397: Demystifying Finances and Taxes as a Food Creator with Amy Northard

Strategies for effective bookkeeping, navigating business expenses, and confidently managing tax season as a creator with Amy Northard from Amy Northard, CPA.

-----

Welcome to episode 397 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Amy Northard from Amy Northard, CPA about accounting for food creators.

Demystifying Finances and Taxes

Taxes and bookkeeping can be a major source of anxiety for anyone, but especially anyone who is self-employed… like many food creators! It can be difficult to know where to get started with managing your business finances, or how you might be able to improve your accounting processes!

Luckily, that’s what Bjork is chatting with Amy Northard about in today’s podcast episode! Amy is a CPA and Partner at Amy Northard, CPA (“The Accountants for Creatives”) and is an expert at setting up bookkeeping systems and navigating taxes for business owners in the creative space.

In this episode, you’ll hear more about when and how to start bookkeeping for your business, the best ways to prepare for tax season, when you might want to outsource your accounting needs, and more.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How and why Amy found her niche and started her accounting firm for creatives
• The importance of separating personal and business transactions
• How to reconcile your business expenses
• Whether groceries can be considered a business expense (and why it matters)
• What the IRS audit process would look like for a food blogger
• Tips for storing and organizing your business receipts
• Amy’s recommendations for bookkeeping software
• Deductions that creatives might overlook
• The differences between sole proprietor, LLC, and S Corp, and how to choose which is the right fit for you
• How to manage payroll for your business
• When you should start to do bookkeeping for your business
• When you might want to consider outsourcing your bookkeeping or taxes
• How to manage losses when you’re starting your business
• How to be intentional about taxes as a more established food creator
• Strategies for effective bookkeeping to make tax season easier

Resources:

• Amy Northard, CPA
• Dropbox
• Shoboxed
• Quickbooks
• Xero
• Wave
• Justworks
• Gusto
• Follow Amy on Instagram and Facebook
• Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group

------

This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership