Funeral, memorial & aftercare
Books and taxes for casket and urn retailers.
Direct-to-consumer orders, wholesale sales to funeral homes, freight costs, and the occasional casket damaged in transit. Your own bookkeeper stays on the books all year, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
September made $24,000. The casket damaged in transit from Batesville got written off as its own loss, not folded into the month's regular cost of goods.
- Online casket saleDirect-to-consumer sales
- Wholesale order, funeral homeWholesale sales
- Batesville inventory orderMerchandise costs
- Freight carrier, LTL shipmentFreight and shipping
- Shopify subscription feeOnline store fees
Why your books are different
A casket and urn retailer's books go wrong in the same few places.
A generalist sees a sale and a shipping bill. Your business ships large, fragile freight, sells at two different price levels, and sometimes eats the cost of a damaged shipment. When the books blend all that together, you cannot tell what a sale actually earned.
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1
Freight damage gets lost inside cost of goods
A casket arrives cracked from transit and has to be replaced at your cost. Folded into the regular cost of goods for the month, it quietly drags down your margin on every sale, not just the damaged one.
What we doBooks a damaged shipment as its own loss, separate from the normal cost of goods, so one bad delivery does not distort your real margin. -
2
Wholesale and retail sales blend into one number
A funeral home buys at your wholesale rate while a family buying direct online pays your full retail price. Lumped together, you cannot tell which side of the business is really driving your margin.
What we doKeeps wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales in their own categories, so each shows its own margin. -
3
Rush shipping fees hide the real product margin
A family pays extra for expedited shipping on a time-sensitive order. If that fee is not separated from the product price, you cannot tell whether the casket itself or the shipping charge is what made the sale profitable.
What we doSplits shipping and rush fees from the merchandise price, so the product margin stands on its own. -
4
A returned or cancelled order muddies inventory
A family changes their mind after a casket has already shipped, and the return and refund can sit unresolved for weeks, making inventory and revenue both look off.
What we doTracks returns and refunds as they happen, so inventory and sales both reflect what actually sold.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a casket and urn retailer.
Set up once for how you get paid and what you spend. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Direct-to-consumer salesOrders sold online or in a showroom directly to families.
- Wholesale salesOrders sold to funeral homes at a contracted rate.
- Shipping and rush feesWhat a customer pays for expedited or special shipping, apart from the product price.
- Marketplace salesOrders placed through a third-party marketplace listing rather than your own site.
Money out
- Merchandise costsCaskets and urns from manufacturers like Batesville, Matthews Aurora, York, or Star Legacy.
- Freight and shippingCarrier costs to ship large or fragile items to customers.
- Damaged inventory lossesItems damaged in transit or storage, tracked apart from regular cost of goods.
- Warehouse and storageSpace to hold inventory before it ships.
- Online store feesFees from Shopify or a similar online store, plus payment processing costs.
- Packaging materialsCrating and protective packaging for fragile shipments.
What we watch for you
- Wholesale vs retail mix
How much of the month is wholesale orders versus higher-margin direct sales.
- Freight cost per unit
What shipping actually costs against what customers pay for it.
- Inventory on hand
What is sitting in the warehouse, tracked so a slow seller does not go unnoticed.
- The set-aside
What wholesale and retail sales owe in taxes, tracked every month so April holds no surprise.
Ask Gus
Things casket and urn retailers 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.
As its own inventory loss, separate from your regular cost of goods, so one bad shipment does not quietly drag down your margin on everything else.
Yes. I keep wholesale and direct sales in their own categories, so you can see which side of the business is really earning its margin.
Often the full cost. I booked the forklift as warehouse equipment, and the accountant sets the exact write-off against your whole year.
The tax side
The tax side of a casket and urn retail business.
Most of what matters here is treating inventory and freight losses correctly, and keeping wholesale and retail sales visible on their own.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Caskets and urns are inventoryMerchandise held for sale is inventory. What is sold in a year counts as a cost against that year's sales, not written off the day it arrives from the manufacturer.
- Warehouse equipment can usually be written off this yearA forklift or racking system can often be expensed the year you buy it. Bonus depreciation is back to 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- Delivery contractors need a 1099A contract delivery driver paid $2,000 or more in 2026 who is not on payroll gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operated retailers can take up to 20 percent of business profit off taxable income. It comes out right when the books are right all year.
Deductions casket and urn retailers miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Freight and shipping costs
- Packaging materials
- Warehouse rent
- Forklift maintenance
- Online store fees
- Payment processing fees
- Product photography
- Liability insurance
- Damaged inventory write-offs
- Advertising and lead fees
- Business insurance
- Office and phone service
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 casket and urn retailer's year, kept every month.
Orders come whenever a family needs one, on no fixed schedule. Your team keeps the books current all year, so tax time is never a scramble. 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 delivery contractors is ready, and a monthly set-aside is planned so April is already handled.
- April
Return signed
The accountant files and signs your return. The set-aside built from every sale since January already covers what you owe.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether wholesale or retail sales are driving the year.
- October
Before year end
A look at inventory levels and any equipment worth buying before December.
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 casket and urn retailers. 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 casket and urn retailers ask first.
Does Goatkeeper help with the FTC Funeral Rule about buying merchandise from a third party?
That is a legal disclosure requirement, not something Gus tracks. He keeps your books accurate on the money side. For the rule itself, talk with someone who advises on funeral industry compliance.
How do you handle a shipment that arrives damaged?
It gets booked as its own inventory loss, separate from your regular cost of goods, so one bad shipment does not distort the margin on everything else you sold that month.
Do you keep wholesale orders separate from retail sales?
Yes. Each gets its own category, so you can see the true margin on funeral home orders versus what you earn selling directly to families.
What happens in the books when a family cancels an order after it shipped?
The return and refund get tracked as they happen, so your sales and inventory reflect what actually stayed sold, not what shipped and came back.
We sell through our own website and a couple of marketplaces. Is that hard to track?
No. Gus reconciles every sales channel against your bank statement, so sales from each channel are counted once and only once.
Our books are behind. Can you catch up?
Send whatever bank and order records you have. Gus works through the backlog and the accountant checks it, usually 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.
More in funeral, memorial & aftercare
We keep books for the business next door too.
- Celebration-of-life planners
- Crematories
- Death doulas & end-of-life planners
- Estate cleanout companies
- Funeral removal & transport services
- Green & natural burial grounds
- Independent funeral homes
- Memorial jewelry & keepsake makers
- Monument & headstone dealers
- Preneed insurance agents
- Private cemeteries
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