Short answer: A bookkeeper for the South Bay of Los Angeles County keeps books that follow each city's rules, since Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hawthorne each have their own business license or tax. Revenue is tagged by job location. The team works remotely in QuickBooks, Xero and more and closes the books every month.
Five cities, five business licenses
The South Bay is not part of the City of Los Angeles. Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hawthorne are separate cities, each with its own business license or business tax. A few South Bay neighborhoods, such as San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway, are inside the City of Los Angeles and use its Business Tax Registration Certificate instead. Before anything else, it helps to know which city your address and your work fall under.
| City | What to know |
|---|---|
| Torrance | A license is needed if your business is located in Torrance, works there or delivers there with its own vehicles. Renewals follow the calendar year, with penalties after January 31. |
| El Segundo | The business tax is set in Title 4 of the city code. Measure BT raised rates starting January 1, 2024. |
| Manhattan Beach | Every business operating in the city pays an annual business license tax. The license year runs March 1 through the end of February. |
| Redondo Beach | All businesses operating in the city need a license. The fee is set in the city's fee schedule. |
| Hawthorne | Fees depend on whether you have a location in the city or come in from outside, plus a business tax by type. |
Rules and fees change. Confirm current details on each city's official site, linked in the sources below.
The South Bay business mix
El Segundo is the region's aerospace and defense center, with the Los Angeles Air Force Base and a long list of suppliers and engineering firms, plus a newer wave of hardware startups. Torrance has a deep base of manufacturing, logistics and the US offices of several Japanese companies, along with the Del Amo Fashion Center and the Torrance airport. Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach run on restaurants, retail, fitness and professional services. Hawthorne mixes industrial space with family businesses along Hawthorne Boulevard.
- Aerospace suppliers and engineering firms: project costs, government contract tracking and R&D records.
- Manufacturers and distributors: inventory, freight and equipment.
- Restaurants and retail near the beach: POS deposits, tips and sales tax.
- Contractors working across several cities, each with its own license.
What South Bay owners ask us for
- R&D tax credit: El Segundo's aerospace suppliers and hardware startups spend on engineering and testing. Research costs coded each month give your R&D credit adviser a clear record.
- Warehouse and logistics bookkeeping: Torrance distributors and logistics firms carry freight, inventory and equipment. We put freight into product cost and track each piece of equipment with its loan.
- Construction bookkeeping: Contractors who work in Torrance, Hawthorne and Redondo Beach in the same month get revenue tagged by job location, which helps with each city's license renewal.
Working in more than one city
Contractors and service businesses in the South Bay often work in three or four cities in a month. Some cities charge a license fee for contractors who come in from outside. We tag revenue by job location so you can see where you earned it, which makes each city's renewal easier for whoever files it.
How we work
Our team works remotely in QuickBooks, Xero and more. We connect bank, card and payroll accounts, close the books every month and send a profit and loss, a balance sheet and a short list of questions. For engineering and hardware companies, clean records of research spending also help if you claim the federal R&D credit.
Bookkeeping services in South Bay
- Bookkeeping cleanupWhen the books exist but nobody trusts them, cleanup finds what went wrong and fixes it at the source.
- Catch-up bookkeepingMonths behind, or a full year, the missing months get entered and reconciled from your statements.
- Emergency bookkeepingA deadline that will not move and books that are not ready. Here is how the work gets ordered.
- Monthly bookkeepingEvery month categorized, reconciled and closed, so the numbers you look at are numbers you can trust.
- QuickBooks cleanupA QuickBooks file that no longer matches the bank, fixed account by account and month by month.
- QuickBooks bookkeepingQuickBooks Online kept the way it was meant to be used, so the reports it gives you are right.
Questions
Is Torrance part of Los Angeles?
No. Torrance is a separate city in Los Angeles County with its own business license.
I am in San Pedro. Which license do I need?
San Pedro is inside the City of Los Angeles, so it uses the city's Business Tax Registration Certificate.
Do you file city business license renewals?
No. We keep gross receipts and job locations clear in the books so the renewal is quick for you or your CPA.
Can you help an aerospace supplier with the R&D credit?
Our partner's team works on R&D credits. Ask about it when you write.
Which software do you use?
QuickBooks, Xero and more, including QuickBooks Desktop.