Jessica Parker
Jr Staff Accountant

Jessica Parker


Jessica Parker brings over 15 years of bookkeeping and controller experience to the team. As a certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, she specializes in lifting the daily accounting burden off the shoulders of business owners, giving them peace of mind and freedom to focus on their true passions.

Born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming, Jessica’s roots in the agricultural community run deep. Outside of the accounting world, livestock has always been a cornerstone of her life—serving as both a rewarding family venture and a welcome break from the numbers. Alongside her husband, Pat, and their children, Jessica’s family owns and operates Parker Show Pigs. Together, they manage over 20 sows across two farrowing seasons, providing competitive show pigs to youth nationwide, while also raising beef for direct-to-consumer sales.

Jessica is thrilled to be a part of the Ranch Right team, where she can seamlessly combine her two lifelong passions: accounting and agriculture.

jr staff accountant at ranch right
Jr Staff Accountant

Megan Freeman


Megan grew up in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Although she was not raised in agriculture, she has always had a passion for the industry. She graduated from the University of Idaho with a bachelor's degree in Animal Science, where she also met her husband, Sam.

Throughout her career, Megan has held a variety of positions, from working with JBS Meat Packers to her most recent role with Farm Credit. During her time in agricultural lending, she has worked with a wide range of businesses and gained valuable insight into one of the most important factors in business success: understanding the numbers.

In 2019, Megan and Sam purchased their own property and began raising Red Angus cattle. Through managing the finances of their own operation while also working in agricultural lending, Megan has developed a unique perspective that combines both the producer's and lender's viewpoints. This experience allows her to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by agricultural businesses from multiple angles and helps her provide practical, informed guidance to those she serves.

jentrie jr staff accountant at ranch right
Jr Staff Accountant

Jentrie Kartak

My name is Jentrie Kartak and I live in south central South Dakota on my husband’s family ranch. We run a fairly diverse operation with a commercial cow/calf herd, backgrounding lot, small band of broodmares, and a commercial meat goat herd. In our free time we enjoy wrangling our 2 year old as well!
 
My passion for agriculture started from a young age as I began riding horses before I could walk and helping out wherever I was needed on my family’s ranch. I grew up on a cow/calf operation in the Nebraska Sandhills just south of Bassett. This is where I developed a work ethic, learned responsibility, and grew a respect for the land and the cycle of life. At 15 years old, my family purchased part of the Bassett Livestock Auction, and I began learning about the industry from a different angle: understanding the ever-changing markets, buyer/seller relations, and how to sort and market cattle to keep operations profitable and spark competitive bidding. College led me to the business and numbers side where I received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a minor in accounting. From there I worked on the program side of the Farm Service Agency, implementing many disaster relief programs through the floods and blizzards that prevailed in the winter of 2018-2019 and working through the pandemic that shut our world down in 2020. In 2021 I was offered the opportunity to work as a lender at a local bank in my hometown. This experience really helped shape my knowledge on the numbers side of agriculture and provided me with many real life examples of what makes an operation successful.
 
I look forward to carrying the knowledge that I have gained from past experiences into this new role where I can continue to work for and give back to an industry that has given so much to me.

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Executive Assistant

Kylin Jerslid

Kylin was raised on her family’s ranch north of Springview, NE. Her passion for anything ranching, cattle, and horses began early! Growing up in a family that values learning developed a love for learning and growth in her.

Kylin graduated from Chadron State College in 2021 with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and a minor in Ag- Business. After graduation, she moved home to ranch full time with her parents, Brian and Jill Munger, helping with their registered seed stock herd, stocker cattle, custom grazing, and bull development, along with the occasional sheep, goat, chicken, game bird, or pig project!

In May of 2024, Kylin married Drew and moved south of Chadron, NE to ranch with her husband and his family. In her free time, you can find her working with her husband on the ranch, riding her horses, hunting, quilting, or reading a book!

Sales

mimi Argyle

Mimi Argyle grew up in Idaho immersed in agriculture, specifically cow/calf enterprises. Mimi and her husband Tyson run a cow/calf operation in Wyoming and are partners in Mimi’s family’s operation in Idaho. This gives her a diverse understanding of ranching.
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Mimi graduated college with a Master’s in Education from Montana State University and continues to use her gift by teaching High School Science and Ag Business management in Idaho. She has a knack for numbers and is a lifelong learner always trying to improve management practices through facts not feelings.

​In her spare time, Mimi enjoys spending time with Tyson and their 2 daughters, Macki and Ruby, and training barrel horses.

