Industries · Services and independent professions

Bookkeeping for hair salons and beauty studios

Lots of cash, many small transactions, a team with part-time employees, mini-jobs, and apprentices. We keep your cash register and payroll in order so you can focus on your clients.

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For hair salons, barbershops, beauty salons, and nail studios, digital and in Hamburg

Month-end close for a hair salonExample

Cash register26 days open, cash on hand matches

reconciled

Card paymentsPayouts and fees allocated

reconciled

Product salesShare of revenue: 14%

ready

Payroll7 employees, 2 mini-jobs, 1 apprentice

10 payslips

Timesheets1 still missing

1 missing

Example of a monthly overview. You can see missing timesheets in the client portal.

Services and independent professions:Agencies, IT, and service providers Consultants and freelancersHairdressing and beauty servicesAll industries in the field of

Your industry

What sets your industry apart

In the salon, a large portion of revenue is paid in cash or by card at the register. Cash register management is therefore the first thing auditors look at: a certified cash register, receipts for every customer, daily closings, and a cash on hand balance that matches the cash book. We check every month during bookkeeping to ensure everything is correct, so there are no surprises later.

In addition to services, many salons sell hair care products. Purchases and sales of merchandise should be tracked separately so you can see if stocking the shelves is worth it. When it comes to gift certificates, loyalty cards, and discounts, accurate recording is key.

Tips are tax-free for employees under certain conditions, but they count as income for the owner. Your tax advisor will clarify how to handle this in your salon; we ensure that they are clearly separated in the cash register.

Some salons rent chairs to self-employed hairstylists or work with independent estheticians. This raises questions regarding bogus self-employment and VAT, which a tax advisor or attorney should evaluate. We accurately record rent and commissions in accordance with your contracts.

Gift certificates are popular in salons, especially around Christmas. They’re sold in December but often not redeemed until spring. Whether VAT is due at the time of sale depends on whether the place and tax rate of the later service are already fixed at that point; your tax advisor will assess this. We track sold and redeemed gift certificates so that the cash register stays accurate over the turn of the year and no gift certificate is counted as revenue twice.

Attention to detail

What we pay attention to

Cash register: daily closings, cash book, and cash on hand reconciled with the system
Cards and mobile payments: payouts and fees allocated
Services and product sales: separate revenue accounts
Cost of goods sold: hair color, hair care products, and supplies
Gift certificates: sales and redemptions tracked
Chair rentals and commissions: posted according to contract
Rent, utilities, and equipment: recurring costs recorded in full
Tips: recorded separately from sales in the cash register

Payroll

Payroll in your industry

Collective agreement: wage groups and rules from the hairdressing trade, if they apply to your salon
Mini-jobs and part-time work: we keep track of the earnings limit and hours
Apprentices: pay, vocational school, notifications
Premiums: for example for Saturday work, if agreed in the contract
Commissions on revenue or product sales based on your reports
Immediate notification: new employees must be registered no later than the start of work
Working hours: start, end, and duration recorded for each working day, as required in the hairdressing and beauty industry

More about payroll

Receipts

Which receipts we need

Daily closings and data exports from the point-of-sale or appointment scheduling system
Settlements from card terminals
Invoices for merchandise, hair color, and supplies
Lease agreements and contracts for chair rentals
Timesheets or exports from the time tracking system for payroll

Many point-of-sale and appointment booking systems provide export files that you can upload to the client portal. Timesheets for payroll can be submitted as a photo or file by the third business day of the following month.

Start

How we get started

To get started, we’ll ask you to show us your point-of-sale system and its registration with the tax office so that the POS data is posted correctly; your tax advisor answers any questions about it. We carry over the cash balance and, if you outsource payroll to us, your team’s personnel records. New employees fill out the personnel questionnaire digitally on their phones. After that, all you need to submit each month are the POS export, the card statements, and the timesheets.

With your tax advisor

We post the entries; the tax advisor decides the tax treatment

We set up the chart of accounts, record ongoing business transactions, run payroll, and prepare wage tax returns. Every month, we reconcile the accounts and pass the figures on to your tax advisor.

You hire the tax advisor directly, with your own contract and billing arrangement. If you don’t have one yet, we can put you in touch with our partner tax advisor, with whom we work closely.

Decisions on tax treatment are the tax advisor’s responsibility. We post entries so that they’re ready for the tax advisor to work with immediately.

How we work with tax advisors

The tax advisor handles the following on your behalf

Assessment of tips, chair rental, and freelance work
Advance VAT returns
Annual financial statements or cash-basis income statement
Support during unannounced cash register inspections and tax audits

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Our cash register is new. What do we need to keep in mind?

Electronic cash registers require a certified security device and must be reported to the tax office. We’ll work with you to ensure your documentation is complete; the tax advisor will handle the assessment on a case-by-case basis.

How do you handle tips?

We ensure that tips are recorded separately in the cash register. Whether they’re tax-free depends on who receives them; the tax advisor will clarify this.

Do you also handle payroll for apprentices and mini-jobs?

Yes, including all required filings and the wage tax return.

We rent chairs to self-employed individuals. Is that a problem?

That depends on the arrangement. A tax advisor or attorney will assess the issue of bogus self-employment. We record the rental payments according to your contracts.

We have two salons. Can you analyze them separately?

Yes, by cost center for each salon. The report will then show revenue, payroll, and inventory for each location.

What happens if our cash register breaks down?

In that case, revenue must be recorded in a traceable manner using alternative methods, and the outage must be documented. We’ll let you know what documents we need for bookkeeping; the tax advisor will assess each case individually.

Contact

Let’s talk about your bookkeeping.

During our initial consultation, we’ll determine what your business needs. Afterward, you’ll receive a binding quote via email.