Why Your Bookkeeper Should Know What a FAM Trip Is

Let me tell you something that happened to me more than once when I was running Mouse Tales Travel.

I'd be trying to explain my expenses to someone — an accountant, a financial advisor, whoever — and I'd mention a FAM trip. Familiarization trip. The kind where a resort or cruise line hosts you at their property — usually comping your stay or offering it at a steep discount — so you can experience it firsthand and sell it better to your clients. You're getting yourself there, but the access is the value. The travel to get there, the incidentals while you're on property — all of it a completely legitimate business expense.

And I'd get a blank stare.

Not a "tell me more" blank stare. A "I have no idea what you're talking about and I'm not sure I believe you" blank stare.

That's a problem.

Because when the person managing your books doesn't understand your industry, one of two things happens. Either they miscategorize expenses because they don't know what they're looking at, or they're so cautious about the unfamiliar stuff that things slip through the cracks entirely. Either way, your books don't actually reflect your business.

Travel agency finances are genuinely different from a typical small business. You're dealing with supplier payments and commission structures. You have income that comes in weeks or months after the work is done. You have slow seasons that feel catastrophic and busy seasons that somehow still leave you wondering where the money went. And yes — you have FAM trips, site inspections, and industry events that are absolutely real business expenses if they're documented properly.

A bookkeeper who already knows all of this isn't just convenient. They're actually better at the job.

I spent over fifteen years inside the travel industry before I started Shoreline Ledger Associates. I didn't have to Google what a host agency is. I already knew the difference between a commission and a service fee. I understood why your January looks nothing like your July.

That context matters more than you might think. It means less time explaining and more time actually getting your books in order.

If you've ever felt like you were teaching your bookkeeper about your own business — you deserve better than that.

— Kimberly