Founder

John Haskell

John Haskell founded Ranch Right, and he came to ranching from the outside. He didn't grow up on one. He hired on at a ranch that was making good money, saw how it ran, and never looked at the business the same way again. Over the next twenty years he worked for profitable ranches, including Deseret Land and Livestock, built ranch businesses from the ground up, and turned failing ones around.

His background is an unusual one for an accountant. He studied Range Science and Management at Utah State University, doing graduate research alongside Mark Ritchie and Fred Provenza, and earned a degree in Biology and Math, summa cum laude, from the University of New Mexico. His ecological research has been published in Nature and The American Naturalist. That mix of hard science and hands-on ranch work is how he learned to see a ranch as one system, where the land and the books either work together or fail together.

Today John runs Ranch Right's advisory side with Travis Krause, helping ranchers make the operational calls that close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. He hosts Ranchonomics, a podcast on the business of ranching, and is a founding member of Ranching.fyi.

He believes great ranches focus on the business and use its power to get the outcomes they're after.

jaynee, CPA at Ranch Right
Tax Prep & Planning Advisor

Jaynee Hanson, CPA

Professional Expertise
Jaynee is a Certified Public Accountant specializing in taxation for agricultural producers and small businesses. She advises clients on federal and state tax matters, including entity selection, depreciation strategies, tax deferrals, succession planning, and proactive tax optimization. Jaynee began her career in Casper, Wyoming, where she built a strong foundation working with ranching operations and businesses in the oil and gas industry. She later moved to Laramie where she truly became a “small business generalist,” gaining experience in payroll, retirement compliance and software implementation. Most recently, she has worked for a nationwide boutique firm specializing in entity structure and tax-saving strategies. She helps clients make informed decisions that minimize tax exposure and support long-term, multi-generational success.

Agricultural Perspective
Jaynee brings practical, firsthand experience to her work. She and her family own and operate a Wyoming ranch, giving her a deep understanding of the financial and operational challenges producers face every day. She graduated from Ranching for Profit in 2014, further strengthening her knowledge of business management and strategic decision-making in agriculture. She is especially passionate about helping families preserve and strengthen multi-generational agricultural operations through strategic planning, clear communication, and client education that empowers confident decision-making. She believes agriculture offers tremendous opportunities for thoughtful tax planning and business strategy, and she enjoys helping producers take advantage of them. There’s no better industry to be in!

Education & Life Outside the Office
Jaynee graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2015 and earned her CPA license in 2020. Outside the office, she and her husband are raising their two young sons. She also enjoys caring for her chickens, tending her garden, and continually improving her canning skills.

Micayla Giffin, Ranch Right Farm & Ranch Financial Advisor
Financial Literacy Advisor

micayla giffin

Micayla Giffin is Ranch Right's financial literacy advisor. She grew up on a small farm in southeast Missouri and earned a degree in agriculture from the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Before joining the team, she spent nine years with the USDA Farm Service Agency as a loan officer, loan analyst, and support specialist, working with farms and ranches of every kind. She watched some fail, plenty just get by, and a few build something that lasts.

That last group is the work she does here. Micayla helps ranchers set goals, build a budget, and do the math on the gap between the profit they're making now and the profit they're after. She defines the target and the number, and the team handles the moves to get there.

She lives in Union City, Tennessee with her husband Derek and their two sons, where they grow corn, soybeans, and cover crops and graze cattle on perennial pasture. She has been a guest on the podcast on financial literacy and on navigating FSA programs.

listen to Micayla on the Ranchonomics Podcast
Walter Lynn Jr CPA
Succession & Restructuring Advisor

Walter Lynn Jr., CPA

Walter Lynn Jr. is a CPA and Ranch Right's succession and restructuring advisor. He grew up on a diversified family farm in central Illinois with a land ethic that has shaped his whole career. He went on to own a CPA firm serving agricultural clients across the country, and he has long been a conservation leader and an advocate for regenerative agriculture.
He served as the initial chief operating officer of Understanding Ag and later as CFO for both Understanding Ag and the Soil Health Academy. When ranchers need to restructure debt, plan a handoff to the next generation, or rebuild working capital, Walter is who they sit down with.
He was an early influence on John's own thinking about ranch accounting, and he joined the podcast to talk through how ranchers build working capital.

listen to walter on the Ranchonomics Podcast
Julie Davidson
Insurance Policy Advisor

Julie Davidson

Julie Davidson is Ranch Right's insurance advisor and runs High Country Coverage Consulting out of Sheridan, Wyoming. She grew up on a small hay farm in southwest Iowa raising and showing Quarter Horses, and has spent most of her adult life in Wyoming at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. Early in her marriage, her husband worked as farm crew foreman on one of the state's largest ranches, so she has seen ranch risk up close from the start.

