Bookkeeping for Wineries and Breweries
Bookkeeping for Wineries, Breweries and Distilleries
TTB excise tax reporting. State ABC compliance. Tasting room versus wholesale.
- AIPB Certified
- QuickBooks ProAdvisor
- Xero Partner
- US-based team
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A bottle leaves your tasting room and it's a retail sale. The same bottle sold to a distributor is a wholesale transaction with a different margin, a different tax picture, and a different place on your books entirely. Multiply that across a wine club, a handful of restaurant accounts, self-distribution in one state and a distributor relationship in another, and you can see why a generic bookkeeper tends to flatten everything into one revenue line and call it done.
Then there's the federal side. The TTB, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, wants excise tax reporting on what you produce and remove from bond, on a schedule tied to your production volume. Your state's ABC agency has its own rules on top of that, and those rules are genuinely different depending on where you're licensed. None of this is optional and none of it waits for a quiet month.
We keep books for wineries, breweries, and distilleries who need someone comfortable in both worlds, the production side and the retail side. Tasting room revenue tracked separately from wholesale. Inventory that ages the way your product actually ages, by batch or vintage, not lumped into a single number that means nothing by the time you check it. Support for the federal excise and state ABC reporting your production actually generates.
Where wineries and breweries bookkeeping actually helps
- My tasting room and wholesale numbers are blended and I can't tell which channel is actually carrying the businessRevenue split by channel in the chart of accounts, tasting room, wholesale, and distribution each visible on their own so you can see where the real margin sits.
- TTB excise tax reporting stresses me out and I'm never sure I've got the removals recorded rightProduction and removal-from-bond records tracked consistently, so the underlying data supporting your TTB reporting is accurate and current, not reconstructed at deadline.
- I have inventory sitting in barrels or tanks for months and I don't know how to value itInventory aging tracked by batch or vintage, with cost captured as it accrues, so year-end valuation reflects what is actually in the cellar or the tank room.
- My state ABC compliance and my federal TTB reporting feel like two totally separate systemsBooks structured so both federal excise data and state ABC recordkeeping draw from the same clean source, instead of two competing spreadsheets.
- I sell through a mix of self-distribution and a distributor and the receivables are a messDistribution channel receivables tracked separately, so distributor payment terms and direct accounts don't get lost in one undifferentiated pile.
What's different about wineries and breweries bookkeeping
- TTB federal excise tax reporting support, tied to accurate production and removal records
- State ABC compliance recordkeeping alongside federal reporting
- Tasting room revenue tracked separately from wholesale and distribution
- Inventory aging by batch or vintage, with cost capture over time
- Distribution channel receivables tracked by account type
- Books kept tax-ready year-round for your quarterly and annual filings
Why channel and inventory tracking matter more here than almost anywhere else
Most small businesses sell one thing one way. You're selling the same product through at least two or three channels, each with its own margin. A case sold at full retail through your tasting room carries a very different economics than the same case sold to a distributor at a wholesale discount, who then marks it up again before it reaches a shelf. If your books treat all of that as one number labeled sales, you lose the ability to tell which channel is actually worth investing more time and inventory into.
Inventory adds its own layer. Wine ages in barrel and in bottle. Beer moves through fermentation, conditioning, and packaging on its own timeline. A batch that's been sitting for eight months has real carrying cost tied up in it, cellar space, labor, ingredients, time, and that cost needs to be reflected accurately rather than guessed at once a year during a physical count that nobody looks forward to.
On the compliance side, we build the recordkeeping so it serves both masters at once. The production and removal data that supports your TTB excise reporting is the same clean data your state ABC compliance draws from. You're not maintaining two versions of the truth in two different systems, hoping they agree when someone asks.
What's included
- Bank and credit card reconciliation, monthly
- Revenue tracked by channel, tasting room, wholesale, and distribution
- Inventory aging by batch or vintage with cost capture
- Production and removal records supporting TTB excise reporting
- State ABC compliance recordkeeping
- Distribution channel receivables tracking
- Monthly profit and loss by channel
- Year-end handover to your CPA or EA
Why wineries, breweries and distilleries pick us
We know production and retail both
Tasting room, wine club, wholesale, self-distribution. We build books that keep every channel visible on its own, not blended into one number.
TTB and state ABC, aligned
Production and removal records support your federal excise reporting and your state's ABC compliance from the same clean data source.
Inventory that ages like your product
Batch or vintage tracking with cost captured over time, so valuation reflects what is actually in the cellar, not a once-a-year guess.
Channel margin, visible
Tasting room versus wholesale versus distribution, each shown separately, so you can see which channel is actually worth more of your inventory.
Distribution receivables tracked
Distributor payment terms and direct accounts kept separate, so nothing sits unpaid and unnoticed in a blended receivables list.
Ready ahead of every deadline
Books kept current all year, so quarterly and annual filing deadlines come together without a scramble through a year of removal records.
Get channel-level clarity on your production business
Tell us your production size and how you sell. Written quote back the same business day.
Three producer shapes
Owner-operated, tasting room and wine club focused
Small winery or brewery selling mostly direct, tasting room and a wine club or mug club, minimal wholesale. Owner handling production and pouring on weekends, no time left for the books.
What changes
- Tasting room and club revenue tracked cleanly
- Inventory aging by batch or vintage
- TTB-supporting records maintained
- Books ready for quarterly deadlines
How wineries and breweries typically handle their books
Owner-managed Common for small producers | General bookkeeper Not production-specific | Outsourced (us) Built for producers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Revenue split by channel | No | Partial | Yes |
Inventory aged by batch or vintage | Partial | No | Yes |
TTB-supporting records maintained | Partial | No | Yes |
State ABC recordkeeping aligned | No | No | Yes |
Reviewed by an AIPB-certified bookkeeper | No | No | Yes |
Distribution receivables tracked separately | No | Partial | Yes |
How we price wineries and breweries bookkeeping
Pricing for winery, brewery, and distillery bookkeeping depends on production volume, how many channels you sell through, and how much reconciliation your TTB and state ABC recordkeeping needs. A small tasting-room-focused producer is a lighter lift than a multi-channel operation selling through several distributors across state lines.
Fill out the quote form and tell us roughly your production size and channel mix. We will send back a written number, usually within a business day. Pricing scales with your production, not a flat tier you have to squeeze into.
Wineries and Breweries bookkeeping FAQ
Two things to remember
Every account is reconciled and kept tax-ready by an AIPB-certified bookkeeper. Every account is run inside the US. Those two anchors shape how we handle compliance for wineries, breweries and distilleries specifically.
Books that pour clean.
Tell us your production size and how you sell. We will quote your retainer the same day.