Retail Accounting That Ties Out to the Register
Retail margins are won and lost in the details — shrinkage, COGS, sales tax, store-level labor. Fairlight reconciles the POS to the bank, tracks inventory like it's money (because it is), and shows you which locations and product lines actually earn.
✓ POS-to-bank reconciliation ✓ Store-level P&Ls ✓ Fixed monthly fees
Built for Retail
Retail Businesses We Work With
Multi-site retail operators
the businesses we know best: several locations, shared overhead, and the constant question of which stores carry the others.
Specialty and boutique retail
fashion, gifts, home goods — where inventory buying decisions make or break the year.
Food and beverage retail
cafés, markets, and counters with tight margins, perishable inventory, and tip-affected payroll.
Franchise locations
royalty and fee accounting, franchisor reporting requirements, and unit-level economics.
Retail with an online arm
brick-and-mortar plus Shopify, where channels need to be measured separately but reconciled together.
E-commerce accounting →Service-retail hybrids
salons, repair shops, and studios selling product alongside services.
Where Retail Books Fall Apart
POS-to-bank mismatch
daily sales that never quite tie to deposits once processor fees, tips, and timing differences pile up
Inventory as a black box
COGS guessed at year-end instead of tracked, so gross margin is fiction eleven months a year
Sales tax exposure
Florida rates, county surtaxes, and exemption rules applied inconsistently at the register
Store-level blindness
one P&L for the whole company, so the flagship subsidizes the underperformer invisibly
Labor cost drift
scheduling decisions that quietly consume the margin, invisible without store-level labor reporting
Shrinkage and waste
losses that never get measured because the books were never set up to catch them
What Fairlight Does for Retail
Daily-sales discipline
POS summaries (Square, Clover, Shopify POS, Lightspeed) reconciled to bank deposits, fees and tips accounted for
Inventory and COGS tracking
periodic counts tied to purchases, so gross margin is a number you can trust monthly, not a year-end surprise
Store-level P&Ls
every location measured on its own revenue, labor, and occupancy costs, rolled into a company view
Sales tax compliance
Florida state and county surtax filings handled, exemptions documented, registers configured right
Retail payroll
hourly teams, overtime, tips, and multi-location staff paid correctly and on time
Buying and cash flow guidance
CFO advisory on inventory investment, seasonal cash planning, and whether the next location pencils out
The Full Stack, One Firm
How Retail businesses typically work with us
Making the register tie out
daily sales never quite match deposits once fees and tips pile up.
reconcile POS summaries to the bank with fees and tips accounted for.
Margin you can trust monthly
COGS guessed at year-end.
tie periodic counts to purchases so gross margin is a real monthly number.
Which store actually earns
one P&L for the whole company.
build store-level P&Ls so the flagship stops invisibly subsidizing the underperformer.
Representative situations, not specific clients — details are generalized.
Engagement paths
Start with the return
Begin with a clean, correctly filed return — no monthly commitment to start.
Monthly books + tax
Keep the books clean every month, then add tax and advisory on one bill as you grow.
See the plans →Fractional CFO
Forecasts, the numbers that matter, and a finance partner for the big calls.
See CFO advisory →Not sure which? A short call sorts it — we'll tell you the one thing worth doing first.
What you can count on
- The register ties to the bank — daily POS reconciled to deposits and inventory tracked like money, so margin is a number you can trust every month, not a year-end guess.
- Clear scope and pricing — every price quoted before any work begins, never an hourly surprise.
- One firm, the whole picture — books, tax, payroll, and advisory under one roof, so nothing gets re-explained to a new vendor at the worst moment.
Who you work with
Fairlight's founder spent years in senior finance leadership inside multi-site retail and consumer businesses — store-level economics are where we come from.
The team holds CPA credentials in both the United States and Canada, so your books, your return, and the bigger decisions are handled under one roof — and cross-border situations get both countries in-house.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which POS systems do you work with?
Square, Clover, Shopify POS, Lightspeed, Toast, and most modern systems — anything that produces a daily summary we can reconcile to the bank.
Do you do physical inventory counts?
No — you (or your team) count; we build the process, integrate the counts into your books, and turn them into accurate COGS and shrinkage numbers.
Can you handle our sales tax filings?
Yes — Florida sales tax and county surtaxes are part of our retail packages, including registration if you're opening new locations.
We have three stores. Can you show us profit per store?
That's exactly the point — each location gets its own P&L with its own labor and occupancy costs, so cross-subsidies stop hiding.
Find Out Which Store Is Really Your Best One
Book a free consultation — bring last month's POS reports and we'll show you what store-level books would reveal.