She is a licensed insurance producer in several states, specializes in farm and ranch coverage, and has more than twenty years in the industry, including claims adjusting. She holds an Associate in Claims designation from the Insurance Institute of America and studied business administration at Sheridan College and Regis University. On top of that, she manages the books for a large cow/calf operation and helps run its direct-to-consumer grass-fed, grain-finished beef program.

When a rancher needs to know what they're covered for and what they're not, Julie is who answers it. She is a regular on the podcast, covering everything from insurance pitfalls to health coverage to trucking risk in a high-price market.

listen to julie on the Ranchonomics Podcast
Emilie Hopson, Fractional Farm HR Advisor
HR Advisor & Founder of Agri-Culture

Emilie Hopson

Emilie Hopson is Ranch Right's HR advisor and the founder of Agri-Culture, a business built around the people side of ranching. She has more than twelve years of human resources experience in the medical and manufacturing fields, holds a degree in business administration and marketing from the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and earned an MBA from Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Ranching is not a side interest for her. She and her husband Zach run a 400-head cow-calf operation in Nacogdoches, Texas, while raising three children, and she is a graduate of Ranching for Profit. That combination is rare: someone who understands payroll, hiring, and team systems and has also built a crew on a working ranch.

Emilie helps ranchers build stronger teams, set up better systems, and work through the how-do-we-fix-this moments that come with managing people. She joined the podcast to talk about the work she does through Agri-Culture.

listen to Emilie on the Ranchonomics Podcast
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Account Manager

Mandy Wiltse

Mandy Wiltse started out a city girl in Topeka, Kansas. She earned a BBA in accounting from Kansas State University in 1997, where she also met her husband Kevin. After they married she moved to his family's fifth-generation ranch and farm near Timken, Kansas, and that is where the two of them raised three children.

She brings more than twenty-five years of accounting experience to Ranch Right, spanning work at a CPA firm, teaching at a community college, and running virtual accounting services. As an account manager, that range lets her meet clients wherever they are with their books.

Mandy and Kevin are both graduates of Ranching for Profit and are serious about regenerative agriculture and soil health. They run a cow/calf herd and a direct-to-consumer grass-finished beef program, and farm wheat, soybeans, and milo. So when a client talks through the operation side of things, she has lived a good deal of it.

Onboarding / Staff Accountant

Chelsey Waters


Chelsey Waters grew up on a cow/calf and backgrounding operation in southern Alberta. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with an accounting major from Mount Royal University, then earned her Chartered Professional Accountant designation while working with agriculture clients.

In 2020 she and her husband Jordie moved to Texas to put their stockmanship and livestock marketing experience to work, and she joined Ranch Right in 2021. She handles onboarding and staff accounting, so for a lot of clients she is one of the first people on the team they work with as they get set up.

She has a real appetite for learning, and lately that has meant digging into how different kinds of people think and work. That comes in handy in a job that is part numbers and part getting to know the operation behind them.

daniel strong, CPA
Senior Accountant

Daniel Strong, CPA

Daniel Strong was born and raised in Mitchell, in southeast South Dakota. He grew up wishing he had been raised on a farm. His grandparents had sold the family place during the farm crisis of the 1980s, so agriculture was close but not underfoot. He earned an economics degree from the University of South Dakota and went on to finish a Master's in Accounting.

After college he taught English abroad and spent time living outside the country, which left him with a deep appreciation for the American form of government and the rule of law. He came back, went to work at a rural CPA firm that dealt heavily with local farmers and ranchers, and earned his CPA in South Dakota.

As a senior accountant at Ranch Right, Daniel likes the part of the work where he sits down with clients and hands them information they can use while it still matters. Timely and useful is the goal.

Staff Accountant

Jori Steele

Jori Steele grew up in Laramie, Wyoming, with ranching on both sides of her family. Her family ran cow-calf and custom grazing yearling operations in high-elevation country, so she grew up understanding what that kind of terrain asks of an operation. She earned an Animal Science degree from the University of Wyoming.

From there she and her husband Jordan moved to northwest Kansas and spent time in academia. For five years she was the Beef Program Director at Colby Community College, where she taught beef management, looked after the college cow herd, and ran the performance bull test and sale. Working with students, she kept noticing the same gap: they needed financial awareness and organizational skills more than almost anything. That pushed her toward the accounting side, and she finished a Master's in Agricultural Education in the summer of 2023.

