Cothran Ag Services

Wade and Lisa Cothran began Cothran Ag Services in 2006 and originally provided one service which was planting Trifton 85 Grass which is better for feeding cattle. Their first customers were friends and associates from the Big Brown Mine. The business gradually branched out into pipeline maintenance and employs 15 full time and 3 part-time employees. They run the business from an office in the barn on their ranch.

Lisa contacted the Navarro SBDC in December 2015 because another client had encouraged her to contact the SBDC for QuickBooks support. After Business Advisor, Amy Freeman, reviewed their QuickBooks Company File and learned about the way that the business utilizes the software, it became clear that too many errors had been made in the company file for them to reconcile the bank statements or even produce accurate reports from the software.

During several visits with Lisa in January and February 2016, Amy was able to assist her in creating a new company file and adding in any old customer balances. With Amy’s support, she has been able to successfully reconcile the bank statements each month, maintain the customer files and keep up with deposits in a timely and accurate manner.

In April, they were able to obtain a Line of Credit utilizing a CD as collateral and obtained a loan for a major piece of equipment for the business. Although the business still continues to feel the negative impacts of the down turn in the oil and gas industry, they are working to expand their business services by offering pest control services in the near future.

Lisa stated, “Amy has been an angel sent. We couldn’t have made it without her. She has been a great resource for assistance.”

In the future, Amy will continue to provide support and resources to Wade and Lisa as they seek to increase sales and make their bookkeeping practices more efficient.