Jewelry & Luxury Goods Accounting in San Diego
Inventory you can account for piece by piece, memo goods kept straight, and margins you can trust, so you can focus on the work and your clients.
A jeweler's balance sheet is unusual. A few dozen pieces can represent most of the company's value, and each one carries its own cost: metal at the price paid that day, stones bought individually, setting labor and finishing. Some goods in the case belong to suppliers on memo, while some of your own pieces sit with other dealers. Customers leave deposits on custom work and drop off heirlooms for repair. Without careful records, it becomes hard to say what you own, what you owe and what each sale really earned.
Skyward serves as the accounting and HR department for jewelers, designers and luxury goods retailers across San Diego County, from our office in Escondido. We keep your books in QuickBooks Online and reconcile them to your point-of-sale and inventory system each month. Inventory, memo activity, deposits and sales tax are reviewed as part of a consistent monthly close. Receipts and supplier invoices come through a secure Karbon client portal, and you receive statements that show margin by category, not just total sales.
Retail jewelry depends on a small, trusted team handling very valuable goods. Our HR team helps you document hiring, background check consent, commission and bonus plans, and the policies that protect both staff and inventory. We support payroll for sales associates, bench jewelers and seasonal help through the holiday rush, and keep personnel records organized. Engagements run on a fixed monthly fee, so your accounting cost stays steady through slow months and peak season alike. Onboarding typically takes about a week.
Services we typically run
- Bookkeeping
- Outsourced Accounting
- Internal Controls
- Accounting Systems & Software
- Outsourced HR
What we handle
The realitiesof your sector.
01
Piece-level cost for one-of-a-kind inventory
Averaging cost across a category does not work when one ring cost twenty times another. We help you track inventory at the piece or SKU level, with metal, stones and labor captured in each item's cost. When a piece sells, cost of goods sold reflects that specific item, so gross margin by sale and by category is accurate rather than estimated.
02
Memo and consignment goods in both directions
Pieces you hold on memo from suppliers are not your inventory, even though they sit in your case. Pieces you send out on memo to other dealers still are. We keep memo-in and memo-out activity on separate schedules, reconcile them to supplier statements, and record the purchase or sale only when ownership actually changes hands.
03
Custom order deposits and repair takeovers
A deposit on a custom engagement ring is money you owe the customer until the piece is delivered. We record deposits as liabilities, apply them at final sale, and report open custom orders so you can see committed work. Customer items left for repair are tracked outside your inventory, which matters for both your records and your insurer.
04
Sales tax on in-store, shipped and traded-in sales
California sales tax rates vary by district within San Diego County, and shipped orders, trade-ins and out-of-state buyers each raise their own questions. We reconcile sales tax collected in your point-of-sale system to the ledger and prepare organized workpapers for each return period. Your tax preparer or CPA then confirms the treatment of unusual transactions before anything is filed.
05
Inventory records your insurer and shrink controls rely on
Insurers covering jewelry inventory typically expect detailed, current records, and a theft or loss claim is only as strong as those records. We help you maintain a reconciled inventory listing, schedule regular counts, and investigate variances between the count, your inventory system and the books. We do not sell or advise on insurance, but your records will be ready when your broker asks.
FAQ
Questions,answered plainly.
How do jewelers account for memo goods in QuickBooks Online?
Goods received on memo are tracked off the books, on a memo schedule, because you do not own them until you buy them. Goods you send out on memo stay in your inventory. We maintain both schedules alongside QuickBooks Online and reconcile them to supplier statements monthly, so nothing is counted twice or lost.
How should we handle rising gold prices in our inventory cost?
Each piece should carry the cost you actually paid for its metal and materials, not today's spot price. That way your margins reflect real purchases. We track cost at the item level and can report how metal costs are moving across new purchases, which helps you review pricing on replacement stock.
Can you help us prepare for an inventory count or an insurance review?
Yes. We help you plan counts, reconcile the results to your inventory system and the books, and document variances. The output is an inventory listing your team, your insurer or your broker can rely on. We do not provide insurance advice or appraisals, and we coordinate with the professionals who do.
We take deposits on custom pieces. How should those appear on our books?
Customer deposits are recorded as a liability when received and moved to revenue when the finished piece is delivered. We track each open custom order so you can see total deposits held, work in progress and what is due on pickup, which also keeps your monthly sales figures honest.
What does Skyward charge a jewelry business?
A fixed monthly fee based on scope, such as inventory volume, number of locations and whether you want HR support. The engagement starts with a six-month initial commitment and continues month-to-month afterward. Contact us for a quote tailored to your store or studio.
Services
Built forjewelry & luxury goods.
- Finance
Bookkeeping
Up-to-date, reconciled, tax-ready books every month. We clean up what is there, set up processes and automations, and deliver accurate monthly statements for a fixed fee.
- Finance
Outsourced Accounting
A full accounting department without the overhead: classifications, reconciliations, AP and AR support, month-end close and reporting, delivered by one steady team for a fixed monthly fee.
- Finance
Internal Controls
Segregation of duties for small teams, approval workflows, reconciliation discipline, documented close procedures and fraud-risk reduction that keep your books audit-ready.
- Strategy
Accounting Systems & Software
QuickBooks Online setup, migration and clean-up, workflow automation, a secure Karbon client portal and Excel, Power Query and Power BI tools that cut manual work.
- People
Outsourced HR
Comprehensive oversight of HR practices, policies and procedures: onboarding, compliant terminations, contractor classification under AB5, payroll support and audit-ready records.
Ready to take yourbusiness Skyward?
Tell us where your finance and HR operations stand today. We'll map out what fixed-fee support would look like — usually live within about a week.