From the commercial hub of Līhuʻe to the farms, tour operators, and shops of the Garden Isle — Tides Bookkeeping keeps the books clean for Kauaʻi's tight-knit small-business community. 100% remote. General Excise Tax tracked every month.
No setup fees · Cancel anytime · 100% Remote
Kauaʻi County comprises the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau — the oldest and greenest of the main Hawaiian islands, known worldwide as the Garden Isle. Its economy runs on tourism, agriculture, a busy film-location industry, and the tight-knit small businesses that serve a population of about 73,000.
Līhuʻe is the county seat and commercial hub — home to the airport, Nawiliwili Harbor, county government, Kauai Community College, and Kukui Grove Center, the island's main shopping destination. The Pacific Missile Range Facility (Barking Sands) on the west side adds a defense presence. Across the whole island, businesses share one thing: Hawaiʻi's General Excise Tax on gross income, which makes clean, reconciled books essential.
Whether your business is a Līhuʻe shop, a Poʻipū tour operator, a Kapaʻa café, or a west-side farm, we serve all of Kauaʻi with the same remote monthly service — GET tracked, books tax-ready.
The county seat and commercial hub — Lihue Airport (LIH), Nawiliwili Harbor, county government, Kauai CC, and Kukui Grove Center, the island's main shopping destination and business anchor.
The busy Coconut Coast corridor along Kuhio Hwy — Kapaʻa's shops, restaurants, and tour operators serving the island's most populous stretch. Served remotely across the island.
Poʻipū's resort and tourism corridor plus the west-side farms, ranches, and the PMRF (Barking Sands) defense community. Served remotely, island-wide.
Serving the Garden Isle means understanding it — the commercial anchor of Līhuʻe, the tourism corridors of the east and south shores, the agricultural west side, and a small, close-knit business community where relationships matter. Here's the local context that shapes how Kauaʻi businesses keep their books.
Kauaʻi is the oldest and greenest of the main Hawaiian islands — the Garden Isle — and its lush landscape has shaped both its economy and its identity. Sugar plantations once dominated, and while the mills have closed, agriculture endures in coffee, taro (kalo), tropical fruit, and diversified farming, particularly on the sunnier west and south sides of the island.
Today tourism is the island's economic mainstay, drawing visitors to Poʻipū on the south shore, the Coconut Coast around Kapaʻa, and the dramatic Nā Pali and Waimea Canyon landscapes. That same scenery has made Kauaʻi one of Hollywood's favorite filming locations for decades — supporting a working ecosystem of local crews, vendors, and service businesses whenever productions come to the island.
Līhuʻe ties it together as the county seat and commercial hub — the airport, Nawiliwili Harbor, government, and Kukui Grove Center — while the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands anchors a west-side defense presence. Kauaʻi's business community is small and tight-knit, which makes reliable, relationship-driven bookkeeping — and disciplined General Excise Tax tracking on gross income — especially valuable to local owners.
Seven core services, all delivered remotely from the mainland. Everything your Kauaʻi 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 Poʻipū tour operators to Kapaʻa cafés, west-side farms, and film-industry vendors — we understand the financial patterns, and the GET obligations, of the industries that drive the Garden Isle's economy.
Tours, lodging, rentals — seasonality, GET tracking, TAT on stays
Coffee, taro, diversified crops — GET on gross sales, agritourism
Crew payroll, project costing, vendor and catering reconciliation
COGS, local sourcing, tip payroll, vendor reconciliation
Job costing, subcontractors, GET on contracting income
Commissions, vacation rentals, TAT/GET on short-term stays
Inventory, merchant fees, small-shop reconciliation, GET
PMRF contracts, compliance-ready records, subcontractor tracking
"Our family runs a small tour company on the south shore, and on an island this size you wear every hat — including the books, which we were terrible at. Tides set us up in QuickBooks, keeps our General Excise Tax straight, and sends clean reports every month. It's like finally having a finance person on the team, without the payroll."
Yes. Līhuʻe is the commercial hub, but we serve small businesses across the entire Garden Isle — the Coconut Coast and Kapaʻa, Poʻipū and the south shore, the west side and Waimea, and the north shore around Princeville and Hanalei. Because we're 100% remote, your exact location on the island doesn't matter.
Yes. We track your GET liability as part of monthly bookkeeping. Kauaʻi County's GET rate is 4% on gross business income. 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 Kauaʻi businesses entirely online. On a small island where finding a dedicated bookkeeper can be hard, working with us gives you professional monthly books and support through QuickBooks Online and secure cloud tools.
Absolutely. We build your chart of accounts around how your business actually runs — seasonal tourism swings, farm harvest cycles, or film-project work — and track the GET owed on gross income so nothing catches you off guard 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 Kauaʻi 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 — anywhere on the island.
Kauaʻi is a close-knit market, but Tides serves small businesses across every island and county in Hawaiʻi.
Honolulu · Oʻahu · Windward
Hilo · Kailua-Kona · Big Island
Kahului · Kīhei · Wailuku
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.