Why photographers need different books
Deposits taken months before the shoot, expensive gear that lasts years, travel to every job, prints and albums next to session fees, and software subscriptions. Deposits are the tricky part: the money arrives long before the work is done.
What a bookkeeper for photographers keeps track of
- Booking deposits and final payments
- Cameras, lenses and computers
- Travel to shoots
- Prints and albums
- Software and subscriptions
In the US
- Prints and albums are usually taxable where there's a sales tax; some states tax photography services too.
- Camera gear can often be written off in the year you buy it.
- Second shooters you pay $2,000 or more in 2026 need a 1099-NEC.
In Canada
- Session fees and prints take GST/HST once you're registered.
- Cameras and computers are claimed through capital cost allowance (CCA); computers have their own faster class.
- GST/HST on a booking deposit counts once the deposit is applied to the work, not when you take it.
What SumSwift does for photographers and videographers
- Booking deposits and retainers applied to the final invoice
- Big purchases get one question, "Is this equipment?", so they're written off over the right years
- Invoices made, emailed and chased in SumSwift, with a pay link your customers can use
- A mileage log (a CRA logbook in Canada) and the business share of your vehicle worked out for taxes
- Subscriptions watched for price rises
- Every statement checked against the balances your bank printed, to the cent, with personal spending kept off your profit