Accounting, payments and integrations for countertop shops: QuickBooks and beyond

Many small and mid-size U.S. countertop shops keep their books in QuickBooks Online and run quotes, jobs, slabs and schedules in separate shop software. The setup works when each record has one home: customers, quotes, jobs and slab-level inventory in the shop system, and the general ledger, bank reconciliation, payroll and tax filing in accounting. The two connect so invoices, payments or journal entries flow across without retyping. Three stone-specific points cause most of the trouble. Customer deposits are a liability until the job is delivered, not income. Slab inventory belongs in shop software, not as individual items in QuickBooks. And sales tax on installed countertops follows the rules of the state where the job is, which differ a lot from state to state. Larger shops, or shops that want one system, can use shop software with its own built-in ledger instead.

What the books of a countertop shop have to handle

A stone shop's accounting is more involved than a service trade's because it carries expensive inventory and bills in stages:

• Deposits and staged payments. A deposit at signing, sometimes a payment at template, the balance at install. Builders pay on terms, often net 30. Commercial work adds progress billing and retainage, commonly 5 to 10% held back until the project is complete.

• Slab inventory. A full slab can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. A shop may hold dozens or hundreds of them, plus remnants.

• Landed cost. The real cost of a slab is its price plus freight, duties and tariffs, and handling.

• Job costing. Material, labor and subcontracted install per job.

• Change orders that add revenue mid-job.

• Sales tax by job location.

• Card fees and financing fees that reduce what you actually receive.

Three ways to set it up

The middle setup is common. Whichever you choose, write down which system is the source of truth for each record. If an invoice can be edited in both systems, sooner or later it will be edited in the wrong one.

Which QuickBooks?

• QuickBooks Online is a common choice for new shops. Intuit lists project profitability tracking and inventory tracking in the Plus and Advanced plans, not in Simple Start or Essentials. Intuit's pricing page listed Plus at $140 a month and Advanced at $340 a month (checked November 5, 2026), after an increase that applied to renewals from August 1, 2026. Check Intuit's site, because prices change and promotions are common.

• QuickBooks Desktop has deep job-costing and inventory tools, but Intuit stopped selling new Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus and Mac Plus subscriptions to new U.S. customers after September 30, 2024 (Enterprise is still sold), and Desktop 2023 lost support and connected services after May 31, 2026. Some shop software connects only to QuickBooks Online, so ask each vendor which versions it supports.

• Alternatives such as Xero work for many shops. Before choosing, check that your shop software integrates with it and that your accountant knows it.

Setting up the chart of accounts

The chart of accounts is the list of categories every dollar is posted to. Set it up so you can answer the questions you care about, such as "what is my margin on quartz vs granite?" or "how much do edges and cutouts earn?".

A workable structure for a fabrication shop:

Common mistakes:

• One "Countertop Sales" account for everything. You can't see which products earn money.

• All labor in one expense account. Direct labor belongs in cost of goods sold, split by function. Office wages are overhead.

• Deposits booked as income. A deposit is money you owe back in goods or services until the job is delivered. Book it to a customer deposits liability and apply it to the invoice when the job is billed. Booking deposits as income overstates profit in busy months and understates it later.

• Sales tax mixed into income. Tax collected belongs to the state. Post it to sales tax payable.

Slab inventory: shop system, not QuickBooks

Each natural stone slab is unique. Tracking it means recording its lot or bundle number, dimensions, photo, rack location, cost and which job it is held for. QuickBooks is not built for this. Creating an item for every slab clutters the item list and does not record holds, remnants or yard location. Shop software built for stone should own slab-level tracking.

The two systems still have to agree on inventory value. The usual approaches:

• Shop system values inventory and posts totals. Received slabs, slabs consumed by jobs and write-offs post to accounting as entries, either directly (built-in ledger) or through a sync.

• Category items in QuickBooks. QuickBooks holds a few inventory items by material category, updated from the shop system each month. QuickBooks Online values inventory by FIFO (first in, first out) or moving average cost. The method is chosen once and can't be changed later, and FIFO is the default if items are created before a method is picked. Neither will match slab-by-slab cost exactly.

