When a former educator and technology professional bought his first ranch, he chose Ambrook to help him start three businesses. He used the platform to calculate exact returns on what he invested in the land, so he could build an operation that’s profitable for years to come.
Meet Chad Stevens
For most of his career, Chad has worked in education and technology. He spent 14 years as a public educator, going from teacher to principal to District Chief Technology Officer, before moving into executive roles at Amazon Web Services, early stage startups, and Silicon Valley companies.
About a year ago, he felt ready to try something new. It wasn’t time to step back from the tech world yet, but he knew he wanted more balance. After a decade working in Illinois, he wanted to return home to Texas, where his family has lived for eight generations. “I was like, ‘I’m going to buy a ranch somewhere around Stephenville. I love that country. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen, but I’m going to build something.’”
Soon Chad was buying a ranch from a retiring couple in their eighties, who left all their equipment and three of their horses in his care. He got to work right away, renovating a barn for horse boarding, planning to expand the ranch’s building infrastructure, and even turning a bunkhouse into a rental property. “The goal is for the land to eventually pay for itself and give something back to my kids,” he explained.
The challenge: Entering a brand new business
From the moment he decided to go in on the ranch, Chad started looking for a financial management tool. Buying land comes with personal financial risk, so he wanted to closely measure the returns on his investment over time. "I put up all this capital to buy the place, and I need operational strength in my numbers so I know how to use every resource it comes with," he said.
He also had another reason to look for accounting software right away: Chad would be running the ranch on top of his existing day job. He wanted a platform that would make the finances easy enough that he could continue to be successful in both his technology career and his operation.
With that in mind, Chad noted a few specific requirements. Because he planned to start multiple businesses on the ranch, he needed software that could handle multi-entity accounting. And since he bought all of the ranch’s equipment from the previous owners, he was already thinking about tracking depreciation.
He had used QuickBooks before for a consulting business he ran previously, but this time, he wanted something designed for ranching. "QuickBooks was already a little clunky for me when I was doing simple things like invoicing," Chad said, so the idea of trying to manage assets like tractors, trailers, or horse panels there sounded even more complicated. “Someone’s bound to have created a software that’s for this, right?”
Starting on Ambrook
Chad turned to ChatGPT to help find a platform that matched those requirements: something built for ranching, that could handle multiple business lines, and would help him measure equipment depreciation. With his background in tech, he also cared about the user experience and how the software itself was built.
The AI chat told him about Ambrook, and Chad was surprised to see there was a tool that actually fit what he wanted. “I knew what I was looking for. I just didn’t know it existed.”
He immediately started to set up his operation in Ambrook, with separate entities billed on different plans but accessible from a single login. For Chad, one of the best parts of the onboarding process was working with Ambrook’s support team. They hopped on phone calls to understand how he wanted to split the different businesses under Halcyon Ranch, then helped him set up the software accordingly.
“The customer service has just been incredible… It was pretty overwhelming that somebody actually cared about what I was doing.”
By the day Chad officially closed the deal on his new ranch, all of the land, structures, equipment, and horses that came with it were already entered as assets in Ambrook.
A year later: Learning the ropes with Ambrook
In the year since starting Halcyon Ranch, learning to do ranch accounting in Ambrook helped Chad learn about the business of ranching itself.
AI tagging suggestions, for example, nudged him on how to categorize transactions and organize his enterprises. “The auto-tagging and AI give you some pretty good suggestions. Like, oh, maybe I should think about it like this; that’s probably a better enterprise for this transaction.” Fuel, maintenance, and supplies were expense categories he never had to consider for his other businesses, but that he now learned to account for.
Chad also liked that he could track non-cash transactions. He leases part of his land to a couple that runs a beef cattle operation, and they agreed to exchange a heifer instead of cash. With Ambrook, Chad was able to figure out how to record livestock assets in cases like these. “When I go into Ambrook, there’s literally a button for livestock, and I can label it as a heifer.”
Soon, Chad was able to set up a bookkeeping system that practically ran on its own. His transactions flowed into the ledger via bank connections, and he created automations that tagged them for him. He logs into Ambrook regularly to check in, sometimes doing a quick spot check in the mobile app, but he likes that the books aren’t taking over his business.
“What I like about it is, once you set it up, it’s kind of a ‘set it and forget it.’”
Seeing exact returns on investments
Beyond helping Chad get the hang of ranch accounting, Ambrook gave him the tools he needed to accomplish his biggest priority: Calculating break-even points and knowing the return of every capital investment he makes in Halcyon Ranch.
Take the bunkhouse, for example. It cost roughly $17,000 in repairs and renovations (from installing air conditioning, to adding new lighting, to replumbing the place) to transform it into a functional rental property.
Chad officially started renting it out this year, and covers certain costs for renters like internet and garbage disposal. Given both upfront and ongoing expenses, he wanted to know when he could expect the place to pay for itself and understand whether it would be profitable long-term. In Ambrook, he set up another entity to track the expenses and revenue for Halcyon Property Management. And then, it was as simple as checking the analytics to see it would pay back in about 18 months.
“I’m able to actually know at what point that property is going to be in the black. It allows me to know that this isn’t a loss.”
Scaling three entities in one platform
As an operator with no shortage of business ideas and interests, Chad liked that he could separate out different entities in Ambrook while accessing them from the same login.
He started with Halcyon Ranch to manage cattle, equipment, and equine projects, then added Halcyon Property Management for the rental. Later, he created an entity for Halcyon Advisory to manage his corporate consulting work. Each of them gets its own ledger and reports so he can clearly see profitability per business line, but everything is centralized in the same platform. "I can just toggle between the three businesses," he explained.
Importantly, as Chad continues to explore new opportunities, the system will continue to scale with him. He’s already thinking about using part of the ranch for horse training and boarding, and considering where that part of the operation might fit together with his existing entities.
Looking forward: More time for the work he loves
If Chad runs his business with great structure and detailed financial data, it’s because he believes it will ultimately buy him the flexibility to do the many things he enjoys. A strong grasp of his operation’s finances is what allows him to run the ranch alongside a demanding day job.
And eventually, he explained, “the north star for me is freedom.” When he retires from the technology industry, he wants the freedom to do consulting for a few companies in the morning, then go work on the ranch in the afternoon.
With Ambrook, he’s built a complex multi-entity business that he knows he’s gaining on:
Calculated the 18-month payback on a $17,000+ property investment
Managed 3 separate entities under one login
Tracked the depreciation of $100,000 in equipment
In fact, Chad has set up a financial system so efficient that he doesn’t have to spend time worrying about it. “I don’t have to go in there that much,” he said, and it’s a good thing. “I don’t really want to spend all my time in the books. I’d rather be outside,” he explained, doing what he loves to do. “It’s a lot of work. But it’s a kind of soul-filling type of work.”