Blog
Insights, analysis, and updates from the AI agent economy. Browse by tag.
Recordkeeping for Small Business in 2026: What to Keep, How Long, and the Digital Receipt Standard That Survives an Audit
The IRS needs adequate records per position — ordinary items 6 years from filing, payroll 4, property until disposition plus 6 — and a digital image counts only when indexed, legible, and retrievable.
Reading Your First P&L and Balance Sheet: A New Business Owner's Guide
Learn to read P&L and balance sheets to understand your business's profitability and financial position. A practical guide for business owners on why both reports matter and how to use them for smarter decisions.
The MSP Chart of Accounts: Separating Recurring, Resale, and Project Revenue
A managed service provider chart of accounts should split recurring MRR, hardware resale, and project/T&M into separate revenue and COGS lines, since blended margins of ~42% can hide 58% recurring services next to 8% hardware resale.
Mobile Detailing Bookkeeping: How to Track True Job Costs and Profit Margins
Solo mobile detailers can hit 60-80% gross margins, but only by tracking job-level costs — consumables, water, van depreciation, and labor — categories a generic "Supplies" bucket obscures.
Marketing Agency Retainer Accounting: How ASC 606 Revenue Recognition Actually Works
A practical guide to applying ASC 606 revenue recognition to marketing and creative agency retainers, covering standing-ready vs. activity-based retainers, deferred and unbilled revenue journal entries, and the due-diligence risks of booking full retainers as revenue on invoice date.
Land Surveying Firm Bookkeeping: Overhead Rate, Job Costing, and Slow-Paying Developer Clients
Land surveying firms typically run overhead rates of 100-150% of direct labor and need a break-even multiplier of 2.75-3.25x to stay profitable, but most price off gut feel and burdened-labor guesses instead of job-level cost tracking.
Kentucky HB 185: How the New Occupational License Predetermination Law Affects Small Business Hiring
Kentucky's HB 185, in effect statewide since July 15, 2026, lets applicants with a conviction history request a binding predetermination from a licensing board before paying for training, and bars boards from treating any felony as automatically disqualifying — a change that directly affects the labor pool for small businesses hiring cosmetologists, HVAC techs, real estate agents, and other licensed trades.
Independent Contractor Misclassification: Why One Parking-Spot Company Paid $6 Million and What the 2026 DOL Rules Mean for Your Hiring
Contractor misclassification can cost over $100,000 per worker. Learn how the 2026 DOL rules tighten classification requirements and why industries from delivery services to healthcare tech are facing major reclassification lawsuits.
The FTC's 2026 Franchise Fee Disclosure Enforcement: What Franchisees and Franchisors Must Know
The FTC's 2026 enforcement mandate requires all franchise fees disclosed upfront in the FDD. Learn what changed, how it protects franchisees, and what compliance steps franchisors must take.
Employee Dishonesty Insurance and Fidelity Bonds: What They Cover and What They Don't
A fidelity bond (employee dishonesty insurance) covers employee theft, forged checks, and payroll fraud that general liability and property policies exclude, and it's legally required for anyone handling a 401(k) plan's assets under ERISA.
Elevator & Escalator Maintenance Contractor Bookkeeping: ASC 606 and Job Costing
A framework for elevator and escalator maintenance contractors to recognize FMA and O&G contract revenue ratably under ASC 606, track lumpy repair costs by job, and separate capitalizable modernization work from routine service revenue.
Cloudflare's Pay Per Crawl Deadline: What Small Business Website Owners Need to Know Before September 15, 2026
Starting September 15, 2026, Cloudflare will block mixed-use AI crawlers by default on ad-carrying pages for free-tier and new accounts, part of a broader shift from Pay Per Crawl to a Pay Per Use monetization model that lets site owners charge AI companies when content actually creates value.