She now works as a staff accountant at Ranch Right and lives in Wheatland, Wyoming, with Jordan and their son Roan. When she is not at the desk, she is roping, hunting, or doing day work for local ranches.

Staff Accountant

Josie Hammond

Josie Hammond is a fifth-generation rancher from a cow/calf ranch near Hardin, Montana. She graduated from Montana State University in May 2022 with a degree in Agricultural Business and a minor in accounting.

As a staff accountant at Ranch Right, she works with the kind of operations she was raised on. Home is still a big part of her life, and she spends as much time as she can helping on the ranch alongside her dad, mom, brother, and grandpa.

Away from work and the ranch, Josie bakes, quilts, plays with her nephews, and keeps her dog Paisley company.

Staff Accountant

Kohl Carter

Kohl Carter grew up hiking and exploring the mountains and canyons of Utah. His path into ranching ran through the soil. He got interested while studying soil science in college, and an internship with Missouri grazier Greg Judy gave him his first hands-on introduction to cattle, sheep, and grazing management.

From there he worked on ranches across the country and saw a lot of different production models. He has also completed training through the Savory Institute, the Soil Food Web School, and Ranching for Profit School. As a staff accountant at Ranch Right, that grounding in how ranches run shows up in the way he reads an operation's numbers.

Kohl lives in central Louisiana, where he manages a small cattle operation with his family. He is happiest when he is learning something new.

Jr. Staff Accountant

Kailee Butterfield

Kailee Butterfield grew up in an eastern Nebraska farming community, in corn and soybean country. She fell for ranching during summers on her grandparents' place in the Sandhills, and it stuck. She graduated from Chadron State College with a BBA in Rangeland Management, Livestock option, and a minor in agribusiness.

Before joining Ranch Right as a junior staff accountant, she spent four years as a program analyst at the Farm Service Agency. That FSA background gives her a working knowledge of the federal programs a lot of ranchers are trying to make sense of.

Kailee lives south of Chadron, Nebraska, with her husband Buck, where they run a few cows and are building a ranching operation of their own. She rides and shows horses, follows western art, does ranch work, and keeps a flock of chickens. She joined Micayla Giffin on the podcast to walk through FSA programs and how ranchers can use them.

listen to Kailee on the Ranchonomics Podcast
Brianna Lopez, Farm Payroll Specialist at Ranch Right
Payroll Specialist

Brianna Lopez

Brianna Lopez was raised on her family's ranch in New Mexico and has deep roots in agriculture. Since 2013 she and her husband, a full-time cowboy, have raised three daughters in that same lifestyle. Today they live in northern Nevada on the historic T S Ranch.

She came to bookkeeping early, first doing the books for her own small businesses and later managing the office and accounting for a local feed store. She is QuickBooks-certified, and as Ranch Right's payroll specialist she handles transaction cleanup, account reconciliation, payroll processing, and the day-to-day bookkeeping. Her focus is helping ranchers, farmers, and small business owners get a handle on their finances without feeling buried by them.

Off the clock, Brianna reads and rides horses.

Staff Accountant

Andrew Mainini

Andrew Mainini is from the Texas Hill Country. He graduated from Oklahoma State University with a BBA in Rangeland Management and Agribusiness.

He and his wife Tori have worked on ranches across the country, from the Texas Panhandle to northern Wyoming, and that road has taken him through seedstock operations, large-scale corporate ranches, and feedlots. What he cares about most is the place where modern regenerative management meets a more traditional style of ranching. As a junior staff accountant at Ranch Right, he brings that on-the-ground perspective to the books.

Andrew lives in Bighorn, Wyoming, with Tori and their son Walt. When he is off the clock you might find him golfing, fly fishing in the Bighorn Mountains, or working with cow horses.

Staff Accountant

Kecia Roseman

Kecia Roseman lives in western North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with her husband. She raised five daughters and a son, and these days she has three grandchildren.

She brings thirty years of accounting experience to Ranch Right. Over that time she has done CPA services, non-profit auditing and bookkeeping, personal tax prep, and controller work for family-owned small businesses. As a staff accountant, what drives her is helping clients understand their own financials, because that is what lets them make sound decisions and hold on to a reasonable work-life balance.

Jr. Staff Accountant

Concey Storer

Concey Storer is from central Nebraska, where her family runs a feedlot, cow/calf, and farming operation in Palmer. She grew up around many sectors of the cattle industry, from birth to butcher. She attended Chadron State College and earned a BBA in Ag-Business with a minor in art.

