The boat ran perfectly.
The books didn't.
How McGregor Financial Services reconstructed 18 months of missing yacht financials and built a monthly reporting system the owner actually uses.
The owner estimated $300,000 a year. The real figure was $564,000.
When this client engaged us, their 85-foot motor yacht had been generating charter income for over a year — but no one had properly tracked what it cost to run. Expenses flowed through multiple bank accounts, personal credit cards, captain-managed purchases, fuel cards, and wire transfers. After 18 months, the owner had no reliable picture of operating costs, charter profitability, or tax exposure.
- 4,462 transactions across operating accounts, credit cards, vendor invoices, payroll, and charter deposits — none properly categorized
- No separation between personal use and charter expenses, making any tax deduction claims difficult to defend
- Charter revenue deposited inconsistently; broker commissions, APA, and direct charter costs never offset against it
- Captain managing expense tracking in his spare time — the numbers didn't reconcile with the bank statements
- Charter broker requesting financial documentation the owner simply couldn't produce
A structured reconstruction, phase by phase.
We don't guess or patch. We start at the beginning and work forward — collecting every source document, reconstructing every transaction, and building a clean foundation before setting up any ongoing reporting.
Diagnostic & Document Collection
We gathered every financial source — bank feeds, card statements, vendor invoices, captain logs, charter agreements, and APA records — and mapped exactly what was missing and what needed to be reconstructed.
Full Transaction Reconstruction
Every transaction reviewed and classified across yacht-specific categories: crew, fuel, dockage, insurance, repairs, management, charter revenue, and capital improvements.
Charter Profitability Analysis
We rebuilt the P&L for every charter booking — gross revenue, broker commissions, APA settlements, crew gratuities, and direct fuel costs.
The charter programme was profitable — but not as profitable as the owner assumed. With that clarity, the base charter rate was increased, the APA percentage tightened, and a fuel surcharge introduced. None of those decisions could have been made defensibly without the reconstructed data.
Tax Planning & Depreciation Analysis
With charter use established at 55% of total vessel use, the business basis on a $3.8M vessel was $2,090,000 — unlocking first-year accelerated depreciation deductions the owner had never previously claimed.
Cost Leak Identification & Ongoing Reporting
The audit uncovered waste across four categories. We then implemented a monthly reporting package — P&L, charter performance, budget vs. actual, and cash flow forecast — delivered without any involvement from the crew.
Results that changed
every decision that followed.
Four findings from a single 90-day engagement. Each one material. Each one previously invisible.
The owner believed annual costs were around $300,000. The true figure was $564,000 — a $264,000 gap that had been completely invisible. Crew payroll alone was $168,000. Maintenance was $118,400. Knowing the real numbers changed every financial decision that followed.
$278,000 in gross charter revenue offset by $84,000 in real charter costs — producing a net charter profit the owner could actually verify, report, and build a pricing strategy around.
$243,000 in business expense deductions plus $418,000 in first-year accelerated depreciation — $661,000 in total deductions the owner had never previously claimed, generating an estimated $244,570 in tax savings.
Duplicate vendor payments recovered, unused dock reservations cancelled, redundant contracts terminated, and fuel purchasing brought under control. $50,900 in annual savings — identified and resolved within the 90-day engagement.
Yacht accounting is not a side service — it is what we do.
McGregor Financial Services was built around the specific financial challenges yacht owners face. Mixed personal and charter use, multi-account expense flows, crew payroll, APA reconciliations, vessel depreciation — these are not topics most accounting firms handle well. We handle them exclusively.
- Accounting and financial oversight for managed yachts
- Charter revenue tracking and profitability reporting
- Yacht budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow management
- Crew payroll coordination and expense reporting
- Vendor management and payment controls
- Accounting cleanups for vessels months or years behind
- Monthly financial reporting and variance analysis
- U.S. tax compliance and advisory services
Ready to see the real numbers?
Whether your books are months behind or you simply want better visibility going forward, we'd welcome the conversation.
Schedule a Yacht Financial Review
