Bookkeeper for Farriers

How does money actually flow through a farrier business?

Your money comes in per job, not per month. You shoot a horse, you get paid, often right then with cash, a check, or a card tap. There's no invoice to wait on, no payment terms. Because of that, a farrier's bank account moves in little bursts, and the monthly total gets built from dozens of visits.

But here's what quietly throws the books off: the cash you take home rarely makes it to the bank feed on its own. You might set it aside for gas or a personal expense. If it never gets recorded, your revenue is wrong and the profit you think you made isn't real. We make a habit of writing down every payment, cash and card both, and matching it to the visit that earned it.

Also, you might have a trip charge on top of the shoe work. That's a separate, correctable line, and it often goes out before the horse work. It's easy to let that charge disappear into the job price, but it's a true revenue stream and it shows up specifically on an invoice. We track it as its own thing so you end up with a clear picture of what those fees bring.

Which costs really matter for a farrier?

The costs that hit you hardest are the ones you consume on every job. Nails, pads, glue, the dressing and tape you use to finish a set. These go directly into the price of a shoeing, and they fly off the truck every day. If you don't track them, you have no idea what your real margin is on a trim or a full set.

Then there are the fixed things you need on top of that: the anvil, the hammers, the forging tools, and the truck that carries it all. Those are bigger checks, but they aren't per horse. To your chart of accounts, they're capital items or training equipment, and we'll track them separately so you don't mistake a new anvil for the cost of doing one shoe.

The third big line is liability insurance and a possible worker's comp if you have a helper. Those are charged periodically, and they're often ignored until the bill arrives. We set up a monthly expenses plan in the books, well ahead of time, so these don't surprise you and break your cashflow for that month.

What we can't give you is a single ical number for what your supplies should be, because it varies a lot by region and by your own choices. The key is having an account for each category and a process to record it, so at the end of the year you can see the total and decide if you need to adjust your prices.

What's the biggest bookkeeping mistake farriers make?

By far, it's deposits and personal spending. A farrier finishes a fair, gets paid in cash, buys a meal, pockets the rest, and none of that is a record. At the end of the month, the cash pile doesn't match the bank, and the profit is lost. The books can't tell the story if the money isn't all there.

Second is mixing your own wages with business revenue. You are the business, so half of it is yours, but the money that stays in the company is not profit. You need to take an owner's draw or wage and pay that separately, so you eventually end up with books that show whether the business actually covers you plus the bills. A common saying is that farriers think they're making money because the wallet is heavier than last month, but the card doesn't balance.

And third is not setting up for taxes. You have quarterly estimated payments to state and federal, and since you're self-employed, you pay half of self-employment tax. If those aren't reserved in your books, you'll be surprised at the end of April. A good bookkeeper will show you what to set aside each quarter so you never owe an unexpected lump sum.

Do I really need to track each job, or just the total?

Yes, because trims and full sets are different checkpoints. A simple trim will take a half hour and a few pennies of nails; a full set with forged shoes can take over an hour and material costing dozens of dollars. If you're only looking at total revenue, you won't know which service is pulling the real profit and which is just keeping the phone ringing.

That's why we set up your chart of accounts to separate income by type: trims, trim with shoes, full set, specialized hoof work for problem horses too, and any trip. On the cost side, we keep a detailed classification of your material per horse, if you want to use that. Some farriers order in batches and use them over the won't; it's fine to allocate those at a rate per unit, but the point is you see that the full set costs more than a trim and your price reflects it.

If a horse has a special issue, like a laminitis case, the vet may prescribe a special shoe or pad, and that's true per job. We'll mark it separately, so you can show the owner exactly where that service cost and have both a clear answer and a clean statement for the records.

What reports should I actually look at every month?

The main profit & loss statement is the big one, but for a farrier there are two more specific reports . First is the income statement by service line. It shows revenue from trims, from full sets, from specialty work, and what the gross profit on each is. Second is a focused expense breakdown, so you follow for your real cost per job.

You also need a cash flow snapshot, even a rough one. Because your income is lumpy, some weeks are full box, other weeks are sparse, you want to know what a typical six weeks looks like. We'll build a rolling forecast from your past visits so you see when the truck insurance is due and keep enough on hand to cover the low months.

How do I know if my prices are right?

Your books tell you the truth about profit, and you can use them to see when to raise prices. If you have catch the cost per job, you know exactly what it costs you to do a full set, and you know what you're currently billing. The margin on the books leaves room for the overhead and your paycheck.

There's a useful rule of thumb some farriers use: a full set sets you up at about three times your trim price. So if you charge $50 for a trim, a full set goes to $150. You can check that against your true costs. If your full set price is below a healthy multiple, you either adjust the price or raise the volume sold. The books let you see which one moves the needle.

A practical note : a modest bump in price may cost you a few clients, but it can concentrate the overall book. To know if it's worth it, you need to see the effect on your cash. We'll build a projection based on the number of horses you serve today and what happens if you lose a portion of clients at the higher price. That math usually makes the decision clear.

How do I handle the slow months with the books?

Every farrier has seasons where the work drops down. It could be winter weather, a big injury to a herd, or just that the season cycles. The books prepare you by showing your seasonal pattern. If there's any history even a rough note, we can see that December and August are thin because of holidays or slow checkups.

We don't have a crystal ball, but we can use the last six to twelve months of your harvest reports to project an average month and a low month. That gives you a number: how much you need to have set aside to ride through the dry months. We then help you save a fixed amount each month like a payment, so you're not struggling to pay the truck during the tight season.

A reality of the trade: the body ends the career. A farrier's back can wear out, and when that happens you may be forced to cut your hours. The books let you see what a part-time schedule does to your bottom line and where you can slim the expense side without giving up your whole business. Having a record of your costs by category gives you that power.