What Your Accountant Actually Needs from Your Salon (And How to Get It Ready Without Melting Down)
Introduction
Tax season rolls around, and suddenly your brain is playing ping-pong:
“Do I just send my bank statements?”
“Do I need every receipt?”
“Is my QuickBooks even right?”
“Maybe if I ignore this, it’ll go away…?”
Spoiler: it won’t. But it also doesn’t have to feel like a complete mental shutdown every year.
Most salon and spa owners were never told—clearly and calmly—what their accountant actually needs to file taxes. So they either:
Overwhelm themselves trying to send everything
Or freeze and send almost nothing, hoping their tax pro can magically sort it out
In this guide, we’ll walk through:
The core information your accountant truly needs from a salon
How to gather and organize it without turning your life upside down
What you can safely ignore (you do not need every coffee receipt)
A free Salon Tax Season Prep Checklist to guide you through the process
Where a bookkeeper (that’s me, at The Cozy Ledger) can take this off your plate next year
You don’t have to do taxes alone, and you don’t have to be “perfect” to be prepared. You just need a clear list and a calm plan.
1. Start with the Big Picture: What Are We Even Doing at Tax Time?
Before we dive into documents, it helps to remember the purpose:
Your accountant’s job at tax time is to:
Figure out your total income for the year
Subtract your legitimate business expenses
Calculate how much tax you owe or are owed
File the right forms, on time, so the government is satisfied
They can’t do that well if your numbers are a mystery.
So our goal is to give them:
A clean, reasonable picture of what came in
A clean, reasonable picture of what went out
Enough backup that they feel confident signing their name to it
📌 Practical Tip:
Write this at the top of your planner or checklist:
“My goal isn’t perfection. My goal is to give my accountant a clear, honest picture of my salon’s income and expenses.”
That one sentence takes the pressure down a notch.
💡 FACT:
Tax professionals base their work on the information you provide. When that information is organized and consistent, they’re better able to optimize deductions and reduce errors.
2. The Core Tax Package: What Your Accountant Actually Needs
Every accountant has their preferences, but for most salons and spas, they’ll want some version of:
Basic business info / changes
Your legal business name, entity type (sole prop, LLC, S corp, etc.)
Your EIN (if you have one)
Any ownership or address changes this year
Year-end financials
Profit & Loss (Income Statement) for the year
Balance Sheet as of year-end
If you don’t have those, then:
Business bank & credit card statements (12 months)
A basic income/expense summary (even if messy)
Payroll reports (if you have employees or pay yourself via payroll)
Annual wage reports (W-2, W-3, 941s, etc.—often generated by your payroll provider)
Sales tax reports (if applicable in your area)
Loan / financing info
Statements for business loans, equipment leases, etc.
Any new loans taken this year
Major asset purchases
Big things like furniture, equipment, build-outs, tech—usually over a certain dollar amount
You do not need to send them every single receipt in a shoebox. You just need your books to reflect those receipts accurately, and keep the receipts available if questions arise.
📌 Practical Tip:
Your Salon Tax Season Prep Checklist will have a section:
Core Tax Package:
☐ Basic business info (entity, address, changes)
☐ Year-end Profit & Loss
☐ Year-end Balance Sheet
☐ 12 months of bank/credit statements (if reports aren’t ready)
☐ Payroll reports (if applicable)
☐ Sales tax reports (if applicable)
☐ Loan/year-end statements
☐ List of major purchases (equipment, furniture, build-out, etc.)
You can check off what you already have and highlight what’s missing.
💡 FACT:
Accountants consistently report that the top issues they face at tax time are missing or incomplete financials—not lack of receipts.
3. Clean Books vs. “I’ll Just Send Statements”: Why It Matters
If your books are clean and current, tax time looks like:
Export year-end Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet
Send a brief list of any big changes or questions
Answer a few follow-up emails
Done
If your books aren’t up to date, your accountant has two options:
Spend extra time (billable hours) trying to rebuild the year from bank statements
File based on rough estimates, which can increase audit risk and missed deductions
Either way, you pay more—either in money, stress, or both.
This is where having a bookkeeper pays for itself:
Bookkeeping = “Let’s keep this organized all year.”
Tax prep = “Let’s file the organized information.”
📌 Practical Tip:
On your Checklist, include a simple status line:
Current bookkeeping status for last year:
☐ Up to date and reconciled 🎉
☐ Mostly up to date, a few months behind
☐ Way behind / not really set up
If you’re in the bottom two, that doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It just means your next step might be a catch-up project before tax filing—which is exactly the kind of thing a firm like The Cozy Ledger does gently and quietly in the background.
💡 FACT:
Organized, reconciled books reduce tax prep time and can uncover deductions or issues that would be missed with bank statements alone.
