Creative & production services
Books and taxes for print and direct mail agencies.
A postcard campaign with postage covering ten thousand pieces, a purchased mailing list, a print vendor invoice, and a client who wants response tracking. Gus sorts 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
October came in at $10,400. The Marchetti Realty postcard drop covered printing and postage for 12,000 pieces, real client costs, so I kept that separate from the design and management fee you actually kept.
- Marchetti Realty campaign budgetClient campaign budgets
- Design and management feesDesign and management fee income
- USPS presort postagePostage pass-through
- Regional print vendorPrint production pass-through
- Mailing list purchaseMailing list costs
Why your books are different
Print and direct mail agency books go wrong at the postage bill and the mailing list.
A generalist sees a big client payment and calls it all revenue. Your business collects client budgets to cover postage, printing, and purchased mailing lists, and keeps a design or management fee on top. When the books count postage and print costs as your own revenue, both your real size and your tax bill get overstated.
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1
Client campaign budgets get counted as agency revenue
When a client pays you $10,000 to cover printing and postage for a mail drop and you keep a $1,500 fee, booking the full $10,000 as sales makes the business look far bigger than it is and overstates what is owed at tax time.
What we doBooks your design or management fee as income and postage and print costs as client pass-through expenses, so the top line reflects what you actually keep. -
2
Postage looks like a routine business expense
Postage for a large mail drop can be the single biggest cost in a campaign, and if it gets mixed into general office postage, you cannot see what mailing at scale actually costs per campaign.
What we doKeeps postage pass-through in its own line, tied to the campaign it was for, separate from your everyday office mail. -
3
Purchased mailing lists get treated like a one-time supply
A mailing list bought for one campaign is a real, often expensive cost tied to that specific drop, and lumped into general supplies it hides what targeting actually costs.
What we doKeeps mailing list costs in their own category so you can see what list quality is costing you campaign to campaign. -
4
A print vendor invoice looks like your own printing cost
Paying a regional print vendor for a client's job and billing the client back can look like your own overhead is climbing when the cost is really the client's.
What we doBooks what the client pays you back as income and the print vendor cost as an expense, so pass-through printing does not distort your overhead. -
5
Response tracking fees get missed as their own line
A unique phone number or landing page used to track a mail campaign's response rate is a real service some clients pay extra for, and it can get folded into a flat campaign fee instead of billed as its own thing.
What we doKeeps response tracking fees in their own line so no small recurring charge gets missed.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a print and direct mail agency.
Set up once for how you get paid and what you spend. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Client campaign budgetsFull budgets clients pay to cover postage, print, and lists.
- Design and management fee incomeWhat you keep for designing and coordinating a campaign.
- Response tracking feesTracking numbers and landing pages billed apart from the base campaign.
- Rush feesCharged for a compressed print and mail timeline.
Money out
- Postage pass-throughUSPS presort and bulk mail postage tied to a specific campaign.
- Print production pass-throughPrint vendor costs paid on a client's behalf.
- Mailing list costsPurchased or rented mailing lists tied to a specific campaign.
- Design softwareLayout and design tools used for campaign creative.
- Response tracking toolsCall tracking and landing page services.
What we watch for you
- Real revenue share
Your design and management fees against total money moved, so postage and print never get mistaken for your income.
- Campaign margin
What each campaign actually nets after postage, print, and list costs.
- Postage cost per drop
What mailing actually costs per campaign, worth knowing before quoting the next one.
- The set-aside
What you will owe on your real fees, not postage and print costs, tracked monthly ahead of April.
Ask Gus
Things print and direct mail agency 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.
No, I book your design or management fee as income and the postage and print costs as pass-through expenses, so your real revenue stays accurate.
I keep list costs in their own category, tied to that specific campaign, so you can see what targeting is actually costing you job to job.
If you paid a contractor directly, not the vendor's own staff, and it was $2,000 or more in 2026, they get a 1099-NEC by January 31. I have been tracking it as we go.
The tax side
The tax side of a print and direct mail agency.
Most of what goes wrong here is postage and print costs counted as agency revenue instead of pass-through costs.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Contractor 1099s for freelance helpAny designer or freelancer not on payroll paid $2,000 or more in 2026 gets a 1099-NEC by January 31. Gus keeps the total current across every campaign.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operated print agencies can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income when fees are tracked apart from postage and print costs.
- Sales tax on printed materialsSome states tax printed materials or mailers as tangible goods, and the rule varies by state, so it is worth confirming what applies where you operate.
- Self-employment tax for solo ownersA one-person agency pays 15.3 percent self-employment tax on top of income tax, so the set-aside covers both, calculated only against your real fees, not postage costs.
Deductions print and direct mail agencies miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Design software licenses
- Response tracking tools
- Portfolio site hosting
- Continuing education courses
- Coworking or office rent
- Payment processor fees
- Client contract tools
- Business association dues
- Accounting and legal fees
- Computer and monitor upgrades
- Sample mailers and proofs
- Marketing and self-promotion
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 print and direct mail agency's year, kept every month.
Campaigns follow client marketing calendars, not a fixed season. Your books stay current no matter the timing, and the return follows. 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 designer 1099 list is ready, and a monthly set-aside means April is already handled.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed, based on your real fees, not postage and print costs passed through. The set-aside has covered it since January.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and how campaign volume has moved since January.
- October
Before year-end mailings
Holiday and year-end campaigns drive a rush. Gus looks at equipment or software worth buying 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 print and direct mail agencies. 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 print and direct mail agency owners ask first.
Does a client's full campaign budget count as my taxable income?
Only your design or management fee counts as income. Gus books postage, print, and list costs as pass-through expenses, so your real revenue and your tax bill both stay accurate.
Postage costs vary hugely campaign to campaign. Does that make my books unpredictable?
No. Gus ties postage to the specific campaign it was for, so a big postage month reads as a big campaign, not an unexplained expense spike.
I use a different print vendor for almost every job. Is that hard to track?
No, Gus books what the client pays you back as income and what the vendor charged as an expense, no matter which vendor was used.
Some states tax mailers and others do not. How does Gus handle that?
Gus flags where sales tax on printed materials may apply so the accountant can confirm the rule for your state, since it varies a great deal.
My books have never separated postage and print costs from my own fees. Can Gus fix that?
Yes. Send what you have, even a year of postage and print costs mixed with your own fees. Gus separates the two 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