From Waikīkī and downtown Honolulu to Kapolei, Kāneʻohe, and the windward coast — Tides Bookkeeping keeps the books clean for small businesses across the City & County of Honolulu. 100% remote. General Excise Tax tracked every month.
No setup fees · Cancel anytime · 100% Remote
The City & County of Honolulu is a consolidated government covering the entire island of Oʻahu — home to roughly 70% of Hawaiʻi's population and the overwhelming majority of its business activity. From the financial towers of downtown Honolulu to the Waikīkī visitor economy, it is the commercial center of the Pacific.
Tourism, the military (Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Schofield Barracks, and Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi), state and city government, healthcare, and the banking sector all anchor the island — while Kakaʻako has become the hub of a growing tech and startup scene. That density of small businesses means a constant need for clean books and disciplined General Excise Tax tracking.
Whether your business runs out of a Kakaʻako co-working space, a Kailua storefront, or a Kapolei industrial park, we serve every corner of the island with the same remote monthly service.
The state capital and largest city — downtown finance and government, the Waikīkī visitor engine, Chinatown, Ala Moana retail, and the Kakaʻako innovation district.
Central Oʻahu community above Pearl Harbor, anchored by Pearlridge Center and Leeward CC — close to the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam workforce.
A former Oʻahu Sugar plantation town turned diverse working-class hub — home to Waikele's outlets and business park and Hawaiʻi's Plantation Village.
Windward Oʻahu, anchored by Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi on Kāneʻohe Bay, Windward Mall, and a lush small-business community below the Koʻolau range.
Upscale windward town famous for Kailua Beach and Lanikai — with a thriving boutique, restaurant, and wellness small-business scene along Kailua Road.
"Oʻahu's Second City" — the master-planned commercial hub of West Oʻahu, home to Ko Olina resorts, UH West Oʻahu, and Kapolei Commons. Also serving Mililani & Central Oʻahu.
Serving Oʻahu means understanding it — the visitor economy in Waikīkī, the base towns along Pearl Harbor, the master-planned growth of the ʻEwa plain, and the windward small-business corridors. Here's the local context that shapes how island businesses keep their books.
Oʻahu has been the political and economic heart of Hawaiʻi since the Kingdom era, and the City & County of Honolulu — the only consolidated city-county in the state — governs the whole island as a single jurisdiction. Downtown Honolulu grew from a whaling and sugar port into the financial capital of the Pacific, home to Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank and the state's largest concentration of professional-services firms.
The visitor economy centered on Waikīkī remains the island's single largest private-sector engine, while the U.S. military — Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Schofield Barracks, and Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi at Kāneʻohe — is one of Hawaiʻi's biggest employers and payrolls. Add state and city government, the Hawaiʻi Pacific Health and Queen's Health Systems networks, and Hawaiian Airlines, and you have an unusually deep and diverse small-business ecosystem.
More recently, Kakaʻako has transformed from a warehouse district into a dense innovation and residential neighborhood, seeding a startup and remote-work economy that didn't exist a decade ago. Across all of it runs one constant: Hawaiʻi's General Excise Tax — 4.5% on Oʻahu with the county surcharge — owed on gross business income, which makes disciplined monthly bookkeeping essential rather than optional.
Seven core services, all delivered remotely from the mainland. Everything your Honolulu 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 Waikīkī tour operators to Kakaʻako startups and windward wellness studios — we understand the financial patterns, and the GET obligations, of the industries that drive Oʻahu's economy.
Hotels, tours, activities — GET on gross receipts, seasonality, tip payroll
COGS, tip payroll, vendor reconciliation, GET tracking
Base contracts, compliance-ready records, subcontractor tracking
Kakaʻako founders — clean books, investor reporting, remote-first
Practices, clinics, and studios — insurance billing and payroll
Job costing, subcontractors, GET on contracting income
Agent commissions, rental income, TAT/GET on short-term rentals
Inventory, merchant fees, platform reconciliation, GET
"We run a small tour and activity company out of Waikīkī, and between seasonal swings and GET filings our books were always a mess. Tides got us onto QuickBooks, tracks our General Excise Tax every month, and sends reports we actually understand. First tax season in years we weren't scrambling."
Yes — because the City & County of Honolulu covers the entire island of Oʻahu, we serve businesses everywhere from Waikīkī and downtown Honolulu to Kapolei, Mililani, Pearl City, Waipahu, Kāneʻohe, and Kailua. Since we're 100% remote, your exact location on the island doesn't matter.
We track your GET liability as part of monthly bookkeeping. Hawaiʻi's GET is levied on gross business income — 4.5% on Oʻahu with the county surcharge — so we keep your gross receipts organized and reconciled and hand your CPA or preparer clean data for the periodic G-45 filings and the annual G-49 reconciliation. We keep the books tax-ready; we don't file returns directly.
No — Tides Bookkeeping is a 100% remote firm headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, and we serve Oʻahu businesses entirely online. You get the same clean monthly books and responsive support without needing anyone on-island, and everything runs through QuickBooks Online and secure cloud tools.
No. If you don't have QuickBooks Online, we set it up as part of onboarding and build a chart of accounts that separates your GET-taxable income the way Hawaiʻi businesses need. If you already have an account, we connect to it and clean it up as needed.
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 Oʻahu 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 — no matter which island you're on.
Oʻahu is Hawaiʻi's largest market, but Tides serves small businesses across every island and county in the state.
Hilo · Kailua-Kona · Big Island
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.