Industry-Specific Accounting In Michigan
Some businesses keep their money in the bank. Yours keeps a good share of it on a shelf, a showroom floor or a walk-in cooler, and that changes what your books have to do. When inventory is counted loosely and cost of goods sold is a plug figure, the profit on your statement is a guess with a decimal point.
Cost accounting for businesses with inventory, production and regulatory considerations is the work our owner has built her career on. The two services below apply that discipline to retail and food service. They sit on top of our bookkeeping and monthly accounting and carry straight through to business tax preparation, so the count in the back room and the number on the return agree.
We work with businesses across Michigan and virtually nationwide. For a closer look at the trades we know best, from furniture and hardware stores to restaurants and grocers, see our industries page. Cannabis retailers, growers, processors and transporters have their own pages there, because that work runs on rules of its own.
Two Services For Businesses That Carry Stock
Each one runs inside a monthly engagement, scoped in writing before the first month closes.
Retail & Inventory-Based Businesses
For stores, showrooms, manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors, the balance sheet should match what is physically in the building. Our retail inventory accounting services value your stock on a costing method you understand, keep cost of goods sold reconciled to your counts and report margin by product line or department. Each month we review the inventory accounting, book the adjustments it needs, shrink included, and file Michigan sales tax from the same books. You finally see which categories carry the business and which ones just take up room.
Restaurant & Food Service Accounting
Restaurants, cafes, bars, caterers and grocery stores run on thin margins and product that spoils. Our restaurant accounting in Michigan tracks food and beverage cost against sales, watches prime cost and labor, and runs payroll with tips reported properly. When weekly bookkeeping is in your scope, you get weekly flash numbers during the busy season, and every client gets a monthly close built around how the kitchen and the floor actually operate, with sales tax reconciled every month. Problems show up while there is still time to change the menu or the schedule.
What Cost Accounting Catches That A Bank Balance Hides
A healthy bank balance can sit on top of a shrinking margin for a long time. These are the problems that surface once inventory gets watched closely.
What Stock-Heavy Owners Ask Before Signing On
Do I need an industry-specific accountant, or will general bookkeeping do?
General bookkeeping records what you spent. Industry accounting explains what it cost to sell each thing you sold, and for a business carrying inventory that is the number that decides profit and tax. If your gross margin moves without explanation, or your inventory figure has not changed in years, you have outgrown general bookkeeping.
My inventory has never been counted properly. Can you still take us on?
Yes, and it is a common starting point. We help you get to a reliable count, agree an opening inventory balance with you, and scope any cleanup of prior months in writing before we begin. From there the monthly review keeps the books and the shelves in step, so the problem does not quietly rebuild itself.
Is this separate from your monthly packages?
No. Industry accounting runs inside whichever monthly package you choose: Back Office, CFO or Accounting & Tax. Every package already includes an inventory accounting review with adjustments, the monthly close and your business return. The industry work shapes how the chart of accounts is built, what the close checks and which reports land on your desk each month.
Find Out What Your Inventory Is Really Earning
Book a free consultation and tell us what you sell and how it moves. We will tell you plainly how we would cost it, close it and report on it every month.