Retail Shops
Inventory is cash sitting on shelves. If you don't know what's selling and what's sitting, you're flying blind on the most important number in your business.
The Industry
Retail looks simple from the outside. Customer walks in, picks something up, pays at the register. But behind that transaction sits a web of inventory decisions, vendor payments, markdowns, employee scheduling, and sales tax obligations that add up fast.
The owner of a boutique or specialty shop is usually working the floor. Stocking shelves, helping customers, placing orders, negotiating with vendors. The financial side of the business gets squeezed into whatever time is left at the end of the day. Sometimes it doesn’t happen at all.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Boutiques, gift shops, specialty stores, convenience stores, hobby shops, and any retail operation in the Tampa Bay area selling physical products. Whether you run one location or a handful, the financial challenges are similar.
The Real Challenge
The Real Challenge
Every product on your shelf is cash you already spent. It stays locked up until someone buys it. Knowing what to order, how much to carry, and when to stop reordering requires financial visibility that most shop owners simply don’t have time to build on their own.
What We Handle
We track the numbers that actually matter in retail. Cost of goods sold by product category so you see real margins. Inventory reconciled against purchases and sales so shrinkage doesn’t go unnoticed. Sales tax calculated and filed on time every period without you having to think about it.
QuickBooks gets set up to reflect how your business actually works. Products categorized properly. Vendor bills tracked against what you receive. Bank and credit card transactions reconciled against your point of sale system. Monthly financials that tell you something useful instead of sitting in a folder you never open.
Inventory and Cost of Goods Sold
Inventory and Cost of Goods Sold
We track what you buy and what you sell so the gap between them is visible. Cost of goods sold by product category shows where your margins are healthy and where they’re paper thin. This is the foundation for smarter purchasing decisions and better pricing.
Sales Tax Filing
Sales Tax Filing
Florida sales tax applies to most tangible goods you sell. We track what’s taxable, calculate what’s owed, and file on time. No penalties. No scrambling the night before the deadline. This is one of those things that’s easy to stay on top of when someone else is handling it and painful when you’re not.
Where It Gets Complicated
Cash handling is a constant source of headaches. Between the register, card payments, returns, voids, and discounts, the number in your POS system and the number in your bank account rarely match perfectly. Small discrepancies pile up over months and eventually become impossible to untangle without spending hours digging through receipts.
Inventory purchasing is the other big one. Owners go to trade shows or reorder based on gut feeling. Meanwhile, certain products sit for months taking up shelf space and tying up cash that could be used for items that actually move. Without clear data, it’s hard to separate the winners from the dead weight.
POS and Bank Reconciliation
POS and Bank Reconciliation
Your point of sale system says one thing. Your bank account says another. We reconcile the two every month so discrepancies get caught while they’re still small and explainable. Waiting until year end turns a ten-minute fix into a weekend project.
Overbuying and Dead Stock
Overbuying and Dead Stock
Without clear data on what’s moving and what’s collecting dust, every purchase order is a guess. We help you see turnover patterns so you can stop sinking cash into products that don’t sell and redirect that money toward the ones that do.
What Changes
You stop guessing about whether you’re making money. Monthly financials show actual margins by product line. You see what’s profitable and what’s dragging. Purchasing decisions get smarter because they’re grounded in real sales data instead of instinct or habit.
Tax season stops being a crisis. Sales tax stays current all year. Income and expenses are categorized properly from day one. When it’s time to file, your books are clean and your deductions are documented. You spend your energy on customers, merchandising, and growing the store instead of chasing receipts.
Smarter Purchasing
Smarter Purchasing
When you can see which product categories generate real margin and which ones sit on shelves for months, you start buying differently. Cash stops getting locked up in inventory that doesn’t move. You carry what sells and your cash flow improves because of it.
Time Back in Your Day
Time Back in Your Day
You’re not spending evenings reconciling the register or worrying about sales tax deadlines. The financial side of the business runs consistently in the background. You get back the hours you were losing to paperwork and put them toward the parts of the business that actually need you.
Tampa Bay's Small Business CPA Firm
First Step:
A Short Conversation
Tell us about your business and where you need support. We'll walk through your situation, answer your questions, and give you a clear quote.
