Indoor entertainment

Books and taxes for dinner theaters.

A ticket price that bundles a full meal with the show, a cast and crew paid for a whole production run, and a kitchen that has to feed a packed house before curtain. Gus sorts all of it, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.

Book a call What we handle

From $197 a month
An accountant on every transaction
Cancel whenever

DecemberExample month

$26,800

what you made

December came in at $26,800. The holiday show sold out most performances, and I kept meal cost apart from cast payroll so you can see what each part of the night actually costs.

Ticket package salesTicket and meal packages
Private event bookingPrivate events
Food service distributorKitchen and meal service
Cast and crew payrollProduction payroll
Costume shop orderCostumes and sets

Money in$98,400

Money out$71,600

Set aside for taxes$7,800

An example month. Yours will have your numbers.

Why your books are different

Dinner theater books go wrong in the same few places.

A generalist sees a ticket price and a kitchen bill. Your business bundles a full meal with a live show, pays a cast and crew for a whole production run rather than per shift, and rebuilds sets and costumes between shows. When the books do not know that, you cannot tell whether the meal or the show is what is actually costing you.

1
The meal and the ticket sell as one price with no split

A single ticket price covers both dinner and the performance, and if food cost and show cost are not tracked apart, an owner cannot tell whether the kitchen or the production is eating the margin on a given run.

What we doKeeps kitchen and meal service costs apart from production payroll and show costs so each side has its own number.
2
A production run gets paid like ongoing payroll

A cast and crew hired for a six-week run of one show is a defined cost tied to that specific production, not open-ended staffing, and lumped into general wages, an owner cannot see what each show actually cost to mount.

What we doKeeps payroll tied to each production run so you can see what a show cost against what it sold.
3
Costume and set costs blur between shows

Costumes and sets built for one production and reused or rebuilt for the next get mixed together over the year, making it hard to see which shows were actually cheap or expensive to mount.

What we doTags costume and set spending to the show it was bought for, so production costs are comparable across the season.
4
Comp seats and cast meals get lost in the count

Comp tickets for reviewers, cast meals, and house seats held for guests all reduce paid attendance without reducing food and labor cost, and untracked, they quietly shrink the margin on a full house.

What we doFlags a gap between seats filled and tickets sold so comps and house holds stay visible instead of invisible.

Your categories

The categories Gus keeps for a dinner theater.

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

Ticket and meal packagesThe bundled admission and dinner price sold per seat.
Private eventsCorporate and group buyouts of a full performance.
Bar and drinksAlcohol sales beyond what the meal package includes.
Group and season salesBus tour groups and season ticket packages.

Money out

Kitchen and meal serviceFood and beverage cost for the seated dinner.
Production payrollCast and crew pay tied to a specific show run.
Costumes and setsCostume shop and set materials, tagged by show.
Liability insuranceCoverage for a facility combining food service and live performance.
Rent and utilitiesThe theater and kitchen space.
MarketingTicketing app fees, local ads, and season promotion.

What we watch for you

Meal cost per seat
Food cost against ticket revenue, kept apart from what the production itself costs.
Production cost per run
What each show's payroll and costumes cost against what it sold, useful when planning the next season.
Comp and house hold rate
How many seats go unpaid against how many are sold, since comps quietly shrink margin.
The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so April is a number you already knew.

Ask Gus

Things dinner theater 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.

Is the holiday show actually profitable or is the meal eating the margin?

Meal cost is running steady this run, and payroll came in under the last show's. I keep both tagged to this production so you can see it clearly.

How many comp tickets did we give out this run?

More than usual this time. I flag the gap between seats filled and tickets sold so it doesn't quietly disappear into the numbers.

Do our guest actors for this run need 1099s?

If any are paid $2,000 or more this year and are not on payroll, yes, by January 31. Cast working your full rehearsal schedule may actually be employees, and that is worth the accountant's read.

The tax side

The tax side of a dinner theater.

Most of what goes wrong here is mixing meal cost with production cost, and treating a cast hired for a run like open-ended staff.

What your return has to get right

Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.

Kitchen and stage equipmentKitchen equipment, stage rigging, and lighting can usually be written off up to $2,560,000 under Section 179 in the year bought, and bonus depreciation is 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
Contractor 1099sA guest director, choreographer, or freelance costumer who is not on payroll and is paid $2,000 or more in 2026 gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
Cast and crew classificationA cast hired for a full production run under your rehearsal schedule and direction usually looks like employees, not independent contractors, even for a short run.
The pass-through deductionMost owner-operators can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income. It comes out right when the books are right all year.

Deductions dinner theaters miss

Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.

Costume and wardrobe materials
Set construction supplies
Kitchen equipment maintenance
Stage lighting and sound
Liability insurance
Ticketing app fees
Bar tools and glassware
Card processing fees
Script and licensing fees
Rehearsal space rental
Cast meal costs

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 dinner theater year, kept every month.

Holiday and summer show runs bring the biggest crowds, and the calendar has real gaps between productions. Your team keeps you ahead of both, and of taxes on their own schedule. 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 guest artists is ready, and you get a monthly set-aside so April is already handled.
April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been running since January.
July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and how the summer production run compared to last year's.
October
Before the holiday run
The holiday show goes into rehearsal. Gus looks at costume and set spending and any equipment worth buying before December.

What you get

Starts at$197a month

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 dinner theaters. 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 dinner theater owners ask first.

Can Gus tell me if the meal or the show is costing us more?

Yes. He keeps kitchen and meal service costs apart from production payroll and costume spending, so you can see each side's margin instead of one blended ticket price.

How does Gus track costs across multiple show runs a year?

He tags payroll, costumes, and set spending to the specific production they belong to, so you can compare how much each show actually cost to mount.

Are our cast and crew employees or contractors?

A cast working your full rehearsal schedule and taking direction usually looks like employees, even for a short run. Gus flags the pattern and the accountant makes the final call.

Do comp tickets and cast meals show up anywhere in the books?

Yes. Gus flags the gap between seats filled and tickets sold so comps and house holds stay visible instead of quietly shrinking your margin.

Our books have never separated meal cost from production cost. Can Gus fix that?

Yes. Send the bank statements you have. Gus sorts them into their own categories, the accountant checks it, and most owners know where they stand inside 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.

We keep books for the business next door too.

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

Books and taxes for dinner theaters.

Dinner theater books go wrong in the same few places.

The meal and the ticket sell as one price with no split

A production run gets paid like ongoing payroll

Costume and set costs blur between shows

Comp seats and cast meals get lost in the count