Personal & lifestyle services
Books and taxes for estate and house managers.
A standing monthly retainer for one household, vendor invoices you approve and pay on the owner's behalf, seasonal property staff you help coordinate, and a household budget that is not yours to keep. Your own bookkeeper stays on 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
May brought in $6,300. The landscaping vendor invoice you paid and got reimbursed for went in as a pass-through, not your income, so it does not inflate what you actually earned.
- Monthly management retainerHousehold management retainer
- Landscaping vendor reimbursementHousehold expense pass-through
- Estate management softwareManagement and scheduling tools
- Vehicle fuel, property visitsVehicle and mileage
- Liability insurance premiumInsurance
Why your books are different
Estate and house manager books go wrong in the same four places.
A generalist sees deposits and bills. Your business is a standing retainer for running someone else's household, vendor bills you pay and get reimbursed for, and property visits that add up to real mileage. When the books do not know that, your real income gets buried under household expenses that were never yours.
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1
Household expenses paid on the owner's behalf look like your income
Paying a landscaper, a pool service, or a contractor from your account and getting reimbursed by the household is not money you earned, it is money that passed through, but counted as income it makes your revenue look bigger than what you actually kept.
What we doKeeps reimbursed household expenses in their own pass-through line, separate from what you actually charge for managing the property. -
2
One household's retainer and vendor coordination blur together
Your monthly management fee pays for your time and judgment, while the vendor bills you coordinate are a completely different kind of money moving through your account, and lumped together neither number means much.
What we doKeeps your retainer income and vendor pass-through spending in separate lines so your real earnings stay clear. -
3
Being treated as a household employee rather than a business
A household you manage may try to pay you the way it pays a nanny or a housekeeper, on payroll with taxes withheld, rather than as an independent business relationship, which changes how your income and taxes actually work.
What we doFlags when a client relationship looks like it is being run as household employment instead of independent business income, so it gets sorted out before it becomes a filing problem. -
4
Mileage between properties goes untracked
Driving to oversee a property, meet a vendor, or check on seasonal staff racks up real mileage that is a legitimate write-off, but if nobody logs it, it disappears every year.
What we doFollows up for mileage or fuel records on a regular basis and keeps vehicle costs in their own line so the write-off does not disappear.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for an estate or house management business.
Set up once for how households pay you and what passes through your account. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Household management retainerStanding monthly fee for overseeing one or more properties.
- Project feesOne-time fees for a renovation oversight or a household move.
- Household expense pass-throughVendor payments made on the household's behalf and reimbursed.
- Staff coordination feesAdditional fees for overseeing seasonal or household staff.
Money out
- Management and scheduling toolsSoftware used to track vendors, schedules, and household tasks.
- Vehicle and mileageFuel and maintenance for visiting properties and meeting vendors.
- InsuranceProfessional liability coverage for household management work.
- Background check servicesScreening for staff you help place or oversee.
- Continuing educationCertifications and training in estate or household management.
What we watch for you
- Retainer share
How much of the month is your management fee versus pass-through vendor spending. It keeps your real income clear.
- Pass-through volume
How much vendor reimbursement money moves through your account against what you actually earn.
- Mileage cost
Fuel and vehicle cost against properties visited. It flags when travel is eating into a retainer's real value.
- The set-aside
The running total you will owe, tracked every month, so April is already known.
Ask Gus
Things estate and house managers 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.
That is the vendor reimbursement showing up as a pass-through, not earnings. Your actual retainer is the number that matters, and it stayed steady.
It changes things. That would make you a household employee rather than running an independent business, which changes your taxes. Worth a conversation with the accountant before agreeing to it.
A running estimate is enough for me to work with. I keep vehicle costs in their own line so that deduction does not get missed.
The tax side
The tax side of an estate and house management business.
Most of what goes wrong here is what counts as income and how the relationship is structured. Vendor pass-throughs read like earnings, and a set-aside nobody started until April.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Self-employment tax on management feesFor an estate management business, self-employment tax runs 15.3 percent on top of regular income tax when the owner is not paid through payroll, up to the Social Security wage base of $184,500.
- Mileage for property visitsDriving between properties and to meet vendors can be deducted at 72.5 cents a mile from January through June 2026 and 76 cents a mile from July through December 2026.
- What is actually your incomeMoney a household reimburses you for, like a vendor bill you fronted, generally is not taxable income to you if it passes straight through. Keeping it separate matters for an accurate return.
- The 20 percent business breakFor an estate management business, the pass-through deduction lets an owner take up to 20 percent of business profit off taxable income, a figure that only comes out right when the books are kept right all year.
Deductions estate and house managers miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Management and scheduling software
- Vehicle mileage or fuel and repairs
- Professional liability insurance
- Background check fees for staff placement
- Continuing education and certifications
- Phone and data plan for household coordination
- Home office space used for planning
- Professional association dues
- Business cards and stationery
- Travel between multiple properties
- Parking and tolls for property visits
- Vendor management software subscriptions
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
An estate manager's year, kept every month.
Retainers run steady, and seasonal property needs shift the workload through the year. Your team keeps you ahead of both the household calendar and the tax deadlines. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Set the year's plan
For an estate management business, last year's return gets started in January, and a monthly set-aside means April is already handled.
- April
Signed and sent
For an estate management business, the return is filed and signed in April, with no surprise bill since the set-aside has been running since January.
- July
The six-month check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether summer property projects changed the number.
- October
Before holiday hosting begins
Households often ramp up staffing and vendor work before holiday hosting. Gus looks at any moves worth making 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 estate and house managers. 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 estate and house managers ask first.
Vendor reimbursements make my deposits look huge. Does that mean I owe more tax?
No. Gus keeps money you front for household vendors and get paid back for in its own pass-through line, separate from your management retainer, so your real earnings stay clear.
The household I manage wants to pay me through their payroll. Should I agree?
That changes your status to a household employee rather than an independent business, which changes your taxes. Gus flags it so the accountant can walk through what that means before you agree.
Do I need to log mileage for every property visit?
An estimate is enough for me to work with. Gus keeps vehicle costs in their own line so the mileage write-off does not get missed.
I oversee staff placement sometimes. Does that change my books?
No, background check and placement-related costs just get their own line so you can see what that side of the work costs.
My books are behind because client households always come first. Is that fixable?
No, that is a normal starting point. Send the bank statements you have and Gus sorts through them, with the accountant checking it, usually 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.
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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