Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team.
California employers with 100 or more employees must file a pay data report with the Civil Rights Department by May 13, 2026, using a snapshot pay period between October and December 2025, or face civil penalties of $100 to $200 per employee.
About 60% of denied business interruption claims trace back to insufficient documentation, not policy exclusions — insurers reconstruct lost income from your P&L statements, tax returns, and payroll records, not from your account of events.
Rental arbitrage bookkeeping differs from landlord accounting because the lease is a pure operating expense with no equity, only furniture is depreciable over 3-5 years, and most operators land on Schedule C rather than Schedule E once average guest stays fall under 30 days with services provided.
Airbnb closed FY2025 with $12.2B revenue (+10.3%), $2.5B net income, and a net margin down 3.4 points as it funded services, experiences, and hotels while repurchasing $3.8B in stock. A bull-vs-bear analysis backed by an open double-entry Beancount ledger covering FY2023 through Q1 2026.
Online ordination doesn't make you IRS clergy — officiant fees are ordinary Schedule C income subject to 15.3% self-employment tax. This guide covers where online ordinations face county-level recognition problems (Tennessee, Virginia), what celebrants actually charge ($300–$1,000+), and why booking deposits belong on your books as liabilities until the ceremony happens.
How VR arcades and location-based entertainment venues should keep their books — split revenue across six streams, book party deposits as deferred-revenue liabilities, depreciate each $50,000+ station separately, and track revenue per available station hour, the LBE equivalent of a hotel's RevPAR.
A cost-by-cost breakdown of trade show exhibitor bookkeeping — how to categorize booth fees, drayage (typically $100-$200+ per hundred pounds), travel, and collateral, when to accrue the expense, and how to calculate cost-per-lead so a show's ROI shows up in the numbers instead of a gut feeling.
TikTok Shop affiliates receive a 1099-NEC already net of the platform's ~13% cut, owe 15.3% self-employment tax once net earnings pass $400, and must report all income even under the new $2,000 per-payer reporting threshold. Here's how commission clawbacks, free PR products, and quarterly estimated payments actually work — and the monthly close that keeps the numbers right.
Ten states now require merchant cash advance providers to disclose an APR alongside the factor rate, turning opaque MCA pricing into an apples-to-apples comparison for small business owners.
First-time SBIR/STTR awardees rarely fail audits on the science — they fail on indirect cost rates, timekeeping, and commingled funds. How to calculate your own indirect rate (DOE now caps reimbursement at 15% for for-profits), log daily hours DCAA will accept, and segregate award money before the SF 1408 survey.
As of January 1, 2026, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon ban software-based parts pairing on electronics and appliances, forcing manufacturers to open OEM parts and diagnostic access to independent repair shops — here's what the new rules mean for compliance and inventory bookkeeping.
NEMT providers face a documented audit risk unlike most small businesses — a 2022 federal audit found 72% of sampled New York claims non-compliant, and billing a no-show as a completed trip can trigger False Claims Act penalties starting at roughly $14,000 per claim plus treble damages.
