The Boutique Bookkeeper Show | Know Your Numbers & Prepare For Taxes

Starting your boutique and not sure what bookkeeping even means? Welcome to bookkeeping for beginners! In this episode, we are walking through exactly what bookkeeping is (and what it is not), plus the few simple things every brand new boutique owner should set up right from the start. You will learn why separating your business and personal finances matters so much, how to pick a system you can s...

Most boutique owners don't avoid their bookkeeping because they're lazy. They avoid it because nobody ever handed them a roadmap. In this episode, I'm walking you through six free bookkeeping resources that meet you wherever you're stuck right now, in the exact order you'd actually use them. We start with the most common bookkeeping questions answered in plain English, move into knowing what you c...

Hiring a bookkeeper for your boutique is a big decision, and most boutique owners go into that conversation without knowing what to ask. In this episode, I’m walking you through 8 specific questions to ask when hiring a bookkeeper, what a good answer looks like for each one, and the red flags that should send you running before you hand over access to your financial accounts.   Ready to take your...

Whether you should be hiring a bookkeeper or doing your own bookkeeping is one of the biggest decisions you'll make as a boutique owner. In this episode, Megan breaks down both sides honestly so you can figure out what's actually right for your business right now. Spoiler: hiring a bookkeeper isn't always the magic fix you think it is.   Ready to take your learning a step further? Register for my...

In this episode, we’re breaking down the 7 types of transactions in your boutique and why not all of them are expenses. If you’ve ever recorded everything that leaves your bank account as an expense, this episode will show you exactly why that’s a problem, and how to get each type of transaction categorized correctly in QuickBooks Online so your books actually reflect what’s happening in your busi...

If you’ve been recording your Shopify deposits in Quickbooks Online as straight sales, your financial reports aren’t as accurate as they could be. In this episode, we’re covering the simple system for recording Shopify deposits correctly in QBO so your books are clean, your reports are trustworthy, and you’re not overpaying in taxes.   Ready to take your learning a step further? Register for my Fr...

Your Shopify payouts aren’t just one number - they’re actually made up of 6 separate components. In this episode, I’m breaking down exactly what’s inside every Shopify payout, why recording them correctly gives you a much clearer picture of your boutique finances, and how one simple habit could be causing you to overstate your income and pay more in taxes than you actually owe.   Ready to take you...

Ever paid for a business expense with your personal card and had no idea how to get it into your books? Recording business expenses paid with personal funds is something almost every boutique owner runs into, and in this episode I'm walking you through exactly what to do. Whether you paid for things out of pocket before you had a business bank account, or you just accidentally swiped the wrong car...

Are you tracking your inventory and COGS correctly in your boutique bookkeeping? If you’ve been expensing your inventory when you buy it, your profit and loss report is NOT giving you an accurate picture of your business. In this episode, we’re breaking down the difference between inventory and cost of goods sold, why it matters for your boutique finances, and exactly what to do if you’ve been doi...

Not sure which QuickBooks subscription level is right for your boutique? In this episode, I’m breaking down each QuickBooks Online plan so you know exactly which one fits your needs as a boutique owner - and which ones are a total waste of money. Spoiler: Simple Start is probably all you need.   Ready to take your learning a step further? Register for my Free Masterclass, Make Your Money Make Sens...

Today I’m sitting down with Lesly Birkland, owner of Birkland Boutique - a faith-based lifestyle boutique on Main Street in her small town. Lesly has been a student inside the Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques Membership for the past 10 months, and today she’s sharing her journey of finally getting serious about her numbers. We’re talking about what it looked like before, the moment things cli...

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing the story of how the Bookkeeping Made Simple for Boutiques membership came to be -  from my corporate accounting career, to betting on myself with a newborn at home, to the pivotal moment I realized a generic QuickBooks course wasn’t going to cut it. If you’ve ever wondered why I do what I do and why this membership was built specifically f...

