Home, hobby & lifestyle retail
Books and taxes for tea and spice shops.
Loose leaf sold by the ounce, a custom blend mixed to order, a monthly subscription box, and a cafe that buys wholesale on 30 day terms. Your own bookkeeper keeps it straight, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
January came in at $5,500. New Year wellness shoppers pushed loose leaf sales up, so I kept bulk by-weight sales apart from packaged retail items.
- Register batch, bulk bin counterIn-store sales
- Rishi Tea wholesale invoiceWholesale inventory
- Monthly subscription box chargesSubscription income
- Cafe wholesale order, Third WaveWholesale sales
- Custom blend spice restockBlending supplies
Why your books are different
A tea and spice shop's books go wrong the same handful of ways.
A generalist bookkeeper sees a register total and a supplier bill. Your shop sells the same tea by the ounce or in a packaged tin, mixes custom blends where the cost changes every time, runs a subscription box that bills before it ships, and sells wholesale to a cafe down the street. When the books miss that, your real margin stays a guess.
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1
Bulk by-weight sales blur into packaged retail
An ounce of loose leaf sold from a bin and a pre-packaged tin of the same tea have very different costs per sale, but lumped together, you cannot tell which format actually earns more.
What we doKeeps bulk by-weight sales in their own line, separate from packaged retail items. -
2
Custom blends have a moving cost
Every custom blend uses a different mix of ingredients, so the cost of goods changes order to order in a way a single fixed price does not reflect.
What we doTracks blending supply costs against blend sales as a group, so overall blend margin stays visible even though each one differs. -
3
Subscription box revenue gets counted before it ships
A subscription charges a customer's card on the first of the month, but the box may not ship for a few days. Booked as revenue the moment the card is charged, the numbers get ahead of the actual shipment.
What we doCounts subscription revenue when the box ships, not when the card is charged, so the timing matches the real service. -
4
Wholesale cafe accounts get billed and paid on different schedules
A cafe buys tea or spices on 30 day terms, so the sale happens weeks before the cash actually arrives. Treated the same as a same-day retail sale, your cash picture and your sales picture can tell different stories.
What we doTracks wholesale accounts so you can see what is sold versus what has actually been collected.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a tea and spice shop.
Set up once for how you sell and blend. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- In-store salesBulk by-weight and packaged retail sales at the register.
- Custom blend salesBlends mixed to order, tracked as a group against blending costs.
- Subscription incomeCounted when the box ships, not when the card is charged.
- Wholesale salesCafe and restaurant accounts, tracked apart from retail.
Money out
- Wholesale inventoryBulk tea and spice orders from suppliers like Rishi and regional importers.
- Blending suppliesBase ingredients used to mix custom blends to order.
- Store rent and utilitiesThe lease, power, and water for the shop.
- Packaging and shippingTins, bags, and subscription box materials.
- Card processing feesWhat Square or your gateway keeps on every sale.
- Local advertisingLocal ads, market stalls, and paid social.
What we watch for you
- Bulk margin
What by-weight sales earn compared to packaged retail, so pricing stays sensible.
- Subscription churn
How many subscribers renew versus cancel, tracked from the books themselves.
- Wholesale receivables
What cafe accounts owe but have not paid yet, so cash flow stays predictable.
- The set-aside
What you will owe across bulk sales, blends, and subscriptions, tracked every month.
Ask Gus
Things tea and spice 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.
I keep bulk by-weight sales in their own line, separate from packaged retail, so you can see which format is really carrying the margin.
Yes, and I already handle it. Revenue counts when the box actually ships, not when the card was charged, so the timing matches the real service.
The sale is tracked when it happens, but I flag what is actually collected so you are not caught off guard by the gap between selling and getting paid.
The tax side
The tax side of running a tea and spice shop.
Most of what trips up a tea and spice shop is timing and moving costs: bulk versus packaged, a subscription that bills before it ships, and a blend whose cost changes every time.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Cost of goods soldWhat you paid for the tea and spices you actually sold this year, in bulk or packaged, reduces your taxable income, not what is still in the storeroom.
- Subscription revenue timingRevenue from a subscription box is usually counted when the box ships, matching the service delivered, not the day the card is charged.
- Sales tax collectedSales tax on a sale belongs to the state the moment it is collected, whether it is a bulk sale, a custom blend, or a subscription box.
- The pass-through deductionMost owner-operated tea and spice shops can take up to 20 percent of qualified business income off their taxable income. It comes out right when bulk sales, blends, and wholesale are tracked correctly all year.
Deductions tea and spice shops miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Blending supplies and base ingredients
- Subscription box packaging
- Card processing fees
- Storefront signage
- Local advertising
- Business insurance
- Storage for bulk inventory
- POS software subscription
- Scale and blending equipment
- Market stall fees
- Cleaning and maintenance
- Shipping and postage
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 tea and spice shop's year, kept every month.
Wellness season and the holiday gift rush both matter, and the books stay open every month between them. 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 you get a monthly set-aside so April is already handled, right as wellness-season sales pick up.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been running since wellness season began in January.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether subscription growth changed the picture.
- October
Before the holiday rush
Gift tins, blend ingredients, and any equipment worth buying before the year's biggest gift-buying months arrive.
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 tea and spice 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 tea and spice shop owners ask first.
Can Gus track bulk by-weight sales differently from packaged retail?
Yes. Bulk sales stay in their own line, separate from packaged tins, so you can see which format actually earns more before deciding where to focus.
My subscription box charges cards before it ships. Does that mess up the books?
No. Gus counts subscription revenue when the box actually ships, not when the card is charged, so your numbers match what customers actually received.
Do custom blends need their own accounting since the cost changes every time?
Gus tracks blend sales and their ingredient costs as a group, so overall blend margin stays visible even though no two blends cost exactly the same to make.
I sell wholesale to a local cafe on 30 day terms. Do I owe taxes before I'm paid?
The sale is tracked when it happens, but Gus flags what is actually collected, so you can see the difference between what is sold and what cash is in hand.
My books are behind after a busy season. Can you catch up?
Send what you have. Gus sorts through retail sales, subscriptions, and wholesale invoices, and most owners know where they stand within 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