Agricultural Industry Goes Tech With OnPay, Xero Partnership

Payroll provider OnPay is collaborating with accounting software company Xero to bring back-office services to the agricultural industry, Accounting Today reported on Wednesday (Aug. 21).

Farms and ranches in the U.S. that already use Xero for payroll, HR and benefits, will find additional benefits and easier bookkeeping with the Xero-OnPay collaboration. Customers will be able to combine all of their finances plus track payroll expenses by department and categories.

With Farm Credit Services of America, OnPay and Xero already have a relationship through the Magnify agriculture management software. The Magnify software gives farms and ranches a real-time view of their overall operations — helping them improve profitability and their decision-making processes. 

“It’s our mission to make payroll easy for every small business,” said Mark McKee, president and chief operating officer of OnPay, in a statement. “Certain types of businesses — like farms, restaurants and nonprofits — face unique payroll and HR challenges that many other providers can’t really accommodate. We’re excited to help more businesses and their accountants finally take advantage of everything Xero and OnPay can do together.”

The partnering of OnPay and Xero allows agribusinesses and their accountants to sync financial information automatically and guarantee payroll taxes will be processed, filed and paid accurately.

“We believe OnPay provides the flexible payroll functionality farms and ranches, and their accountants, need,” added Tanner Hoffman, general manager, verticals for Xero Americas. “Collaboration with OnPay is aimed at creating seamless payroll, HR and benefits services, along with providing custom solutions and personal service from OnPay when customers need it. This gives them access to solutions unique to the needs of their agriculture business so they can operate more efficiently, plan ahead and thrive.”

The farming industry has been financially squeezed as large financial institutions are now pulling back from the offering new loans in the wake of the weakening global economy after years of expanding their loan portfolios. Focusing on the rural Midwest, large banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. expanded their financing to farming businesses significantly between 2008 and 2015, according to filings with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. analyzed by Reuters. That expansion has now slowed.