Her interest in cattle took her a long way from home for a while. She traveled to Australia to learn about the industry there, attending conferences and workshops while working on commercial cow/calf operations. As a junior staff accountant at Ranch Right, that broad view of how cattle outfits operate helps her make sense of the numbers behind them.

In November 2025 she married Colten Storer and moved to his family's ranch in Arthur, Nebraska. You will usually catch her working with colts, helping her husband on the ranch, or running a farm stand.

Jr. Staff Accountant

Caitie Hefner

Caitie Hefner comes from a southern New Mexico cattle ranching family. After high school she managed the office at her father's dental practice, where she built a solid foundation in business management, and she also helped with operations and bookkeeping in his cattle ranching business. She holds a bachelor's degree in general business.

For a while she pursued music, working as a singer/songwriter in the Texas country scene in Austin. In 2013 she came back to her ag roots, taking a job at a high-end guest and working cattle ranch in southern Wyoming. There she ran a large equestrian program and handled bookkeeping, accounting, and horse health and behavior. She also met her husband there, and the two of them are rooted in rural Wyoming.

As a junior staff accountant at Ranch Right, Caitie draws on both the books side and the ranch side of that experience. When she is not working, she plays music, barrel races, hunts, and works with her horses.

ranch right farm consulting lead Travis Krause
Advisory Team Lead

Travis Krause

Travis Krause leads Ranch Right's advisory team. He grew up near D'Hanis, Texas, on land his family has ranched since 1846, and studied Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M. His work has taken him from India to Central Africa and back home to the Texas Hill Country.

He co-founded Parker Creek Ranch, a direct-to-consumer meat business, with his wife Mandy. He served as CEO of GrazingLands, managing ranch assets for SoilWorks Natural Capital, and later as VP of Highland Beef, running supply chain logistics. He has also worked as a venture partner helping build new companies.

On the advisory team, Travis works with John on the how: grazing, gross margin, marketing, and the operational moves that turn a plan into profit. He joined John on the podcast to break down the link between grazing management and gross product.

listen to Travis on the Ranchonomics Podcast

Farm & Ranch Accounting Costs: A Complete Breakdown

John Haskell
In This Guide:
  1. Key Takeaways
  2. How much does farm and ranch accounting cost?
  3. What are your options for handling the books - and what does each cost?
  4. What makes farm and ranch accounting cost more, or less?
  5. Why do the costs range from $300 a month to $75,000 a year?
  6. How do firms price this work?
  7. What's usually included, and what costs extra?
  8. Is hiring out your farm accounting worth it?
  9. Can you finance or split up the cost?
  10. Next Steps
  11. Sources List & References

Accounting & Consulting Fees For Farms And Ranches In The US & Canada: A Complete Breakdown

By John Haskell, Rounder of Ranch Right. 20 years building and turning around profitable ranches; host of the Ranchonomics Podcast.

A ranch road forking into several paths, representing a farm's different options for handling its bookkeeping.

Key Takeaways

  • Farm and ranch accounting costs range from about $0 (do it yourself) to $75,000+ per year (a dedicated CFO or large firm), depending on which option you choose and how complex your operation is.
  • A generalist bookkeeper typically runs $300–$1,000/month (NerdWallet, 2025) but usually doesn’t handle ag-specific accounting or advising.
  • An in-house bookkeeper costs roughly $45,000–$70,000+/year all-in — the median bookkeeping-clerk wage is $49,210 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2024), and benefits add roughly 30% on top of wages (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation), before software and your time managing them.
  • A specialized ag firm that bundles bookkeeping with advising typically runs $650–$4,800/month — often quoted as 2–4% of gross revenue — plus a one-time onboarding fee. (Ranch Right’s own figures; see the pricing page.)
  • The big cost drivers are the same everywhere: your revenue, how complex your operation is (enterprises, entities, inventory, payroll), and how much human advising is built in.
  • Tax filing and payroll are usually separate from a monthly bookkeeping/advising fee, whichever provider you choose.

Want Ranch Right’s specific numbers and a calculator for your own operation? See the pricing page

pricing page

How much does farm and ranch accounting cost?

