Creative Services
Every project has different costs and margins. Without tracking them, you're pricing your next job based on a guess.
You're Running a Business Between Projects
You got into creative work because you’re good at it. Designing, shooting, editing, building campaigns for clients who trust your eye and your judgment. At some point the freelance gigs or the side projects turned into a real business with real expenses and real obligations.
Now you’re sending invoices, following up on late payments, tracking what you owe freelancers, and trying to figure out quarterly taxes on income that changes every month. The books get pushed aside because the client deadline always feels more urgent. That’s exactly where things start slipping.
Who We Work With
Who We Work With
Marketing agencies, graphic design studios, video production companies, photographers, branding firms, web designers, and independent creatives across Long Beach, the South Bay, and Greater LA.
Where You Might Be Right Now
Where You Might Be Right Now
Busy enough that bookkeeping keeps falling to the bottom of the list. Established enough that winging it is starting to cause real problems at tax time. Tired of doing the financial side yourself at 11pm after a full day of client work.
Project Revenue Has Its Own Rhythm
Creative businesses don’t run on steady monthly income the way a subscription company does. You might land a $20,000 branding project in March and then have a quiet April while you wait for the next thing to close. Retainer clients help smooth things out, but a good portion of the revenue still comes in waves. That uneven pattern makes it harder to plan, harder to budget, and harder to know what you can actually afford to spend.
On top of that, every project carries its own cost structure. One job might be mostly your time. Another might involve a freelance copywriter, a photographer, stock licensing fees, and paid media spend that passes through your accounts. When those costs aren’t tracked to the right project, you lose sight of which work is making you money and which is just keeping you busy.
Retainers and One-Off Projects
Retainers and One-Off Projects
We track recurring retainer income separately from project-based revenue so your financials reflect both the steady baseline and the variable work. This gives you a much clearer picture of how cash flow actually moves through the business month to month.
Freelancer and Subcontractor Costs
Freelancer and Subcontractor Costs
Payments to freelancers get recorded by vendor and allocated to the right project. W-9s are collected throughout the year so 1099 filing in January is straightforward instead of a last-minute scramble through old emails and Venmo receipts.
What Falls Through the Cracks
The most common issue is not knowing what a project actually cost you. You invoiced $8,000 for a video production job. The freelance editor was $2,000, music licensing ran $500, and you personally put 60 hours into it. Without tracking those numbers against the project, you assume it was a solid month. You take on three more similar jobs before realizing the margins were much thinner than you thought.
The other pattern is letting freelancer paperwork slide. Creative businesses rely on contractors for specialized skills, overflow capacity, and production support. When you’re working with a dozen different people throughout the year and nobody collected W-9s or tracked total payments, you spend the first weeks of January trying to piece it all together. Meanwhile, software subscriptions for tools like Adobe, Figma, and stock photo libraries pile up without anyone connecting those costs to the projects they support.
Underpriced Work
Underpriced Work
Without project-level cost tracking, scope creep and unaccounted freelancer expenses quietly eat your margins. You keep taking on the same types of projects at rates that looked good on paper but don’t hold up once you factor in every dollar that went into delivering them.
Tax Surprises on Irregular Income
Tax Surprises on Irregular Income
A strong quarter followed by a slow one throws off your estimates. Freelancer 1099s go unfiled because nobody gathered the paperwork during the year. These problems are avoidable when someone is paying attention to the details consistently, not just in January.
Clear Books, Better Decisions
When your books are current and organized, you can look at last quarter and see which projects were worth your time and which barely broke even. You can compare retainer clients against one-off projects and make informed decisions about where to focus. Pricing stops being a guessing game because you have real cost data to work from. That clarity changes how you run the business.
Tax preparation becomes straightforward instead of stressful. Your 1099s are ready to go because freelancer payments were tracked all year. Quarterly estimates are based on actual income, not rough math. Monthly financials give you a clear picture of where the business stands so you can plan ahead instead of constantly reacting to whatever lands in your inbox.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Monthly Bookkeeping
Books closed every month with accurate profit and loss statements and balance sheets. You always know where you stand financially, and your accountant gets a clean, organized file at tax time instead of a shoebox situation.
Freelancer and Vendor Tracking
Freelancer and Vendor Tracking
Payments tracked by vendor, W-9s collected throughout the year, and 1099s prepared when filing season arrives. No last-minute chaos trying to reconstruct who you paid and how much. Just clean records ready to go.
Long Beach's Trusted Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A Quick Discovery Call
Tell us where things stand with your books. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a clear quote to get it handled.
