they rely on OBT Financial Group to make sure their accounting and tax is up to date.
“We were referred to O’Brien Turner & Associates, as OBT was called back then, when we first moved to the area about 20 years ago,” says David. “We’ve dealt with Rodney and Brett ever since.”
OBT Client Manager Sue Dobinson makes sure Simon Farms’ tax is organised. It means she, David and Barbara meet at least 2-3 times throughout the business year to keep on top of personal and company tax matters.
“We were first involved with OBT back in early 2003 when we were in a partnership with other family members. With advice and guidance from Rodney and Brett, we were able to transition from our partnership on to more complex structures over the years which offered a higher degree of asset protection and more flexible tax management.”
“OBT listen to how we want to steer the business. It’s good that they’re interested in us and in how we’re going.”
“Whilst we only meet with Sue 2-3 times per year, every quarter she makes sure the bank manager receives our financial key performance indicators so he knows how our business is travelling.”
Accountant Rachel Bichel is also a key contact for Simon Farms’ bookkeeper – together they make sure that BAS is processed on time every quarter and that the business is getting the most from using MYOB in the cloud.
“Thanks to OBT and MYOB I’m up on the bookkeeping,” says David. “You have to be up to date so we’re using MYOB to the full extent.”
“It’s good having access to cloud accounting with OBT because both they and we can share and see the same information. Once when we had a hard drive corrupted, we were still able to pay the wages using OBT’s backup. All we had to do was restore the data from OBT’s version.”
Whilst they have no control over what Mother Nature may bring, David and Barbara have the piece of mind that all of their financial affairs are in order.
“OBT knows the rural industry inside out having done it for such a long time, so they’re good at it,” says David. “That’s why we stay with them.”
Copyright 2015. OBT Financial Group #BuildingYourFinancialSecurity
