Setting up Deputy for an Agriculture / Farming Business
This guide explains how to set up Deputy for an agriculture or farming business. Deputy brings scheduling, attendance, payroll, communication, and reporting together in one place. It covers how to structure Locations and Areas, manage team access, prepare payroll workflows, review scheduling and attendance settings, and plan your rollout.
Before you read
- Target audience: This article is for users with System Administrator access.
- Free trial: If you haven't signed up for Deputy yet, see Creating an Organization and Getting Started with a Free Trial. When signing up, select the industry that best matches your business.
- Returning to your trial: If you've already signed up, log in at once.deputy.com to continue setting up your account.
- Watch Deputy in Action: Before you start, watch Deputy in Action to see how Deputy works and what you'll be setting up throughout this guide.
This article covers:
- Choose your organisational structure
- Review Location settings before rollout
- Set access and approval responsibilities
- Prepare payroll and scheduling workflows
- Run day-to-day agriculture workflows
- Quick add-on and plan check
- Five-step onboarding checklist
- Avoid common agriculture set-up mistakes
- Get more help
Choose your organisational structure
In Deputy, Locations can represent farms, properties, stations, depots, packing sheds, workshops, or seasonal work sites. Areas usually represent the work being performed, such as livestock, machinery, harvest, seeding, irrigation, packing, maintenance, or travel.
Choose a starting model that reflects how your business manages rosters, properties, seasonal teams, labour reporting, payroll export codes, and supervisor responsibilities. You can refine the structure as your use of Deputy grows.
| Business type | Suggested starting structure | Agriculture Area examples | Things to consider |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Single farm or mixed operation Farms, growers, livestock businesses, and mixed farming operations |
One Location representing the farm, with Areas for work types or tasks | Livestock, Machinery, Harvest, Seeding, Irrigation, Maintenance, and Travel | This keeps scheduling and labour reporting simple for supervisors during busy periods. |
|
Multiple properties or stations Businesses with separate farms, properties, depots, or stations |
One Location for each property, with Areas for work types | Livestock, Cropping, Machinery, Workshop, Shed, and Administration | Workers who move between properties need access to each relevant Location. |
|
Packing shed or fixed site Packing sheds, workshops, depots, and fixed operations teams |
One Location for the shed, depot, or site, with Areas for roles or work types | Packing, Grading, Forklift, Quality Control, Maintenance, and Supervisor | Kiosk or tablet clock-in may work well for fixed teams. |
|
Seasonal or harvest workforce Harvest, seeding, shearing, and seasonal project teams |
Farm, region, or seasonal project as the Location, with Areas for tasks | Harvest, Picking, Packing, Seeding, Spraying, Shed, Travel, and Supervisor | Review seasonal Locations and workers after the season ends so the account stays clean. |
When you plan your structure, consider:
- Work areas: Avoid creating Locations for every paddock or work zone unless there is a clear reporting, permission, or approval need.
- Seasonal workers: Decide how workers will be added, invited, trained, rostered, archived, and reactivated before peak periods begin.
- Reporting and export codes: Consistent Area names and export codes can support payroll, accounting, costing, and labour reporting.
For a complete overview, see Organisations, Locations and Areas.
Review Location settings before rollout
Location settings control many of the defaults used for scheduling, clock-in, timesheets, approvals, and reporting. Review these settings before go-live so each farm, property, shed, depot, or seasonal site works the way your team expects.
Key settings to review include:
- Review the physical address and map pin: Some remote work areas may not map cleanly, so managers should test clock-in before rollout.
- Review Areas and Training Tags: Areas can represent livestock, machinery, harvest, seeding, irrigation, packing, spraying, travel, or maintenance. Training Tags can help manage machinery, chemical handling, licences, livestock work, and site-specific skills.
- Review scheduling settings: Confirm default shifts, breaks, open shifts, shift offers, shift swaps, notifications, and shift locking.
- Review timesheet settings: Confirm mobile clock-in, GPS capture, geofencing, kiosk clock-in for sheds or depots, employee timesheet edits, break settings, rounding, and unscheduled shifts.
Mobile clock-in with GPS capture is usually practical for field work. Kiosk or tablet clock-in may work well for packing sheds, workshops, or depots where workers start from a fixed location.
For a complete overview of every Location setting, including General, Areas, Scheduling, Timesheets, Notifications, Public Holidays, and Preferences, see Creating your Locations.