Farm and ranch accounting costs anywhere from $0 to $75,000+ per year. That enormous range exists because “accounting” can mean five very different things – from doing your own books in a spreadsheet, to hiring a full-time employee, to retaining a specialized firm that handles your books and advises you on the big decisions.
Here’s the quick-reference version before we break each one down:

OptionTypical CostWhat You’re Paying For
Do it yourself$0 cash + software (~$30–$80/mo)
Your own time and judgment
Generalist bookkeeper/Quickbooks Live$300–$1,000/moTransaction categorization, basic monthly books
In-house bookkeeper (employee)$45,000–$70,000+/yr all-inA dedicated person on staff
Specialized ag firm (books + advising, bundled)$650–$4,800/mo (~2–4% of revenue) + onboardingAg-built books and business decision support
Big ag firm/dedicated CFO$50,000–$75,000+/yrHigh-touch strategic finance for large operations
Cost figures sourced from: BLS (in-house wages), NerdWallet (bookkeeping services), and Pilot / Graphite Financial (fractional/dedicated CFO). The specialized-ag-firm range reflects Ranch Right’s published pricing. Full citations at the bottom of this guide.

The rest of this guide explains what you actually get at each level, what makes the price move, and how to figure out which one pencils for your operation.

What are your options for handling the books – and what does each cost?

There are five common routes a farm or ranch takes. Here’s an honest, side-by-side comparison of what each typically includes, what it leaves out, and what it costs. No single one is “best” — the right answer depends on how complex your operation is and how much you want to do yourself.

DIY
(you + spreadsheet/QBO)		Generalist bookkeeper
/ QuickBooks Live		In-house hire
(employee)		Specialized ag firm, bundled
(e.g. Ranch Right)		[TBD] Big ag firm / dedicated CFO
Typical cost$0 + software (~$30–$80/mo)$300–$1,000/mo$45K–$70K+/yr all-in$650–$4,800/mo, bundled$50K–$75K+/yr
Day-to-day bookkeepingYou do it✓✓✓✓
Ag-specific accounting (livestock inventory, cow depreciation, enterprise margins, Schedule F)~ only if you know it✗ usually not~ only if they know ranching (rare)✓✓
Financial advising / decision support✗✗✗✓ bundled in✓
PayrollYou do it+ add-on or ✗✓ it’s their job+ add-on+ add-on or ✓
Tax filingYou / your CPA✗✗ still need a CPA+ add-on (separate)~ sometimes in-house
Who manages / trains themn/aYou manage the relationshipYou hire, train, review, cover when they’re outThem (dedicated team)Them
Best fitSimple, single-enterprise, time-richSimple books, no advising neededLarger operation wanting in-house controlGrowing / multi-enterprise wanting ag-built books + advisingLarge, multi-entity, frequent

A few honest notes on the table:

A cheaper option is usually a smaller one. A generalist bookkeeper costs less because they do less: they clean up transactions but skip ag-specific accounting and advising. For a simple operation that just needs tidy books, that can be the right fit.
An in-house hire costs more than the salary. You also pay payroll taxes, benefits, and software, and you spend your own time hiring, training, and covering for them when they’re out. It can pencil for a larger operation that wants someone on-site, though you take on a management job and a single point of failure.
A bundled firm still has gaps. Tax filing and payroll usually sit outside the base monthly fee as separate add-ons. At Ranch Right, for example, about two-thirds of clients keep their own CPA for filing.
What moves the price within any one column is the same set of factors, covered in the next section.

What makes farm and ranch accounting cost more, or less?

The biggest factor is gross revenue. A bigger operation moves more money, runs more transactions, and takes more work to account for. After that, two things matter: how complicated your money is, and how often you want to meet for advising. The factors below apply to any good ag accountant, not just one firm. Click each to expand for more information.

  • Higher gross revenue: more transactions, more dollars to track
  • Direct-to-consumer / retail by the cut: selling meat by the cut explodes transaction count
  • More enterprises (cow-calf + hay + stocker + grain, each tracked separately)
  • Inventory feedlot cattle, retail meat, stocker)
  • Many bank / loan / credit-card accounts
  • Multiple operating entities passing money back and forth
  • Custodial cattle / other people’s money in your books
  • Payroll, especially hourly, multi-state, or with commissions
  • More frequent advising (weekly > monthly > quarterly)
  • Tax filing added on

  • Lower / simpler revenue: fewer moving parts
  • Farming or custom grazing only: far fewer transactions
  • One or two enterprises
  • No inventory to value
  • One checking account, one loan
  • A single entity
  • No custodial money
  • No payroll
  • Less frequent advising
  • Keeping tax filing with your existing CPA

Complexity costs money no matter who does the work. A simpler operation costs less to account for; a more complex one costs more. If your money is simple, you should pay less, whoever you hire.

Why do the costs range from $300 a month to $75,000 a year?

