From rainy, green Hilo on the east side to the Kona coffee belt and resorts of the west — Tides Bookkeeping keeps the books clean for small businesses across the Big Island. 100% remote. General Excise Tax tracked every month.
No setup fees · Cancel anytime · 100% Remote
Hawaiʻi County is the largest county in the state by land area — the entire island of Hawaiʻi, big enough to hold all the other islands combined. Its economy splits cleanly down the middle: the wet, windward east side around Hilo, and the sunny, leeward Kona coast to the west.
Hilo is the county seat — home to government, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, the port, and a deep agricultural base of macadamia, orchids, and tropical crops. Kailua-Kona anchors the visitor economy, the world-famous Kona coffee belt, and the resort coast. Add Mauna Kea astronomy and the Waimea ranching country, and you have a remarkably diverse small-business landscape — all subject to Hawaiʻi's General Excise Tax on gross income.
Whether your business is a Hilo farm operation, a Kona coffee farm, a Waimea ranch service, or a resort-coast tour company, we serve the entire Big Island with the same remote monthly service.
The county seat and east-side hub — government, UH Hilo, Hilo Bay and port, the farmers market, and a deep base of macadamia, orchid, and tropical agriculture. Home to the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center.
The west-side visitor and coffee capital — the Kona coffee belt, Aliʻi Drive, resort and dive tourism, deep-sea fishing, and the Ironman World Championship legacy.
The upcountry heart of Big Island ranching — Parker Ranch, paniolo heritage, and the diversified-agriculture belt between the coasts. Served remotely across the whole island.
Serving the Big Island means knowing its split personality — the rain-fed agriculture and government of Hilo, the coffee and resorts of Kona, the ranches of Waimea, and the observatories atop Mauna Kea. Here's the local context that shapes how island businesses keep their books.
Hawaiʻi Island — the Big Island — is the youngest and largest of the Hawaiian islands, and its economy has always been shaped by geography. The windward east side, drenched by trade-wind rain, made Hilo a natural agricultural and port town: sugar in the plantation era, and today macadamia nuts, orchids, papaya, and a thriving diversified-agriculture and tropical-flower sector. Hilo is also the seat of county government and home to the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.
The leeward west side tells the opposite story. The sunny Kona coast built its economy on tourism and on the Kona coffee belt — one of the most famous specialty-coffee regions in the world — alongside resort corridors, ocean recreation, and the deep-sea fishing and dive industries. Between the coasts, the cool uplands of Waimea are ranching country, anchored by the historic Parker Ranch and Hawaiʻi's paniolo (cowboy) tradition.
Above it all, Mauna Kea hosts one of the world's premier astronomy clusters, supporting a base of scientific, technical, and support businesses. Whether a Kona coffee farm filing GET on gross sales or a Hilo tour operator, every business on the island shares Hawaiʻi's General Excise Tax obligation — making organized, reconciled monthly books a real and recurring need.
Seven core services, all delivered remotely from the mainland. Everything your Hawaiʻi County business needs to stay financially clean, GET-ready, and tax-ready year-round.
Our flagship service. Every transaction categorized, every account reconciled, and clean financial reports delivered to your inbox each month — with your General Excise Tax liability tracked as we go so nothing surprises you at filing time.
Behind on your books? We clean up any backlog — 3 months or 3 years — and reconstruct your GET-reportable gross income so you can file G-45s and the annual G-49 with confidence.
New business or inherited a mess? We configure QuickBooks, connect your accounts, and build a chart of accounts that separates GET-taxable income the way Hawaii businesses actually need.
Monthly reconciliation of every bank account and credit card — ensuring your books match your statements and no transaction falls through the cracks.
P&L statements, balance sheets, and cash flow reports delivered monthly in a format you can actually understand and act on.
We keep your AP and AR organized so you always know what's coming in, what's going out, and what's overdue.
We make sure your payroll expenses hit your books correctly and stay in sync with your payroll processor every pay period.
From Kona coffee farms to Hilo tour operators, Waimea ranch services, and Mauna Kea support contractors — we understand the financial patterns, and the GET obligations, of the industries that drive Hawaiʻi Island's economy.
Kona coffee, macadamia, orchids — GET on gross sales, harvest cycles, agritourism
Tours, dives, lodging — seasonality, GET tracking, TAT on rentals
Livestock, diversified ag, ranch services, equipment costs
Observatory support, technical contractors, compliance records
COGS, local sourcing, tip payroll, vendor reconciliation
Job costing, subcontractors, GET on contracting income
Commissions, vacation rentals, TAT/GET on short-term stays
Inventory, shipping, merchant fees, platform reconciliation
"We farm and roast Kona coffee, and between harvest season, wholesale orders, and GET on every sale, our books never made sense. Tides set up QuickBooks around how a coffee farm actually operates, tracks our General Excise Tax, and gives us clean monthly numbers. It's the first time we've truly understood our margins."
Yes. We serve businesses across all of Hawaiʻi County, from Hilo and the east side to Kailua-Kona and the Kona coffee belt, plus Waimea ranch country, Puna, and Kaʻū. Since we're 100% remote, it makes no difference which side of the island — or how rural — your business is.
Yes. We track your GET liability as part of monthly bookkeeping. On the Big Island the GET rate is 4% (there is no county surcharge like Oʻahu's), levied on gross business income. We keep your gross receipts — coffee sales, tour income, ranch services — organized and reconciled, and hand your CPA clean data for the periodic G-45 filings and annual G-49 reconciliation.
No — Tides Bookkeeping is a 100% remote firm headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. We serve Hawaiʻi Island businesses entirely online through QuickBooks Online and secure cloud tools, which is a real advantage in a place where the nearest bookkeeper can be an hour's drive away.
Absolutely. We build your chart of accounts around how ag operations actually run — harvest cycles, wholesale versus retail, agritourism income, and equipment costs — and we track the GET owed on gross sales so nothing surprises you at filing time.
Pricing is based on your monthly transaction volume. Most small businesses fall between $395–$895/month, and we provide an exact quote during your free consultation — no guesswork.
Most Big Island businesses are fully onboarded within 5–7 business days. We schedule a kickoff call, connect your accounts, review your chart of accounts, and begin work right away — Hilo, Kona, or anywhere in between.
The Big Island is our largest county by land, but Tides serves small businesses across every island and county in Hawaiʻi.
Honolulu · Oʻahu · Windward
Kahului · Kīhei · Wailuku
Līhuʻe · The Garden Isle
Statewide remote service →
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation. Tell us about your business and we'll give you a clear picture of where your books stand — GET included — and what it will cost to keep them clean.
No setup fees · Cancel anytime · First month guaranteed
Official government resources for registering, filing, and staying compliant. Tides handles your books; these help with the rest.