For independent retail shops + boutiques.
Retail bookkeeping with inventory + COGS done right.
Wholesale buys post to Inventory. When the product sells, the cost moves to COGS — so December's P&L reflects what actually sold, not what's still on the shelf. Returns post as contra-revenue. Processing fees get their own expense line so the 2.5–3.5% drag is visible.
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Inventory-cycle visibility
You order from Faire or Alibaba in August for the November sell-through. The wholesale wire clears immediately; the holiday sales arrive 60–90 days later. PlainBooks shows the gap on one calendar so the cash position in October is a real number, not a hope.
Holiday-vs-rest split
Oct–Dec can be 40% of annual revenue. January–February foot traffic drops 40%. PlainBooks shows whether the four good months actually carry the eight quieter ones — based on your real ratio, not the industry blog version.
Returns + processing reality
Card processing eats 2.5–3.5% of every sale. January return rate runs about 14.5% on holiday gifts. PlainBooks separates the returns and processing lines from gross revenue so the net-takeaway number is the real one.
Where the books get messy
You buy holiday inventory from Faire in August on a Net-60. The shipment lands in October. Black Friday weekend does $4,200 on the card; Cyber Monday adds $1,800. By December 23 the shop has done $14,000 of holiday revenue. Card processing took 2.9% across all of it. January 2 hits and the returns roll in — about 14.5% of December's gross. The rent auto-debits the 1st. The wholesale Net-60 from August is due the same week.
Four good months. Eight quiet ones. The books need to track inventory as an asset, cost of goods sold as expense at the right moment, returns as a contra-revenue, and processing fees as their own expense line — not all mashed into one rough "sales" number.
What PlainBooks does
PlainBooks gives you the books — chart of accounts shaped for an independent retail shop, the journal where each Square or Shopify settlement, wholesale order, payroll run, and ad-spend pull writes a balanced entry, and a period close that locks each month.
Wholesale buys post to Inventory (asset). When the product sells, PlainBooks moves the cost into Cost of Goods Sold — so the December P&L reflects the actual COGS of items sold, not the August spend on items still on the shelf.
Returns post as contra-revenue, not as new expenses, so the gross-to-net revenue waterfall on the P&L is honest. Card processing is its own expense line so the 2.5–3.5% drag is visible — not buried in net deposits.
When the month closes
Close the period and PlainBooks generates the closing entries. The monthly PDF package — Trial Balance, P&L (gross sales → returns → net → COGS → gross profit → expenses → net income), Balance Sheet (inventory and accounts payable broken out), GL detail, AR aging if you offer house accounts, AP aging for wholesalers and rent — comes out in one file.
PlainBooks does not run your POS, take payments, manage inventory counts, or process chargebacks. Square, Shopify, Clover, Lightspeed handle those. If returns land heavier than expected, reopen the period, fix the entries, re-close. The audit log shows every change.
Bills you can't afford to forget
PlainBooks puts each one on the same calendar as your real bank balance, so you see the collision before it happens.
- RentMonthly, the 1st$2,000–$5,000
- Wholesale inventory (Faire, Alibaba, etc.)Lumpy, 60–90 days ahead$2,000–$8,000/cycle
- POS + e-commerce (Square, Shopify, Clover)Monthly + per-sale$30–$200/mo + 2.5–3.5%
- PayrollBiweekly$1,500–$5,000
- Ad spend (Meta + Google + local)Monthly$200–$1,200
- Utilities + insuranceMonthly$400–$900
The October-order / January-collect gap
Holiday inventory ships from your wholesaler in October. The check clears that week. The bulk of sell-through happens November and December but a chunk of that cash comes back as returns in mid-January. The Industry-recommended 15% cash reserve is what keeps the doors open through the gap. PlainBooks shows the reserve trend month-over-month so you see whether it survives this year's cycle — before the rent doesn't clear.
What PlainBooks doesn't do
Honest about scope. If you need any of these, you need different software.
- Run your POS or take payments — Square, Shopify, Clover, Lightspeed do that
- Track inventory counts or reorder points — that's a POS/Shopify job
- Process returns or chargebacks — your platform handles it
- Tell you what to mark up. Pricing and product mix are yours; PlainBooks shows what the bank actually says.
Ready to see your cash position?
$15/month or $150/year (two months free). 14-day free trial. No card required.
Start your free trialCommon questions
- Does PlainBooks work for retail (store, shop, boutique)?
- Yes. PlainBooks is general-ledger bookkeeping software — workspaces, chart of accounts, journal entries, period close, bank reconciliation, the full report set (Trial Balance, P&L, Balance Sheet, GL detail, AR aging, AP aging, 1099 summary). The retail (store, shop, boutique)-specific copy on this page describes the accounts and bills that matter most in this vertical.
- What does it cost?
- $15/month or $150/year when signups open. One price, all features, no tiers. Signups aren't open yet — leave your email on the home page and we'll send one note when launch happens.
- Do I need to connect a bank account?
- No. PlainBooks does not ingest bank feeds. You post journal entries directly (and for trucking workspaces, trips and state-mileage entries write the underlying entries automatically). If you want bank-fed cash visibility, that's a different category of tool.
- What about cash-flow forecasting?
- On the roadmap, not in the current build. PlainBooks today shows what your books say — current balances, what's open in AR and AP, what's posted, what's pending close. We don't promise features that aren't built.