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Bookkeeping

Modern bookkeeping techniques using plain-text and automated workflows

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7 min read

Bill-and-Hold Arrangements Under ASC 606: When You Can (and Can't) Recognize Revenue on Goods a Customer Hasn't Picked Up Yet

ASC 606 permits revenue recognition on bill-and-hold arrangements only when four criteria are all met — a substantive reason for the delay, goods segregated for the customer, readiness for immediate transfer, and no seller right to redirect them. This guide walks through each test, a worked allocation example splitting goods revenue from a separate storage obligation, legitimate use cases, and the seller-initiated-delay red flag that draws SEC scrutiny.

Mike Thrift

revenue-recognitionaccountingfinancial-reporting
8 min read

Commercial Umbrella Insurance for Small Businesses: What It Covers, What It Costs, and How Much You Need

Commercial umbrella insurance adds extra liability coverage above general liability, commercial auto, and employer's liability limits — typically $400–$7,000+ per year per $1 million layer. With 135 nuclear verdicts totaling $31.3 billion in 2024 and carriers cutting available limits, here's how small businesses should size and price umbrella coverage in 2026.

Mike Thrift

business-insuranceinsurancesmall-business
7 min read

Cash-Flow Lending Explained: How Relay Capital and Embedded Lenders Fund Businesses Banks Reject

Big banks reject roughly 85–87% of small business loan applications. Cash-flow lenders like Relay Capital instead underwrite 3–6 months of bank statements, approving $1,000–$250,000 term loans in minutes with funding in 1–2 days. Here's how cash-flow underwriting works, what it costs, and how to keep books a lender can actually read.

Mike Thrift

small-businessloanscash-flow
8 min read

Restaurant Reservation Deposits and No-Show Fees: The Deferred Revenue Guide

Restaurant no-shows cost the U.S. industry roughly $16 billion a year, and the deposits that fight them create a bookkeeping trap — under ASC 606 a reservation deposit is a liability, not revenue, until the guest dines or forfeits. Here's how to record deposits as deferred revenue, book no-show forfeitures as breakage, and reconcile net payouts from OpenTable, Resy, and Tock.

Mike Thrift

restaurantrevenue-recognitionaccrual-accounting
10 min read

Split-Dollar Life Insurance, Explained: How Business Owners and Key Employees Share the Cost of a Policy

Split-dollar life insurance is an agreement — not a policy type — for an employer and a key employee to divide the premiums, cash value, and death benefit of one permanent policy. This guide compares the two structures (collateral assignment vs. endorsement), explains how the IRS taxes each under the economic benefit and loan regimes, why premiums are never deductible, and how to book the arrangement correctly from day one.

Mike Thrift

insuranceemployee-benefitsexecutive-compensation
9 min read

Talent and Modeling Agency Bookkeeping: Why "What We Kept" Is Not the Same as "What We Earned"

Talent and modeling agencies must record the full booking amount as gross revenue — not just the 10–20% commission they keep — hold client funds in a separate trust account (a legal requirement under California's Talent Agencies Act), and reconcile commission splits against contracts monthly. Five bookkeeping rules that prevent IRS 1099 mismatches, commingling violations, and talent payout disputes.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingsmall-businesscreative-industries
8 min read

Aerial Arts and Circus Studio Bookkeeping: Deferred Revenue, Rig Depreciation, and the $1M/$3M Insurance Floor

Aerial and circus studios typically must carry $1M-per-occurrence/$3M-aggregate liability coverage — far above a standard fitness studio — and that floor reshapes their books. How to record punch cards as deferred revenue, depreciate silks and rigging on safety schedules, classify instructors, and reserve for insurance deductibles.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingsmall-businessaccrual-accounting
8 min read

AI-Powered Fraud Detection for Small Businesses: Real-Time Auditing Without a Big-Four Budget

Business email compromise cost U.S. companies over $3 billion in 2025, averaging $137,000 per incident — and 45% of small businesses hit by BEC close within six months. AI-driven continuous auditing now starts around $20–$70/month; here's how anomaly detection, vendor account validation, and free controls like payment-change callbacks cut the risk without an enterprise fraud stack.

Mike Thrift

fraud-detectionfraud-preventionsmall-business
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