✶Tattoo Studios & Artists
You handle the ink. We handle the numbers.
Booth rent, artist splits, cash-and-card days, and supply runs. Balance keeps studio books clean without slowing the chair down.
Balance, PLLC provides bookkeeping for tattoo studios and independent artists: booth rental versus employee accounting, artist commission splits and 1099s, mixed cash and card reconciliation, and supply cost tracking. Studio clients include Minneapolis shops, with flat monthly rates starting at $300.
Studio owner Nikki Martin of Minneapolis Tattoo Shops put it best: "I am artist not a bookkeeper." Pam organized the shoebox, set up app-based tracking that fits a fully-booked schedule, and freed her to grow the business. That system, snap a photo, hit send, get back to the chair, is now the standard Balance studio setup.
✶Tattoo Studios & Artists
Studio-specific puzzles we solve
Booth renters vs employees
The two models have completely different books, taxes, and 1099 obligations, and misclassification is an audit magnet. Balance sets up the structure correctly and keeps artist payouts documented.
Cash and card, reconciled
Deposits, tips, square payouts, and the cash drawer all need to agree at month end. Balance reconciles the mix so income is complete and defensible.
The shoebox of receipts
Needles, ink, aftercare, furniture, art supplies. Hubdoc turns the shoebox into a photo habit, and every deductible dollar gets captured.
Growth without the admin
Adding a second chair, a guest artist program, or merch line changes the books. Balance scales the system so growth never means weekends of paperwork.
Where most tattoo studios & artists start
Core Bookkeeping
$650 per month covers most single-location studios with clean monthly activity.
See plan →Payroll & HR
For studios with W-2 staff: front desk, apprentices, or employee artists.
See plan →Solo Bookkeeping
$300 per month for independent artists running their own LLC or S-corp.
See plan →I am artist not a bookkeeper. Pam came in, organized my shoebox, and helped turn my business into an organized system. She has these great apps and tracking systems that make my crazy busy schedule super easy to record and send to her with a click of a button. I couldn’t have grown my business so fast without the help of Pam. I went from spending hours a week doing my own books and now I can focus on building my business instead.
Nikki Martin
Owner, Minneapolis Tattoo Shops
✶Good Questions
Tattoo Studios & Artists questions
My artists are booth renters. What does that mean for my books?
Booth rent is your revenue and their business expense; their tattoo income belongs on their books, not yours. Balance keeps the two cleanly separated, documents the rental agreements, and handles any 1099 obligations, which protects everyone at tax time.
I take a lot of cash. Is that a problem?
Not when it is documented. Balance builds a daily-close habit that reconciles cash, card, and tips against bookings, so your reported income holds up and your deposits make sense.
What does studio bookkeeping cost?
Independent artists usually fit the $300 per month Solo plan. Single-location studios typically run $650 per month (Core), and multi-artist shops with payroll land between $850 and $1250 per month depending on volume and headcount.
We get each other.
Start with a free consultation. Bring the weird stuff, that is the fun part.