Acren, for investors

Acren is built for agricultural consultancy firms in Ireland. The practice holds the client relationship; each advisor needs the herd numbers, holding details and work history behind it.

The starting point is the work around that relationship: keeping records together, knowing who is responsible for a job, and keeping the agreed price with the work.

The first release brings together client records, a job log and the practice’s own rate card. Advisors can find a client by name or herd number, assign work, record deadlines and track whether a job is open or submitted.

Fixed fees, hourly prices and VAT sit in the rate card. The agreed price stays with the job. Invoice generation and accounting integrations are separate future work, outside the current release.

Acren began with Diarmuid Smithwick spending a few weeks alongside an agricultural advisor. The problem was visible at the desk: client knowledge held in someone’s head, work spread across documents, and time spent recreating the same details.

A founding cohort of firms is building Acren with him, against their own client books. That gives the product a specific place to start: the everyday work of an Irish advisory practice.

The current focus is Irish practices and the way they organise clients, jobs and prices. Expansion into another market would need to account for its schemes, terminology and local requirements.