Home, hobby & lifestyle retail
Books and taxes for home decor boutiques.
Register sales, an interior designer's trade discount, a freight order that arrives with breakage, and a seasonal restyle that changes the whole shop. Your own bookkeeper keeps it straight, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
October came in at $11,600. Two designer trade orders closed at your discount rate, so I kept those apart from your full-price register sales.
- Register batch, showroom floorIn-store sales
- Trade account, Reeves DesignDesigner trade sales
- CBK Home wholesale invoiceWholesale inventory
- Freight carrier damage creditFreight and shipping
- Instagram ad spendMarketing
Why your books are different
A home decor boutique's books go wrong the same handful of ways.
A generalist bookkeeper sees a deposit and a supplier bill. Your shop sells the same lamp at three prices depending on who is buying, restyles the whole floor every season, and eats freight damage that a carrier only sometimes credits back. When the books miss that, your real margin is a guess.
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1
Trade discounts hide inside full-price sales
A local designer buys a set of chairs at 20 percent off for a client project. Booked at the same price as a walk-in sale, your margin on trade orders looks identical to retail, when it is not.
What we doKeeps designer trade sales in their own line so you can see what that discount really costs you across the year. -
2
Freight damage claims land months after the loss
A crate of ceramics arrives cracked, and the freight carrier credit does not show up for weeks. Recorded as random income, it looks unrelated to the loss it is actually covering.
What we doMatches freight credits back to the original damaged order, so the loss and the reimbursement tell the same story. -
3
A seasonal restyle looks like a bad month
Swapping the floor for a new season means paying for a large wholesale order before most of it sells, which can make one month look thin right before the new stock earns it back.
What we doTracks seasonal buys as inventory, not a flat cost, so the restyle does not read as a loss. -
4
Floor samples and display pieces get lost in inventory
A rug or mirror used as a display piece for months, then finally marked down and sold, throws off cost tracking if it is treated the same as fresh stock.
What we doFlags long-held display pieces separately so their eventual markdown does not distort the regular margin.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a home decor boutique.
Set up once for how you sell and who buys. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- In-store salesFull-price register sales from walk-in customers.
- Designer trade salesDiscounted orders placed by interior designers for clients.
- Online salesYour own site or Shopify shop, kept apart from the floor.
- Freight and damage creditsReimbursements from carriers, matched to the order they cover.
Money out
- Wholesale inventoryBuys from decor wholesalers and gift market vendors like CBK Home or Accent Decor.
- Freight and shippingWhat it costs to get bulky decor and furniture-adjacent items to the shop.
- Store rent and utilitiesThe lease, power, and water for the storefront.
- Card processing feesWhat Square or your gateway keeps on every sale.
- MarketingInstagram ads, local sponsorships, and email campaigns.
- Display and stagingProps, paint, and seasonal restyle materials for the floor.
What we watch for you
- Trade share
How much of sales comes from designer accounts at a discount, before you expand the program further.
- Gross margin
What is left after cost of goods. A slipping margin often traces back to trade discounts or markdowns.
- Freight loss rate
How often decor and furniture-adjacent pieces arrive broken, tracked against what carriers actually credit back.
- The set-aside
What you will owe across every seasonal restyle, tracked monthly, so April holds no surprises.
Ask Gus
Things home decor boutique 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.
I already keep a line for designer trade sales apart from full-price sales, so setting her up just means flagging her orders that way going forward.
I matched it back to the original order so the loss and the credit read as one story, not two unrelated numbers.
It shouldn't. I track that as inventory, not a flat expense, so the month it earns out will look right too.
The tax side
The tax side of running a home decor boutique.
Most of what trips up a home decor boutique is timing and pricing tiers: a trade discount, a freight credit, and a seasonal buy that should not all hit the books the same way.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Cost of goods soldWhat you paid for the decor you actually sold this year reduces your taxable income, not what is sitting on shelves waiting for the next season. Gus tracks buys as inventory.
- Sales tax collectedSales tax belongs to the state the moment a customer pays it, whether the sale was full price or a designer's discounted trade order. Gus flags it as a liability, not income.
- Equipment and fixture write-offsShelving, lighting, and display fixtures can usually be written off in the year they are bought, with bonus depreciation back to 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operated boutiques can take up to 20 percent of qualified business income off their taxable income. It comes out right when the books track the whole year correctly.
Deductions home decor boutiques miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Freight and shipping fees
- Wholesale gift market travel
- Display props and staging
- Card processing fees
- Storefront signage
- Instagram and social ads
- Business insurance
- POS software subscription
- Storage for seasonal stock
- Trade association dues
- Cleaning and maintenance
- Packaging materials
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 home decor boutique's year, kept every month.
The floor changes with every season, and the books stay open with it, all year, not only at tax time. 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, and you get a monthly set-aside so April is already handled, right after the holiday restyle wraps.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been running since restyle planning began back in January.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether the summer restyle changed the picture from spring.
- October
Before the holiday floor
Fixtures, seasonal buys, and any equipment worth purchasing before the holiday restyle order goes in for the year's biggest season.
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 home decor boutiques. 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 home decor boutique owners ask first.
Can Gus track designer trade discounts separately from retail sales?
Yes. Trade orders get their own line so you can see exactly what those discounted sales bring in compared to full-price customers, without extra work on your part.
A wholesale shipment arrived with breakage. Does that mess up my numbers?
It should not for long. Gus matches any freight credit back to the damaged order so the loss and the reimbursement show up as one clear story instead of two disconnected entries.
I restyle the whole floor every season. Will one big buy tank a month's numbers?
It shouldn't. Gus tracks seasonal wholesale orders as inventory rather than a flat cost, so a big restyle buy does not make that month look worse than it really is.
Do I need to handle sales tax differently for trade customers?
Usually not, though rules vary by state on resale certificates for designers buying for a client. Gus flags trade sales clearly so the accountant can confirm what applies to you.
My books are behind after a busy restyle season. Can you catch up?
Send what you have. Gus sorts through register batches, trade orders, and wholesale invoices, and 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