Personal & lifestyle services
Books and taxes for professional organizers.
Half-day sessions, multi-day home projects, bin and shelving product sold to the client, and driving between houses across town. Your own bookkeeper stays on 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
January cleared $4,300, your busiest month yet. The bin and shelving product you resold to clients got its own line, apart from your session fees.
- Session package paymentsOrganizing sessions
- Container Store client resaleProduct resale
- The Container Store orderBins and shelving supplies
- Shell fuel, client visitsVehicle and mileage
- Weekend helper payHelper wages
Why your books are different
Professional organizer books go wrong in the same four places.
A generalist sees deposits and bills. Your business is session packages sold upfront, product you buy and resell to clients, driving between homes all day, and the occasional helper on a big garage or closet project. When the books do not know that, the monthly number is a guess.
-
1
Prepaid packages get counted before the sessions happen
A client who books a six-session home overhaul and pays upfront has paid for work spread across weeks. Counting the whole payment as income the day it lands overstates that month and understates the ones the sessions actually happen in.
What we doKeeps prepaid packages visible against sessions actually delivered, so a big signup does not make one month look bigger than the work that happened. -
2
Product resale gets mixed into session fees
Bins, shelving, and labeling systems bought at The Container Store and resold to a client at a markup are a different kind of income than your time, and lumped together you cannot tell how much of your revenue is actually your labor.
What we doKeeps product resale in its own line, apart from session fees, so you can see what your time is worth on its own. -
3
Mileage between client homes goes untracked
Driving to three or four homes a day across a metro area racks up real mileage that is a legitimate write-off, but if nobody logs it, it disappears every year.
What we doAsks for mileage or fuel records regularly and keeps vehicle costs in their own line so the deduction does not get missed. -
4
A weekend helper's pay gets handed over in cash
Bringing in a second set of hands for a big garage or whole-house project and paying cash at the end of the day is the most common way this work gets its labor costs and its filings wrong.
What we doKeeps helper pay in its own line and flags anyone paid outside of payroll whose hours look more like an employee's.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a professional organizing business.
Set up once for how sessions get sold and what keeps the business running. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Organizing sessionsHourly or half-day sessions, paid at booking or after each visit.
- Prepaid packagesMulti-session home projects paid upfront.
- Product resaleBins, shelving, and labeling systems bought and resold to clients.
- Virtual consultingRemote planning sessions billed separately from in-home work.
Money out
- Bins and shelving suppliesProduct bought for resale or use during sessions.
- Vehicle and mileageFuel and maintenance for driving between client homes.
- Helper wagesPay for anyone brought in on a bigger project.
- Booking and scheduling softwareTools used to schedule client sessions and packages.
- Marketing and lead feesWebsite, social ads, and referral costs.
What we watch for you
- Product resale margin
What bins and shelving cost against what clients pay for them. It shows if the markup covers your time sourcing it.
- Session versus package share
How much of the month is prepaid packages already banked versus new hourly work. It shows how booked ahead you are.
- Mileage cost
Fuel and vehicle cost against sessions run. It flags when travel time is eating into what a session actually nets.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, kept current every month, so April lands as a number you expected.
Ask Gus
Things professional organizers 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.
This month product resale cleared about 30 percent over cost. Worth keeping, though it is smaller than your session fees.
If you pay her $2,000 or more this year and she is not on payroll, she gets a 1099 by January 31. I am keeping that running as we go.
A running estimate is enough for me to work with. I keep vehicle costs in their own line so that deduction does not get missed.
The tax side
The tax side of a professional organizing business.
Most of what goes wrong here is timing and labor. A package counted too early, a helper paid in cash, and a set-aside nobody started until April.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Self-employment tax basicsFor a professional organizing business, self-employment tax runs 15.3 percent on top of regular income tax when the owner is not paid through payroll, up to the Social Security wage base of $184,500.
- Mileage for client visitsDriving between client homes can be deducted at 72.5 cents a mile from January through June 2026 and 76 cents a mile from July through December 2026.
- 1099s for organizing helpA helper on a bigger project who is not on payroll gets a 1099-NEC by January 31 if paid $2,000 or more in 2026.
- The pass-through benefitFor a professional organizing business, the pass-through deduction lets an owner take up to 20 percent of business profit off taxable income, a figure that only comes out right when the books are kept right all year.
Deductions professional organizers miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Bins and shelving bought for resale
- Labeling systems and supplies
- Vehicle mileage or fuel and repairs
- Helper wages on big projects
- Booking and scheduling software
- Website and portfolio photos
- Business insurance
- Trade association dues
- Continuing education courses
- Phone and tablet for client work
- Home office space for planning
- Storage rental for client donations awaiting drop-off
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 professional organizer's year, kept every month.
New Year decluttering brings the busiest stretch, and sessions run steadily the rest of the year. Your team keeps you ahead of both the calendar and the tax deadlines. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Set up the year
For a professional organizing business, last year's return gets started in January, and a monthly set-aside means April is already handled.
- April
Done by April
For a professional organizing business, the return is filed and signed in April, with no surprise bill since the set-aside has been running since January.
- July
Midyear review
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether the New Year rush changed the number.
- October
Before the holiday push
Households prepping for guests bring in more work before the holidays. Gus looks at 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 professional organizers. 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 professional organizers ask first.
Can Gus tell my product resale apart from my session fees?
Yes. Bins and shelving resold to clients are kept in their own line, apart from your session and package fees, so you can see what your time is worth on its own.
I sell prepaid packages. Does that cause a problem in the books?
No. Gus keeps prepaid packages visible against sessions delivered, so one big signup does not make a month look bigger than the actual work done.
My helper works with me on big jobs only. Is she a contractor?
It depends on the pattern of the work. Occasional help on specific projects is more likely to be a contractor, but Gus flags it if the hours start looking regular so the accountant can weigh in.
Do I need to track mileage exactly to the mile?
A running log or estimate works. Gus keeps vehicle costs in their own line so the mileage deduction does not get missed.
My books are behind from a busy season. Is that fixable?
That is a common starting point. Send the bank statements you have and Gus sorts through them, with the accountant checking the work, inside about 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.
More in personal & lifestyle services
We keep books for the business next door too.
- Alterations & tailoring
- Astrologers
- Baby sleep consultants
- Car buying consultants
- Closet & wardrobe consultants
- Dry cleaners
- Errand runners
- Estate & house managers
- Etiquette schools
- Genealogy researchers
- Image consultants
- Jewelry repair
- Knife & tool sharpening
- Matchmakers
- Memoir & life story writers
- Personal assistants & lifestyle concierges
- Personal shoppers & stylists
- Photo digitization & scanning
- Relocation consultants
- Shoe repair
- Tarot readers & psychics
- Laundromats
- Wash-and-fold & laundry pickup services
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