Land recreation & adventure
Books and taxes for stargazing and dark sky tours.
Nightly ticketed sessions booked online, private group buyouts, telescope and camera equipment that costs real money, and weather that can cancel a night with no notice. Gus sorts it as it lands, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
August came in at $7,700. A clear stretch of new moon nights meant strong turnout, but two nights got weathered out and those tickets went back as refunds, not income.
- Nightly session ticket salesSession income
- Private group buyout depositGroup buyout income
- Weather cancellation refundsRefund adjustments
- Celestron telescope orderTelescope and gear inventory
- Guide and host wagesGuide wages
Why your books are different
Stargazing tour books go wrong when the weather decides your schedule.
You sell tickets to a sky that clouds can cancel with no warning, book private group buyouts weeks ahead, and carry telescopes and cameras worth real money. A generalist counts every ticket sale as final. Your books need to know a weathered-out night is not a bad month, it is a refund.
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1
Weather cancellations get treated like lost income instead of refunds
A clouded-out session means giving money back or rescheduling, and if that refund gets logged as a normal expense or just disappears from the deposit, the real cause of a light month gets lost.
What we doTracks weather cancellation refunds as their own category, so a rough weather stretch is explained clearly instead of looking like an unexplained income drop. -
2
Group buyout deposits land before the actual night
A private group books and pays for a buyout session weeks or months ahead, and if that money counts as income the day it lands, the actual night of the event shows almost nothing from a booking that size.
What we doHolds group buyout deposits as money owed until the session happens, then counts the income that night. -
3
Telescopes and cameras are equipment, not supplies
A quality telescope, mount, or astrophotography camera can cost thousands of dollars, and filed as a supply purchase, it drags down a single month instead of being recognized as a real capital investment.
What we doFlags telescope and camera purchases over a real dollar amount and logs them as equipment, so the accountant makes the call on how they get written off. -
4
New moon nights carry the whole month
The clearest, darkest nights around the new moon draw the biggest crowds, while full moon weeks bring almost nobody, and looking at any single week without that cycle in view makes the schedule look erratic instead of predictable.
What we doTracks income against the lunar cycle pattern, so a quiet week around the full moon reads as expected, not alarming.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a stargazing and dark sky tour.
Set up once for how sessions, buyouts, and weather affect the books. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Session incomeNightly ticketed stargazing sessions.
- Group buyout incomePrivate group sessions booked in advance.
- Astrophotography workshop feesSpecialty sessions focused on camera and imaging technique.
- Equipment rental incomeTelescope or binocular rentals for the night.
- Retail and merchandise salesStar charts, red flashlights, and branded gear.
Money out
- Telescope and gear inventoryTelescopes, mounts, and cameras bought for tours.
- Refund adjustmentsWeather cancellation refunds, kept separate from normal costs.
- Guide wagesNight guides and hosts running sessions.
- Liability insuranceCoverage for nighttime outdoor tours.
- Site access and land costsFees for using a dark sky viewing location.
- Equipment maintenanceTelescope collimation, mount repair, and camera servicing.
- Booking site feesThe cut taken by your online reservation system.
- Marketing and astronomy event listingsAds and listings for meteor shower and eclipse events.
What we watch for you
- Weather cancellation rate
How many scheduled nights get cancelled or refunded, since that swings income month to month.
- Deferred group buyout balance
How much buyout deposit money is still owed in sessions not yet held.
- Session income against the lunar cycle
Whether new moon and full moon weeks are tracking the pattern you expect.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so tax season is a number you already knew.
Ask Gus
Things stargazing tour 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 keep weather refunds in their own category, so the report shows exactly why those nights came in light instead of it looking like a mystery drop in income.
It's held as money owed to them in a session they haven't had yet. I'll count it the night the buyout actually happens.
Usually it can. I logged it as equipment, not a supply purchase, and flagged it so the accountant makes the call with your whole year in view.
The tax side
The tax side of a stargazing and dark sky tour business.
Most of what trips up a stargazing business is handling weather refunds correctly and getting telescope and camera equipment on the right depreciation track.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Weather refunds are not a normal expenseA cancelled session refund reverses income that was never truly earned, and tracking it separately keeps your real revenue picture accurate.
- Telescope and camera depreciationTelescopes, mounts, and cameras bought for tours are business equipment, and bonus depreciation is 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- Group buyout deposits are earned at the sessionMoney collected for a private buyout booked ahead of time is deferred income, recognized only when the session actually happens.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operators can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income, which comes out right when session and refund activity are tracked accurately all year.
Deductions stargazing and dark sky tours miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Telescope and mount maintenance
- Astrophotography camera equipment
- Liability insurance premiums
- Guide and host wages
- Site access fees
- Red flashlights and night vision gear
- Booking site fees
- Weather monitoring subscriptions
- Marketing for eclipse and meteor shower events
- Portable heaters and cold weather supplies
- Star charts and educational materials
- Vehicle costs for hauling equipment to sites
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 stargazing tour year, kept every month.
Clear nights and meteor showers do not follow a tidy calendar, but tax deadlines do. Your team keeps you ahead of both. 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, and a monthly set-aside is planned based on how last year's sessions and weather actually landed.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed as warmer weather brings more comfortable viewing nights.
- July
Midyear check
Where you stand halfway through the year, and how weather cancellations have affected income so far.
- October
Before the big meteor showers
Equipment readiness and marketing worth doing before the fall's major meteor shower and clear-sky season.
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 stargazing and dark sky tours. 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 stargazing tour owners ask first.
Cloudy nights force us to cancel and refund sessions all the time. How does Gus handle that?
He tracks weather refunds in their own category, separate from normal costs, so a rough weather stretch is explained clearly instead of looking like an unexplained income drop.
We take private group buyout bookings weeks or months in advance. Does that count as income right away?
No, Gus holds buyout deposits as money owed until the session actually happens, so the income lands the night of the event, not the day it was booked.
Our income swings a lot with the moon cycle. Is that going to look erratic in our reports?
No, Gus tracks income against the lunar cycle pattern, so a quiet week around the full moon reads as expected, not as a warning sign.
I just invested in a serious telescope setup. How does that get handled at tax time?
It usually gets logged as equipment rather than a supply purchase, and often can be written off substantially in the year you buy it, though the accountant makes that call with your full year in view.
Our income is unpredictable because of weather. Will that throw off our set-aside?
No. Gus adjusts the set-aside as the year's real numbers come in, so a stretch of bad weather does not leave you overpaying ahead of a lighter month.
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