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

What's Inside Your 401(k)'s Default Fund? How Target-Date Funds Pick Your Investments, and the Fees to Compare

Target-date funds hold about $4.9 trillion and are the default in 99% of the auto-enrollment 401(k) plans Vanguard tracks. Here is how glide paths, "to" versus "through" designs, and expense ratios shape your retirement balance, plus a 15-minute checkup for savers and the fiduciary duties for owners who sponsor a plan.

Sweden's SEK 120,000 VAT Threshold: How to Legally Stay Outside the Moms System

Sweden exempts businesses with annual taxable turnover at or below SEK 120,000 from VAT registration, but since January 2025 the exemption also requires EU-wide turnover under €100,000. This guide explains the two-part test, why non-EU companies get no threshold, the SEK 90,000 intra-Community acquisitions rule, when voluntary registration pays off, and how to keep turnover evidence audit-ready.

How Long Is a Check Good For? The Six-Month Stale-Check Rule, Stop-Pay and Reissue, and Escheatment

Under UCC 4-404 a bank may refuse a check presented more than six months after its date — but it may also pay it in good faith and charge your account. A "void after 90 days" legend binds the payee, not the bank. Here is how to age outstanding checks, place a six-month stop-payment order (14 days if oral), reissue safely, and report uncashed checks as unclaimed property.

Soft Pretzel Shop Bookkeeping: Per-Batch Dough Costing, Food Cost Targets, and Kiosk vs. Storefront Math

A classic salted pretzel costs about $0.29 per unit once packaging and realistic yield are counted. This guide shows how to build per-batch recipe costing cards, hold a 28-35% blended food cost and 55-60% prime cost, book waste and samples honestly, and choose between a kiosk and a storefront with a break-even calculation instead of a gut feel.

Shopify Plus Quietly Raised Its Transaction Fee: What the New Variable Platform-Fee Tier Actually Costs High-GMV Merchants in 2026

Shopify Plus now starts at $2,500/month and the variable platform fee on online sales is reported at 0.40% of GMV (up from 0.25%), capped around $40,000/month. Here is the fee math at $3M to $120M in annual GMV, plus how to book the license, variable fee, and payouts so margin erosion shows up in your P&L instead of at tax time.

Service Animals vs. Emotional Support Animals: What a Small Business Can Ask, Refuse, and Must Allow Under the ADA

Under the ADA a service animal is a dog individually trained to perform a disability-related task; emotional support animals do not qualify. Businesses may ask only two questions, cannot demand papers, vests or fees, and may remove a dog only if it is out of control or not housebroken. Covers the staff script, the FDA Food Code kitchen line, why housing (HUD) and airlines (DOT) differ, the 35 state fake-service-animal laws, and how to track compliance costs.

Selling Seeds Legally: Federal Seed Act Labels, the Five-Month Germination Clock, and State Permits

Seed is only sellable if the label behind it is compliant — the Federal Seed Act requires kind, variety, lot number, germination percentage and test date, allows no more than five calendar months between the germination test month and interstate shipment (24 months for hermetically sealed containers), and demands three years of lot records. Most states add a labeler permit and their own sell-by limits on top.

Security Camera and CCTV Installation Business Bookkeeping: Job Costing, Monitoring Revenue, and Truck Stock

A security camera installer runs three businesses out of one bank account — installs, monitoring contracts, and truck stock. This guide covers job-costing installs as separate equipment and labor buckets, booking monitoring fees as deferred revenue, cycle-counting truck inventory, budgeting licensing and certifications, and the eight monthly KPIs that decide what the company is worth.

Your Product Warranty Is a Federal Case: Full vs. Limited, Implied Warranties, and As-Is Sales Under Magnuson-Moss

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act applies to every written warranty on a consumer product costing more than $10, requiring a full or limited title, forbidding blanket disclaimers of implied warranties and brand-name parts requirements, and mandating pre-sale access to the terms above $15. A small-seller guide with a 10-point compliance checklist.

Do You Need a Music License to Play Spotify in Your Store? A 2026 Small Business Guide to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and the Section 110(5) Exemption

A personal Spotify plan is not a public-performance license. Playing it for customers exposes a business to statutory damages of $750–$30,000 per song ($150,000 if willful), while blanket licenses from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR run roughly $500–$2,000 a year and business music services cost $17–$60 a month per location. The Section 110(5) exemption covers only over-the-air radio and TV in establishments under 2,000 square feet (3,750 for food and drink), never streaming.

Closing a Business in the Philippines Under RMC No. 47-2026: The 3-Day BIR Tax Clearance Guide

Under BIR Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 47-2026, issued May 19, 2026, Philippine micro taxpayers with gross sales of 3 million pesos or less can close their registration without a mandatory audit and receive a tax clearance within three working days, and non-filing penalties stop accruing once a complete BIR Form 1905 packet is submitted. This guide lists the exact documents, the manual and electronic filing channels, the five-step closure sequence, and the mistakes that still delay an exit.