“Here you go. Good luck,” is what Jeremiah Burbach recalls telling his accountant when he’d drop off boxes of papers come tax time. When it came to his books, he admitted, “I didn't know what was going on.”
Like many producers managing both crops and livestock, Burbach often had to push bookkeeping to the back burner. For years, tax season meant guesswork and a scramble to pull things together.
It’s more than understandable, considering his full plate. Burbach runs a complex, diversified farm in northwest Kansas alongside his father. Wheat and milo are the primary crops, but he also grows alfalfa, soybeans, sunflowers, and corn. “Quite a lot of different things going on,” he said of the operation. On the livestock side, he runs a cow herd, is experimenting with sheep, and even manages newly purchased land of his own.
The Breaking Point: Receipts in a Box and December Stress
The annual routine was stressful. Burbach would drop off receipts at year-end with a fuzzy picture of his spending across different categories. "You do not know how much you spent on feed, for example," he said. When he got his Schedule F back, the numbers often didn't make sense.
"One year, I have this amazingly high number associated with fertilizer and chemical. Next year, it's over on the seed side. Well, it depends on how they look at those receipts and which line item they put them in," Burbach explains. Without consistent tracking and categorization, he was left guessing — and often surprised by December.
The uncertainty created real business problems. "I've gotten in a little trouble the last couple of years when you wait till December, and they finally fill things out, and it's like, 'Well, crap, what do we do now?' Then you end up making a bad decision — which I did a couple years ago."
Burbach knew something needed to change. Over the years, he tried different approaches. About three years ago, his accounting firm offered a program designed to make farm record-keeping easier. But it still relied too heavily on back-and-forth communication. "I was still having to look at the receipt, tell them what was going on, and it wasn't working as well as I wanted it to."
Last year, he tested another system that "totally fell apart." With nothing reliable in place, he found himself back where he started. "I was back to the box," he said.
The Solution: Technology That Works for Farms
The breakthrough came from a podcast, when Burbach heard about Ambrook and immediately saw the fit. “As they're talking about it, I'm going, 'Oh my God, this is amazing.' There’s technology out there to make this stuff easier! It seemed like Ambrook had it all put together for me.”
Since starting with Ambrook in January 2025, he's felt a noticeable shift. The technology handles what used to be manual drudgery. "Once you get the system set up, it's very easy. You can take a picture of a receipt. When things come through on the bank statement, you get in there and just match them up. It automatically matches them up for you anyway."
The system works well for his diversified operation. "I can go in there with livestock, I can itemize stuff out correctly. With the farm equipment, itemize it out. With the crop ground, itemize it. It's set up, in my world, just right."
Most importantly, it’s given him real-time visibility. "Ambrook just lowers your stress because you know what's going on with your numbers and you can watch them from day to day or month to month."
The Results: From Reactive to Proactive Tax Planning
The time investment is finally manageable, even when things fall behind. "If it’s been three weeks since I did anything, I now know if I take just an hour, I'd probably have myself updated in Ambrook pretty quick," he said. "Because it's easy, I'm willing to sit down and do it. And because it's easy, it doesn't take much time to know your numbers."
The transformation goes beyond just better organization. It extends to tax preparation. For the first time, Burbach can ensure his Schedule F categories are accurate from the start. "Now I know when I'm filling this thing out — okay, this went where it was supposed to go. So that's one part that's helping me out quite a bit."
When he meets with his accountant now, it's about fine-tuning rather than starting from scratch. He still likes having some professional input for Schedule F filing, but unlike in the past, Burbach is no longer just handing over a pile of receipts and hoping for the best.
Instead of year-end panic, he's planning multiple conversations with his accountant throughout 2025. “With Ambrook, I'll be able to sit down with my accountant two or three times this year and do a lot better job of planning," he explains. “I’ll be able to have all my receipts handy.”
Looking Forward: Whole-Farm Financial Clarity
Burbach is expanding the system across his entire operation. "We're going to have [my wife] working on Ambrook too, filling out her side, which is the Schedule C side," he said. The platform accommodates their diverse activities while maintaining the organization needed for tax compliance.
His advice to other farmers still stuck in the annual crisis cycle? "Jump right into Ambrook. It's so easy because the team has taken the time to look through how to set up the program. They've taken the hard work out of it for us.”
He also addresses the security concerns that often hold farmers back from financial technology. "Don't be too nervous about taking those pictures or linking your credit cards or your bank account to this stuff. It's safe. When you link those all together, it just makes your life so much easier. Just takes that stress away and you're ready to go. And then you know your numbers."
For Burbach, the transformation is complete: tax season has shifted from a source of panic to an opportunity for strategic planning. "By the end of the year I'm going to know my numbers and know them very well."