At each end of the market (high or low) you’re typically buying different services from providers with different skill sets or offerings and experience levels. The price tracks three factors: how specialized the help is, how complex your operation is, and how much advising time is built in.

$0 to about $300/month

Doing it yourself, or a generalist bookkeeper / QuickBooks Live. Outsourced bookkeeping commonly starts around $200–$350/month for basic service (NerdWallet, 2025). You get transactions categorized and a basic monthly close. Most generalists don’t know cow depreciation, livestock inventory, Schedule F, or how to tell which enterprise is losing money. For a simple, single-enterprise operation that just needs clean books, this is often the right call.

$650 to $5,000/month

Ag-specialized bookkeeping bundled with financial advising. You’re paying for clean books and for help understanding them and making decisions with a team that knows ranching. What makes one firm cost more than another here is the complexity factors above, not fancy offices.

See more about our pricing

$50,000 to $75,000+/year

A dedicated or private CFO, or a large ag-focused firm doing high-touch, near-weekly strategic work for big operations. Fractional CFO retainers commonly run $5,000–$7,500/month (about $60K–$90K/year), with hourly rates of $175–$450 (Pilot; Graphite Financial, 2025). Worth it for a multi-million-dollar, multi-entity business making frequent high-stakes calls; usually overkill for a family operation.

So what makes one provider cost more than another? Three things: how specialized they are (generalists charge less because they do less), how complex your operation is, and how much advising time is included.

How do firms price this work?

Most ag accounting providers use one of three pricing models. Knowing which one you’re being quoted under makes it easier to compare offers.

Pricing Method 1: Percentage of revenue

A flat 2–4% of gross revenue is common for bundled bookkeeping and advising. It’s easy to estimate but blunt, since two operations at the same revenue can have very different bookkeeping loads.

Pricing Method 2: Hourly

Common with generalist bookkeepers and CPAs. The risk is that messy books or a lot of questions mean a bigger, less predictable bill, so you can get penalized for needing more help.

Pricing Method 3: Flat Monthly Fee

A fixed monthly price based on your complexity, set up front. It’s predictable and doesn’t rise because you had a busy month or called more often. Just make sure it’s sized to your operation rather than a generic tier.

A fair flat fee usually works best for an established operation, because it’s predictable and tied to the actual work your operation creates. Ask any provider which model they use and what makes the number go up over time.

What’s usually included, and what costs extra?

At most specialized ag providers, the monthly fee covers bookkeeping and advising. The items below are usually separate, whoever you hire, so ask about each one before you compare two quotes.

  • Tax filing. Often a separate service, or kept with your existing CPA. Many bundled firms keep filing separate on purpose and coordinate with your tax preparer. A single return averages a few hundred dollars (NSA Income & Fees Survey). A full farm filing runs higher: a 1040 with Schedule F, depreciation schedules, a state return, and often a separate entity return (1065/1120-S) commonly totals $1,500–$5,000+/year, depending on how many returns you have and how complex they are.
  • Payroll. Usually an add-on, priced by headcount. Self-service payroll software runs roughly $40–$150/month base + $4–$15 per employee (QuickBooks, 2025). Full-service managed payroll runs higher, often $150+/month base + about $30 per employee, because the provider files the taxes and handles compliance for you. Hourly, multi-state, or commission pay pushes it up further.
  • Onboarding / catch-up bookkeeping. A one-time upfront fee to build your books correctly and bring them current. It’s why the first bill is bigger than a normal month: it includes cleaning up and catching up however many months you’re behind. The later in the year you start, the more catch-up there is.
  • Software. Some providers include your QuickBooks Online and receipt-capture subscriptions; some bill them separately. Confirm which.

The one “hidden” cost everyone asks about is onboarding and catch-up, and it’s not really hidden. It’s the cost of building a correct set of books from wherever yours are today. A provider should be able to explain exactly how they price it, usually a base setup fee plus a charge for each month you’re behind.

A rancher reviewing her operation's farm & ranch accounting cost

Is hiring out your farm accounting worth it?

It depends on your operation. Rather than trust a sales number, run the math yourself. No honest provider can promise you a dollar return before they’ve seen your books.

Weigh these four against the fee ranges above:

  • Your time. If you do the books yourself, estimate the hours per month and what that time is worth spent on other work on the operation.
  • Per-head (or per-acre) math. Take your head count and ask what a 1–2% better marketing, culling, or feeding decision would be worth over a year. Compare that to the annual fee.
  • Big decisions. Sell the 600-lb calf now or grow it to 800? Buy or lease equipment? These calls are easier to weigh with current, accurate numbers. Estimate what getting one of them right is worth to you.
  • The bank. Clean, current books affect what you can borrow and on what terms.

