A North Dakota rancher started her bookkeeping practice on Ambrook. She scaled from one client to eight in a single year, running the books for operations from hobby farms all the way up to multimillion-dollar ranches.
Meet Jeri
Before she ever thought about starting a bookkeeping business, Jeri had done the books for her family ranch for 15 years. She and her husband Troy run a cow-calf operation and farm in North Dakota, TNT Angus, that was originally started by Troy and his father.
For a while she balanced the operation with another day job, but in the fall of 2024, she was thinking about a change. “I was looking for something that I could do more at home,” Jeri explained, “and be here to help my husband with the day-to-day.”
She enjoyed bookkeeping and had experience with it, so she decided to try running her own practice. Her first clients were her parents, who also have a cow-calf operation five hours away. “I asked my mom if she'd be my guinea pig,” Jeri said. In particular, she wanted to see if she could work well with clients remotely. “It’d be nice to know that it can be done virtually before I jump into this with other clients,” she thought.
She set up a Facebook page to advertise her business and soon after, producers began reaching out for support with their books.
The challenge: Finding a bookkeeping tool for agriculture clients
One of Jeri’s first moves was to look for software she could use across her client base. At the time, she used QuickBooks for TNT Angus, but the platform had never worked quite right for her. “The chart of accounts and categories were always combined, and it just never really made sense to me,” she said. It seemed like a good time to research other options.
In particular, she wanted something more specific to agriculture. Her clients would be other farmers and ranchers, including owners who might be setting up a bookkeeping system for the very first time. The right tool would be intuitive for Jeri, but also easy for clients to pick up themselves.
Joining Ambrook as a Certified Advisor
Ambrook first appeared on Jeri’s Facebook feed and immediately caught her attention. “It piqued my interest, seeing the reports. I was looking for something that was more farm-based,” she explained. “Ambrook looked simple to me and more put together.”
She found Ambrook’s Certified Advisor program and signed up to get trained on the software: “I wanted to make sure I knew how to use the program correctly.” She had the free online course done within a few hours, and later connected with the Ambrook team for support as she brought clients onto the platform. “Everybody was more than helpful anytime I needed questions answered,” she said.
Her next step was to switch TNT Angus over from QuickBooks to try Ambrook for herself. She quickly set up a chart of accounts, balance sheet, and enterprises for her livestock that matched the operation’s business structure well. This gave Jeri early confidence that it would work for her farming and ranching clients.
“I could see that Ambrook was going to make it easier for everybody to understand the books.”
Getting started: Building stronger bookkeeping habits with clients
As her practice took off, one of the first things Jeri noticed was how straightforward it was to onboard new clients to Ambrook. No matter what bookkeeping system they came from, she could easily get their financial data imported and organized.
Some producers already used Ambrook, so onboarding meant helping them catch up on transaction tagging and updating their balance sheet. “They had actually started in Ambrook and didn't have the time to keep going through it,” she explained. “I got that cleaned up for them and got them on the right path.”
Others came over from QuickBooks or previously had the books reviewed by a local bank. It took only a few steps to download their historical transactions, bring the data into Ambrook, and help them get up to date on record-keeping.
And for some clients, working with Jeri was the first time they were setting up a bookkeeping system at all. In those cases, she worked backwards from tax reports, profit and loss statements, or other documents they had. She then helped them connect credit cards and bank accounts so transactions would automatically flow into the Ambrook ledger going forward.
“I can go back to the dates they want transactions cleaned up. Ambrook will bring everything across and I can start working on it.”
Software that understands agriculture
Over time, enterprises were what made Jeri feel that Ambrook was genuinely built for producers. “Farmers, they always seem to have multiple jobs,” she said. Their bookkeeping system had to be able to support that complexity, and enterprise tagging made that possible.
She worked with clients to determine which parts of their business to track: maybe they wanted to identify their most profitable crops, or understand how much the cow herd was costing to run compared to bulls and steers. Jeri would use that information to create enterprises accordingly, then help her clients tag all their incoming transactions to the right ones.
At the end of every month, this allowed her to show clients both the profitability of their entire operation and the profitability of every crop, herd, or activity they had separated out. “You can have the business broken down in Ambrook,” she explained. “And you can have a report with all of it together, or you can have a report with just a certain part.” It’s helped her clients see how their business is doing in the precise ways that matter to them.
“Enterprises are huge. In Ambrook, you can break down crop expenses, and even go as far as breaking down each crop.”
Creating a daily routine across every set of books
These days, Jeri works in Ambrook all the time, toggling between organizations to check on different clients’ books. “Daily I’m in there,” she said, categorizing transactions or recording large purchases on the balance sheet. Sometimes she even helps with invoicing and payments. For one client, Jeri manages all of his bills in Ambrook, mails checks from his business account in Ambrook Wallet, and makes sure everything gets paid.
Her bookkeeper access to clients’ Ambrook accounts has made this level of collaboration particularly smooth. She doesn’t have to go back and forth with clients to get financial statements or ask for updated versions every month. Come time for reconciliations and reviews, Jeri can just pull what she needs (whether it’s a P&L or another report) directly from their books.
Learning and using Ambrook itself has even become a part of the routine that she looks forward to, especially as she’s seen the software evolve alongside her practice. “The Ambrook team takes considerations and ideas,” she explained, “and the platform is constantly growing in a good way.”
“I just love being in there every day and working through things.”
Looking forward: A simple tax season
The upcoming winter will be Jeri’s first time handling tax season for all of her clients on top of her own operation. It sounds like a lot, but she isn’t worried: Last year as her first customer, Jeri’s mom told her the process had been “so simple and so easy.”
This time around, with all of the work Jeri’s done to record transactions and review reports with clients throughout the year, she knows the books will be ready. “They’ll see everything's done for them and simplified, and they didn't have to worry about it,” she said.
But her efforts to scale her business, find the right bookkeeping system for her clients, and build a daily routine for them have already paid off:
8x client base growth in 1 year
10,000+ transactions tagged across 9 operations
Monthly P&Ls and balance sheets for every client
She encourages other bookkeepers who have thought about moving their practice to Ambrook to try it. “I tell a lot of people to do it. I’ve loved Ambrook and anytime I need questions answered, everybody is so helpful.” As Jeri prepares for her first full tax season, she’s excited to continue supporting other producers in her North Dakota community and beyond.
Want to run your bookkeeping practice on Ambrook? Become an Ambrook Certified Advisor.