Salons & Spas
You built your clientele and opened your own place. The bookkeeping part wasn't in the plan.
The Industry
Most salon and spa owners are still working clients full time. You didn’t open your own place to sit in a back office. You opened it because you’re great at what you do and people followed you. But now you’re also responsible for tracking revenue, managing expenses, dealing with payroll or booth rental agreements, and figuring out what you actually kept at the end of each month. That’s the part they don’t cover in licensing programs.
The financial side of a salon is more layered than people expect. You might have booth renters paying you monthly, employees earning commissions plus tips, retail products with different margins than services, and cash flowing in from multiple directions every day. In Long Beach and the rest of the Southland, the cost of rent and insurance alone puts pressure on margins before you even factor in product and labor. Getting a clear picture of what you’re actually making takes more than checking your bank balance.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, day spas, med spas, massage therapists, estheticians, tattoo studios, and independent beauty professionals across Long Beach, the South Bay, and Greater LA.
What Makes It Complicated
What Makes It Complicated
Booth renter income mixed with employee wages. Tips in cash and on cards that need proper reporting. Retail product sales alongside service revenue. High overhead in Southern California. Multiple payment processors depositing at different times. California labor laws that are stricter than most states and carry real penalties when things are set up wrong.
What We Handle
Your books need to separate what you earn from services, what comes in from booth rent, and what you make on retail product sales. Each of those has a different cost structure and a different margin. Lumping them together means you can’t tell which part of the business is actually making money. We set up QuickBooks Online to track these revenue streams separately so your profit and loss statement tells you something useful instead of showing one big number that doesn’t mean much on its own.
Tips need to be tracked and reported correctly for both you and your staff. Payroll for salons often involves different compensation structures. Sometimes it’s commission, sometimes hourly, sometimes a mix of both. We handle the monthly bookkeeping, bank and credit card reconciliation, and keep your records organized so tax season doesn’t turn into a scramble. If your books are behind, we get them caught up first and then keep them current going forward.
Revenue Tracking by Type
Revenue Tracking by Type
Services, booth rental income, and retail sales tracked separately in QuickBooks Online. You see the margin on each part of your business. Product inventory accounted for so your cost of goods sold on retail reflects actual numbers, not just what you paid when you last placed an order. Monthly reporting that shows where the money comes from and where it goes.
Bookkeeping and Reconciliation
Bookkeeping and Reconciliation
Monthly transaction categorization and bank reconciliation. Credit card processor deposits matched to actual sales. Tips tracked by type. Books closed every month so you always know where things stand. Catch-up bookkeeping available if you’re months or years behind. Everything organized in QuickBooks Online and ready for your tax preparer when the time comes.
What Goes Wrong
The biggest issue we see is salon owners who have no real idea what they made last month. Revenue hit the bank account, bills got paid, and whatever was left over felt like profit. But that number doesn’t account for product used on clients (which is not the same as product sold), the true cost of supplies, or whether your booth rental rates are keeping up with your actual overhead. Without proper tracking, you might be charging less for a chair than it costs you to provide it.
Worker classification is another area that creates problems, especially in California. The rules around booth renters versus employees are strict and the penalties for getting it wrong are significant. We also see shops where cash tips go completely untracked, which creates tax exposure that builds quietly over time. And when books fall behind by six months or more, the cost and effort to clean them up grows fast. Small issues that would have taken minutes to fix in real time become hours of detective work later.
No Visibility Into What's Profitable
No Visibility Into What's Profitable
All revenue in one bucket. No separation between service income, booth rent, and product sales. You can’t tell if retail is worth the shelf space or if certain services are priced too low. Decisions about pricing, hiring, or expanding get made on gut feeling instead of actual numbers. A busy month can still be an unprofitable month if you’re not tracking the details.
Books That Fall Behind
Books That Fall Behind
Receipts pile up. Bank feeds go unreviewed for months. Tax time arrives and you’re handing your accountant a bag of statements and hoping for the best. The cost of catch-up bookkeeping could have been avoided with consistent monthly maintenance. And in the meantime, you’ve been making business decisions without knowing your real numbers.
What Changes
You get a clear financial picture every month. Service revenue, booth rent, and product sales are separated so you can see where the money actually comes from and where it goes. You know which parts of the operation are profitable and which ones need attention. Pricing decisions are based on real data instead of what feels right or what the salon down the street charges. When you want to add a new service or hire another stylist, the numbers tell you whether you can support it.
Your books stay current and organized. Reconciliation happens monthly so nothing slips through the cracks. Tips are tracked properly. Revenue streams are clean. When tax season arrives, everything is ready and your tax preparer has what they need without the usual back and forth. You spend your time building your business and working with clients instead of spending your evenings catching up on bank statements and receipts.
Financial Clarity You Can Use
Financial Clarity You Can Use
Monthly profit and loss statements that break down your income by type. You see what services, retail, and booth rent each contribute. Product costs tracked so your retail margin is based on real numbers. A financial picture you can use to plan ahead instead of react after the fact. Confidence that when you look at your reports, they reflect what’s actually happening in the business.
Time Back and Less Stress
Time Back and Less Stress
No more late nights trying to figure out QuickBooks. No more wondering if your books are right. Monthly bookkeeping handled with a consistent process that’s easy to follow and keeps you informed along the way. Clean records ready for your tax preparer without the end-of-year panic. You focus on the work you’re good at and we keep the financial side organized and accurate.
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.
