Bookkeeping for
IT Services
and MSPs.
Your revenue comes from managed service agreements, project work, hardware resale and license pass-throughs, and each one carries a different margin. When it all lands in one income line, you can't tell what's profitable. We split it out, tie it to your PSA and show you margin by line every month.
Flat monthly pricing · Cancel anytime · Dedicated bookkeeper
Built for Every Type
of IT Business
Managed service provider, solo IT consultant or project shop, your books need to separate recurring revenue from one-time work and resale so the margins mean something.
Managed Service Providers
Monthly agreements priced per user or per device, with a stack of per-seat tools behind each one. We track recurring revenue, the vendor costs that grow with it and the margin left after both.
- Per-user and per-device agreements
- RMM, backup and security tool costs
- License bills from Pax8 or distributors
- Prepaid annual agreements
- Margin by service line
- Tech payroll and contractors
Solo IT Consultants
You handle tickets, projects and the odd hardware order yourself. We keep business and personal spending apart, track what clients owe and give your CPA clean numbers at year end.
- Hourly and block-hour billing
- Prepaid hour blocks tracked
- Hardware bought for clients
- Software and tool subscriptions
- Vehicle and mileage records
- Quarterly numbers ready for your CPA
Project & Resale Shops
Network installs, migrations, cabling and equipment sales bring in big invoices with thin margins on the hardware. We match each purchase to the job it was for and show profit by project.
- Project billing and deposits
- Hardware purchases matched to jobs
- Distributor bills and credits
- Taxable and non-taxable sales split
- Subcontracted installers tracked
- Profit by project
The Financial Headaches
We Fix
IT businesses usually have plenty of revenue. The hard part is seeing which part of it actually makes money.
Resale hides your real margin
Hardware and license resale can make revenue look big while adding little profit. When resale and services share one income line, a strong month on paper might just be one large equipment order. We report service, resale and project revenue separately.
Prepaid contracts distort the month
A client pays for a full year of managed services up front and that month looks great. The next eleven look thin. We can track prepaid agreements and hour blocks as they're earned, so each month reflects the work you actually delivered.
License bills don't match invoices
Microsoft 365 seats get added mid-month, distributor bills arrive prorated, and client invoices don't always catch up. Without matching license costs to what you billed, you can end up paying for seats no client is paying you for.
Tool costs creep with every client
RMM, PSA, backup, email security and endpoint protection often bill per seat or per device. As clients grow, those costs grow too, and they're easy to lose in a pile of software charges. We categorize them so you can see your stack's cost against revenue.
Every Month
How We Lay Out
an MSP's Books
Each kind of revenue gets its own income line and its own cost line, so you can read gross margin one line at a time. This is the layout we set up for MSPs and IT service firms.
| Income line | Paired cost line | What the margin tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Managed services (recurring agreements) | The per-seat tools behind each agreement: RMM, PSA seats, security and backup licenses | Whether your per-user or per-device pricing still covers the stack as seat counts and vendor prices change |
| Project and break-fix work | Subcontractors and costs bought for a specific project | Whether projects are quoted high enough for the hours they actually take |
| Hardware resale | Hardware bought from distributors such as Ingram Micro, TD SYNNEX or D&H | The markup you keep after freight, returns and restocking fees |
| Software and license resale | Licenses billed by Microsoft, Pax8 or another marketplace | Usually a thin pass-through margin, kept apart so it doesn't make service margins look better or worse than they are |
| Prepaid agreements and hour blocks | Nothing until the work is done. The unearned part sits on the balance sheet as deferred revenue | How much work you still owe clients, and how much of the cash in the bank is already spoken for |
Why it matters: a month with a few large hardware orders can show record revenue and less profit than a quiet month of agreements. With each line split out, you see that on the monthly P&L instead of guessing.
A prepaid agreement, step by step: a client pays $12,000 up front for a 12-month agreement. On accrual books the full $12,000 is recorded as deferred revenue when it's paid, and $1,000 moves to income each month as the service is delivered. After the first month, $11,000 of service is still owed.
Everything You Need,
Nothing You Don't
Every service is set up around how IT firms earn money: recurring agreements, project work and resale. We work from your PSA and distributor reports so your books match what you billed and what you were billed.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Every account reconciled, every transaction categorized, every month. You get a clean P&L and balance sheet you can read and use to make decisions.
See Full Details →Financial Reporting
A monthly P&L with managed services, projects, hardware and licenses split out, gross margin by line, the recurring revenue trend, and a balance sheet showing prepaid contracts.
See Full Details →Bank Reconciliation
Every business account and credit card matched and verified each month. No mystery charges. No unresolved transactions. No surprises.
See Full Details →Accounts Payable & Receivable
We match PSA invoices to payments, track aging on project and agreement billing, and reconcile distributor bills, credits and license charges to what you passed on to clients.
See Full Details →Catch-Up Bookkeeping
Months or years behind? We clean it all up before monthly service starts, at a flat price per month behind that we quote up front.
See Full Details →Payroll Support
Payroll for techs, engineers and help desk staff runs through Gusto, and Gusto files the payroll taxes, W-2s and 1099s. We reconcile each run and keep contractor pay separate.
See Full Details →"Working with Dan has been such a positive experience! As a small business owner, having someone who is knowledgeable, thorough, and genuinely invested in helping me understand my finances has been invaluable. He’s incredibly responsive, patient with my questions, and has brought so much clarity and peace of mind!"
IT Services & MSPs
FAQ
Questions we hear from IT Services & MSPs before they sign on with Tides.
Based in Greenville, SC —
Serving Clients Nationwide
100% remote bookkeeping for small businesses across South Carolina and throughout the United States.
Beyond IT Services & MSPs,
We Serve All These Businesses
Tides Bookkeeping specializes in bookkeeping across 12 distinct industries. Industry-specific expertise means fewer errors, better categorization, and a bookkeeper who already understands how your business makes money.
Finance terms worth knowing
Plain-English explainers, no jargon.
Close the Tickets.
We'll Close
The Books.
Schedule a free 15-minute call. We'll review your current setup, answer your questions, and give you a flat monthly quote — no pressure.
No credit card required · No long-term contracts · Cancel anytime
Simple, Flat-Rate Pricing
Flat monthly plans scaled to your business — no hourly billing and no surprise invoices. You always know the price up front.
★★★★★ 5.0 · 8 client reviews on Intuit's ProAdvisor directory
✔ Reviewed by Daniel Cope, Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor · Updated August 2026