True North Tax & Accounting

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We Already Know How Your Industry Works.

Cannabis operators, hospitality businesses, retailers, professional service firms and non-profits all keep books with rules of their own. These are the industries we know best, so the learning curve is ours to carry, not yours.

Industries We Serve Across Michigan

These are the five industries we focus on, and in each one the accounting has its own rules, its own vocabulary and its own way of going wrong. We work with them across Michigan and virtually nationwide.

Cannabis

Accounting, bookkeeping, payroll and tax for cannabis retailers, growers, processors and transporters. Inventory and production cost tracking, the tax treatment this industry lives under, and records kept to a standard that stands up to close review. This is our leading specialty.

The cannabis side of the practice

Retail

Furniture, hardware and independent retail. Inventory valuation, cost of goods sold that reconciles, and margin reporting by product line so you can see which part of the floor is actually paying for itself.

Retail and inventory

Hospitality

Restaurants and grocery stores. Food and beverage cost, labor percentage, tip and sales tax handling, and a monthly close built around how a food business actually runs.

Restaurants and grocery stores

Professional Firms

Law firms, consultants, contractors, agencies, healthcare practices and other firms that sell time and expertise. Books that show which clients and services actually carry the business.

Professional service firms

Non-Profits

Mission-driven organizations that answer to a board, donors and funders. Monthly books and statements that show where the money came from and where it went.

Non-profit organizations

The Cannabis Side Of Our Practice

Cannabis is our leading specialty, and it is the one part of the practice where we went out and earned credentials specific to the industry instead of relying on general accounting experience.

  • Cannabis Cultivation Specialist Certificate awarded to a member of the True North team by Baker College with Green Flower Cannabis Cultivation Specialist CertificateBaker College with Green Flower
  • QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor credential held by every True North partner QuickBooks Online ProAdvisorHeld by every partner in the firm

Two Programs, Both Passed

Members of our team have completed and passed both a Cannabis Associate Program and a Cannabis Specialist Program, and hold certificates for both. The coursework covers how these operations are structured, tracked and reported on, which is the part most accountants meet for the first time on a client file.

The DOPE CFO Method, Run Daily

Our firm follows the DOPE CFO method for cannabis businesses, and its cannabis-specific accounting guidelines are fully integrated into our daily processes. It shapes how the chart of accounts is built, how inventory and production cost move through the books, and what the monthly close has to prove.

Cost Accounting Underneath It

Cannabis rewards a firm that can cost a business properly. Alyson spent her career on cost accounting for operations with inventory, production and close regulatory attention, and this industry is where that skill pays the owner back the fastest.

A Page For Every Link In The Cannabis Chain

Cannabis Retailers

Dispensary books where inventory, cash, cost of goods sold and excise and sales tax are reconciled every month.

Retailers in detail Cannabis Growers

Cultivation costs tracked through the grow, so cost of goods sold holds up when the return is prepared.

Growers in detail Cannabis Processors

Extraction and production costs followed batch by batch, from input material to finished product.

Processors in detail Cannabis Transporters

Secure transport operators with cost per run, driver payroll and every manifest tied to an invoice.

Transporters in detail
Indoor cannabis cultivation room where plant counts and production cost feed straight into the books
Retail floor of a cannabis dispensary with product displays and inventory on the shelf

Why We Built The Practice Around It

In cannabis the accounting is the compliance. Inventory has to hold up from plant to package, cost of goods sold decides what the tax bill looks like under Section 280E, and the records get read by people outside the company far more often than in most industries. A month closed carelessly is not a tidy-up problem here, it is a real exposure.

Owners in this space tend to be very good at running the operation and badly served on the numbers behind it, and too often they are left to figure those numbers out alone. That gap is the reason we are here. Getting a cannabis file right takes someone who already understands how the business moves product and money, not someone learning it on your books.

We would rather be the firm that knows the industry before the first month closes. Doing it properly for these owners is worth more to us than doing it approximately for everyone.

Talk to us about cannabis accounting

Retail counter and display cases inside a cannabis dispensary, the kind of Michigan operator True North keeps books for

Retail Floors And Restaurant Kitchens

Retail and hospitality share a problem with cannabis: the money is tied up in what sits on the shelf or in the walk-in, and margin disappears quietly when the books do not track it. Both sit inside our industry-specific accounting services.

Retail: Furniture, Hardware And Independent Shops

Furniture stores, hardware stores and independent retail. Retail margin is decided line by line, and the books have to keep up with the floor. We set inventory and cost of goods sold up so they reconcile to your counts, review the inventory accounting every month and make the adjustments it needs, and file the sales tax that comes with every register.

  • Inventory valuation and cost of goods sold that reconcile
  • Margin reporting by product line or department
  • A monthly review of inventory accounting, with adjustments
  • Michigan sales tax filed and reconciled to the books

Retail and inventory accounting in detail

Hospitality: Restaurants And Grocery Stores

Restaurants and grocery stores. A food business lives on thin margins and fast-moving cost. We build the monthly close around how the kitchen and the floor actually run, so food and beverage cost, labor and cash are visible while there is still time to act on them.

  • Food and beverage cost tracked against sales
  • Labor percentage and payroll, including tips
  • Sales tax handled and reconciled every month
  • A monthly close that follows the way a food business runs

Restaurant and food service accounting in detail

Professional Firms And Non-Profits

No shelves to count here, but the same need for books you can trust. What changes is who is reading the numbers: partners deciding which work is worth taking on, or a board checking whether the mission is on budget.

Professional Services Firms

Law firms, consultants, contractors, agencies and healthcare practices. A service business sells time and expertise, so the numbers that matter are the work billed, the money collected and what each client or service line actually earns. We close the books every month, run payroll for staff and contractors and plan the owners' taxes before year end, so profit is something you see coming instead of something you learn about in April.

Bookkeeping for professional firms

Non-Profit Organizations

Community organizations, associations and other mission-driven groups. A non-profit answers to its board, its donors and its funders, and the books have to show clearly where each dollar came from and where it went. We keep the books current every month, track income by source so grant and donor money is easy to account for, run payroll and prepare statements a board can read in one sitting.

Financial reporting for non-profits

Talk To People Who Already Know Your Industry.

Tell us what you sell and how it moves. We will tell you plainly how we would keep the books for it.

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