Specialty food makers & markets
Books and taxes for BBQ sauce and rub brands.
Competition circuit sales, county fair booths, grocery wholesale accounts, and grilling season online orders. Gus sorts all of it, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
June came in at $5,600. Grilling season is your strongest stretch, and two grocery accounts reordered early, so I kept those wholesale payments apart from your fair booth cash.
- County fair cash boxFair and festival sales
- Grocery wholesale invoiceWholesale orders
- Spice supplier invoiceIngredients
- Bottle and jar orderPackaging
- Competition entry feeCompetition circuit costs
Why your books are different
A BBQ sauce and rub brand's books go wrong in a few specific places.
You are not one product with one cost. A rub is dry and shelf-stable, a sauce may need acid testing, and you sell through fairs, wholesale accounts, and the competition circuit all at once. When the books do not separate that, you cannot tell what actually makes money.
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1
Sauce and rub costs get blended
A batch of sauce needs bottles, vinegar, and possibly pH testing, while a rub needs bags and spice blends with none of that. Combined into one ingredient line, you lose track of which product actually carries better margin.
What we doKeeps sauce and rub ingredient and packaging costs in separate lines so each product's real cost is visible. -
2
Competition circuit costs look like general travel
Entry fees, travel, and product given away for judging at competitions are a real marketing cost, but filed as generic travel they disappear into a category that tells you nothing about what the circuit is worth.
What we doTracks competition entry fees and related travel in their own category so you can see what the circuit costs against the sales and accounts it brings in. -
3
Wholesale case pricing gets recorded at retail
A grocery account buying by the case at a discount gets logged at the same price as a fair table sale, which overstates what the wholesale side actually earns.
What we doRecords wholesale sales at the wholesale price, so case order margins reflect what actually came in. -
4
Grilling season buys distort the rest of the year
A big spice and bottle order made ahead of summer festival season makes that month look expensive and the slower months look artificially thin, when it is really one seasonal stock-up.
What we doFlags large seasonal ingredient and packaging buys so a pre-season stock-up does not wreck the monthly picture.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a BBQ sauce and rub brand.
Set up once for how you sell and what you buy. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Fair and festival salesCash and card sales from county fairs and community events.
- Wholesale ordersGrocery stores and butcher shops buying by the case.
- Online salesOrders through Shopify or Etsy, shipped direct to the customer.
- Gift set salesCombo packs of sauce and rub sold heaviest around grilling season and the holidays.
Money out
- IngredientsVinegar, tomato base, spices, and sugar for sauce and rub production.
- PackagingBottles, bags, caps, and labels for both product lines.
- Competition circuit costsEntry fees, travel, and product used for judging.
- Booth and vendor feesFair and festival table space and vendor permits.
- Commissary kitchen rentalHourly or monthly rent for a licensed production kitchen.
- Marketplace and card feesWhat Shopify or Square kept before you got paid.
- Label design and printingArtwork and required ingredient labeling for both products.
What we watch for you
- Margin by product
Sauce and rub rarely cost the same to make. Watching them apart shows which is worth pushing.
- Wholesale account count
How many grocery and butcher shop accounts are active and reordering, the clearest growth signal.
- Competition circuit cost
What entry fees and travel cost against the sales and accounts they bring in.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so tax time is a number you already knew.
Ask Gus
Things BBQ sauce and rub owners ask Gus.
Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.
Right now the rub carries a better margin, mostly because it skips bottling costs. I kept them split so you can see that yourself.
I track what they cost against any accounts or sales that follow. This season they are roughly breaking even in dollars, though the exposure is worth weighing beyond the numbers alone.
If it is shelf stable and not refrigerated, it likely needs acid testing. That call belongs to a food safety consultant, not me, but I keep whatever testing costs you have tracked.
The tax side
The tax side of a BBQ sauce and rub business.
Most of what matters here is keeping two products and three sales channels honest, so a wholesale case order and a competition trip both show up as what they really are.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Inventory and cost of goods soldOnly the ingredients and packaging that went into what you sold this year count as cost of goods. Sauce or rub sitting unsold stays inventory until it moves.
- Equipment write-offsBottling, mixing, and labeling equipment can usually be written off in the year you buy it. Bonus depreciation is 100 percent, permanent, for property bought after January 19, 2025.
- Contractor 1099sA co-packer or event helper not on payroll who you pay $2,000 or more in 2026 gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
- The pass-through deductionMost owners can deduct up to 20 percent of business profit before it is taxed. It comes out right only when wholesale, fair, and online sales are tracked cleanly all year.
Deductions BBQ sauce and rub brands miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Spice and vinegar sourcing
- Bottles and bags
- Competition entry fees
- Fair and festival booth fees
- Commissary kitchen rental
- Ingredient labels
- Shopify and Square fees
- Sample product for buyers
- Trade show travel
- Delivery mileage to accounts
- Label design
- Food safety testing
General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.
All year, not just April
A BBQ sauce and rub year, kept every month.
Grilling season, fair season, and gift bundling season each pull the calendar in a different direction. Your team keeps you ahead of the deadlines through all of them. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Plan the year
Last year's return gets started, the 1099 list for helpers is ready, and you get a monthly set-aside so April is already handled.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your business return is filed and signed, ahead of the grilling season rush.
- July
Grilling season check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether summer fair and wholesale sales matched what you planned for.
- October
Before gift set season
Holiday gift bundles start moving. Gus looks at bottling and rub packaging supply needs before the busiest sales month arrives.
What you get
What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.
Book a call- Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for BBQ sauce and rub brands. You never categorize a thing.
- An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
- Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
- The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
- Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
- On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
- Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.
Straight answers
Questions BBQ sauce and rub owners ask first.
Can Gus track my sauce and rub as separate products?
Yes. Ingredients, packaging, and sales for each product get their own category, so you can see which one is actually carrying the business.
How does Gus handle competition entry fees and travel?
They get their own category apart from regular business travel, so you can weigh what the circuit costs against what it brings back in accounts and sales.
I sell wholesale to a few grocery stores and retail at fairs. Is that hard to track?
No. Gus books wholesale and fair sales at their real prices, so each channel's margin shows up honestly instead of one blended number.
Does my sauce need different food safety handling than my rub?
A shelf-stable sauce often needs acid testing that a dry rub does not. That determination is outside what Gus handles, but he keeps any testing costs tracked in the books.
My books are behind from a busy fair season. Can Gus catch up?
Yes. Send the bank statements you have and he sorts them by product, channel, and cost. Most owners know where they stand within a week.
Is a real accountant checking my books?
Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.
What does it cost, and can I cancel?
It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.
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What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for
Book a call
Pick a time. That's the whole signup.
Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.
- $197 a month to start
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever