Youth & adult sports training
Books and taxes for referee and official assignors.
Game fees collected from a dozen leagues, most of it passed straight to the officials you assign, a small cut kept for yourself, and background checks required for every name on the roster. 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
September came in at $8,000. Fall season pushed game volume way up, so most of what came in went right back out to officials, which is exactly how this business is supposed to run.
- League game fee paymentsGame fees collected
- Official payouts, SeptemberOfficial pay
- Background check renewalsCompliance and certification
- Arbiter Pay processing feesAssigning software
- Rescheduled game creditsGame fees collected
Why your books are different
An assignor's books go wrong in the same handful of spots.
A generalist sees deposits and bills. Your business collects a game fee from a league, pays most of it straight to the official who worked the game, and keeps a small cut for the assigning itself. When the books do not know that, the whole game fee looks like your revenue when only a sliver of it actually is.
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1
The full game fee gets booked as your income
A league pays $65 for a game, of which $60 goes to the official and $5 is your assigning fee. Booked as $65 of income and $60 of officiating expense, your real revenue and your real cost both come out wrong.
What we doBooks the full game fee as collected and the official's share as a pass-through payout, so your real assigning revenue is what's left, not the whole amount. -
2
Hundreds of officials make 1099 tracking a full-time job by itself
An assignor working with dozens or hundreds of officials across a season has to know exactly who crossed the yearly payment threshold, and a spreadsheet that isn't updated after every payout run quietly falls behind.
What we doTracks running totals paid to every official all year, so the January 1099 list is accurate instead of a scramble. -
3
Background check and certification costs get treated as one flat overhead line
Background checks and certification renewals often get billed per official, sometimes reimbursed by the official and sometimes covered by the assignor, and mixing those cases together hides who's actually paying for compliance.
What we doKeeps compliance costs tied to whether they were covered by the assignor or reimbursed by the official, so the real cost is clear. -
4
Canceled and rescheduled games create credits that get lost
A rained-out game that gets rescheduled sometimes means a partial fee, a credit, or a fee reversal, and without a clear record, it is easy to lose track of what a league still owes or what an official is still due.
What we doTracks canceled and rescheduled games so credits and partial payouts stay visible instead of disappearing into the noise. -
5
Assigning software fees get buried in general processing costs
A tool like ArbiterSports or Arbiter Pay charges its own fees for handling official payouts, and if that cost gets lumped in with bank fees or card processing, it's hard to see the true cost of running payouts at scale.
What we doKeeps assigning software fees in their own line, separate from general banking costs.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a referee and official assigning business.
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
- Game fees collectedThe full fee paid by leagues, before officials are paid out.
- Assigning fee revenueWhat you actually keep once officials are paid, the real measure of your income.
- Certification and background check feesAmounts reimbursed by officials for required compliance costs.
- Rush and late scheduling feesExtra charges to leagues for last-minute schedule changes or rush assignments.
Money out
- Official payThe pass-through portion of each game fee paid to the official who worked it.
- Compliance and certificationBackground checks and certification costs not reimbursed by officials.
- Assigning softwareArbiterSports, Arbiter Pay, or similar scheduling and payout fees.
- InsuranceGeneral liability coverage for the assigning business.
- MarketingOutreach to leagues and recruiting new officials.
What we watch for you
- True assigning margin
What you actually keep per game once the official's share is paid out.
- Officials near the 1099 threshold
Who is approaching the yearly amount that triggers a required 1099.
- Cancellation rate
How many games are rescheduled or canceled, and what that does to fees owed either way.
- The set-aside
What your real assigning revenue owes in taxes, tracked monthly so April is never a guess.
Ask Gus
Things assignors 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, and I keep it split that way in your books. Your real income is just the assigning fee you keep, not the full amount that passes through to the official.
I keep a running total for every official all year, so by January you'll already know exactly who crossed $2,000 instead of trying to reconstruct it from scratch.
Send me what actually got paid out for the canceled weekend, and I'll log the partial payouts and any credits owed so nothing gets lost between now and when the league settles up.
The tax side
The tax side of a referee and official assigning business.
Most of what trips up this business is separating what's really your revenue from what passes through, and keeping a hundred or more officials straight for 1099 purposes.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Officials are usually independent contractorsOfficials who set their own availability, work for multiple leagues, and bring their own gear are typically contractors, not employees, which is different from how many other coaching roles in youth sports are usually classified.
- Contractor 1099s at volumeAny official paid $2,000 or more in 2026, and not on payroll, gets a 1099-NEC by January 31. With dozens of officials, a running total kept all year is what makes this manageable.
- Pass-through game fees are not your incomeThe portion of a game fee forwarded to the official is not your revenue. Only the assigning fee you keep should count as income for the business.
- The pass-through deductionMost assignors can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income. It comes out right when the game fee is split correctly between pass-through pay and your real assigning revenue.
Deductions referee and sports official assignors miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Arbiter Pay or scheduling software fees
- Background check and certification costs you cover
- Liability insurance
- Phone and communication costs for scheduling
- Website and league outreach materials
- Bank and payment processing fees
- Office supplies for scheduling and recordkeeping
- Mileage to league meetings
- Recruiting and training new officials
- Storage for uniforms or equipment you provide
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 assignor's year, kept every month.
Game volume swings hard by season, but your taxes come on a fixed schedule. Your team keeps you ahead of it. 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 every qualifying official is ready, and you get a monthly set-aside so April is already handled.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed, right as spring season game volume ramps up.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether summer league assignments changed the number.
- October
Before fall's peak
As fall season games hit full volume, Gus checks in on official pay and compliance costs 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 referee and sports official assignors. 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 assignors ask first.
Can Gus separate what leagues pay us from what we actually keep?
Yes. He books the full game fee as collected and the official's share as a pass-through payout, so your real assigning revenue is the number you actually see as income.
We use Arbiter Pay to handle payouts to officials. Do I have to change anything?
No. Keep running payouts the way you do. Gus works from your bank statement, and when a deposit or payout is unclear he asks you once and remembers the answer.
How do we keep track of which officials are getting close to needing a 1099?
Gus keeps a running total for every official across the year, so by January you already know who crossed the threshold instead of digging through months of payout records.
Some officials cover their own background check fees and some don't. Does that matter for the books?
It does. Gus keeps those two cases separate, so the real cost of compliance is clear, whether the assignor or the official ultimately paid for it.
Our books are just a spreadsheet of payouts with no real accounting behind them. Can that be fixed?
Yes. Send over your bank statements and payout records, and Gus rebuilds the picture from what actually moved through the account, official by official.
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 youth & adult sports training
We keep books for the business next door too.
- Adult recreational leagues
- Baseball & softball training facilities
- Basketball skills trainers
- Batting cages
- Fencing clubs
- Golf academies for juniors
- Hockey training centers
- Lacrosse clubs
- Private pitching & hitting coaches
- Quarterback & position coaches
- Soccer training academies
- Sports camps
- Sports complexes & turf facilities
- Sports photography companies
- Travel sports clubs
- Volleyball clubs
- Wrestling clubs
- Youth sports leagues
- Pickleball clubs & facilities
- Sports performance, speed & agility training
- Tennis clubs & teaching pros
- Adult & ballroom dance studios
- Aerial silks & circus arts studios
- All-star cheerleading gyms
- EMS training studios
- Gunsmiths
- Parkour gyms
- Pole fitness studios
- Powerlifting & strongman gyms
- Prenatal & postnatal fitness
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