Every industry books differently. A hospitality business files with two VAT rates, a practice with exempt revenue, a construction firm with work in progress. Here is what matters in your industry.
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Trades businesses
In the trades, costs arise on site but the bookkeeping happens in the office — often weeks later. Exactly in that gap, materials, hours and change orders get lost.
Hospitality
Hardly any industry has as many small entries as hospitality — and as little time for them. Add a VAT quirk hardly anyone else has.
Hair and beauty salons
A salon lives on many small cash takings and a few product sales on the side. That is unspectacular accounting — but only as long as it is recorded daily.
Medical and therapy practices
Practices have a peculiarity that many accounting programs handle poorly: part of the revenue is exempt from VAT, part is not.
Consulting and coaching
Consulting sells time. If you do not track it cleanly, you give it away — and only notice when the invoice is smaller than the effort.
Retail
In retail, the money sits on the shelf. If you only know your stock once a year, you steer the business blind for eleven months.
Garages and the motor trade
A garage runs three businesses at once: workshop, parts trade and vehicle sales. Each behaves differently in the books.
Cleaning companies
In cleaning, the biggest effort is not the bookkeeping but the payroll. Many part-timers, changing assignments, hourly wages — anew every month.
Transport and logistics
In transport, profitability is decided at the level of the individual vehicle. If you only know costs as a total, you cannot see which truck earns money.
Fitness and sports studios
A gym collects in January for the whole year. In accounting terms that money is not yet earned — and that is exactly where many year-ends fail.
Property management
Anyone managing several properties needs separate accounts per building — and still an overall view. Both at once is the standard to meet.
Construction
On the balance-sheet date, little on a building site is ever finished. How work in progress is valued decides the reported result.
Choose the software, not just set it up
Before deciding on a program, a look at the market pays off: in the article Swiss accounting software compared, 2026 we compare nine providers by price and features. You will find direct comparisons with Accounty in the comparison overview. The legal requirements for a cloud solution – retention, server location, traceability – are explained in the guide Online accounting Switzerland. And once the software is in place, the practical guides help on VAT return, chart of accounts and Year-end closing at the start.
Your industry is missing? Accounty fits every Swiss SME with double-entry bookkeeping. Write to us, and we will tell you what to watch out for.