SERVICE

Brewery Bookkeeping

Head out of the books. Time back in your hands.

"They have specific industry knowledge to automate a small business in an affordable way. Their service is really built for efficiency and scalability...It’s given me time back, and time is really the only thing there is, you know?"

Read the full case study

Zak Koga Co-Owner, Karben4 Brewing

Read the full case study

Zak Koga Co-Owner, Karben4 Brewing

It's a New Month

But it’s the same old story.

Again huddled up with the partners making major decisions for the brewery based on gut feel, strong opinions, and back-of-the-napkin math. This was fine when things were simple. Buy ingredients. Brew beer. Sell it. Pay the team.

Today though? It feels hard. Way harder than it should.

Between the bank accounts and credit cards, vendors and invoices, point-of-sale deposits and tip payments, past-due distribution checks, payroll runs, and inventory adjustments… it’s an administrative load that just seems to grow and grow, even after you’ve hired some help.

Oh yes, and then there’s a brewery to run.

Who’s going to do that again?

The Awkward In-Between

This is where most breweries get stuck.

Not large enough yet to bring full-time bookkeeping, accounting, and finance management in-house…

But complex enough that as an owner (and last line of defense for literally everything that happens in the business), the weight of keeping the numbers straight falls fully on your shoulders.

And yes, you’ve already recognized that you’re not the best person to do this. But the real questions is… who is?

The standard options are typically:

Hand it off to a current team member

...who likely isn't thrilled to scoop up yet another thankless, out-of-scope set of responsibilities.

Hire an admin or someone local

...and cross your fingers that they know enough of what they’re doing that they don’t push the work back on you and create a new pile of future mess to untangle.

Keep the job within ownership

...on top of everything else. Which either means pulling a double-shift in the back office in-between brewing and managing, or shoving it under the rug to figure out later.

At the end of the day, the bills always come due. Payroll has to go out. And we need cash in the bank at all times to keep this thing going.

And if those are your only options, bookkeeping will always seem to find a home back on your plate.

What If It Just "Worked"

Let’s suspend judgment for a moment and instead think about what this all could look like if it just “worked.” A setup where:

Quickbook is a joy rather than a chore. You log in to find all of your transactions categorized, with a clean banking feed and everything in its place. Tracking how much you’re making, spending, and keeping in cash is a breeze, and you can run the reports you want to find the answers that you need at the drop of a hat.

AP and AR are rock solid. All of your sales, expenses, and inventory transactions flow without interruption. Bills are paid on a clear, workable schedule and cash flow is smooth. Missing invoices, duplicate payments, and the “open balance” dance with vendors are all things of the past.

Your numbers are at your finger tips. A clean P&L and balance sheet available at a moment’s notice. Sales and production data tee’d up for monthly and quarterly filings. Books ready-to-go for taxes each year without the heavy cleanup lift.

You can finally just “show up” to the brewery each day, knowing the financial admin work is taken care of, with the information you need to run and grow your brewery.

And if it’s not obvious by now, this is exactly our aim here at SBS.

Our Brewery Bookkeeping Service

Our Brewery Bookkeeping service is specifically designed to solve this problem for small breweries and their owners. And we’ve spent the last decade figuring out how to do it right.

Let’s take a look.

A Team Built For Breweries

It’s hard enough as it is to find competent, reliable, dedicated people for the well-scoped, high-paying, full-time positions you have open… let alone for the collection of mission-critical-but-not-full-time bookkeeping responsibilities owners need taken off of their plate.

We’ve spent the last 10+ years doing the hard work (so you don’t have to) to figure out how to recruit, select, and train folks who are not only excellent bookkeepers but have a great overall business sense and exhibit the awareness and level of care for your business that we would want for ours.

Breweries that decide to outsource their books to us are not only assigned one of our diligently trained Accounting Associates to handle their weekly transactions, but also receive account oversight from our Accountants and Accounting Managers with demonstrated expert knowledge in brewery accounting.

"Chris and the Small Batch Standard team are an integral member of Wicked Barley. We consider our relationship a partnership. They have demonstrated invaluable knowledge in the brewery industry and has kept us from flying blind."

