Tattoo Studio Bookkeeping: Income and Expense Tracking

Bookkeeping is the last thing most tattoo artists want to think about. After a full day of drawing and tattooing, nobody wants to sit down with receipts and bank statements. But if you cannot answer "what did I actually earn this month?", it gets hard to set your prices, plan supply orders or settle up with the studio. This guide shows how to keep tattoo artist bookkeeping and tattoo studio bookkeeping in a simple, steady routine.

Three basic terms

Most confusion comes from mixing up terms. Get these three clear first:

• Turnover: All the money you take from clients, before the studio split, supplies or other costs.
• Expenses: What you spend to do the work: needles, ink, gloves, film, your share of rent, ads, subscriptions.
• Net earnings: What is left for you after the studio split and expenses.

Add one more: receivables, the amount clients still owe on finished or ongoing work. On multi-session pieces, money can quietly go missing if you do not track it.

How to record income

A short entry per payment is enough, but you need to make it right away. If you do not log it when the session ends, it is hard to remember in the evening. Each income entry should include:

1. Date
2. Client name
3. The job (for example forearm script, back piece session 2/4)
4. Amount
5. Payment method: cash, card or bank transfer
6. Whether it is a deposit, a session payment or the final payment

Flag deposits separately. A deposit is money in on the day you receive it, but the work has not happened yet, and what happens if the client cancels depends on your policy. We cover the rules in our tattoo deposit policy guide.

Sort expenses into categories

With categories, you can see where the money went at the end of the month. A list that works for most tattoo artists:

Keep the list short and clear. With forty categories, logging becomes a chore and you will drop it after a while.

Show the studio split on its own line

If you work in a studio on a percentage, the studio's share behaves differently from a supply cost: a fixed rate comes off every job. It reads more clearly as its own line. Say you turned over $6,000 this month and your studio split is 40%. Then $2,400 goes to the studio, and you subtract your own expenses from the remaining $3,600. For more percentage examples, see our tattoo artist commission split guide.

Monthly summary example

A one-page summary each month is enough to see how your business is doing. This example shows an artist working in a studio on a 40% split. The numbers are only an example.

The last line shows money you have earned but not yet collected. If it keeps growing, it is time to review the payment plans on your ongoing pieces.

Tattoo studio bookkeeping: notes for owners

If you own the studio, there is one more layer. Tracking each artist's turnover and the studio share it brings in shows you how much work each chair produces. Studio costs are also broader: rent, building fees, cleaning, shared supplies, front desk and sterilization. Do not put artists' own expenses on the same list as the studio's, or you will lose track of who paid for what. For staff wages, payroll and tax, talk to your accountant before you decide anything.

Habits that make record keeping easier

• Log payments during the session: Record it while the client pays. Entries left for the evening end up incomplete.
• Keep receipts in one place: Photograph supply receipts and store them in one folder.
• Check once a week: Set aside ten minutes on Sunday evening to review your entries.
• Separate cash and transfers: The payment method helps when you match cash and bank at month end.
• Keep personal spending out: Groceries do not belong on the business expense list.

Notebook, spreadsheet or app?

A paper notebook is the easiest start, but totals are tedious. Excel or Google Sheets does the math for you, but entering data on a phone can be clumsy. An app made for tattoo artists keeps income together with the booking and the client record, so you do not write the same thing twice.

In Tattoo Artist Books, each job sheet holds the total price, the deposit and every cash, card or transfer payment session by session, and the remaining balance is calculated for you. When you set the studio split to 0%, 30%, 40%, 50% or 60%, your share appears on its own. At the end of the month you see income, expenses, turnover, studio share and net earnings on one screen, along with the total clients still owe. A list that shows every client with an open balance is coming soon.

Common bookkeeping mistakes

Many artists start tracking income and expenses and give up a few months later. It usually comes down to a few repeated mistakes:

1. Counting the deposit twice: If you log the deposit when it arrives and then log the full price on session day, your turnover looks bigger than it is. On session day, log only the remaining amount.
2. Skipping cash payments: Card and transfer payments leave a trail in the bank; cash does not. Be extra careful with cash.
3. Ignoring small expenses: Small supply purchases add up to a serious total by month end.
4. Forgetting receivables: If open balances on ongoing pieces are not visible somewhere, they may never be collected.
5. Mixing personal and business money: A separate business account makes tracking easier; ask your accountant what fits your case.

Running through this list in fifteen minutes every month also means your records are in order when you hand them to your accountant at year end.

Wrapping up

You do not need to be an accountant to keep tattoo books; you need steady records. Log income during the session, sort expenses into a few categories, show the studio split on its own line and make a one-page summary every month. That gives you solid ground for setting prices and clean records for your accountant. To dig into pricing, continue with how to price tattoos.