Decide how remnants are valued. Some shops give the leftover piece a share of the slab's cost; others value it at zero and book remnant sales as nearly pure margin. Either works if you apply it consistently, but the choice changes job costs, so pick one on purpose. See remnant management.

Job costing: a worked example

Job costing compares what a job earned with what it cost. A simple kitchen, illustrative 2026 U.S. numbers:

Three things make this real instead of guessed: slab cost comes from the actual slabs allocated to the job, labor comes from hours coded to the job (see scheduling and crew apps), and the remnant rule is applied the same way every time. For benchmarks and KPIs, see job costing and KPIs and profitability benchmarks.

Invoicing and getting paid

Invoice from the accepted quote lines, not by retyping them. Retyped invoices are where edge upgrades and cutouts go missing. Change orders get their own document and their own line on the invoice.

Common payment structures are a deposit at signing with the balance at install for homeowners, net 30 terms for builders, and progress billing with retainage for commercial jobs. For contract language, deposit amounts and lien rights, see contracts, deposits and payments. Lien notice deadlines vary by state and are short in some, so know yours before you need them.

Track accounts receivable aging: how much is owed and for how long, in 0 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and 90+ day buckets. Review it weekly, and stop quoting new work for accounts that are far behind.

Payment methods

Surcharging. If you pass card fees to customers, Visa caps credit card surcharges at 3% (since April 15, 2023) and never more than your cost of accepting the card, and Visa requires merchants to notify their acquirer 30 days before they start. Debit and prepaid cards can't be surcharged. Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine have laws against surcharging, and other states cap or regulate it (Colorado, for example, caps it at 2%). A proposed Visa and Mastercard settlement with merchants, preliminarily approved by a federal court in June 2026, would change some surcharge rules if it receives final approval. Ask your processor and check your state's current law before turning it on.

Recording card payments. Record the full invoice amount as paid, and the processor's fee as an expense. Most processors deposit the net amount days later, so the cleanest method is a clearing account: the payment goes into clearing at the full amount, the fee comes out as an expense, and the payout moves the net to the bank. When everything has paid out, clearing is back to zero. For example, a $1,000 card payment with a $30 fee credits receivables $1,000, debits clearing $970 and fees $30.

Sales tax on countertops

Sales tax on installed countertops depends on the state, and states handle it in roughly three ways:

1. Installer as contractor. The countertop becomes part of the house (real property). The fabricator pays sales or use tax on the materials it buys and does not charge the customer sales tax on the job.

2. Materials taxable, installation exempt. The shop charges tax on the materials portion and not on separately stated installation labor.

3. Whole job taxable. Tax applies to the full price, installation included.

Some states treat new construction, remodeling and repair differently. Tax is generally charged at the rate for the place where the countertop is installed, not your shop's address, so a shop working across county or state lines deals with many rates. Builders and dealers who resell your work may give you resale or exemption certificates, which you must keep on file.

Automated tax services calculate the rate from the job address. Your state revenue department, or a CPA who knows construction, should confirm which treatment applies to your work. Also check whether you file on an accrual basis (tax owed when invoiced) or a cash basis (when paid), since it changes what you owe each month.

Customer financing

Consumer financing lets a homeowner pay for a kitchen in monthly installments. The shop enrolls with a financing company, the customer applies (usually from a phone in minutes), and the lender pays the shop once the job is approved or complete. The lender takes the credit risk.

The cost to the shop is a merchant fee (also called a dealer fee) taken from the amount financed. Lenders don't publish one standard schedule, and fees vary by lender and plan. Standard plans often cost a few percent, and long 0%-interest promotions usually cost the most, sometimes 10% or more. For example, on a $6,000 financed kitchen, an 8% fee would be $480. Book the fee as an expense and record the sale at its full price, so margin reports show the real cost. Financing tends to be offered on larger jobs, since a fee of a few hundred dollars matters less there. In-house payment plans avoid the fee, but the shop then carries the risk of not being paid.

