Why salons need different books
Card and cash sales every day, tips to pass on, products you sell next to services, stylists who rent a chair or are on staff, and a point of sale that knows more than the bank does. A salon's books live in the gap between the POS and the deposits.
What a bookkeeper for salons keeps track of
- Daily sales from your point of sale, services and products apart
- Tips owed to staff
- Booth or chair rent from stylists
- Retail products bought and sold
- Card fees taken from payouts
In the US
- Most states don't tax haircuts and other personal services, but products you sell are taxable where there's a sales tax.
- Tips are your staff's income, not your sales, and go through payroll.
- Booth renters are usually self-employed; their rent is income to you.
In Canada
- Salon services and products take GST/HST once you're registered.
- Voluntary tips carry no GST/HST.
- Chair rent from stylists is income and can take GST/HST too.
What SumSwift does for salon and spa owners
- Point of sale reports from Square, Clover, Lightspeed and others split into cash, card, tips and gift cards
- Tips kept apart as owed to staff
- Products kept item by item, with what each one makes
- Payroll worked out each payday, with the deposit file for your bank and the remittance to send
- Every statement checked against the balances your bank printed, to the cent, with personal spending kept off your profit
- Receipts snapped with your phone or forwarded by email are read and matched to the charge