By Cameron Cooper

Working in Sydney for KPMG early in her finance career, Jo Balcomb FCA seemed to be on a fast track to partnership at a big four, city-based firm. Marrying a fifth-generation sheep, cattle and wheat farmer in Orange, NSW, flipped that scenario on its head.

Today, Balcomb is just as likely to be found vaccinating sheep and helping with the harvest as working on risk management and anti-money laundering (AML) strategies for her clients.

Just over 20 years since moving to the bush, Balcomb has no regrets, professionally or socially. “I still bump into people from the city and they say, ‘Oh, do you get bored sometimes?’ and I say, ‘Never!’.

“On the weekends there’re bonfires during the winter, water skiing during the summer, and there’s always social functions and I do yoga. Then there’s the farm life. A lot of the cities in regional areas are really vibrant now,” says Balcomb, a member of the CA ANZ Regional Councils and Committees.

Her career has been fulfilling too, engaging in auditing and risk-management roles, including a long stint at First Choice Credit Union (now Beyond Bank), before the switch to consulting work. Balcomb says the flexibility of remote, modern-day work allows regional accountants and advisers to perform roles that were once considered the domain of city-based cohorts. “You just have to back yourself. It’s about having belief in the skills and knowledge you’ve built over time.”

“You can have a real impact on the business, the industry and the community around you.”

Opportunities abound

A rising cohort of talented accountants are thriving in Australian and New Zealand regional towns. Paul Petrowski CA is among them. As a director and co-owner of Unlimit, he and his family live in the Taranaki region, known for its dairy farms, in the foothills of a dormant volcano on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

Drawing on his big four background, including working for PwC, Petrowski and colleague Grant McQuoid FCA recently completed a merger between their firm, Velocite and Tandem Group to create Unlimit, an 85-staff firm that specialises in business advisory and accounting tax compliance.

Petrowski says the venture highlights the opportunities that exist in regional areas for a progressive firm such as Unlimit, which helps commercial and agricultural clients transform their performance.

Like Balcomb, Petrowski has no regrets about settling in the region. “It’s been a great choice. I’m proud that after working hard in my early career and achieving the knowledge and skill sets I’ve got, I’m now able to give back to my community and really benefit those people around me – and have a bit of fun at the same time.”

Angela Kain CA, the CFO at Van Schaik’s Bio Gro organics recovery business in Mt Gambier, South Australia, says one of the biggest misconceptions about regional accounting is that career prospects are limited. “My experience has been the complete opposite,” says Kain, who also runs a farm with her father.

Her view is that regional businesses and firms often provide exposure to a much broader range of commercial, operational and strategic challenges than highly specialised city roles. “You can have a real impact on the business, the industry and the community around you,” Kain says.

Just as importantly, regional careers often lead to lifelong friendships and incredible professional networks.

“The relationships you build tend to be genuine and long-lasting because you’re working alongside people who are deeply connected to their communities and industries,” she says. “And, if I’m being honest, it’s also nice to swap the city suit for a pair of jeans and RM Williams boots from time to time.”

Balcomb adds that finance and accounting roles in the major cities tend to be “fairly channelled”, whereas in regional areas the jobs “stretch you”. In her case, the risk-management role with First Choice allowed her to work closely with the industry watchdog, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), enabling access that is unlikely to have occurred so quickly in equivalent, city-based roles.

“You tend to be involved at a management level pretty early in your career.”

“Being a farmer means that when I talk to my farming clients, our first conversation is about what’s happening on the farm.”

Understanding numbers and mindsets

Living in regional New Zealand, Gaye Cowie FCA feels lucky because she gets to combine two loves – accounting and farming.

Principal co-owner at Shand Thomson, a chartered accounting firm in Balclutha, Otago, Cowie and her husband also live on and operate their farm at Tuapeka West. She loves working with farming families in the sheep, beef and dairy sectors to improve their financial management skills, and grow their businesses. Although she downplays her own farming skills, Cowie believes working on the property helps her to better understand client needs.

“I’m involved in the management of the farm and occasionally get the gumboots on to help out in the sheepyards or cook for the shearers,” Cowie says. “Being a farmer means that when I talk to my farming clients, our first conversation is about what’s happening on the farm – have they sold lambs yet, what prices are they getting and how much rain they have had. Then we talk business. I have empathy and understanding for what they are dealing with on a day-by-day basis and I think it has really helped me to grow my relationships with my clients.”

