#small-business
Small Business
Financial management strategies and tools for small business owners
Paint-Your-Own Pottery Studio Bookkeeping: Firing Fees, Greenware Breakage, and Deposits
How to keep a paint-your-own pottery studio's books honest — allocate firing costs to COGS (roughly $1.32–$2.39 per piece), write down 5–10% greenware and kiln breakage monthly, and treat party deposits and gift cards as deferred revenue until the event is delivered.
Photography Studio Bookkeeping: Session Deposits, Print Credits, and Gear Expensing in 2026
Photography studios should book session deposits, retainers, and print credits as deferred revenue liabilities rather than income, expense gear under 2026's $2,560,000 Section 179 limit instead of depreciating it over five years, and track sales tax, breakage, and COGS in separate accounts to see real profitability.
IRS Publication 544 for Small Business: How Depreciation Recapture Turns an Asset Sale Into Ordinary Income
When you sell depreciated business equipment or a vehicle, Section 1245 recharacterizes gain up to the depreciation you took as ordinary income — reported on Form 4797, not Schedule D or Schedule C. This guide walks basis, adjusted basis, amount realized, and the recapture math with plain-text bookkeeping examples.
Section 139 Qualified Disaster Relief Payments: How Employers Can Help Employees Tax-Free
Section 139 lets employers reimburse employees' unreimbursed disaster expenses with no income tax, no FICA/FUTA, and no W-2 reporting — while keeping the deduction. Covers what qualifies, what doesn't (lost wages, insured costs), the minimal documentation needed, and how to book payments outside payroll.
Sign Shop Bookkeeping: Monthly Books vs. Year-End Cleanup
A sign shop bookkeeping guide covering monthly close, job-level costing for materials/labor/overhead, deposit accounting, sales tax on signage, and Section 179 equipment deductions for 2026.
Small-Group Health Insurance Is About to Cost 11% More in 2026: A Renewal Budget Guide for Small Employers
Small-group health insurance faces a median 11% proposed increase for 2026 based on 318 insurer filings — the sharpest in over 15 years. This guide shows small employers how to translate that median into dollars, understand the cost drivers, and evaluate renewal, plan design, and ICHRA alternatives before signing.
Summer Camp Bookkeeping: Surviving the 8-Month Cash Flow Gap Between Deposits and Opening Day
A guide to camp bookkeeping showing why early-bird deposits should post as deferred revenue under ASC 606, how to build a 12-month cash flow forecast from an 8-week season, and how to track KPIs like cost per camper and collection rate by deadline.
Surf Shop and Dive Shop Bookkeeping: Why Your Best Season Can Still Leave You Broke by October
A surf or dive shop is six businesses under one roof — school, retail, travel, rental, air fills, and repair — sharing one seasonal cash window. Learn how separate revenue lines, deferred-revenue accounting for prepaid lessons, and 12-month cash forecasting that isolates inventory purchases reveal which business actually profits and whether summer funds the winter.
USDA's New SNAP Stocking Rule: The 84-Unit Inventory Test That Decides Your EBT Authorization on November 4
Starting November 4, 2026, SNAP-authorized small stores must stock 7 varieties in each of 4 staple food categories — 84 units total, up from 36 — with perishables in 3 categories, or risk losing EBT authorization. How to map varieties, track depth, flag perishables, and file invoices in your books before an FNS inspection.
USPS Dimensional Weight Just Got 19% More Expensive: What Every E-Commerce Shipper Needs to Know
USPS cut its dimensional-weight divisor from 166 to 139 on July 12, 2026, raising DIM weight roughly 19.4% on bulky-but-light parcels and adding a $3 per-parcel fee for missing or inaccurate dimensions on commercial manifests.
Virginia's Data Center Electricity Tax: What the $0.011-per-kWh Charge Means for Your Colocation and Cloud Bills
Starting July 1, 2026, Virginia charges data centers $0.011 per kWh of electricity consumed — the first per-kWh data center tax in the U.S. Here is how the pass-through reaches your colocation or cloud bill, how to estimate your exposure, and how to track it in your books.
Wholesale Distributor Bookkeeping: Freight-In, Vendor Rebates, and Consignment Inventory
A guide to the three bookkeeping fault lines that distort a wholesale distributor's margin and balance sheet — capitalizing freight-in into landed cost, accruing vendor rebates as a contra-COGS reduction instead of income, and tracking consignment inventory by location and ownership — plus a monthly close checklist and journal entries.