Do videographers charge sales tax? Keep the numbers ready either way

Do videographers charge sales tax? The honest answer

There is no single national answer, and this page will not pretend otherwise. Sales tax on videography can depend on the state you work in and on what you hand over: a film delivered online, a drive in a box, or prints and an album alongside it. Ask whether photographers charge sales tax and you get the same kind of answer.

Before you decide, check your state's department of revenue or ask a tax professional, and have an accountant confirm how the rules apply to your packages. None of this is tax advice. Hailo's job is keeping the numbers straight once you know. Studios billing in Canada, the UK or Australia use the same tax line and report, though the report is still headed Sales tax.

Tax on the invoice, set once

Your default tax rate lives in Settings > Defaults and fills in on every new invoice and proposal. Set it to zero for work that is not taxed, or change it on a single invoice. On the invoice the tax shows as its own dollar line under your price, so the couple sees exactly which part is tax.

When a booking's payment plan raises its invoices, each one carries its share of the tax, so the tax is spread across the plan instead of landing on one payment.

The sales tax report

Finance > Reports > Sales tax shows the tax you billed against the tax you collected for any filing window: a quarter this year or last, the year to date, or dates you pick. It counts it two ways side by side. Cash basis is the tax share of what actually landed in the window, with refunds taken off. Accrual basis is the tax on what you invoiced in the window, paid or not. Which one you file on is a question for your accountant.

Only invoices with a tax line count toward it, so if you have been billing with tax folded into the price, set the tax on those invoices to see it here. Export CSV writes both figures.

Expenses, tied to the wedding they belong to

Log an expense on the Finance page with a description and an amount, and the rest opens as you type: a category, a date, the wedding it belongs to, and whether it repeats every month or year. The categories cover the usual videographer expenses: gear such as cameras, lenses and audio, software and subscriptions, travel, subcontractors such as second shooters, marketing, insurance, and other.

Tie an expense to a couple and the Weddings report shows what that wedding actually netted after the costs you put against it. Mark one as repeating and it counts toward your monthly burn and the costs Hailo expects ahead. Pair it with editing time to see what each film earned per hour you spent cutting it. Which expenses you can deduct is, again, a question for your accountant.

Profit and loss, and the rest of Finance

The Finance page opens on four numbers: net profit for the year, what you collected, what clients owe and what is late. Below them sit earnings and expenses by month and who pays next. Your dashboard carries the quick version, with revenue for the year so far and what is still to come, and a money widget for what landed this month, what is outstanding and what is overdue.

Reports goes further, with a profit and loss by month, quarter or year, receivables aging, an outlook of money in and out, lead sources, your deal pipeline and delivery turnaround. Every report but the outlook exports to CSV, and the Finance page exports every transaction in a date range, plus a one-page profit and loss for a small business, both of which open in Excel or Numbers.

Hailo is not accounting software, and it files nothing. QuickBooks is not connected today, so export CSV for your books, and import a bank or QuickBooks CSV for income and expenses Hailo does not already see.