Danzinger & Co. provides wholesale and distribution accounting, bookkeeping and tax services across New York — importers, distributors and wholesalers in Rockland, Westchester, the five boroughs and Long Island. We value inventory at true landed cost, track every retailer deduction and chargeback, keep your resale certificates audit-ready, and show you margin by customer.
The questions New York distributors ask us most, answered in plain English. Swipe through.
What is wholesale accounting?
Wholesale accounting is bookkeeping and tax built around a distributor: inventory valued at landed cost and counted against sales, every customer invoice matched to what was actually paid, deductions and chargebacks tracked by reason, resale certificates kept audit-ready, and profit measured by customer and product line.
Done right, it tells you which accounts and which lines make money after freight, deductions and terms, and what you will owe New York at the end of each quarter.
How is it different from regular bookkeeping?
A service business sends an invoice and gets paid. A distributor buys by the container, pays freight and duties months before the product sells, ships hundreds of orders on net-30 and net-60 terms, and gets paid short with a deduction code instead of an explanation. Inventory is the biggest number on the balance sheet, and it is only as right as the last count.
Each of those needs its own process, which is why a generic template leaves a wholesaler’s margin drifting from reality within a quarter.
How should a distributor value inventory?
At landed cost, on a consistent method. Weighted average suits fast-moving commodity lines; FIFO suits lines with real cost changes between purchases. Either way, freight, duties and inbound handling are added to the unit cost, and cycle counts keep the book balance honest between year-end counts.
We set the method once, tie counts to the books, and flag slow movers before they tie up another container’s worth of cash.
How do I know which customers actually make me money?
Start from what each customer was invoiced, subtract cost of goods at landed cost, then their deductions, the freight you paid to ship to them, and the cost of the credit terms they take. What is left is contribution by customer, the number that should decide pricing, minimums and which accounts to grow.
Most distributors that measure it for the first time find a large account that has never covered its own chargebacks.
When should a wholesaler hire a CPA?
Before your first big-box or marketplace account, before your first container, and before the sales tax audit letter arrives. Each of those changes what you owe, how inventory should be valued, and what your lender wants to see.
A CPA who works with New York distributors will also flag local specifics, from resale certificate rules to the MCTMT on downstate payroll and NYC filings for a warehouse in the boroughs.
Many Distributors Ship Every Day and Still Don’t Know Which Customer Pays Them — Don’t Be One of Them
Distribution runs on volume and thin margins. Containers paid for months before the goods sell; hundreds of invoices on net-30 and net-60 terms; retailers who pay short with a deduction code; inventory that is the biggest number on the balance sheet and the least often counted. Your sales report shows what shipped. It does not show what you kept.
When all of that is booked from supplier invoices and bank deposits, cost of goods is understated, deductions hide in bad debt, an exempt sale with no certificate becomes your tax bill, and a record month ends with a cash crunch. These are the four problems we see most often in distributors across Rockland, Westchester, the five boroughs and Long Island.
Challenge 01
Invoiced $18,400. Paid $17,150. No explanation.
Challenge 02
The invoice says $9.20. The pallet cost $11.60.
Challenge 03
Exempt sale. No ST-120. Your tax bill now.
Challenge 04
Record month. Overdrawn on the 15th.
01
Deductions that quietly eat the margin
Big retailers short-pay for late shipments, label errors, promo allowances and unit-count disputes. Unmanaged, chargebacks and deductions take 1% to 5% of gross revenue, and in a business running on single-digit net margin that is the profit.
02
Inventory you own at the wrong cost
Freight, duties, brokerage and inbound handling land in expense accounts weeks after the goods arrive. Gross margin looks healthy on the supplier price, and the year-end count writes the difference off in one line.
03
A resale certificate you can’t find
New York gives you 90 days to collect a properly completed resale certificate. Miss it, or keep a defective one, and on audit the uncollected tax, interest and penalties shift from your customer to you, on every sale to that account.
04
Paying suppliers today, collecting in sixty
You pay for containers and freight before the goods sell, then wait 30 to 60 days for the retailer to pay, minus whatever they deducted. Without a forecast built on your AR aging and purchase commitments, growth is what causes the cash crunch.
How We Help Wholesale and Distribution Businesses in New York
Landed Cost and Recovered Deductions Are the Difference Between Volume and Profit.
Danzinger & Co. is a New City, NY CPA firm that keeps the books for wholesalers, importers and distributors. We build your wholesale accounting the way a distributor actually runs — purchase order, container, receiving, invoice, remittance, deduction, collection — so every dollar ties out and every decision starts from margin by customer, not cases shipped.
