How to work in a Focus Workspace 

What is a Workspace

A Workspace gives your professional organisation one central place to manage your team’s access to farms in Farm Focus.

With a Workspace, you can:

• Manage your team – Add and remove members and control which farms they can access.

• Manage farm access – Farmers give your organisation access once, and Workspace Administrators manage access for individual team members.

• Keep customer data secure – Each team member uses their own Farm Focus login, making it clear who has access to each farm.

• Bring everything together – View your team members and farms from one central dashboard.

• Build your brand – Add your company logo to customer reports alongside the Farm Focus logo.

• Access professional tools – Use features designed for rural professionals, including certification and consolidated reporting.

Good to know: Farmers do not need to give access to each team member individually. They give your organisation access through the Workspace, and the Workspace Administrator manages individual staff access.

A Focus Workspace is included at no extra cost for Farm Focus Partners. Find out more about the Partner Programme and the benefits included with Focus Professional.

Create a Workspace

1. Log in to Farm Focus.

2. Select the Farm name drop-down in the top left.

3. Select Start new.

4. In the Focus Workspace panel, select Create workspace.
   
    

5. Complete the form:

   • Workspace type: Select Accountancy, Bank or Consultancy.

   • Country: Select New Zealand or Australia.

   • Workspace name: Enter your company name and location or region, for example, ABC Accountants, Wairarapa.

   • NZ or Australian business number: Enter your business number, if applicable.

   • Physical address: Enter your business address.

   • Accept the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

6. Select Create.

The Farm Focus team will verify your Workspace and email you when verification is complete. Verification can take up to two days.

You can still access Settings while your Workspace is being verified.

Navigate your Workspace

To open your Workspace, select the Farm name drop-down in the top left and choose your Workspace. You can also use Search to find it quickly.

Your Workspace includes:

1. Workspace name – Shows the name of your Workspace.

2. Logo – Add your company logo to personalise your Workspace and reports.

3. Farms counter – Shows the number of farms in your Workspace. Select it to open Farms.

4. Members counter – Shows the number of Workspace members. Select it to open Members.

5. Farms – View and manage farms in your Workspace. You can also start demo farms for training and demonstrations.

6. Members – View and manage Workspace members.

7. Reports – Access consolidated reports.

8. Code lists – Create and manage Workspace code lists.

9. Marketplace – Access available add-ons.

10. Settings – Workspace Administrators can manage Workspace settings.

Add your Workspace logo

Only a Workspace Administrator can add or change the Workspace logo.

1. Open your Workspace.

2. Go to Settings > Workspace logo.

3. Upload your logo.

Manage your team

Once your Workspace is verified, you can add your team members.

There are two Workspace roles:

• Administrator – Can manage Workspace members, farms and access.

• Standard – Can work on farms they have access to but cannot manage Workspace members or access.

Good to know: Workspace roles and farm access levels are separate. Changing a member's Workspace role does not change their access to individual farms.

Add team members

1. Go to Members from the left-hand menu or select the Members counter.

2. Select + Invite Member.

3. Enter the member's email address.

4. Select their Workspace role: Administrator or Standard.

5. Select Send.

The member will appear under Pending Members until they log in and accept the invitation. They will then move to the Members tab.

Each team member should use their own Farm Focus login. If they don't have a login, they'll be prompted to create one when they accept the Workspace invitation.

Add and manage farms

Before your team can work on a farm, the farm needs to be added to your Workspace.

The farm's Subscription Admin must approve the request before the farm can join your Workspace.

1. Request access to a farm

1. Go to Farms from the left-hand menu or select the Farms counter.

2. Select Request access to a farm.

3. Enter the email address of the farm's Subscription Admin.

4. Select Send.

You can request access to multiple farms at once by entering multiple email addresses, separated by a comma or new line.

Important: The email address must be the Subscription Admin's email address registered in Farm Focus.

Once the Subscription Admin approves the request, it returns to the Workspace Administrator for final approval.

2. Approve the farm

1. Go to Farms from the left-hand menu or select the Farms counter.

2. Open the Pending farms tab.

3. Select Approve or Deny.

A red notification appears on Pending farms when a request is waiting for approval.

