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Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team.

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19 min read

The FDCPA Won't Help You Collect That Unpaid Invoice: A Small Business Owner's B2B Collection Playbook

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act covers consumer debt collected by third parties, so it does not govern a business chasing its own overdue B2B invoices — contract law, UCC Article 2, and state unfair-practice statutes do. This guide explains the two FDCPA tests most commercial receivables fail, and gives a five-step recovery sequence from contract clauses and a follow-up cadence through demand letter, small claims or a 15–40% contingency agency, and judgment enforcement.

Mike Thrift

accounts-receivablecollections-managementcash-flow
16 min read

Cold Plunge and Sauna Recovery Studio Bookkeeping: Presales, Six-Figure Build-Outs, and the Utilization Math That Decides Your Margin

How to book a cold plunge and sauna recovery studio from presale to full capacity — founding-member cash held as deferred revenue under ASC 606, a $110,000–$250,000 build-out split between Section 179 equipment and 15-year qualified improvement property, and the three utilization KPIs (plunge occupancy, revenue per plunge-hour, churn by wait-time cohort) that show whether another chiller pays.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingdeferred-revenuerevenue-recognition
16 min read

Business Overhead Expense Insurance: Who Pays Rent and Payroll If You Can't Work?

Business Overhead Expense (BOE) disability insurance reimburses a business for fixed costs — rent, staff payroll, utilities, leases — when the owner can't work due to illness or injury. It excludes the owner's own salary, pays 12 to 24 months after a 30-, 60-, or 90-day elimination period, and typically costs 1% to 3% of the monthly benefit per year. Premiums are deductible; benefits are taxable to the business.

Mike Thrift

insurancebusiness-insurancerisk-management
17 min read

Back-to-School Sales Tax Holidays in 17 States: Dates, Price Caps, and Why Your Online Store Isn't Exempt

Seventeen states run back-to-school sales tax holidays in summer 2026, from Florida's 32-day window to Iowa's Friday-Saturday weekend, each with its own price caps — $75 clothing in Ohio, $300 in Connecticut, $40 on Maryland backpacks. Participation is mandatory for most registered retailers, and destination sourcing means online sellers with nexus must honor the holiday of the delivery state.

Mike Thrift

sales-taxtax-compliancemulti-state-tax
15 min read

Your AI Notetaker Could Be a Wiretap: What Small Businesses Risk When an AI Bot Joins the Call

AI meeting notetakers can trigger all-party consent rules in roughly a dozen states and create voiceprints regulated by Illinois BIPA, which carries $1,000 per negligent and $5,000 per intentional violation with no proof of harm required. This guide maps the consent rules, the three things BIPA requires before a voiceprint exists, and a six-step settings, consent, and retention playbook for teams under 50 people.

Mike Thrift

aiprivacycompliance
16 min read

The ACA Subsidy Cliff Returns in 2026: How Self-Employed Filers Near $63,840 Use a SEP IRA to Keep the Premium Tax Credit

The enhanced ACA subsidies expired December 31, 2025, so in 2026 a single filer one dollar above roughly $63,840 in MAGI loses the entire premium tax credit while Marketplace rates rise a median 18%. Deductible SEP IRA, solo 401(k), traditional IRA and HSA contributions are above-the-line, so they lower the MAGI the credit uses — and the repayment cap on excess advance credits is gone for tax years after 2025, making every dollar of the excess repayable.

Mike Thrift

health-insurancetax-planningself-employment
14 min read

Your Workers' Comp Premium Audit Is Coming: How to Pass Without a Surprise Bill

A workers' comp premium is payroll ÷ 100 × class rate × experience mod, so the year-end audit re-tests both variables against your actual records. This guide covers the three audit types and what triggers each, the documents auditors request, why overtime premium is only excludable when recorded separately by employee and week under NCCI Rule 2-B-2, the 2026 NCCI officer caps of $3,400 weekly maximum and $1,700 minimum, and why payments to a subcontractor without a current certificate of insurance get charged to you as payroll.

Mike Thrift

payrollinsuranceaudit
14 min read

Why Zelle Never Sends You a 1099-K (and Why That Doesn't Mean the Money Is Tax-Free)

Zelle is not a third-party settlement organization under Section 6050W, so it files no 1099-K at any amount — while Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Stripe, and Square do once the federal threshold of more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions is met, restored retroactively by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Income is taxable either way, and this guide shows the reconciliation system that keeps multi-rail freelance books accurate.

Mike Thrift

tax-compliancepaymentsfreelance
17 min read

Why Your SaaS Can Owe State Tax on Sales You Never "Made" Anywhere: The Throwback and Throwout Trap

A throwback rule can push a home-state sales factor from 20% to 60% on the same revenue by adding untaxed 'nowhere' sales back to the numerator; throwout, which shrinks the denominator instead, takes it to 33%. About 20 states plus D.C. still throw back tangible sales, five repealed their rules since 2019, and P.L. 86-272 protects none of your SaaS receipts.

Mike Thrift

multi-state-taxsaasnexus
14 min read

Virginia's New 5-Employee Discrimination Threshold: An SB 637 Compliance Guide

Effective July 1, 2026, Virginia's SB 637 drops the Virginia Human Rights Act employer threshold from 15 employees to 5 and extends the filing window from 300 days to two years. Any business with five or more employees for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks is now covered for every prohibited practice — not just discharge. Here is the 20-week counting rule, a seven-step compliance checklist, and the payroll and retention records an investigator asks for first.

Mike Thrift

compliancesmall-businesslegal
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