Here’s what we do for you:
Value inventory at landed cost
Value inventory at true landed cost: supplier price, inbound freight, duties, brokerage and handling. Every unit carries what it really cost to get to your shelf, so cost of goods and gross margin by product are real, not the supplier invoice.
Track deductions & chargebacks
Match every short payment to its invoice and code deductions and chargebacks by reason and customer. You see which accounts and which errors cost you money, which deductions to dispute, and what was recovered.
Keep resale certificates audit-ready
Collect, validate and file New York resale certificates (ST-120) within the 90-day window for every exempt sale. A certificate file by customer, missing and expiring certificates flagged, and taxable versus exempt sales reconciled before any audit asks.
Handle New York sales tax
Register, collect, file and remit New York State and local sales tax on taxable sales, including to other states as nexus grows. Certificate of Authority, quarterly ST-100 filings, economic nexus tracking by state and audit support handled from one calendar.
Build a P&L for every customer
Produce a profit and loss view by customer and product line, and a consolidated statement for the company. Revenue, landed cost, deductions, freight-out and the cost of terms are coded to the customer they belong to, so pricing starts from margin.
Manage AR & credit terms
Manage receivables, credit limits and collections so net-30 and net-60 terms don’t become net-never. AR aging reviewed weekly, disputed invoices tracked separately from slow payers, and credit limits set from real payment history.
Forecast cash around containers
Forecast cash so supplier payments, freight, duties and payroll never collide with slow retailer payments. A rolling forecast built on purchase commitments, AR aging and your payroll calendar, so you know what you can order before the deposit is due.
File New York State & City returns
Handle New York State and City filings, MCTMT and the entity returns behind your distribution business. Corporate, partnership and LLC returns, quarterly estimates, NYC filings and the compliance calendar for every registration.
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Why Choose Danzinger & Co. for Your Wholesale Accounting
We know New York distribution
ST-120 resale certificates and the 90-day rule, sales tax audits, MCTMT on downstate payroll, NYC filings for a Brooklyn or Queens warehouse: we handle these for distributors every week.
You talk to a senior accountant
No junior hand-offs. The person who understands your margin by customer is the person who answers when you call.
Flat, predictable pricing
You know the cost before the work starts, and it doesn’t jump because you added a product line.
Stop Guessing Which Customer Makes Money. Call Us First.
One conversation is usually enough to see where deductions, landed cost and terms are eating your margin. Call (347) 410-1839 or send us a note below.
Do I need a resale certificate from every customer in New York?
For every sale you treat as exempt, yes. A New York customer buying for resale gives you Form ST-120, and you must receive it, properly completed, within 90 days of the sale. After 90 days the burden of proving the sale was exempt shifts to you, and a missing or defective certificate on audit makes you liable for the tax, interest and penalties. We keep a certificate file by customer and flag every account that is missing one.
How should a wholesaler account for retailer chargebacks and deductions?
As their own line, never buried in bad debt or discounts. Each short payment is matched to the invoice and coded by reason: compliance chargeback, promotional allowance, damage, pricing dispute. That shows you which customers and which errors cost you money, and which deductions are worth disputing. Recovered deductions are usually the fastest margin gain a distributor can make.
What is landed cost and why should inventory be valued at it?
Landed cost is everything it took to get a unit onto your shelf: supplier price, inbound freight, duties and tariffs, brokerage and inbound handling. Valuing inventory at landed cost puts the true cost of goods against each sale, so gross margin by product and customer is real, and year-end inventory, and therefore taxable income, is right.
Can you produce a profit and loss statement by customer?
Yes. Revenue, cost of goods at landed cost, deductions, freight-out and the credit you extend are coded to the customer, so you can see what a big-box account really earns you after chargebacks and net-60 terms, compared with independent stores and online marketplaces.
We want to hear from you!
Tell us what you distribute and who you sell to, and we’ll show you what a customer-level P&L looks like. Fill out the form and a senior accountant will reply within one business day.
“The deposit that hits your bank from Amazon isn’t revenue, it’s what’s left after fees, refunds, and FBA charges, and my old books treated the deposit as the sale. So my margins were fiction. Danzinger & Co set up proper settlement reconciliation across Amazon, Shopify, and our processors using A2X, got our COGS and landed cost right, and sorted out sales tax nexus in the states where we’d quietly crossed the threshold. For the first time I know my true margin by channel. That changed how I price and where I spend on ads.”
AS
Abe SchwimmerPartner, Purple Plum
“I’ve known Moshe for over two decades, and his team handles the books for all of my entities. In ten-plus years they’ve never let me down. I don’t have to think about it, which is exactly what you want from the people managing your finances. Couldn’t ask for a better partner.”
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