Connecting shop software to accounting

An integration moves data between systems so nobody retypes it. Ask exactly what moves:

Middleware tools that connect apps with no code can work for low-volume handoffs, but a failed sync may not show an obvious error. For invoices and payments, a native integration is usually the safer choice.

Other integrations shops commonly add: payment processors, sales tax rate services, payroll, bill payment, and financing partners.

A monthly close checklist

1. Reconcile bank and credit card accounts.

2. Clear the card processing clearing account to zero.

3. Review receivables aging and follow up on anything over 30 days.

4. Match slab inventory in the shop system to the books; post write-offs for broken or scrapped slabs.

5. Apply deposits to invoices for jobs that installed this month.

6. Check job costs for completed jobs and look at the worst three.

7. Review sales tax collected by jurisdiction and file.

8. Run the P&L and balance sheet, and compare margin by material with last month.

Where software helps

In Stonify, which publishes this knowledge base, invoices, bills, payments, purchase orders, inventory receipts and write-offs post journal entries to a built-in general ledger. That ledger has a chart of accounts, bank and card reconciliation, and P&L, balance sheet and cash flow reports on an accrual or cash basis, optionally split by profit center such as a location. Invoices are created from the deal lines. Payment terms can carry a default deposit percentage, and deposits and credits auto-apply to the job's invoices. Stripe or Nuvei payment links and QR codes go on invoices and sales orders, with clearing and fee accounts set up for each. Bills can be paid in batches with checks printed in bulk, and aged receivables can be viewed by salesperson. Purchasing tracks landed cost and price variances. Sales tax can be calculated by job location through Avalara, with Sales Tax and Sales Tax Liability reports on an accrual or cash basis. A Cost & Profit report compares each project's revenue with the landed cost of its slabs and the estimated cost of its services. For shops whose accountant stays in QuickBooks Online, version 1 of Stonify's QuickBooks Online sync moves journal entries in either direction for a chosen date range after accounts are mapped; invoices and payments themselves stay in Stonify. Stonify's published integration list does not include QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, payroll or consumer financing providers, and each company uses a single currency.

FAQ

Is QuickBooks enough for a countertop shop? For the books, often yes, up to several million dollars in revenue. It is not enough to run the shop: it doesn't track leads, quotes in progress, slab holds, schedules or installs.

Should I track every slab in QuickBooks? No. Track slabs in shop software and keep QuickBooks at the level of inventory value by category, or let a shop system with its own ledger post the totals.

Do I charge sales tax on installation? It depends on your state and sometimes on whether the job is new construction or a remodel. Ask your state revenue department or a CPA, and set your quotes and invoices up to match.

Should I pass card fees on to customers? You can in most states, within card network limits (3% for Visa credit cards, nothing on debit or prepaid) and your state's rules. Many shops absorb the fee on deposits to make paying easy, and prefer ACH or check for large balances.

Cash or accrual accounting? Accrual shows job profit in the month the work happens, which matters when deposits and installs fall in different months. Many small shops file taxes on a cash basis and review management reports on accrual. Ask your accountant.

Sources

• Intuit, QuickBooks Online pricing (accessed November 5, 2026)

• Intuit, Can't buy QuickBooks Desktop as a new US subscriber (help article, updated October 16, 2026)

• Intuit, QuickBooks Desktop service discontinuation policy (help article, accessed November 5, 2026)

• Intuit, What is FIFO and how is it used for inventory cost accounting? (help article, updated August 14, 2026)

• Visa, Regulations and fees for businesses: surcharging (accessed November 5, 2026)

• Arent Fox Schiff, Visa reduces its merchant surcharge cap to 3% effective April 15, 2023 (2023)

• Maine Legislature, 9-A M.R.S. section 8-509, Credit card surcharges (accessed November 5, 2026)

• Reuters via North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, Visa, Mastercard $38 billion swipe fee settlement wins US judge's approval (June 10, 2026)

• Stripe, Pricing (accessed November 5, 2026)