Set access and approval responsibilities
Access decisions should be made during set-up. The right access model helps managers control scheduling, timesheet approvals, payroll visibility, labour cost access, property visibility, and reporting.
| Agriculture role | Recommended Deputy access | Common responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Farm workers and seasonal workers | Employee | View rosters, clock in and out, request leave, submit availability, and review updates |
| Leading hands and supervisors | Supervisor | Review attendance, missed clock-ins, long shifts, travel, and exceptions |
| Farm or property managers | Location Manager | Manage rosters, approvals, labour visibility, and reporting |
| Payroll and bookkeepers | Advisor | Review approved timesheets, payroll exports, and employee records |
| Owners and administrators | System Administrator | Manage account settings, structure, integrations, and access |
Most agriculture businesses use Supervisor access for leading hands who approve time but should not see wage costs. Use Location Manager access for farm or property managers who need labour cost visibility, roster cost visibility, or broader reporting.
For a complete overview, see Deputy access levels and permissions.
Once you've set access levels, add your team members and assign them to the Locations where they work. You can add team members individually, add multiple team members, import them from another system, or invite them to join Deputy.
For a complete overview, see Adding team members.
Prepare payroll and scheduling workflows
Agriculture payroll can include seasonal rates, allowances, overtime, long shifts, travel, public holidays, TOIL or RDOs, and leave. Pay Templates and Pay Rate Builder can support your pay conditions, while Leave Policies control the types of leave available to team members and how leave is managed in Deputy.
You can process payroll using Deputy Payroll where available, or connect Deputy to a supported third-party payroll provider.
Click to expand for each payroll option.
Deputy Payroll (AU)
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Deputy Payroll (AU) is Deputy's integrated payroll option for Australian businesses. It keeps scheduling, attendance, approved timesheets, and payroll within Deputy, so you can move from worked hours to a pay run without exporting timesheets to a separate payroll provider.
Set-up includes your business and payroll details, pay calendars, superannuation, deductions, extra earnings, and team member payroll information.
For a complete overview of setting up and using Deputy Payroll (AU), see Getting started with Payroll (AU).
Deputy Payroll enabled by Paycor (US)
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Deputy Payroll enabled by Paycor (US) connects Deputy workforce management with Paycor payroll. Deputy manages scheduling, time tracking, leave, pay rates, and approved timesheets, while Paycor can be used to handle payroll functions such as tax filings, banking, and year-end processing.
Approved timesheets can be exported directly from Deputy to Paycor, reducing the need to manually re-enter worked hours.
For a complete overview of how Deputy and Paycor work together, see Getting started with Deputy Payroll enabled by Paycor (US).
Third-party payroll integration
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If you already use another payroll provider, you can keep Deputy focused on scheduling, attendance, timesheets, and pay calculations, then send approved timesheet data to your existing payroll system. Deputy supports payroll integrations including Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, ADP, and other providers, with the exact workflow and data available depending on the integration you use.
For a complete overview of the available payroll connections, see Payroll integrations.
For more information on Leave management, see:
Keep payroll testing simple
Run a test export before your first live pay run. Focus on:
- Regular and seasonal shifts: Confirm that standard hours, seasonal rates, and pay rates appear as expected.
- Allowances and long shifts: Test allowances, overtime, long shifts, travel, TOIL or RDOs, and public holidays where applicable.
- Workers moving between Areas: Confirm that workers moving between properties, sheds, tasks, or work types export correctly.
Property, task, and workforce reporting
If labour reporting by property, task, season, team, or work type matters, use Areas, Area export codes, consistent naming conventions, notes, or integrations. This keeps reporting cleaner and helps avoid duplicating your farm management systems.
Common reports include:
- Schedule, timesheet and sales comparison: Compare scheduled and actual hours and wage costs, and review cost variance where relevant.
- Attendance & absence: Review no-shows, late arrivals, missed clock-ins, and early departures by Location, Area, or team member.
- Schedule adherence by team member: Compare scheduled hours with actual hours worked and identify the cost variance when team members work outside the original schedule. (Requires Analytics+)
Qualifications, licences, and Training Tags
Training Tags help prevent workers from being scheduled into Areas where they are not trained, licensed, or approved to work. They can support decision-making, but they do not replace formal compliance review.
Common agriculture Training Tags include Forklift Licence, HR Licence, MR Licence, Chemical Handling, Machinery Operator, Livestock Handling, Tractor, First Aid, Working With Children Check, and Supervisor.
If your business needs to collect onboarding documents, store employee records, manage policy acknowledgements, right-to-work checks, licences, or certification expiry dates, Deputy HR can help support those workflows. Deputy HR requires an add-on.
Run day-to-day agriculture workflows
Clocking in: Mobile or kiosk
Choose the clock-in method that matches where your team works.