Once approved, the farm moves to Workspace Farms.

If you deny the request, the farm is removed from Pending farms and the farm owner is notified.

3. Give team members farm access

Once your team members and farms have been added to the Workspace, you can give team members access to the farms they work on.

You can assign access to one farm or multiple farms at once.

1. Go to Farms > Workspace Farms.

2. Select the farm and choose + Member access, or open the farm and select the team members you want to add.

3. Choose their access level:

   • Organisation Admin – Full access.

   • Restricted – No access to settings or billing.

   • Reporting – Read-only access.

4. Select Add.

The member will appear under Access via Workspace.

Tip: Assign access in bulk first, then use Edit to adjust individual farm access if needed.

Alternatively, a farm can request to join your Workspace

A farm's Subscription Admin can also start the process of joining a Workspace. The Workspace Administrator can then approve the request.

Other Workspace features

Lock a date

Locking financial data helps keep records accurate and protected from changes after they've been reviewed. This is particularly useful during reporting, GST and compliance periods.

Once a lock is applied, farmers cannot make changes to financial or livestock data dated on or before the lock date.

For more information, see How to use the Lock Date feature in Farm Focus.

Demo farms

Demo farms are useful for:

• Exploring Farm Focus and trying out features.

• Training new team members.

• Demonstrating Farm Focus to customers.

• Testing workflows without changing real farm data.

Farm Focus provides three demo farms:

• New Zealand: Dairy and Sheep & Beef.

• Australia: Dairy with a cattle trading component.

Starting a demo farm from your Workspace gives you 90 days to use it. Demo farms started from the main Farm Focus drop-down expire after seven days.

Once a demo farm expires, you can simply start a new one.

Start a demo farm

1. Go to Farms from the left-hand menu in your Workspace.

2. Select the Demo farms tab.

3. Choose the demo farm you want to use and select Start demo.

Workspace code lists

Workspace code lists help you standardise reporting across multiple farms while allowing each farm to keep its own unique code list.

You can create a Workspace code list from a Farm Focus template or from an existing farm in your Workspace. You can then map farms to the Workspace code list for consolidated reporting.

Good to know: Mapping a farm to a Workspace code list does not change the farm's existing code list. Each farm keeps its own codes. Mapping simply tells Farm Focus how those codes align with the Workspace code list for reporting.

You can create as many Workspace code lists as you need.

Create a Workspace code list

1. Go to Code lists from the left-hand menu in your Workspace.

2. Select Create your first Workspace code list. If you already have a code list, select + Create new list.

3. Choose how you want to create your code list:

   • Create a new code list – Start with a Farm Focus template and edit it as needed.

   • Create from an existing farm – Use the code list from a farm in your Workspace as your starting point.

4. If you choose Create a new code list:

   • Select a Farm Focus template.

   • Edit the codes if required.

   • Enter a name for your Workspace code list.

   • Select Create.

5. If you choose Create from an existing farm:

   • Select the farm from the drop-down list.

   • Choose whether to include inactive codes.

   • Enter a name for your Workspace code list.

   • Select Create.

Tip: If you don't include inactive codes, only the farm's active codes are copied into the Workspace code list.

Manage a Workspace code list

Once you've created a Workspace code list, it appears on your Code lists page.

From there, you can:

• Edit the code list.

• Add a note.

• Delete the code list.

• Map farms to the code list.

• Add members.

Map a farm to a Workspace code list

You can map a farm to a Workspace code list from the code list itself.

1. Select + Map farm.

2. Select the farm you want to map.

3. Select Map farm.

4. Align the farm's existing codes with the Workspace code list when prompted.

Once mapped, the farm's existing codes are linked to the Workspace codes for reporting purposes. The farm's original code list remains unchanged.

Tip: Mapping your farms to a consistent Workspace code list makes it easier to produce consolidated reports across your organisation.

Farm Focus Certification

Farm Focus Certification is available through a Workspace and helps rural professionals build their knowledge and confidence using Farm Focus.

The certification covers key features and workflows, helping you get the most out of Farm Focus and support your clients more effectively.

For more information, see How to get started with Rural Professional Certification.