Philip Maple

Co-Founder & Brewmaster, Wicked Barley

And so working with SBS means you get the benefit of both a highly-skilled and communicative team member working alongside you and your team each week, but also the deep craft industry expertise in brewery-specific operations and managing the most common POS, brewery management, bill pay, payroll, and banking platforms breweries rely on each day.

Philip Maple Co-Founder & Brewmaster, Wicked Barley

Streamlined Process to Fit Your Business

Because our team has seen and problem-solved thousands of brewery-specific scenarios, we’ve used that learning to painstakingly design a bookkeeping process to keep your financials up to date, while also supporting the daily flow of invoices and receivables.

Bottom line? We’re not just here to get the work done, but to organize, streamline, and build something sustainable for the long haul.

What this looks like in practice each week:

QuickBooks Online bank feeds and receipts are fully processed. This includes but is not limited to credit cards, ACH transfers, bill payments, retail (POS) and distribution deposit matching, and payroll entries. If your brewery has multiple locations and/or departments, we’ll also ensure each transaction is classed properly.

Invoices processed and scheduled for payment. While you’ll still be responsible for forwarding or uploading your documentation, our team will categorize and queue up bills to be paid for you or your team to simply log in and pay on a regular schedule. We’ll also provide a watchful eye over the inflow of invoices to prevent duplicates, missed payments, and fees for underpaid balances.

Software setup, sync, and support. Our team will automate and streamline sales entries, payroll, bank accounts, credit cards, and inventory transactions as much as possible so that everything flows into QBO for highly efficient, centralized management. We’re also available for training and guidance for your team to ensure their day-to-day administration of these platforms is as painless as possible.

Customized to fit the specifics of your brewery. Vendors need physical checks? No problem. Production team needs a list of invoices to receive in Ekos? We can do that. The point: we’re not just running a cookie-cutter setup, but are building processes that can stand the test of time within your brewery, optimized to be as efficient as possible given the resources you have to work with.

Regular communication and access when you need it. With our systems implemented and team’s expertise, 95% or more of the brewery’s transactions will be taken care of without your involvement. Beyond that, we’ll use a shared working document to track and clarify the rest, designed around your preferred communication schedule.

"Chris and Small Batch Standard have been instrumental for growing our business. We switched to SBS after being open for about two years. Their knowledge and guidance has allowed us to tighten up our systems and processes, letting us concentrate on growing our business."

Justin Cox

Founder and CEO, Atlas Brew Works

"It’s probably...15 to 20 hours of time a week that’s saved....I’ve gained more time to work on my business and to be home. I’m not sneaking in some of these back-office tasks at home."

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Zak Koga Co-Owner, Karben4 Brewing

Results Ready-Made For Brewery Owners

At the end of the day, we’ve spent enough time around brewery owners to know that time and space to think is the currency that matters.

So when owners engage with us, they can confidently expect:

The work is done and truly off of their plate. Time back in your hands to focus on the important stuff. No more guesswork, digging back through expenses and receipts, or time wasted “fixing” incorrect work. When you log into QuickBooks, what you see is up to date, accurate, and optimized for a seamless monthly close and tax filing process.

An accurate picture of what’s happening, without getting buried in the weeds. SBS bookkeeping dramatically increases the quality of your sales, production, and general expense data so that you can actually use real time information to run your business. And with that you’ve gained the ability to run reports, drill down and get meaningful answers at the drop of a hat.

An insurance policy against the uncomfortable unknown. Are we doing this right? All of the things you and your team don’t know yet, and all of the things that can (and will) go wrong with the process and technology you’re using to manage the back office of the brewery, we’ve got covered. And for the inevitable curveballs, changes, and new developments, we’re there to work through it alongside you.

"It’s helped boost my confidence in being able to run the business. It’s helped me set realistic goals for the company, for my teams. It’s given me a sense of safety because the decisions are being made based on information and not just gut checks."

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Joel McClosky Founder & CEO, Four Saints Brewing Company

Ready to Explore Whether

Small Batch Standard

Can Help Your Brewery?

We won’t judge your books by their cover (or their contents). But we might judge you for not giving yourself the time back. So let’s get to it.