Small manufacturers & fabricators
Books and taxes for plastic injection molders.
A customer's tooling payment, a resin pellet order, a production run invoice, and a mold maintenance bill. Your own bookkeeper stays on it all year, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
March came in at $18,800. The customer's tooling payment for the new mold is booked separate from production, since that mold belongs to them, not the shop.
- Bright Path Products, run 9Production run invoices
- Delcor tooling paymentCustomer tooling payments
- Resin supplier orderResin and colorant
- Mold maintenance, press 3Mold maintenance
- Press loan paymentEquipment loan
Why your books are different
Injection molding books go wrong over whose mold it actually is.
A generalist sees deposits and bills. Your shop runs molds some customers own and some the shop owns, buys resin whose price moves with oil markets, and reclaims scrap as regrind. When the books do not track whose tooling is whose, a mold payment looks like ordinary income and the shop's own equipment gets muddled with a customer's asset.
-
1
Customer-owned tooling gets mixed with the shop's own molds
A customer who pays for a mold to run their part owns that tool, even though it sits in your press, but if that payment is booked like a production invoice, it looks like income instead of what it really is.
What we doKeeps customer tooling payments in their own category, separate from production revenue and separate from the shop's own equipment. -
2
Resin price swings never reach the quote
Resin pricing moves with oil and feedstock markets, and a run quoted in January can cost noticeably more in material by summer if nobody is watching.
What we doTracks resin cost as a share of what came in, so a price swing gets caught before a year of quotes falls behind it. -
3
Regrind looks like free material
Scrap parts and runners get reground and fed back into the process, and it feels free, but the labor and machine time to grind it is a real cost that is easy to miss entirely.
What we doKeeps regrind and scrap handling in its own line so the real cost of reclaiming material is visible, not assumed to be zero. -
4
A color changeover looks like downtime with no cause
Switching a press from one customer's color to another costs purge material and lost run time, and without tracking it, a slow week just looks unexplained.
What we doFlags changeover costs against the run they interrupted, so slower weeks have a real reason attached to them.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for an injection molding shop.
Set up once for how runs and tooling get paid and what the shop spends to run them. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Production run invoicesPer-piece or per-run billing once parts ship.
- Customer tooling paymentsWhat a customer pays for a mold that belongs to them.
- Tooling maintenance billingRepair or refurbishment charged back to a mold's owner.
- Rush feesThe premium charged for a quick-turn run.
Money out
- Resin and colorantPellets and masterbatch, tracked as prices move.
- Regrind and scrap handlingGranulator time and labor to reclaim material.
- Mold maintenanceRepair and upkeep on molds in service, whether shop or customer owned.
- Purge and changeover materialWhat it costs to switch a press between colors or parts.
- Equipment loan or leasePayments on presses, granulators, and dryers.
- Shop rent and utilitiesIncludes the heavy power draw of running presses.
- PayrollPress operators, mold setters, and quality inspectors.
What we watch for you
- Margin by run
What a production run brought in against resin and machine time, the real test of a quote.
- Resin cost share
Material as a percent of sales. A jump means resin prices moved and quotes need a look.
- Regrind rate
How much material is reclaimed versus scrapped outright, a real cost hiding in plain sight.
- Customer tooling balance
What is owed on molds still being paid off, kept apart from your own shop equipment.
Ask Gus
Things injection molder 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 counts as money in, but I keep it apart from your production revenue, since that mold belongs to the customer, not the shop, once it is paid off.
I track resin cost as a share of what each run brings in, so a price jump shows up fast instead of quietly eating margin all year.
If he is not on payroll and you pay him $2,000 or more this year, he gets a 1099-NEC by January 31. I keep that list running as we go.
The tax side
The tax side of an injection molding shop.
Most of what trips up a molder's return is whose tooling is whose and what resin is still sitting in the shop at year end.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Press and mold depreciationInjection presses and shop-owned molds can usually be written off, often in the year they are bought. Section 179 covers up to $2,560,000 and bonus depreciation is 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- Resin and regrind on handPellets, colorant, and reclaimed regrind sitting in the shop at year end get valued and matched to what actually sold, rather than expensed the day they were bought.
- Customer-owned toolingA mold a customer paid for belongs to them for tax purposes, even while it runs in your press, so it usually does not sit on your own depreciation schedule.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operated shops can take up to 20 percent of profit off taxable income. It comes out right when resin cost and customer tooling are tracked correctly all year.
Deductions plastic injection molders miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Resin and colorant
- Mold maintenance parts
- Purge compound
- Granulator blades
- Press hydraulic fluid
- Quality gauges and calibration
- Freight on incoming resin
- Safety gear and hearing protection
- Shop uniforms
- Trade certifications
- Small hand tools
- Machine downtime repair parts
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 injection molding year, kept every month.
Runs land all year on customer schedules, not a season. Your taxes still run on one. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Molds planned
Year end resin and regrind get valued, customer tooling balances get sorted, and last year's return gets started so April is already handled.
- April
Molding return filed
The accountant files and signs your return. Since the set-aside has been running since January, a quarter heavy on tooling investment does not turn into a scramble.
- July
Midyear molding check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether new tooling or runs this year changed the number.
- October
Before year closes
Gus looks at any press or mold buy worth making before December and flags it for the accountant's call on depreciation.
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 plastic injection molders. 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 injection molders ask first.
How does Gus handle a mold a customer pays us to build?
He keeps that payment apart from production revenue, since the mold belongs to the customer once it is paid off, even though it runs in your press.
Do we have to change how we quote a production run?
No. Keep quoting production runs the way you always have. Gus reads it off your bank statement, and when a payment is unclear he asks once and remembers the answer from then on.
Can Gus track what regrind actually costs us?
Yes. Granulator time and labor to reclaim scrap get their own line, so reclaiming material shows its real cost instead of looking free.
We run some molds we own and some customers own. Does that get confusing?
It stays clean if it is tracked from the start, which is what Gus does. Shop-owned equipment and customer-owned tooling stay in separate categories.
Our books are behind after adding two new customers this year. Can that be fixed?
Yes. Send the bank statements you have. Gus works through resin orders and tooling payments alike, the accountant checks the result, and most owners see where they stand within a week.
Do I write off a new press all at once?
Often you can. A new press bought for the business can usually be deducted the year it is bought, though sometimes spreading it out fits a shop's year better. Gus flags the purchase and the accountant decides with your whole year in view.
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