Being chief financial officer for a multimillion-dollar dairy farming operation might sound a little daunting for a tertiary student.
But University of Otago second-year commerce student Matthew Morrison did just that for three weeks.
Mr Morrison was runner-up in AccountingPod's nationwide dairy farm simulation competition Compete for Cash Cow.
Competing against 300 students spread across eight universities, he managed his virtual dairy farm for 22 days using the Xero accounting platform and AccountingPod.com's learning portal.
Students completed online challenges every three days involving a farm's daily operations and its financial data.
Finalists were then required to present their farm's third-quarter financial report and an "adding value to milk idea'' to a judging panel.
Panel member Kirsten Patterson, New Zealand country head of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, commented on the high quality of his presentation during the final judging round.
"Matthew impressed the judging panel with his use of the competition software, his business insight and attention to detail, plus his innovative ‘scrambled eggs in a bottle' new product idea,'' she said.
Mr Morrison, who comes from a sheep farm at Clinton, said the competition had "opened his eyes'' to the world of online accounting tools and also to the wider dairy industry.
It was an enjoyable exercise, particularly learning more about the industry, he said.
At the moment, he was enjoying doing some work at Shand Thomson's Dunedin office.
A job in rural accounting was a possibility in the future, he said.
The competition, which was won by Victoria University student Rebecca Matthews, was designed to expose students to the world of digital business tools and to learn more about the New Zealand business environment.
AccountingPod co-founder Judith Cambridge believed that goal was achieved.
"Our aim was to move the needle on students' practical knowledge of digital business tools in a fun and engaging way.
"The dairy industry in New Zealand is a really interesting case study for any business student, not just agri-students, so we were very pleased with the level of student engagement,'' Ms Cambridge said.
The industry was rich in data, from the milking shed, pasture and supply company to its global market.
Capable business students were needed in the industry and needed in the digital economy interpreting that data and supporting business success, she said.
AccountingPod technology challenged, tracked and marked student activity across a range of business software tools during the competition.
That software would be launched across several New Zealand universities over the coming months.
AccountingPod, an edtech company, was reimagining the way financial and business education was delivered, Ms Cambridge and fellow co-founder XingDong Yan said.
As chartered accountants, they knew the accountancy and advisory industry had changed, with automation, offshoring and outsourcing meaning many entry-level jobs had gone for graduates.
"Students need to be both digitally ready and with a practical understanding of our business environment to really support our businesses productivity and growth gains,'' they said.
And, with growing international student numbers, using real New Zealand SME businesses to educate across the cloud was a great way to achieve that learning, they said.
