Hair salons, barbershops, nail studios, and esthetics businesses. We keep your books current every month and sort out the parts that are unique to beauty: booth rent, commission, tips, retail product sales, and card processor deposits.
Where this helps
Between appointments, inventory, and your team, the books are easy to push to next week. But booth rent, tips, product sales, and processor fees all land in the same bank account, and untangling them later takes far longer than keeping up.
We keep it straight every month. You can see what each service line and your retail shelf actually make, and you have clean records if the IRS ever asks about tips or how your stylists are paid.
Every chair should earn its keep. The books show you whether it does.
Sound familiar?
How you pay stylists, and what you control about their work, decides whether they're renters, contractors, or employees. Getting it wrong is one of the costliest mistakes a salon can make.
Card tips flow through your processor and cash tips through your stylists' pockets. Employees' tips have to be reported through payroll, and unreported tips can cost you a valuable tax credit.
Most salon services aren't subject to Texas sales tax, but the shampoo and styling products you sell are. Mixing them up means paying tax you don't owe, or missing tax you do.
Square, Vagaro, and similar systems deposit sales minus fees, refunds, and tips. If your books only record the deposit, your revenue and expenses are both wrong.
Back-bar supplies and retail stock are real money. Without tracking, you can't tell what's being used, sold, or lost.
Build-outs, equipment loans, and a new lease change your numbers fast. You need clean books to know what you can afford.
What you get
Current every month, not just at tax time.
We record and categorize every transaction and reconcile your bank, card, and processor accounts every month.
Payroll, commission, and tips handled together.
We run payroll for employees, including commission and reported tips, and keep payroll tax filings current.
Services and retail kept apart.
We separate taxable retail sales from services and file your Texas sales tax returns on schedule.
The numbers behind your next move.
Each month you get statements you can read in minutes, plus the numbers you need before adding chairs or moving.
Your dashboard
Every bookkeeping client gets a private dashboard. Once we close your books each month, it updates with your profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash, all in plain English and side by side with last year. Open it on your phone or computer, any time.
Overview · Your month at a glance: cash, revenue, profit, and a plain-English note from us on what it means.
Sample dashboard for a fictional business. All numbers are made up.
The numbers refresh when we close your books, so what you see always matches your statements.
No more email chains about a mystery charge. Answer our questions right on the dashboard.
You sign in with a code sent to your email. Each client sees only their own business.
Local and accountable
All of our bookkeeping is done in-house by our team here in San Antonio. We don't send your financial records overseas or to outside contractors. You can call your bookkeeper directly, or stop by our office at 101 Sunflower Lane.
When you're ready for more, the same team can run your payroll, prepare your tax returns, and help you plan with a fractional CFO. See everything included in our San Antonio bookkeeping.
Common questions
It depends on the facts. A true booth renter pays you rent, sets their own prices and hours, books their own clients, and buys their own products. If you set the schedule, prices, or how the work is done, or you pay them a commission, the IRS is likely to see an employee. We review how your stylists actually work and help you set up rental agreements, 1099s, or payroll to match.
Yes. Employees must report tips to you, including cash tips, and you include them in payroll for income and payroll tax purposes. Our recommendation: run card tips through payroll every pay period and have employees report cash tips at least monthly, so the records are complete.
Starting with 2025, the federal FICA tip credit that restaurants have long used also covers beauty businesses such as barbering, hair, nail, and esthetics services. It's a credit for part of the employer's Social Security and Medicare tax on employees' tips. You only get it if tips are reported properly through payroll, which is one more reason to keep those records clean.
Most salon services, such as haircuts, color, and nails, aren't subject to Texas sales tax. The retail products you sell are. We set up your point-of-sale reporting so taxable product sales are tracked apart from services, and we file the returns.
Yes. We reconcile what your booking and payment system reports against what actually hit the bank, so sales, tips, fees, and refunds all land in the right place.
Yes. Hablamos español. You and your team can work with us in English or Spanish.
The next step
Tell us how your finances run today, even if the books are behind. We'll show you what handing off the bookkeeping looks like. The first consultation is free.
Small Business Services of San Antonio · 101 Business Center, 101 Sunflower Lane, San Antonio, TX 78213
(210) 884-5067 · info@sbsofsa.com · Hablamos español