Salon books that handle tips, commissions, and booth rent.
Outsourced accounting, bookkeeping, and tax for salons and barbershops, from a licensed CPA. Books closed monthly, payroll and tips reconciled, on a flat fee.
The payroll tax you pay on tips can come off your income tax.
You pay 7.65% in employer payroll tax on every tip your staff reports. Since 2025, salons and barbershops can claim it as a credit against income tax. A team reporting $200,000 in tips a year works out to a credit of about $15,000, and on a tipped team that alone can cover the bookkeeping and tax work.
It is claimed on Form 8846 with your return. I check for it on every free tax return review.
Where salon books go wrong.
-
Tips nobody reconciles
Card tips run through payroll and cash tips get reported by staff, or do not. Unreported tips mean payroll tax you still owe and a credit you cannot claim.
-
Booth rent and commission mixed
A booth renter runs their own business and pays you rent. If you set their schedule and prices, the IRS and your state may see an employee instead. Hybrid salons need the two kept straight.
-
Commission on the wrong number
Commission paid on gross service revenue, before product cost comes out, pays stylists on money you never kept. Tiered and retail commissions compound it.
-
Retail and backbar in one bucket
Retail product is inventory you resell, and it is taxable. Backbar is a cost of doing the service. Lumped together, you cannot see either margin.
-
Gift cards and packages
Unredeemed gift cards stay a liability until someone uses them, and states have their own rules about the ones nobody does.
-
Processor fees netted out
Your processor deposits sales net of fees, so revenue looks smaller and the fees disappear. Both should show in full.
What lands in your inbox every month.
Revenue, commission, and product cost per provider, so you can see what each chair earns the salon.
Commission, hourly pay, and tips tied from your salon software to payroll to the bank, every month.
Retail sales, inventory, and sales tax kept apart from backbar, so the product shelf shows its own margin.
Pricing is on the packages page. Spas have their own page.
Two free reviews before you hire anybody.
What salon owners ask me first.
- Can you help with the FICA tip credit?
- Yes. It is claimed on Form 8846 against the employer share of payroll tax on reported tips. I check whether you qualify and make sure it gets claimed.
- Booth rent, commission, or both?
- I work with all three. The books keep booth rent separate from commission payroll, and I flag arrangements that look more like employment than rent.
- Do you work with my salon software?
- Yes. Vagaro, Boulevard, GlossGenius, Square, and the rest. I work from its reports and reconcile them to what hit the bank.
- Do you handle more than one location?
- Yes. Each location gets its own P&L, and the rollup shows which one is carrying the others.
See what it would cost you.
Thirty minutes, a real price in writing, an honest answer on fit. Or send last year's return and I will review it free.