4. A Gentle Step-by-Step: How to Get Ready Without Melting Down
Instead of thinking “I have to do all of tax prep,” break it into a few small steps:
Pick your tax date
When is your appointment or deadline with your accountant? Write it down.
Do a quick Books Health Check
Are your 12 months categorized and reconciled?
If not, how far behind are you?
Gather the key documents
From the Core Tax Package list
Make a “Questions for My Accountant” note
Anything you’re unsure about: owner pay, home office, mileage, etc.
Decide what to delegate
Is there time/energy to DIY the clean-up? Or is this a “call the bookkeeper” moment?
📌 Practical Tip:
Your Checklist can include a simple timeline:
My tax appointment / target date: ____________
By this date, I will:
Complete Salon Books Health Check
Gather core tax package docs
Email my accountant to confirm what they need
Decide: DIY cleanup or bookkeeper support
Even just writing this out makes the whole thing feel more concrete and less foggy.
💬 Quote:
“Action is the antidote to anxiety.” – Unknown
💡 FACT:
Breaking large, stressful tasks into smaller, scheduled steps has been shown to significantly reduce avoidance and procrastination.
5. What You Don’t Need to Obsess Over (Receipts, Every Penny, Etc.)
Here’s what most small salon owners worry about that doesn’t need to be perfect:
Every single physical receipt neatly filed
Digital copies or bank records + good categorization usually suffice; your accountant can clarify their preference.
Absolute penny-perfect numbers
Reasonable accuracy matters. Obsessive perfectionism usually doesn’t change your tax outcome meaningfully—but it does drive up your stress.
Understanding every line of the tax return
That’s your tax pro’s job. Your job is accurate, honest, organized data.
You do need:
Honest records of income
Accurate, categorized expenses
Clear separation between business and personal
A willingness to answer your accountant’s questions
You don’t need to become a tax expert. That’s why you have professionals.
📌 Practical Tip:
On your Checklist, add a small box:
Things I Will Not Stress About This Year:
☐ Having every little receipt in a color-coded binder
☐ Understanding every tax rule myself
☐ Getting the numbers “perfect” at the expense of my sanity
Sometimes, writing down what you’re choosing not to obsess over is just as powerful as listing your tasks.
💡 FACT:
Perfectionism is linked to higher stress and avoidance. In financial tasks, “good and honest” generally beats “perfect but never done.”
6. How a Bookkeeper Fits Into Tax Season (And Why It’s Not Redundant)
You might wonder, “If I already have an accountant, why would I also need a bookkeeper?”
Think of it like this:
Bookkeeper (The Cozy Ledger) =
Organizes and categorizes your day-to-day transactions
Reconciles your accounts
Prepares salon-specific reports you can understand
Keeps things current month by month
Accountant / Tax Pro =
Uses that clean data to file taxes
Advises on entity type, tax strategy, and compliance
Handles communication with tax authorities if needed
When you bring both into the picture:
You don’t dread tax season as much
Your tax pro can do better work (with better inputs)
You can actually use your numbers the rest of the year to make decisions
📌 Practical Tip:
On your Health Check or Checklist, include:
Next year, I’d love tax season to feel more like:
Support that would make the biggest difference:
☐ Ongoing bookkeeping
☐ One-time cleanup
☐ Quarterly check-ins on my numbers
☐ Help understanding my reports
This is where you can gently invite yourself to consider: “Do I really want to be the one doing this next year?”
💡 FACT:
Many accountants prefer when their clients work with competent bookkeepers, because it leads to cleaner data, fewer headaches, and better long-term results for the business.
7. Your Salon Tax Season Prep Checklist
You don’t have to memorize any of this.
The Salon Tax Season Prep Checklist I created for you walks through:
What to gather
Where to check your books’ status
What to ask your accountant
Where a bookkeeper fits in
You can print it, mark it up, and use it this season—and then again next year.
You deserve a tax season that feels:
Clearer
Shorter
Less like an emergency
You don’t have to do it all alone. But even if you are still DIY-ing, a simple checklist and a calm plan can make this year feel noticeably lighter.
Want This Tax Season to Feel Lighter Than Last Year?
You don’t have to guess what your accountant needs—or carry all of tax prep on your own shoulders.
Download the free Salon Tax Season Prep Checklist and, in a few calm sessions, you can:
Gather the exact documents your accountant actually cares about
Check the true status of your salon’s books
Decide what you’ll DIY and what you’re ready to hand off
👉 Grab your Salon Tax Season Prep Checklist here.
And if this checklist makes it clear you’re tired of doing this alone, that’s exactly what I help with at The Cozy Ledger—calm, done-for-you bookkeeping for salons and spas.
