Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast The Financial Fix: Bookkeeping Tips to Keep Tour Operators Profitable (w/ Purple Sapphire Business Solutions)
Oct 28, 2025
Kirstin Reeder and Amber Call from Purple Sapphire Business Solutions bring their expertise in bookkeeping tailored to the tour industry. They discuss common financial mistakes operatos make, emphasizing the importance of separating cash handlers from bookkeepers to prevent fraud. Tips on maintaining good bookkeeping hygiene, handling multi-state operations, and planning for seasonal cash flow are key highlights. They also share insightful advice on choosing between cash versus accrual accounting and managing expense reporting effectively.
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Tour Accounting Has Unique Needs
- Tour operators have unique needs like job costing and location-based tax tracking that general bookkeepers often miss.
- Multi-day tours, concessions, and booking software integrations require specialist knowledge to report profitability accurately.
Choose Cash Or Accrual By Tour Type
- Use accrual accounting for multi-day tours booked far in advance to avoid being taxed on unearned income.
- Use cash basis for short, in-and-out tours that are booked near the service date to keep bookkeeping simpler.
Reconcile Vendor Bills Weekly
- Regularly reconcile vendor bills and match payments to invoices to prevent lost charges and reconcile undeposited funds.
- Clean up undeposited funds and ensure every payment maps to a bill or deposit to avoid hidden errors.