Your guitar repair shop's books, kept by someone who runs one.
Monthly financials, budgeting, sales tax. I do all of it for my husband's guitar repair shop, and I can do it for yours.
Your books can tell you a lot more than how much you owe in taxes.
It's easy to treat bookkeeping as a means to an end. Drop everything into the default IRS expense categories, figure out what you owe quarterly, file in April, call it a day. That gets your return done, but those categories were built for the IRS, not for you. They'll tell you if you made money, but not where you made it or where you lost it.
Understand your true cost on a job
Parts and consumables both leave your shop on a guitar, and that job should at least be covering their cost, but you can't tell if it is when they're stuffed in a catch-all supplies account. We track parts cost against parts income and give consumables their own account, so you can see whether you're making the margin you want, or if polish and solder are eating away at your hourly wage.
Stay on top of your expenses before they're on top of you
We build a plan from your shop's own income and spending history, so the goals are realistic instead of guesswork. Each month we check the shop against it with a budget vs. actuals report. Mostly that's peace of mind. If it isn't, you find out early enough to do something about it.
A few different ways to work together, depending on what your shop needs.
See what each one includesIn the works
I'm also building luthiOS
luthiOS is shop management software for guitar repair shops and luthiers. Online intake with scheduling and rebooking, estimates and invoices built at the bench, real-time financials, all from your phone.
It also has time tracking built in. If we can find out how long a job actually took alongside its financial data points, we open up a treasure trove of profitability analysis.
The beta is currently open to Fret Not clients only, so your operations and your books run off the same data from day one.
About Margie
Recovering corporate accountant, current guitar repair shop co-owner.
My husband Josh runs Reflection Guitars out of our home.
Eight years in accounting is what taught me to build a system that actually makes sense to him, and that's the same system I set up for other shops.
Free resources
Written for shops like yours, not businesses in general.
FAQ
Yes: remote, nationwide. Florida sales tax is my deepest expertise, but I research your specific state before touching anything.
No, I'm not a CPA and I don't prepare returns. What I do is keep your books clean enough for a seamless hand off to your tax preparer at year end.
Common, and fixable. I can't quote a cleanup without taking a peek first, so we start with a paid diagnostic. Then I quote the work from what's actually there.
Let's talk about your shop.
A low-pressure intro call to see if we're a good fit.
Got it, I'll be in touch soon!
Or skip the wait and book a time directly.