Farm accounting that gives you your time back
Accounting, payroll, and tax planning built around planting, harvest, and everything between
Quick answer
TruCount CPA PC provides agriculture accounting services to clients in Brookings, SD, and throughout the Midwest, bundling accounting, payroll, and year-round tax planning into one fixed monthly fee for crop and livestock operations. The firm also handles multi-entity farm tax strategy, including the R&D credit for farmers and the excess fertility deduction.
Between planting, spraying, harvest, and calving season, the books are the last thing you want to think about. If you're a row crop farmer, livestock producer, or mixed operation in Brookings, SD, or throughout the Midwest, TruCount CPA PC handles your accounting, payroll, and tax planning year-round, not just at tax time. Our firm has worked alongside farm families since 2009, and the team knows a crop year doesn't run on a standard accounting calendar.
Instead of scrambling for records every April, you get accurate, current numbers whenever you need them, so decisions about equipment, land, or hired help are backed by real information instead of guesswork.
Accounting built around crop and livestock operations
Crop Operations
Input costs for seed, fertilizer, and chemicals shift throughout the season, and commodity prices move daily. For row crop farmers, TruCount tracks cost per acre and times income recognition around grain sales and hedging activity, not a generic monthly close.
Livestock Operations
Herd tracking, feed costs, and breeding cycles raise accounting questions a standard bookkeeper rarely sees. The team separates cow-calf and feeder cattle economics so you know which side of the operation is actually making money.
Land and Equipment Depreciation
Section 179 elections, bonus depreciation, and trade-in timing on tractors and combines affect your tax bill for years, not just one season. Depreciation schedules get modeled against your real cash flow, not just whatever saves the most this April.
One bundled fee covers your accounting, payroll and tax planning
Most accounting firms bill by the hour or hand you a stack of one-off returns and call it done. TruCount bundles accounting, payroll, and year-round tax planning into one fixed monthly fee, so you know what you're paying before the year even starts. No surprise invoice after harvest. No separate bill every time you call with a question.
Your bundle includes:
Accounting and account reconciliation, updated on a schedule that matches your operation
Payroll processing for family labor, seasonal hires, and full-time employees
Year-round tax planning, not just a return filed in March
Secure online access to your financials so you can check numbers between visits
Tax strategies designed for multi-entity farm operations
Entity Structuring for Multi-Entity Farms
Many farm operations run a crop LLC, a cattle operation, and a separate equipment or land entity, each with different tax treatment. Entities get structured and coordinated so income, expenses, and liability sit where they should, not where they happened to land.
R&D Tax Credit for Farmers
Testing new seed varieties, adjusting fertility programs, or developing irrigation techniques can qualify as research and development under federal tax code. Eligible activities get identified and documented so farms claim a credit most tax preparers never mention.
Excess Fertility Deduction
When you purchase farmland with fertility levels above the norm for the area, that excess fertility can often be deducted rather than capitalized. The calculation and documentation get built to hold up under IRS review.
Multi-Entity Tax Planning
Coordinating income and deductions across multiple entities takes planning before year-end, not after it.
Planning for the next generation of your farm
Passing a farm from one generation to the next is rarely just paperwork. It's the son or daughter who's spent a decade in the field wondering if the operation will be theirs, and the parents who built something over 30 years and want to see it land in good hands. The TruCount team works through the financial mechanics behind those family conversations, so a plan holds up whether the harvest is good or the markets turn hard.
South Dakota farm families face complexity a standard estate plan doesn't touch. Land values have climbed sharply, and how ground is titled, through an LLC, a trust, or joint tenancy, changes what heirs owe and how easily an operation keeps running through a transition. A good estate attorney drafts the legal documents, but the ongoing financial modeling, cash flow projections under a new ownership structure, tax liability estimates for a phased buyout, entity comparisons over a 10-year window, belongs to a CPA who knows agriculture.
Most farm operations aren't one business. They're a land-holding LLC, an equipment company, a cattle operation, maybe a custom application business on top. TruCount's entity type analysis looks at the full picture and maps out how a corporation, LLC, or partnership structure affects the transition you're planning, so an ownership transfer becomes a formality instead of a scramble.
Farm transitions also create tax exposure at nearly every step. A handful of strategies get overlooked because they're specific to production agriculture:
- Gifting strategies that move land or equity within annual and lifetime exclusion limits
- Buyout structures that spread the outgoing generation's payout over years to ease cash flow on both sides
- The excess fertility deduction, which accounts for soil nutrient value most families never claim
- The R&D credit for farmers, applicable to seed variety testing, irrigation improvements, and process changes many operations don't realize qualify
- Entity-level tax elections that change how a sale or transfer is taxed depending on structure
These get built into a multi-year tax plan, not a single filing season. TruCount also models what retirement looks like for the outgoing generation: what a buyout payment schedule does to cash flow, what the incoming generation can realistically service in debt, and where rental income or a phased arrangement fills the gap. Sitting down with those numbers in front of everyone changes the conversation. Both generations see the same projections and negotiate from shared facts.
This isn't a plan signed once and filed away. It gets revisited as land values, family involvement, and tax law change. If succession is somewhere on your horizon, farm succession planning is built specifically for operations like yours.
See your numbers anytime with secure online access
You shouldn't have to wait until next spring's tax appointment to find out how last season actually performed. TruCount's secure online platform gives you anytime access to your accounting, payroll records, and financial reports from your phone or laptop, whether you're in the shop, the field, or the kitchen table. Ask a question, upload a document, or check cash flow before an equipment purchase, all without waiting on a scheduled call.
Frequently Asked Questions About Agriculture accounting
Get out of the books and back to your farm
You didn't get into farming to spend your evenings reconciling accounts. Schedule a consultation with TruCount CPA PC and find out what bundled accounting, payroll, and tax planning look like when they're built around your operation instead of the other way around.
Why clients trust us
- Julie Underwood, CPA
- AICPA member firm
- South Dakota Society of CPAs member
- Founded in 2009, serving Brookings, SD and the Midwest
- Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce member