A Seattle bookkeeper who knows Washington’s rules.
I’m Daniel Johnson, a Certified Bookkeeper working out of north Seattle. Same city, same tax code, same deadlines you’re working against — and one person doing the work rather than a call center three time zones away.
Washington doesn’t work like other states.
People move here and assume no income tax means simple taxes. It’s the opposite — the rules are unusual enough that national bookkeeping services routinely get them wrong.
You’re taxed on revenue, not profit
Washington’s B&O tax applies to gross receipts. That means you can owe it in a year your business lost money — a fact that catches new owners badly off guard. I track it monthly by classification so the number is never a surprise.
Sales tax depends on the customer’s address
Washington is destination-based, so the rate follows where the goods or services land, not where your office is. If you deliver or work on-site across King County, that’s a lot of different rates in one month.
Seattle has its own business tax
On top of the state’s. Businesses operating in the city may owe a separate city B&O return with its own thresholds and deadlines. It’s one of the most commonly missed filings for newer Seattle businesses.
Your filing frequency isn’t a choice
The Department of Revenue assigns you monthly, quarterly, or annual filing based on your revenue — and it can change. Books that are current make that a non-event instead of a scramble.
Seattle businesses I’m built for.
Construction & trades
Contractors, electricians, plumbers, remodelers. I spent two years on the books and payroll for a general contractor — job costing, subcontractors, and retainage aren’t new to me.
Food & beverage
Cafés, restaurants, bakeries. High transaction volume, thin margins, and sales tax that has to be exactly right. I’ve rebuilt a restaurant’s chart of accounts from the ground up.
Consultants & freelancers
Low volume, high value, usually a single-member LLC. Often the cheapest client to serve and the most relieved to stop doing it themselves at midnight.
Service businesses & retail
Salons, studios, shops, agencies. If you take payments from the public in Washington, sales tax setup is where most of the risk lives.
Seattle, King County, and remote.
I’m based in north Seattle, near Shoreline. I work with businesses across the city — Ballard, Fremont, Greenwood, Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, West Seattle, Georgetown, SoDo — and throughout King and Snohomish County, including Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton, Edmonds, and Lynnwood.
Remote by default
Bank feeds, a shared document folder, and a monthly call. Most clients never need to meet in person, and nothing about the work suffers for it.
In person when it helps
Some people want to sit down with the person handling their money, especially at the start. If that’s you, we’ll meet.
Outside Washington too
I work with remote clients across the country. The Washington-specific knowledge is just the part a national service can’t offer the business down the street from you.
Same time zone, same hours
Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm Pacific. When something’s urgent at 4pm, you’re not waiting for an East Coast office to open tomorrow.
What you get that a national service can’t offer.
Books your Washington CPA expects
Organized the way local firms want to receive them, so your year-end handoff is a file transfer instead of a billable cleanup project.
One person, not a rotation
You email me and you get me — usually the same day, always within one business day. Same person every month, who knows what your December looked like.
Prices on the website
Flat monthly rates you can read before you call. See what things cost →
Work you can inspect first
A complete sample monthly report, downloadable, no email required. Have a look →
Let’s talk about your books.
Thirty minutes on the phone, free, no obligation. You’ll leave the call knowing where your books stand — and if you’re behind, roughly what it takes to fix.