Are you currently managing your own retail bookkeeping — or at least TRYING to — but feeling like you have no idea if you’re actually doing it right? You might not need a bookkeeper to do it FOR you. You might just need someone to TEACH you. In this episode, I’m breaking down what a bookkeeping coach actually is, why boutique bookkeeping is more complex than most people realize, and how having the...

As a virtual bookkeeper, one of the hardest things for us to accurately track is the physical cash that is being used in our clients’ stores. That’s because there’s no statements for us to review, or account for us to connect to. It 100% relies on the internal processes that our clients have set up. Because of that, these internal processes are SUPER important (whether you’ve hired a bookkeeper or...

One of the first “money” books I read when I started my business was Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, and let me say that it was a game changer in how I manage the cash flow in my business. But, if you have read the book, you probably noticed that it doesn’t QUITE work the same if you have an inventory-based business. In this episode, I’m here to tell you the basics of how the Profit First system...

Let's talk about sales tax…This is probably one of the most confusing aspects of running a retail business, I’m just gonna be up front about that. It’s even slightly more complicated if you do any online selling. And let's be real…it's 2026. Chances are, you’re selling stuff online. Every state is different, so I’m going to preface this episode by saying that you should always look at the resource...

Have you ever been unboxing the latest inventory for your business and you just HAD to keep something for yourself?? I mean, it’s one of the benefits of owning your own business – getting first dibs on everything! But, from a bookkeeping & tax perspective, you want to make sure that you are handling these items appropriately. But, how exactly do you do that? In today’s episode we’re going to c...

One of the more challenging parts of running a small business is making sure that you are paid for all the hard work and hours that you are pouring into your business. Unlike a traditional employee where you’re presented with a regular paycheck, determining how to pay yourself as a business owner can be a little more challenging & complex. In today’s episode, we are going to take a deeper dive...

Bookkeeping in the retail industry has some unique complexities that do make it a little more complicated than other businesses. Since I opened my business in 2021, I have worked with dozens of small businesses, and I often see a lot of small business owners make similar mistakes when they manage their own bookkeeping. Unfortunately, mistakes like these can lead to inaccurate financial reports, wh...

Many business owners think they need an Accountant for their business - but what does that REALLY mean? There’s a lot of confusion around that word and what an Accountant actually does, because it is such a broad term. Today, I’m getting a little more specific and explaining why you specifically need a bookkeeper and a tax preparer on your financial support team. I talk about the difference betwee...

Many business owners are so hung up on making sure they categorize expenses correctly and call them the “right” thing, when in reality…it doesn’t matter. Or, at least it doesn’t matter as much as you might think. Most of the time, anything that you spend money on that is ordinary (meaning other business owners in your industry spend money on it too) and necessary (meaning that this purchase is ess...

I know that bookkeeping is probably not your favorite business-related task, but it is one of the most important ones. And I’m not talking about the year-end scramble to gather all your numbers together – I mean keeping up with it each and every week so you can USE those numbers to help you make smarter business decisions. Since it’s not your favorite task, I want you to be EFFECTIVE with the time...

Would you notice if your payment processors weren’t paying out all your funds? The only way to make SURE that you are accurately tracking every PENNY in your business is to make sure that you are completing your bookkeeping reconciliations! That means that you should be comparing every transaction in your bookkeeping records to the statements provided by your banks, credit cards, and payment proce...

A 1099-K is a tax document that is created & sent to you (and the IRS) by any payment processors you use. It reports both the number of transactions they’ve processed on your behalf, along with the total dollar amount of gross sales they’ve collected for you. While a 1099-K seems like a very “official” tax document, it should NOT be used to report your income on your tax return. To learn why i...

January is a true ‘fresh slate’ in a financial sense. It doesn’t matter if you completely ignored your numbers in 2025, now is the perfect time to commit to a change in 2026 and start to face the numbers head on. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how you can make 2026 the year you finally feel confident in the money-side of your boutique - not by doing more, but by putting simple syste...