If those four don’t add up to more than the fee for your operation, then hiring it out may not be worth it yet. That’s a legitimate answer.

When it’s NOT worth paying for

  • Hobby or very small operations, where $850/month against $10–15K of revenue doesn’t pencil.
  • You only want data entry and won’t use the advising. A plain bookkeeper is cheaper and fits better.
  • You’re not trying to grow or change anything. If the operation is where you want it and staying there, the advising side won’t earn its keep.

Can you finance or split up the cost?

The short answer is that it depends on the provider. The upfront cost is the only fee that may be able to be financed. The monthly fee is small and already monthly, so it rarely needs financing, but you could ask your provider about your options for splitting it into weekly payments versus one monthly payment. The onboarding and catch-up fee is the larger one-time number, and many providers will split it over several months if seasonal cash flow makes the upfront amount tough. Farm and ranch cash comes in chunks and goes out daily, so it’s a fair thing to ask any provider if that is something you need. Keep in mind, financing may incur it’s own fees and/or interest and end up costing you more in the long run.

Most specialized firms work month-to-month with no long-term contract. If a provider wants a multi-year lock-in, ask why. Month-to-month keeps the pressure on them to keep earning the fee.

How much does a farm or ranch bookkeeper cost?

 A generalist bookkeeper typically costs $300–$1,000 per month (NerdWallet, 2025). A specialized ag firm that also includes financial advising typically runs $650–$4,800 per month, often quoted as 2–4% of gross revenue, plus a one-time onboarding fee (Ranch Right pricing).

How much does an agricultural accountant or CPA cost?

Ongoing ag accounting is usually priced monthly (see above). Tax filing by a CPA is often billed separately. A single return averages a few hundred dollars per the NSA Income & Fees Survey, but a complete farm filing with multiple schedules and entities commonly totals $1,500–$5,000+ per year.

Is it cheaper to hire an in-house bookkeeper?

Not usually, once you count everything. The median bookkeeping-clerk wage is $49,210/year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2024), and benefits add about 30% on top (BLS ECEC), so a full-time in-house bookkeeper runs roughly $45,000–$70,000+ per year all-in, plus your time hiring, training, and covering for them. An outsourced firm can cost less and still bring ag-specific expertise, though you give up having someone physically on-site.

What’s a fractional or outsourced CFO, and what does it cost?

A fractional CFO provides high-level financial strategy part-time instead of as a full-time hire. For agriculture, this is often bundled into a specialized firm’s advising. Standalone or dedicated CFO arrangements run $5,000–$7,500+ per month, roughly $50,000–$90,000+ per year (Pilot; Graphite Financial, 2025).

Why is the first bill (onboarding) higher than the monthly fee?

Because onboarding includes a one-time setup plus catch-up bookkeeping to build a correct set of books and bring them current. The further behind your books are, and the later in the year you start, the more catch-up work there is.

Does the monthly fee include tax filing and payroll?

Usually not. Both are commonly separate add-ons, whichever provider you choose. Always confirm what’s in the base fee before comparing two quotes.

Do these services work the same in Canada?

Yes. The structure is the same for Canadian farms and ranches. Fees may be quoted in USD and converted to CAD, and Canadian operations have their own tax and program considerations to discuss with a provider.

How do I estimate the cost for my own operation?

Start from your gross revenue (2–4% is a useful sanity check for a bundled firm), then adjust up for complexity: multiple enterprises, entities, inventory, lots of accounts, or payroll. Use Ranch Right’s pricing calculator to estimate your own operation →

Next Steps

This guide covered what farm and ranch accounting costs across every option. To see one specialized firm’s specific numbers, and estimate your own operation in about two minutes, Ranch Right publishes its full pricing and a calculator.

See Ranch Right’s pricing and calculator →
Related reading: Ranch Bookkeeping & Agriculture Accounting · Farm Business Consulting & Advising · Year-Round Farm Tax Planning · Farm Payroll & HR

Sources List & References

Cost figures in this guide are drawn from the following public sources, last checked June 2026. Ranch Right’s own pricing is published separately on its pricing page.

John Haskell is the founder of Ranch Right, LLC, host of the Ranchonomics podcast, and a founding member of Ranching.fyi. For more than 20 years he has built, bought, and turned around profitable ranches across the U.S. and Canada. His focus is the business side of ranching - cattle trading, sell/buy marketing strategy, and the financial decisions that separate ranches that struggle from ranches that build wealth.

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