Traction Ag is an independent technology company supporting farmers as they work to increase farm profits with data-driven decisions. Traction’s farm management software integrates accounting, payroll, field operations and agronomy at a grower, farm, field or crop level, into one platform. This technology helps farmers spend less time entering data to track their farm management practices by automating workflows and integrating existing systems.
"Traction is a platform that leads with accounting. Our core functionality is using actual financial records to drive both the farm entity and field profit analysis. To do this, it is important that our cloud-based platform keeps all the farm data integrated in one place, giving farmers what they need, when they need it."
- Ian Harley, CEO with Traction Ag
Challenge: Integrating Multiple Sources of Data
Previously, farmers have had to spend time manually sorting through and entering data from accounting records, budgeting and crop input spreadsheets, as well as data from complex software applications. Traction eliminates this struggle by automatically integrating all farm data and financial data into a single application.
One of the challenges with integrating this data is having to build integrations for both finance and operations, with multiple data providers. These integrations demand extra developer time, ongoing maintenance, and continued support. Traction had already found a partner on the finance side for bank connections, so expanding to other partners for operations was the next logical step. Aaron Hunt, Chief Technology Officer with Traction Ag states, "We wanted to partner with other technology provider solutions to enable field summary data integration to Traction (e.g. John Deere & Climate FieldView and more.)"
Simplified Integrations with Plaid and Leaf
To automate financial data integrations, Traction partnered with Plaid. Ian Harley, CEO with Traction Ag explained how Plaid creates connectivity with almost any bank or credit card account in the USA. This is particularly important for those in farming that utilize rural or regional banks. In the past it was difficult for banks to integrate their financial records with other companies. Today, this integration with Plaid allows Traction customers to import their cleared transactions directly into their account register, saving time and avoiding errors from manually entering transactions.
The success of their Plaid integration motivated their partnership with Leaf, due to Leaf’s unified API for farm data integrations. “Leaf has transformed our process so our customers don’t have to manually enter their field records”, shared Brian Stark, Sales & Marketing Director with Traction Ag. Now each planting, spraying and harvest operation automatically comes into the Traction platform to be synchronized with the associated financial data for accurate field profit center analysis.
Single integration
With Leaf, Traction did one integration that incorporated multiple sources of farm data including John Deere and Climate FieldView, with more to come.
“We could bring in multiple data integrations quicker than doing them one at a time. This quicker startup time is made possible as Leaf translates data from a proprietary format and standardizes the naming conventions of all data into a single format we can easily use.”
- Aaron Hunt, Chief Technology Officer, Traction Ag
Comprehensive docs and support
Leaf provided a single point of contact during development, testing, and ongoing support, covering a range of data types.
“The Leaf integration was one of the most straightforward processes, both from a technical perspective and from a customer service standpoint. It’s really been first class, with Leaf’s single point of contact, responsiveness and clear communication of the technical requirements needed in order to be successful.”
- Scott Nusbaum, Product Director, Traction Ag
Focus on building Traction Ag features
Leaf is focused on successful integrations, continued support and API maintenance so Traction’s development team can concentrate their time on building features and capabilities unique to Traction.
“We can leverage the Leaf API to do the heavy lifting of acquiring, processing, and storing data from different sources, and Traction can then take the finished product to add additional value.”
- Aaron Hunt, Chief Technology Officer, Traction Ag
Improved Profit Analysis with Leaf’s Machine Data and Field Boundaries
Before the integration with Leaf, a grower had to manually maintain a database of personnel, equipment, and products associated with his/her field records (e.g. products, rates, costs, etc.) Now, a key differential with Traction is that once the field records are imported, the costs are dynamically updated with average purchase costs.
"Growers really need to know crop zone detail analysis to see profitability of the farm. The Leaf integration makes that process easier and gives growers so much more transparency with regards to their farm financial performance."
- Brian Stark, Sales & Marketing Director, Traction Ag
The Traction <> Leaf integration enables:
- Greater accuracy with easy reconciliation of all field records
- Increased efficiency with automatic syncs from multiple sources
- Additional detail in profit center analysis for fields and crops
- Up-to-date inventory tracking of harvested crops and products
As Traction looks to the future, they are excited about being an integral part of building the digital ecosystem for growers. More specifically, they are excited about automating processes that minimize manual data entry to make their customers’ farm financial management easier.
“We live in a world of technology where I can connect my Stripe account to my Gmail to my HubSpot CRM. Agriculture should have the same capability in the future, and I think Leaf can be a partner in all those areas.”
- Ian Harley, CEO, Traction Ag
