Bookkeeping for tattoo artists: the minimum you actually need

For most artists bookkeeping is something you do when the letter from the tax office arrives. Yet the effort is almost entirely a question of timing: writing a receipt at the moment of payment takes 20 seconds. Reconstructing it in March of the following year takes 20 minutes and still ends in guesswork. This article describes the minimum that keeps you safe, without turning you into an accountant.

What does tattoo bookkeeping actually need?

Whether you work in Switzerland, Germany or Austria, whether you are a small business for VAT purposes or charge VAT: the foundation is the same everywhere. Four points, nothing more.

1. 1Every payment received with a receipt. Date, client, service, amount, payment method, sequential number. Which details are mandatory in each country is covered in the article on receipts and invoices.
2. 2Every expense with a document. Till slip, invoice, subscription confirmation from your inbox. No document, no deductible expense.
3. 3A split between private and business. A separate account for the studio, a separate card. Private withdrawals are fine, they simply have to be recognisable as such.
4. 4Orderly storage. Digital or on paper, but sorted by year and month and findable for the full statutory period.

How long do you have to keep receipts?

Recording income: a receipt for every session

Income is almost always the messier side for artists, because a lot of it is cash. The rule stays simple: as soon as money moves, a document is created. Also for a 40 CHF or euro mini tattoo, also for a friend, also when the client says they do not need anything.

• Deposits: their own receipt with date and amount. At the end of the session the deposit is deducted from the total and shown on the final receipt.
• Note the payment method: cash, card, instant transfer, bank transfer. You need it later to reconcile the till and the bank statement.
• Run a cash book: opening balance, takings, withdrawals. Cash that appears nowhere is the most common point of dispute in an audit.
• Tips: part of your income when they go to you personally. Record them separately, then your price per session stays comparable.
• Vouchers: record the income when you sell one, note only the service when it is redeemed, otherwise you count twice.

Recording expenses: from needle cartons to conventions

Everything you buy for the work belongs in the books. Not for tidiness, but because every documented expense lowers your taxable result. A tattoo studio typically has six blocks.

• Supplies: needles, cartridges, inks, film, gloves, disinfectant, razors, paper towels.
• Workspace: studio rent or chair rent, electricity, cleaning, bed, lamp, steriliser.
• Equipment and software: machine, power supply, iPad, drawing apps, booking and bookkeeping app, cloud storage.
• Training and travel: conventions, seminars, guest spots, transport and accommodation.
• Marketing: website, photo shoot, business cards, ads.
• Cover and advice: liability insurance, accountant, tax adviser.

Which items are treated how in which country, and where the grey areas sit, is covered in detail in the article on business expenses and receipts.

The weekly routine: 20 minutes that save your year end

Set a fixed slot, for example Sunday evening after the last client. Same steps every time, same order.

1. 1Check every receipt of the week: is there one for each session and each deposit? Add missing ones straight away.
2. 2Photograph the week's expense documents or pull them from your inbox and drop them into the monthly folder.
3. 3Open the bank statement and reconcile it with your list. Clear anything you cannot allocate immediately.
4. 4Count the cash box and note the balance. Differences are explainable now, in four months they are not.
5. 5Write open balances and unpaid deposits on a short list and follow up on Monday.

What does your accountant need at year end?

The better your package, the smaller the bill, because accountants charge by the hour. These five things are enough in most cases.

• An income list for the year as a spreadsheet or CSV: date, number, client, service, amount, payment method.
• An expense list in the same format, with a category on every line.
• All documents as PDF or image files, sorted by month, with date and merchant in the file name.
• Bank statements for the business account covering the whole year, plus payment provider statements.
• A short note on anything unusual: purchases written off over several years, private use of phone or car, a move, a change of studio.

Which mistakes cost you the most?

• Cash without a receipt. The classic. Later you know neither the exact amount nor the day, and the till never balances.
• Documents in a jacket pocket. Whatever sits in a coat, a car or a supply box is untraceable by February.
• Everything through the private account. If rent, inks and the weekly shop share one statement, you will sort it by hand a year later.
• Deposits recorded nowhere. At checkout nobody remembers whether the 100 CHF or euros were already paid.
• Bookkeeping as an annual project. Three days in spring feel worse than 20 minutes a week and produce more errors.

Shoebox, spreadsheet or app: what fits you?

A spreadsheet is an honest intermediate step and perfectly fine for the first months. The break comes when booking, deposit and receipt live in three different tools and you build the connection by hand every time. How far a table takes you is laid out in our comparison with Excel.

If you also want to know at which turnover you become liable for VAT and what the small business rules in Germany and Austria mean, that is covered in the article on tax and VAT.