Bookkeeping for Wholesale Distributors
Wholesale businesses operate on net terms, high invoice volume, and razor-thin margins that leave no room for bookkeeping errors. A missed accounts receivable aging, an incorrect landed cost calculation, or an unbilled freight charge can quietly erode profitability for months before you notice. Simple Books Now keeps your wholesale books current, accurate, and structured by an Enrolled Agent who understands how B2B distribution finances actually work.
Book a Free ConsultationWholesale bookkeeping is fundamentally different from retail or ecommerce accounting because your revenue cycle is driven by invoices on net terms rather than immediate payment. You ship product, issue an invoice, and wait 30, 60, or sometimes 90 days for cash — all while your own vendors may be demanding payment on their own terms. Managing accounts receivable aging, applying customer payments correctly across multiple open invoices, and tracking early-payment discounts all require systematic processes that go far beyond basic income-and-expense tracking.
For wholesale distributors, landed cost accuracy is the foundation of correct inventory valuation and margin analysis. If your books aren't capturing freight, customs duties, broker fees, and warehousing costs as part of your inventory cost rather than as period expenses, your gross margin figures are wrong — and so are your pricing decisions. Luisa's Enrolled Agent background ensures that your inventory method is applied consistently and defensibly, your cost of goods sold is complete, and your books are ready for any IRS or lender review that demands auditable inventory records.
The Financial Challenges We Solve
Accounts Receivable Aging & Collections
Net-30 and net-60 terms mean cash is always lagging behind revenue on paper — and customers who stretch to net-90 or default entirely can create serious liquidity problems if AR isn't monitored weekly. Without clean AR aging reports, you may not know a major customer is 60 days past due until you've already shipped another order.
Landed Cost Calculation & Inventory Valuation
Your product cost isn't just what you paid the manufacturer — it includes ocean freight, customs duties, drayage, warehousing, and inspection fees that must be allocated across the shipment and added to your inventory value. Expensing these costs in the period they're incurred rather than capitalizing them into inventory overstates expenses and understates your gross margin.
Volume Discounts & Tiered Pricing Reconciliation
Wholesale businesses often offer volume discounts, early-pay discounts, and promotional allowances that reduce the effective price per unit from the invoice price. These must be recorded correctly — as reductions to revenue or accounts receivable, not as separate expenses — or your revenue figures will be systematically inflated.
Multi-Location Inventory Tracking
Distributors who store inventory in multiple warehouses or third-party logistics facilities need their books to reflect accurate on-hand quantities and values at each location. Without location-level inventory tracking, you can't optimize replenishment, and your balance sheet may show inventory that's already been consumed or misplaced.
Sales Tax on Wholesale vs. Retail Sales
Wholesale sales to resellers are typically exempt from sales tax — but only if you have a valid resale certificate on file for every customer. Selling to a customer who claims exempt status without a current certificate in hand makes you potentially liable for the uncollected tax during a state audit.
More Than a Bookkeeper — A Federally authorized Enrolled Agent
Most bookkeepers record transactions and hand you a report. Simple Books Now does that — and more. Luisa is a Federally authorized Enrolled Agent: the highest credential the IRS grants. She can represent you in audits, file your returns, and negotiate directly with the IRS — with year-round tax strategy built into your bookkeeping from day one.
For a business owner in your industry, that means one professional who understands your numbers and handles your complete financial picture. No handoffs. No gaps. No surprises at tax time.
- Federally authorized by the IRS — represents you in audits, collections & appeals
- Bookkeeping + tax strategy in one engagement — no coordinating between vendors
- Direct access to Luisa — no junior staff
- Flat monthly rate — no hourly billing surprises
- Works with clients in all 50 states
- Books delivered by the 15th of each month
- Year-round availability, not just at tax time
Everything We Handle for Your Business
Bookkeeping
Monthly reconciliation, clean financials, and reports delivered every month.
Learn more →Tax Resolution
IRS notices, back taxes, audits, and payment plans — handled directly by our EA.
Learn more →Catch-Up Bookkeeping
Behind on your books? We'll get you caught up at a fixed project price.
Learn more →Bookkeeping FAQ
We post every invoice as it's issued and apply payments against the correct open invoices, maintaining a real-time AR aging report that shows you exactly what's current, what's approaching due, and what's past due — broken down by customer. This gives you the data to prioritize collection calls and make informed credit decisions before a bad debt becomes a write-off.
Landed costs — freight, customs, duties, and related import expenses — should be allocated across the units in a shipment and added to your inventory cost rather than expensed immediately. We calculate the landed cost per unit for each purchase order and adjust your inventory value accordingly, which gives you accurate COGS when those units are sold and correct gross margin for each product line.
A large return reverses the original sale, reinstates the inventory at its original cost, and either generates a credit memo against the customer's AR balance or triggers a cash refund — each of which must be recorded differently. We handle the full journal entry sequence so your AR, inventory, and revenue accounts all reflect the return accurately in the period it occurs.
Yes — you should have a current, signed resale certificate on file for every customer claiming a sales tax exemption, because you're the one on the hook if a state auditor finds an exempt sale without documentation. We can help you set up a certificate collection and renewal process and flag any customers in your books who are marked as exempt without a certificate on file.
Lenders require clean, current financial statements — typically a P&L and balance sheet for the trailing 12 to 24 months, often with an accounts receivable aging and inventory schedule. Because we maintain your books monthly to bank-ready standards, pulling together a complete lender package is straightforward rather than a months-long cleanup project.
Ready to Get Your Wholesale Business's Books in Order?
Schedule a free consultation with Luisa — a Federally authorized Enrolled Agent who understands distribution financials, landed cost accounting, and how to keep wholesale books that support both your operations and your tax strategy.
Book a Free ConsultationNo obligation · 30-minute call · Federally authorized Enrolled Agent