Sporting goods & sports services
Books and taxes for surf shops.
Board and wetsuit sales, daily rentals to visiting surfers, a ding repair bench, and used boards sold on consignment all move through one account. Gus sorts it, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
July came in at $9,800. The board rental fleet is holding up well, so nothing new needed logging as equipment this month, just the usual wax and fin restock.
- Shopify POS depositRetail sales
- Daily board rental payoutsRental income
- Firewire wholesale orderBoard inventory
- Ding repair bench payoutRepair labor
- O'Neill wetsuit orderWetsuit inventory
Why your books are different
A surf shop's books go wrong in the same few places.
A generalist sees a retail counter near the beach. Your shop rents boards by the day, repairs dings on the bench, and sells used boards on consignment. When the books do not track those separately, you cannot tell which part of the shop is actually earning its keep.
-
1
The rental fleet looks like a normal inventory purchase
A batch of boards bought to rent to visiting surfers costs real money up front, but the distributor invoice reads the same as boards bought to sell. Filed as inventory, it muddles the month it was bought.
What we doFlags rental fleet purchases the month they arrive, logs them as equipment, and gets the accountant's call on how they get written off. -
2
Ding repair labor gets buried in retail sales
A $60 ding repair and a $60 leash sale ring through the same register the same way. Lumped together, you cannot tell whether the repair bench is worth running on its own.
What we doKeeps ding repair labor in its own category, separate from retail sales, so the bench shows its real number. -
3
A shaper's used board looks like the shop's own stock
A used board sold on behalf of a local shaper or a customer is not the shop's own stock, and the payout owed to them is different from a regular wholesale bill.
What we doKeeps consignment sales and payouts separate from wholesale inventory, so what belongs to someone else never counts as the shop's own cost. -
4
Rental income and retail sales blend into one number
A visiting surfer's daily board rental and a full board purchase both hit the till the same way, hiding how much of the shop's income actually comes from rentals versus sales.
What we doKeeps rental income in its own line, so you can see how much of the month came from the fleet versus the shelves. -
5
A seasonal wetsuit order wrecks the monthly picture
Wetsuits and cold-water gear often get restocked once ahead of a season, and that single invoice can make one month look like a loss before the gear sells through.
What we doKeeps wetsuit and gear purchases visible against what actually sold, so a seasonal order does not read as a bad month on its own.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a surf shop.
Set up once for how you sell and what you rent. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Retail salesBoards, wetsuits, wax, and accessories.
- Rental incomeDaily board and wetsuit rentals for visiting surfers.
- Repair laborDing repairs billed apart from retail sales.
- Consignment salesUsed boards sold on behalf of shapers or customers.
Money out
- Board inventoryFirewire, Channel Islands, and similar wholesale orders.
- Wetsuit inventoryO'Neill and similar seasonal cold-water gear orders.
- Rental fleet equipmentBoards and wetsuits bought for the rental program, logged so they get written off right.
- Consignment payoutsWhat is owed to shapers or customers for boards sold.
- Repair suppliesResin, fiberglass, and fin repair materials.
- Card processing feesWhat the processor kept before you got paid.
What we watch for you
- Rental share of income
How much of the month came from the rental fleet versus retail sales.
- Repair bench margin
What ding repair labor brings in against supplies and bench time.
- Fleet condition cost
What repairing and replacing rental boards is costing over the season.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked across the busy and slow rental months, so filing day is not a surprise.
Ask Gus
Things surf shop 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.
Rentals brought in $4,100 of the $9,800, kept in their own line so you can see how much the fleet is carrying versus the shelves.
This month it cleared $410 after supplies, tracked apart from retail sales. That is the real number, not a guess mixed into everything else.
Only your cut does. His payout stays separate, so what you owe him never counts as something you spent on your own stock.
The tax side
The tax side of running a surf shop.
Most of what goes wrong here is treating a fleet purchase like a regular buy, and letting consignment payouts blend into the shop's own costs.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Equipment for the rental fleetBoards and wetsuits bought to rent out, rather than sell, can usually be written off in the year bought. Bonus depreciation is 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- Inventory and cost of goodsWhat the shop actually paid for boards, wetsuits, and gear sold, counted accurately at year end, is what determines the profit the return shows.
- Consignment sales are not the shop's inventoryA board sold on behalf of a shaper or customer is not owned by the shop, so only the shop's cut, not the full sale price, is the shop's income.
- Contractor 1099sAnyone not on payroll who is paid $2,000 or more in 2026, including a ding repair specialist paid per job, gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
Deductions surf shops miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Ding repair resin and fiberglass
- Fin and leash repair supplies
- Rental fleet maintenance
- Wax and accessory stock
- Freight on wholesale orders
- POS and inventory software
- Shop signage
- Card processing fees
- Website and online store fees
- Liability insurance
- Beach access permits
- Local surf event sponsorships
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 surf shop year, kept every month.
Rentals swing with the season and wetsuit demand swings the other way. Your team keeps you ahead of both, and the tax deadlines too. 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 repair contractor 1099 list is ready, and a monthly set-aside is planned for the year ahead.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed before the busy season, with the set-aside already covering what you owe.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether this year's rental income and fleet costs changed the number.
- October
Before the shoulder season
Ahead of quieter months, Gus looks at fleet or bench equipment worth buying and anything worth doing 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 surf 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 surf shop owners ask first.
How does Gus track my board rental fleet?
Rental boards and wetsuits are logged as equipment rather than regular inventory, since you keep and use them rather than sell them. Rental income also gets its own line, separate from retail sales.
Can Gus separate my ding repair income from board sales?
Yes. Repair labor is kept in its own category, so you can see whether the bench is worth running on its own, apart from what boards and gear bring in.
I sell used boards on consignment for local shapers. How is that handled?
Only your cut of the sale counts as your income. What is owed to the shaper stays separate, so it never gets counted as something you spent on your own inventory.
Do I need to change how I ring up rentals and retail sales?
No. Keep ringing up rentals and retail sales the way you do. Gus works from your bank statement afterward and only asks if a deposit looks off.
The busy season buried me and my books fell behind. Can that get fixed?
Usually within a week. Send whatever statements you have from the months that fell behind, and Gus works through the backlog before the accountant checks it.
How does a wetsuit season restock affect my monthly number?
The purchase shows up the month it happens, but Gus keeps it visible against what sells through afterward, so it does not read as a loss on its own.
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