- Mobile clock-in with GPS capture: Useful for field work, changing work areas, and teams working across farms or properties.
- Kiosk or tablet clock-in: Useful for packing sheds, workshops, depots, or fixed sites where workers start from one location.
For a complete overview, see Using Deputy across different devices.
Manage schedule adjustments
Agriculture schedules may change because of weather, machinery availability, harvest timing, livestock needs, worker availability, or seasonal peaks.
Open shifts, shift offers, and shift swaps can help fill gaps, but they should be reviewed carefully where licences, machinery skills, chemical handling, or remote work requirements matter.
For a complete overview, see open shifts, shift offers, and shift swaps.
Seasonal onboarding and tasks
Seasonal worker records can become difficult to manage if old profiles are not reviewed. Decide how workers will be added, invited, trained, rostered, archived, and reactivated before peak periods begin.
Task management can help agriculture businesses standardise opening checks, machinery checks, pre-start tasks, safety checks, shed checks, handovers, and supervisor review tasks before payroll approval.
Communicate with your team
News Feed and Messaging can help managers share weather changes, start-time updates, machinery issues, urgent notices, safety reminders, and roster changes with remote or seasonal teams.
For a complete overview, see News Feed and Deputy Messaging.
Quick add-on and plan check
The following add-ons and plan options may be useful as your use of Deputy grows. To check what is included in each plan or add-on, see our pricing plans.
| Do you need to... | You may need... | Common fit |
|---|---|---|
| Store onboarding records, licences, right-to-work checks, policy acknowledgements, or employee records | Deputy HR | Businesses that need worker records, licences, or onboarding documents connected to workforce setup |
| Create custom reports, schedule emailed reports, and review overtime, seasonal labour, or property-level trends | Analytics+ | Managers or operators who need deeper workforce and labour reporting |
| Use larger messaging groups, more message history, or team-based communication for seasonal or remote teams | Messaging Plus | Businesses that need faster communication for weather updates, roster changes, and urgent notices |
| Process payroll from approved Deputy timesheets where available | Deputy Payroll | Businesses that want payroll connected more closely to Deputy scheduling, attendance, and timesheet approvals |
| Set up custom roles, additional Location hierarchy, and more detailed permission controls | Deputy Pro | Businesses with complex farms, properties, sheds, seasonal teams, supervisor layers, or reporting requirements |
Five-step onboarding checklist
These stages apply whether you are evaluating Deputy, testing it with one farm or shed, or rolling it out across your full business.
- Set up your structure: Create your Locations and Areas, choose naming conventions, and review any required export codes.
- Add your team and schedules: Add workers and managers, assign access levels, set up pay details, and create your first schedule.
- Test your workflows: Test mobile clock-in, GPS capture, kiosk clock-in for sheds or depots, notes, open shifts, shift swaps, and missed clock-in workflows with a pilot group.
- Review timesheets and payroll: Approve pilot timesheets and test long shifts, allowances, overtime, travel, public holidays, workers moving between Areas, and payroll export.
- Go live: Train supervisors and managers, publish the live schedule, and roll Deputy out to the rest of your team.
For a guided onboarding checklist, open the Help menu by selecting the ? icon in your Deputy account, then select Start here.
Avoid common agriculture set-up mistakes
| Common mistake | Why it causes problems |
|---|---|
| Creating every paddock as a Location | Can make scheduling, permissions, and reporting harder to manage. |
| Using geofencing without testing remote work areas | Can create failed clock-ins when work starts in remote paddocks, sheds, or areas that do not map cleanly. |
| Waiting until payroll day to approve timesheets | Makes exceptions, long shifts, missed clock-ins, and allowances harder to review. |
| Using inconsistent Area names | Makes reporting and payroll review harder during high-volume periods. |
| Not using Training Tags | Can create safety and rostering issues where machinery, chemical handling, or licences matter. |
| Not cleaning up seasonal workers after peak periods | Can make future scheduling, reporting, and account management harder. |
| Ignoring payroll setup until go-live | Can delay payroll testing and create reporting or payroll issues. |
Get more help
During your trial, use the Action Bar to access setup help without leaving Deputy.
From the Action Bar, you can:
- Select Start here to open Deputy Essentials, where you'll find bite-sized videos and guided walkthroughs to help you set up your business at your own pace.
- Select Ask an expert to connect with an SMB Consultant.
- Select the ? icon to open the Help menu and access support options.
You can collapse the Action Bar or drag it to another position on the screen.
Help Centre
For help and support, see Get help and request support from Deputy.