Restaurants, cafes & food service
Books and taxes for ice cream and gelato shops.
Counter scoop sales, custom birthday cakes paid ahead of pickup, wholesale pints, and a summer crew that triples in size. Gus sorts every one, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one clear number each month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
July brought in $9,000. Payroll jumped with your summer crew, which is exactly the pattern this time of year, not a number to worry about.
- Square POS batch depositCounter scoop sales
- Custom cake pickup paymentCustom cake orders
- Dairy and mix-in orderDairy and mix-ins
- Waffle cone and topping orderCones and toppings
- ADP payrollWages and payroll taxes
Why your books are different
An ice cream shop's books go wrong in the same five places.
A generalist bookkeeper sees deposits and bills. An ice cream shop takes cake deposits weeks before pickup, staffs a skeleton crew in winter and a dozen scoopers in summer, and risks a freezer failure wiping out real inventory in one shot. When those pieces blend together, the owner cannot tell a real problem from a normal summer swing.
-
1
Custom cakes get counted before they're picked up
A birthday cake ordered and paid for days ahead should count as income when it is picked up, not when the deposit lands, or a slow week right before a busy weekend of pickups looks worse than it is.
What we doHolds cake payments until pickup, then books the sale against that week's ingredient and labor cost. -
2
Summer staffing swings look like a payroll problem
A shop that runs on a skeleton crew in winter and hires a dozen teen scoopers for three months of summer sees payroll jump hard, and without context, that swing can look alarming instead of expected.
What we doTracks payroll against the season so a summer staffing spike reads as the normal pattern it is, not a red flag. -
3
A power outage melts a freezer's worth of inventory at once
A freezer going down for a few hours during a summer storm can melt an entire case of product, a real one-time loss very different from the slow, ordinary waste of a scoop that falls on the floor.
What we doLogs a melt loss as its own one-time event, separate from ordinary waste, so the real hit is visible. -
4
Wholesale pints blur with scoop sales
Pints sold wholesale to a local grocery or specialty store carry a different margin than a scoop sold over the counter, and lumped together, the owner cannot tell which side of the business is actually worth growing.
What we doKeeps wholesale pint sales separate from counter scoop sales so each side's real margin is visible. -
5
Dairy and mix-in costs swing without warning
Cream, milk, and mix-ins for a homemade batch can jump with dairy prices, and lumped in with cones and toppings, a real cost increase hides inside an ordinary-looking supplies number.
What we doKeeps dairy and mix-in cost apart from cones and toppings so a real price swing shows up clearly.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for an ice cream shop.
Set up once for how the counter, cake orders, and wholesale each run. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Counter scoop salesWalk-up sales rung through Square or Toast.
- Custom cake ordersBooked to the pickup day, not the day the deposit was paid.
- Wholesale pint salesPints sold to a local grocery or specialty store, kept apart from the counter.
- Catering and event bookingsIce cream cart bookings for parties and events.
Money out
- Dairy and mix-insCream, milk, and mix-ins for homemade batches, kept apart from toppings.
- Cones and toppingsWaffle cones, sprinkles, and syrups.
- Wages and payroll taxesScooper pay, tracked so a summer swing is easy to see against the season.
- PackagingCups, spoons, and cake boxes.
- Rent and building costsLease, utilities, and repairs on the shop.
- Freezer and batch equipmentBatch freezers and display cases, logged apart from ingredients so they get written off right.
- Marketing and local adsSummer event sponsorships and local advertising.
What we watch for you
- Food cost percentage
Dairy, mix-in, and topping cost against sales, the number that catches a price jump early.
- Melt and shrink loss
What is lost to spoilage or a freezer failure, tracked so it is a known cost, not a mystery.
- Labor cost percentage
Scooper wages against sales, watched against the season's swing.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so tax time holds no surprise.
Ask Gus
Things ice cream shop 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.
It will jump, and that is expected. I track payroll against the season, so a summer staffing spike reads as normal, not a red flag.
I log it as a one-time melt loss, separate from your regular waste, so it does not quietly distort your food cost for months.
Not until it is picked up. I hold it until then, so the income lands with the actual work, not the deposit.
The tax side
The tax side of an ice cream shop.
Most of what goes wrong here is timing and labels: cake deposits counted early, a melt loss mixed with ordinary waste, and equipment lost inside an ingredient order.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Section 179 on freezer and batch equipmentBatch freezers and display cases can usually be written off the year you buy them, with 100 percent bonus depreciation for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- Worker classification for seasonal scoopersA scooper who works your schedule and uses your equipment is almost always an employee, not a contractor, even for a three-month summer season.
- The FICA tip creditIf your counter has a tip jar and staff report the income, you can often claim a credit for the employer's share of Social Security and Medicare tax on tips above the minimum wage portion.
- Form 1099-NEC for event helpAnyone hired outside of payroll to run an ice cream cart at a party or event, paid $2,000 or more in 2026, gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
Deductions ice cream and gelato shops miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Waffle cone and topping supplies
- Freezer and batch equipment maintenance
- Cake boxes and candles
- Scooper uniforms and aprons
- Summer seasonal signage
- Ice cream cart rental for events
- Food handler certification
- Employee shift meals
- Pest control contracts
- Local summer event sponsorships
- Online ordering fees
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 ice cream shop's year, kept every month.
The crew triples in summer and shrinks back down every winter. Your taxes come on a schedule. Your team keeps you ahead of both. 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 any contracted event help is readied, and you get a monthly set-aside so summer's payroll swing does not turn into an April surprise.
- April
Filed and signed
Your return is filed and signed, right before the summer hiring and scooping season kicks into gear.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand at the midpoint of peak summer season, and whether the crew size is matching what is coming in.
- October
Before the slow season
Before the slow winter months set in, Gus looks at freezer or batch equipment worth buying and 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 ice cream and gelato shops. 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 ice cream shop owners ask first.
We staff way up for summer and way down in winter. Does that mess up our books?
No. Gus tracks payroll against the season, so a summer staffing spike reads as the normal pattern it is instead of looking like a problem out of nowhere.
How do you handle custom ice cream cake orders paid for ahead of pickup?
Gus holds the payment until the cake is actually picked up, then books it against that week. A deposit taken early does not make a slow week look busy, or pickup day look thin.
Our freezer went down during a storm and we lost a lot of product. What happens to that in the books?
It gets logged as a one-time melt loss, separate from your normal day-to-day waste, so it does not quietly distort your food cost for months after.
We sell pints wholesale to a local grocery store now. Does that change anything?
Yes, it gets its own line. Wholesale pint sales are tracked apart from counter scoop sales, so you can see the real margin on each side of the business.
Our books have never separated dairy cost from toppings and cones. Can we start now?
Yes. Send the bank statements you have and Gus starts tracking dairy and mix-in cost apart from cones and toppings going forward.
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