How do I track multiple stylists' earnings?
The tracking method depends on whether your stylists are W-2 employees or booth renters. Employees require payroll tracking with commissions and tips reported. Booth renters pay you rent and handle their own taxes, so you’re just tracking rental income received. Some salons have both, which means two separate tracking systems running in parallel.
For employee stylists, your point-of-sale system should capture every service and product sale by stylist. Most salon POS systems like Square, Vagaro, or Boulevard do this automatically. At the end of each day or pay period, you pull reports showing each stylist’s total sales, then calculate commissions based on whatever split you’ve agreed to. Tips need separate tracking because they’re reported on payroll differently than wages.
In QuickBooks, set up each stylist as a class or use the projects feature to track their earnings separately. When you run payroll, the commission and tip amounts flow through properly. This setup also lets you run reports by stylist to see who’s generating the most revenue and whether your commission structure makes sense financially.
For booth renters, tracking is simpler. Each stylist pays you a flat weekly or monthly rent. Record each rent payment in QuickBooks as rental income, and tag it to that stylist if you want individual tracking. You don’t need to track their client sales because that’s their business, not yours.
The mistake most salon owners make is tracking sales totals but not reconciling them to what stylists actually earned and what the salon kept. If your POS says a stylist did $4,000 in services but you can’t trace how much went to her commission, how much was tips, and how much the salon retained, your books aren’t telling you the full story.
Reconcile stylist earnings weekly or at each pay period. Match POS reports to QuickBooks entries. If you’re handling bookkeeping near Bentonville for a salon yourself, build this reconciliation into your routine. If numbers don’t match, you’ll catch errors while they’re still easy to fix rather than discovering problems months later when you’re trying to figure out why cash is off.
Northwest Arkansas's Dedicated Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A Quick Conversation
Tell us about your business and where you need help. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a clear plan and honest price.
More Questions
What payroll taxes do Arkansas employers need to pay?
Arkansas employers pay the federal payroll taxes plus state unemployment insurance. There's no state disability or paid leave tax in Arkansas, which keeps things simpler than many states.
Read answerWhat records do I need to keep for an IRS audit?
Keep documentation that proves your income and expenses. This includes bank statements, receipts, invoices, payroll records, and anything that supports the numbers on your tax return. Most records should be kept for at least three to seven years.
Read answerWhat records do I need to keep for a trucking company audit?
Trucking companies face both financial and DOT audits, so you need to keep fuel receipts, IFTA documentation, mileage logs by state, maintenance records, driver files, and standard income and expense documentation. Most records should be retained for at least seven years.
Read answerHow do I handle multi-state tax filings for my trucking business?
IFTA is the primary multi-state tax filing for trucking. You register through your base state and file quarterly returns reporting fuel purchases and miles driven in each jurisdiction. Good mileage and fuel tracking is essential.
Read answerCan I import my existing data into QuickBooks?
Yes, QuickBooks Online supports importing data from spreadsheets, other accounting software, and bank connections. The bigger question is whether your existing data is clean enough to be worth importing.
Read answerHow do I prepare my construction business for tax season?
Preparing your construction business for tax season means reconciling your books, organizing receipts and job cost records, issuing 1099s to subcontractors, and verifying deductions. Start early to catch errors and give your accountant clean records to work with.
Read answer
