Personal & lifestyle services
Books and taxes for shoe repair shops.
Resoles, heel repairs, leather bag and belt work, and a finishing machine that runs all day. 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
October brought in $3,500. Leather goods repairs, bags and belts, made up a quarter of it this month, so I kept that work in its own line.
- Register depositsShoe repair work
- Leather goods repair jobsLeather goods work
- Jason's Shoe Findings orderSoles and leather supplies
- Landis finisher partsEquipment repair
- Monthly shop rentRent and utilities
Why your books are different
Shoe repair books go wrong in the same four places.
A generalist sees deposits and bills. Your business is a finishing machine that runs constantly, sole and leather stock that gets bought in bulk, resole work priced differently than a quick shine, and often leather bags and belts alongside the shoes. When the books do not know that, the monthly number is a guess.
-
1
A finishing machine or sole press gets filed like a supply
A commercial finisher or sole press can run several thousand dollars. Filed the same way as a leather order, it flattens the month it was bought in and misses the tax treatment real equipment gets.
What we doFlags any finisher or press purchase, logs it as equipment, and gets the accountant's call on how it gets written off. -
2
Leather goods work gets mixed into shoe repair income
Repairing bags, belts, and other leather goods often pays differently than resoling shoes, and lumped together you cannot tell which side of the counter is actually growing.
What we doKeeps leather goods work in its own line, apart from standard shoe repair, so you can see both clearly. -
3
A bulk sole or leather order swings a month
A season's worth of soles, heels, and leather stock bought in one order from a supplier makes that month look thin and the next few look artificially strong.
What we doKeeps sole and leather stock in one steady line and flags when a stock-up, not a slow week, explains a thin-looking month. -
4
Quick jobs and full rebuilds get priced the same in the books
A quick heel tap takes minutes while a full resole and rebuild takes real time on the machines. Booked the same way, you cannot see which jobs are worth the shop's hours.
What we doKeeps quick repairs visible against full rebuilds, so pricing reflects the time each job actually takes.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a shoe repair shop.
Set up once for how work comes across the counter and what keeps the shop running. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Shoe repair workResoles, heel repairs, and stretching, paid at the counter.
- Leather goods workBag, belt, and wallet repairs.
- Custom orthotics or insertsIf the shop makes or fits custom insoles.
- Shine and quick serviceFast counter work like polishing and quick fixes.
Money out
- Soles and leather suppliesRubber and leather soles, heels, and stock from suppliers like Jason's Shoe Findings.
- Equipment and repairFinishers, sole presses, and stitchers, logged so they get written off right.
- Rent and utilitiesStorefront lease, electric, and heat.
- Adhesives and finishing suppliesCement, dye, and polish used across jobs.
- Business insuranceGeneral liability for the storefront.
What we watch for you
- Leather goods share
How much of revenue comes from bag and belt work versus shoe repair. It shows where the shop is actually growing.
- Supply cost per job
Sole and leather stock spending against jobs completed. A rising number often means it is time to raise prices, not just reorder.
- Rebuild versus quick job mix
Full resoles against quick repairs. It shows whether your pricing matches the hours each job takes.
- The set-aside
What you owe on the year so far, tracked monthly, so April is not a guess.
Ask Gus
Things shoe repair 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 is bringing in about a quarter of your revenue this month at a decent margin. Worth keeping, based on what I am seeing.
Usually it can. I logged it as equipment, not supplies, and flagged the purchase so the accountant makes the call with your whole year in view.
No. Send the bank statement and I sort sole and leather stock into one steady line, so nothing gets missed at tax time.
The tax side
The tax side of a shoe repair shop.
Most of what goes wrong here is timing and labels. A finisher filed as a supply, a bulk leather order, 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.
- Finishers, presses, and equipmentA finisher, sole press, or stitcher can usually be written off in the year it is bought. Bonus depreciation is back to 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025, though whether to take it all now depends on the year you are having.
- Self-employment tax on bench profitFor a shoe repair shop, 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.
- 1099s for shop helpersA part-time cobbler or counter helper not on payroll gets a 1099-NEC by January 31 if paid $2,000 or more in 2026.
- The profit deductionMost owner-operators can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income. That number is only right when the books are right all year.
Deductions shoe repair shops miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Soles, heels, and leather stock
- Adhesives and finishing supplies
- Dye and polish
- Finisher and press repairs
- Stitching machine service
- Rent and utilities
- Business insurance
- Signage and storefront upkeep
- Point-of-sale software
- Trade certifications
- Work apron and safety gear
- Display cases and counter fixtures
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 shoe repair year, kept every month.
Boots and coats bring in heavier work in the colder months, and quick repairs come in year round. Your team keeps you ahead of both the season and the tax calendar. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Kick off the year
For a shoe repair shop, last year's return gets started in January, and a monthly set-aside means April is already handled.
- April
Signed and filed
For a shoe repair shop, the return is filed and signed in April, with no surprise bill since the set-aside has been running since January.
- July
The halfway look
A look at where you stand, what you will owe, and whether the quieter summer stretch changed the picture.
- October
Before boot season
Before boots and heavier footwear bring in more repair work, Gus looks at any equipment worth buying and 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 shoe repair shops. 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 shoe repair owners ask first.
Can Gus keep leather goods work separate from shoe repair?
Yes. Bag, belt, and wallet repairs are kept in their own line, apart from shoe resoles and heel work, so you can see what each side brings in.
Do I need to change how I run my register?
No. Run the counter the way you always have. Gus works from your bank statement, and if a deposit is unclear he asks you once and remembers the answer after that.
Do I write off a new finisher all at once?
Usually, yes. A finisher bought for the shop can typically be deducted in the year you buy it, though spreading it out is sometimes the smarter call. Gus flags the purchase and the accountant decides with your whole year in view.
Is a big leather order going to make my month look bad?
It might on paper, but Gus flags stock-up purchases so a bulk supply order does not get mistaken for a slow month.
My books are behind from running the shop solo. Is that a problem?
It is not a problem. Hand over the statements you have and Gus works through the backlog, with the accountant checking it, typically inside 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