"It's just a tough time to be farming," says McKayla Jaeger. "We don't have a lot of rain.”
In Ogallala, Nebraska, the Jaegars grow corn, wheat, triticale, and millet while providing custom planting and spraying services for neighboring farms. Their corn business involves rented crop-share ground, custom contracts, and financed equipment.
Between plantings, the custom services for other farmers keep them afloat during dry seasons when margins are thin. It's a multi-faceted, complex operation that the Jaegars have been building from the ground up.
"We're just trying to get our feet under us right now," McKayla says.
Background
For ten years, McKayla worked as a hairdresser. Occasionally, she helped out on her husband's family farm when they needed an extra pair of hands. "I ran a tractor here and there where I needed to," she recalls. “My husband, on the other hand – he’s been working since he could walk.”
But as family business got a bit messier, she and her husband made a decision. “We said if we're gonna save relationships, we kind of need to do our own thing." So they struck out on their own, leaving the established family operation and starting their own – 365 Ventures.
This decision meant McKayla would trade her salon chair for working full-time with her husband at the farm. "That's when I became the hired hand and the bookkeeper and all the things," she says.
Problem
As their operation grew, the financial tracking became overwhelming. They were managing multiple pieces of equipment, buying parts for each one, employing three workers on visas from South Africa, and maintaining five different pickups. "I was like, holy crap, how am I gonna manage all this?" McKayla recalls.
Her first attempt at bookkeeping was QuickBooks Online. "I seriously spent probably a year trying to figure that out," she said. "Every time I logged in, it was just like, I don't even know where to go. Do you just throw a dart and start wherever?"
The QuickBooks Online software felt like a barrier rather than a tool. "Every time we were going to go in and try to categorize this or that, there were just too many options. I'd spend an hour on the phone with customer service just to get back to where I started."
Meanwhile, they were working 14-16 hour days trying to establish their operation. "I was in survival mode," McKayla said. "QuickBooks was too advanced for me. How am I going to find time to get my books in order?"
The consequences were real. Custom work invoices weren't getting sent promptly. "My husband would get to the end of a season and be like, 'Oh, this person needs to be billed... that person too...' So many things are slipping through the cracks. We were missing payments."
The stress was taking its toll. "What did we get ourselves into?" McKayla wondered. "I kept telling myself, 'There's no way I can be a bookkeeper or learn this industry.'"
Solution
The breakthrough came when McKayla's husband spotted an Ambrook ad on social media. After researching the platform, McKayla decided to try it. "We've been very happy. Very, very happy. Everything is to the point. Ambrook speaks our language."
The difference was immediate and fundamental. "It's crisp, it's simple. Even before I was a customer, just looking through the app and website, it felt simple."
Key features clicked right away. "Being in the ledger – being able to filter things specifically, by account or timeframe – is huge. I just need to send an invoice, plug a few things in, and be done. I didn’t want all those other options and questions that QuickBooks had."
Reconciling went from impossible to manageable. "I don't think I ever reconciled a full month in QuickBooks. I'd try, then be like, 'What in the hell?' With Ambrook, it's just so easy to get in there and focus on one month or one account. It's a very simple matching game."
The mobile app’s unified interface made it easy to switch between desktop and phone—perfect for their lifestyle. “We get interrupted, we go to the field. Later, we're lying in bed at 10 PM, and we can pull Ambrook back up and cross-reference things. It's there, it's the same.”
Results
The transformation has been comprehensive, affecting both their business operations and personal stress levels:
Faster payments. “Now we send the invoice right away and we're done. We're getting paid quicker. We're working toward paying down those loans so we can expand.”
Clear financial visibility. “This year is going to be so different, and I'm doing it myself. I'm not paying someone else. It gives me a broader perspective on where we're going because I can actually see what's going on.”
Nothing gets missed. "Things aren't slipping through the cracks anymore. If something's missing, I immediately know."
Less stress. “It's been a very stressful last year and a half. And I finally feel like – wow, okay. I can do this.”
Confidence. “Ambrook has given me the confidence to keep up with this business. It's helped me simplify. It's helped me have clutter-free organization right in front of me.”
Family-wide impact. “I walked in today after being out of town for a week... and my husband is logged into Ambrook for the first time. He has all our stuff in spreadsheets usually, and now he's typing things in for invoicing. I'm like, this is amazing.”
Impact
Once their financial side of the business is in order, the Jaegers will finally be able think strategically about growth. They're focused on paying down equipment loans, and then they’ll be able to think about expanding their revenue streams. They've opened a storage unit facility on their land for passive income and are growing an online equipment auction business.
"Right now, we're focused on getting organized," McKayla explains. "And that's where I think Ambrook has been an answered prayer. I hadn’t even been in a place where I can think about growing, because we didn't even know what was going on."
Soon they can ask bigger questions: "Do we start buying more ground? Do we not? We're just kind of in that phase where we need to keep trucking and getting stuff paid off."
For McKayla, the transformation is personal as much as professional. "I was a hairdresser for 10 years. But I can do this too. This has helped me realize, it's not that bad. It's all right here."
Her advice to other farmers struggling with similar challenges? "Anybody who's at a loss and suffering with trying to get their books in order as a farmer, know that it is possible with Ambrook. It doesn't have to be hard. You don't have to sit here 40 hours a week trying to figure it out."
The Jaegers have found what many farm operations need: the ability to stay organized without sacrificing time in the field, to maintain independence without drowning in complexity, and to build a business that strengthens rather than strains family relationships.