Kain says practising as an accountant and running enterprises in regional and rural areas is a unique experience, requiring cross-industry knowledge. Before joining Bio Gro, Kain worked in forestry. She obtained her truck licence and participated in fire-management operations. “While that might not be what people traditionally associate with an accounting career, those experiences gave me a greater appreciation of operational challenges and helped build credibility with frontline teams.”

Relationships and networks to the fore

Looking back over her career, Cowie says she has often been surprised at the conversations she has had with clients that are not about financial matters. “Often it is about family and relationships. I think we provide a safe space that’s confidential and as accountants are, by nature, logical and down to earth, we can listen without getting emotionally involved.”

Networks have been crucial to building trust for Cowie, whose community roles have included being deputy chair of Clutha Development and chair of the Board of Proprietors of St Hilda’s Collegiate School. She is also a past chair of the Clutha Valley Primary School board of trustees and was instrumental in securing a new school facility for the district.

Given her community ties, she is ever conscious of protecting those client and personal relationships. “Of course, those ethics apply to all chartered accountants. That’s part of the oath we take when we become CAs, but living regionally means that my clients see me not just at work, but also socially and out in the community.”

Petrowski agrees that relationships are sacrosanct in rural areas “because if you don’t have integrity, or if you do something that goes against someone else’s values or the values of the community, everyone’s going to know about it sooner or later.”

“There’s nowhere to hide,” he says, “and it holds you accountable to what you do and how you act. That’s a good thing.”

Giving back to communities

There is little doubt that accounting roles can expand into something bigger than might be the case in an urban setting.

For his part, Petrowski is especially proud of contributing to the establishment of the Taranaki Community Rugby Trust, which raises funds for local rugby programs across the region, including through an initial leasing arrangement to manage a dairy farm.

“We’ve gone from having everything donated to us on day one, including cows,” he says. “And now 16 years later we’re in a position where we own our own dairy farm and we lease two other farms, and we’re providing NZ$250,000 a year back to community rugby, which is benefiting coaching and juniors. It just goes to show what communities can do when they work together.”

For Kain, the chance to provide financial guidance to a regional business such as Bio Gro that makes a difference to sustainability is a privilege. Bio Gro transforms materials that would otherwise be wasted into products that support agriculture, forestry and land improvement.

“Knowing that the decisions we make create both commercial and environmental value gives the role a strong sense of purpose.”

“We’re already pursuing our AI strategy. Having scale with the new firm also gives us more scope to train our staff to reskill for the future.”

The future of rural accounting

With the Unlimit merger bedded down, Petrowski says the firm can look forward to a strong future in which it draws on traditional accounting strengths and technology advances to deliver growth strategies for its clients.

Scale and sophistication will allow the firm to pursue investments in key areas such as AI, while still being privately owned. “We’re already pursuing our AI strategy,” he says. “And we’re using that to help automate compliance but also using those tools to deliver our advisory services. Having scale with the new firm also gives us more scope to train our staff to reskill for the future. We want them to have a full career as accountants and advisers, without letting AI take over.”

At Shand Thomson, Cowie is also drawing on her considerable career experience to empower the next generation of rural businesspeople, both within her firm and out on farms. “It’s wonderful to see the next generation step up.”

Cowie says new software and AI technology is clearly changing farming practices. “The younger generation of farmers are much more tech savvy but I think there will always be a place for accountants to add value to farming businesses. We understand and can explain what story the numbers are telling.”

In the meantime, she will continue to relish the chance to engage with a diverse range of clients, from farmers and tradies to other professionals. “I love that in the morning you can be in the boardroom and in the afternoon have your boots on and be out on a client’s farm,” Cowie says.

With an eye to the future, Kain says technology is creating enormous opportunities for regional businesses such as Bio Gro. It is using drone and light detection and ranging (lidar) technology to measure stockpiles and improve inventory accuracy.

The next frontier is AI, that uses smart machines, sensors and data to grow more food with less water and fewer chemicals. “I’m excited by the potential to combine financial, operational and environmental data to better forecast demand,” Kain says. “Weather patterns, soil moisture and seasonal conditions all influence customer demand and recycling volumes, and AI will help businesses better understand those connections.

“I think the future accountant will spend less time preparing information and more time interpreting it – combining commercial insight, technology and operational understanding to help businesses make better decisions.”

For Balcomb, her immediate future will entail building on her AML consulting work, and using her compliance and regulatory knowledge to help clients. Of course, there will always be duties on the farm to keep her busy, too. The combination means she really does not miss her old life in Sydney.

“And the good thing is you can always go back to the city for a highlights tour.”