Larry and Steve Rhoda are making full use of the tax and accounting services GreenStone offers, as it makes it easier for them to concentrate on what they really love – farming.
Larry and Steve are brothers who farm separately, but together. They both grow seed corn, commercial corn, and soybeans in Schoolcraft on land that Larry owns, land that Steve owns, and land they own together. Overall, they’re farming approximately 3,600 acres.
Their original home farm was started in 1934 by their grandfather Lawrence Rhoda, and then was farmed by their uncle John Rhoda. After finishing high school, in 1984 Larry joined his uncle. After Steve graduated, he began farming in 1994. The team of brothers eventually bought out their uncle and have been building and growing their businesses ever since. Steve’s son Kyler is an employee, and they also have one other full time and two seasonal employees.
Larry first was led to GreenStone in 1985, when his uncle John cosigned for his first land loan to start farming.
“John was already established with GreenStone, so he hooked me up. This was so long ago, it was before it was even named GreenStone,” Larry said. “Then when Steve came back, I helped him get a loan with them, too.”
Tax time
Larry and Steve do much of the work themselves, and as usual on farms, the paperwork was left until after the urgency of field work was done.
“We are probably shorter-staffed than most farms, and we do a lot of it ourselves,” Larry said. “The bills and accounting work just got stacked up and put on the back burner. We were so busy in the field that we would leave all of it until the end of the year.”
At the time, then tax accountant Mark Koester at GreenStone approached Larry and asked him to bring in his last three years of taxes to evaluate – for free. This is a service that GreenStone still offers to members today.
“Two weeks later, he told me we had a $14,000 credit coming to me,” Larry said. “That was huge for me, and I decided right there they could do my tax work.”
He wasn’t the only one who benefitted from the free tax review.
“Then I took my records to GreenStone, and they gave me a credit back too,” Steve said.
One of the advantages members see from using GreenStone for tax and accounting services is that they specialize in agriculture.
“There’s a difference in just going to an accountant and going to GreenStone, since they know things about farms that regular accountants don’t,” Larry said. “Our city accountant just didn’t know what kind of credits we could get. That sold us on it right then.”
Expansion of services
The Rhodas became comfortable with GreenStone doing their tax work, and then they were introduced to more of their services, like onsite accounting.
“We trust them, and we knew we could count on them,” Larry said. “When they told us about their accounting services, Steve and I began having them come out once a month. My wife Melissa runs the bills, and then [tax and accounting assistant] Marie Fair checks them to make sure they’re going to the right places, reconciles the month, and backs it all up.”
The difference for Larry and Steve was convenience.
“At the end of the year, instead of spending the whole month of December digging around and finding paperwork that fell behind the desk, now I just go to see GreenStone at the end of the year,” Larry said. “It’s already done amazing things for helping the farm stay on top of things, stay efficient, and plan for the future.”
As an added benefit, the Rhodas share their accounting information with their financial services officer, Emelee Rajzer.
“If I need a loan, instead of doing and gathering new paperwork every time, I’ve given them full authority to look into our account,” Larry said. “That’s helped a lot for speed and efficiency on our end.”
An additional GreenStone service the Rhodas are using is help in creating and maintaining balance sheets.
“Once a month, when GreenStone is here to do the accounting services for us, they also plug the numbers into a balance sheet,” Larry said. “This way, we can track and make sure we’re in the right place. GreenStone’s help with the balance sheet takes a lot of the pressure and stress off of us.”
The Rhodas think the time is worth the effort.
“It’s a very beneficial plan to have GreenStone come out and work with us,” Larry said. “It takes an hour and a half, and we know it’s done right, and the loan officer can see it all. The same person comes every time, so she knows where to put things, and what to do, and since it’s monthly, now we know Marie on a personal level, too.
“It really benefits both our farms,” Steve agreed.
Relationships
The Rhodas have formed successful working relationships with many people at GreenStone.
“We also really enjoy working with Elizabeth Waldschmidt,” Steve said. “She always answers the phone, and she does a great job.”
Elizabeth Waldschmidt is a senior tax accountant at GreenStone who brought 20 years of experience with her when she transitioned into Mark’s role after he took a new position with GreenStone several years ago. She’s been working with the Rhodas since her first day of work.
“We do a little bit of everything for the Rhodas – we do their payroll taxes, accounting, tax planning, and tax returns. It’s a neat operation, with two brothers farming together, and it’s fun to see them work together. They’ve made a very successful business for themselves.”
Not only does she like doing business with them, but she likes to see their working relationship.
“They each have their own land, own seed, chemicals, equipment – it’s not a partnership, they’re just individual farmers that never argue over who owes each other,” she said. “At the end of the year they just say, we’ll figure it out.”
As the Rhodas concentrate on their farm, GreenStone is equipped to do the behind-the-scenes financial work.
“If there was ever a time I hated on the farm, it was when I had just spent seven days a week doing seed corn, and it was December,” Larry said. “Instead of taking some time off, I would have to dig through paperwork for year-end financial information. Now, it’s just as nice as can be – I push a button and everything is done.”
To view the article in the online 2022 Spring Partners Magazine, click here.
