Restaurants, cafes & food service
Books and taxes for personal chefs.
Weekly client sessions, groceries a client reimburses you for, mileage between two or three homes a day, and the occasional dinner party at double your rate. 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
March brought in $5,500. The anniversary dinner party you catered came in as its own line, separate from your regular weekly clients, so you can see it was extra, not part of your steady income.
- Weekly client service feesRecurring client income
- One-off dinner party feeEvent and one-off income
- Client grocery reimbursementGrocery reimbursements
- Grocery run for clientsClient grocery purchases
- Knife and equipment purchaseChef equipment
Why your books are different
A personal chef's books go wrong in the same five places.
A generalist bookkeeper sees deposits and bills. A personal chef gets reimbursed for groceries on top of a cooking fee, drives between two or three client homes a day, and occasionally works a one-off event at a much higher rate. When those pieces blend together, real earnings look inflated or unclear.
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1
Grocery reimbursements get mixed with service fee income
A client pays for the groceries a chef buys and cooks with, and if that grocery money is booked the same as the chef's cooking fee, revenue looks much bigger than it really is and margin looks wrong.
What we doKeeps grocery reimbursements separate from service fee income, so real earnings are not overstated by money that was never the chef's to keep. -
2
Mileage between client homes disappears
A personal chef often drives to two or three different homes in a single day, and without tracking that mileage, a real and sizable deduction disappears every year.
What we doAsks for mileage between client homes and keeps it as its own line, so the deduction does not get missed. -
3
Different billing cycles blur the real month
Some clients pay weekly, some pay per session, and some pay a monthly retainer, and lumped together without matching to when the cooking actually happened, the real workload for a given month is hard to see.
What we doTracks each client's income against the sessions actually cooked, so the real month is visible no matter how each client pays. -
4
Chef-owned equipment gets mixed with grocery spending
A chef's own knife set and cookware are real business equipment, but bought around the same time as groceries for a client, they can get lost inside an ordinary-looking food spending line.
What we doKeeps chef-owned equipment apart from groceries so it gets tracked, and written off, the way real equipment should be. -
5
A one-off dinner party looks like a regular week
A special dinner party for eight people at a much higher fee than a standard weekly session is a different kind of job, and mixed in with recurring client income, the chef cannot tell how much of their income is steady versus event-based.
What we doKeeps one-off event work separate from recurring client income, so steady income and event income are both visible.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a personal chef.
Set up once for how your clients pay and how groceries flow through your accounts. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Recurring client incomeWeekly, per-session, or retainer income, matched to sessions actually cooked.
- Event and one-off incomeSpecial dinner parties and one-time bookings, kept apart from regular clients.
- Grocery reimbursementsKept apart from service fee income, since it was never yours to keep.
- Gift or holiday session bookingsOne-time gift certificates or holiday requests.
Money out
- Client grocery purchasesGroceries bought and reimbursed, tracked apart from your own equipment.
- Chef equipmentKnives and cookware you own, logged apart from groceries so they get written off right.
- Vehicle fuel and mileageDriving between client homes.
- Liability insuranceCoverage for cooking in a client's home.
- Marketing and website costsYour site, business cards, and local advertising.
What we watch for you
- Real service income
Your cooking fee against total deposits, so grocery reimbursements don't inflate the picture.
- Mileage logged
Miles driven between client homes, tracked so the deduction isn't missed.
- Recurring client share
How much of your income is steady weekly work versus one-off events.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so tax time holds no surprise.
Ask Gus
Things personal chefs 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 a reimbursement, not income, so your real service fee is what actually shows up as your earnings, not inflated by grocery money that was never yours to keep.
It can, and I keep a running tally apart from everything else, so it does not get missed at tax time.
No, I keep it separate from your recurring client income, so you can always see how much of your money is steady work versus one-off events.
The tax side
The tax side of a personal chef.
Most of what goes wrong here is labels: reimbursements mistaken for income, mileage left untracked, and equipment mixed with groceries.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Mileage between client homesThe standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents a mile from January through June 2026 and 76 cents a mile from July through December 2026, and it applies to the driving between client homes that is core to this work.
- Self-employment tax for owner-operatorsA chef running their own business without a payroll paycheck owes self-employment tax of 15.3 percent on top of regular income tax, up to the Social Security wage base of $184,500.
- Section 179 on chef equipmentKnives, cookware, and other business equipment can usually be written off in the year they are bought, with 100 percent bonus depreciation for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operators can deduct up to 20 percent of qualified business income before it is taxed, a benefit that is now permanent, with limits starting above $201,750 for a single filer or $403,500 for a joint filer.
Deductions personal chefs miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Knife sharpening and replacement
- Chef coats and aprons
- Food storage containers for clients
- Client invoicing software fees
- Continuing education and food safety courses
- Vehicle mileage between clients
- Marketing and website costs
- Business liability insurance
- Cell phone for client scheduling
- Cooler bags for transport
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 personal chef's year, kept every month.
Client schedules shift with vacations and holidays all year. 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 event help is readied, and you get a monthly set-aside so a steady year does not turn into an April surprise.
- April
Filed and signed
Your return is filed and signed. Because the set-aside has been running since January, there is no scramble for cash.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand at the midpoint of the year, including whether summer client travel slowed your regular rotation.
- October
Before the holidays
Before holiday dinner party requests pick up, Gus looks at equipment worth replacing 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 personal chefs. 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 personal chefs ask first.
A client pays me for groceries in addition to my cooking fee. Is that all counted as my income?
No. Grocery reimbursements are tracked separately from your service fee, so your real earnings are not overstated by money that was never yours to keep.
I drive between two or three clients' homes most days. Does that mileage matter?
Yes, and it adds up. Gus keeps a running mileage total apart from everything else, so a real deduction does not get missed at tax time.
My clients pay me differently, weekly, per session, or a monthly retainer. Can Gus keep that straight?
Yes. Each client's income is tracked against the sessions actually cooked, so your real workload for the month is visible no matter how each one pays.
I bought a new knife set this year. Is that different from a grocery expense?
It is, and it is tracked that way. Chef-owned equipment gets its own line, apart from groceries, so it is written off the way real equipment should be.
I did a special one-off dinner party at a much higher rate than my usual weekly clients. Does that throw off my numbers?
No. It is kept separate from your recurring client income, so you can see how much of your money is steady work versus a one-time event.
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