#guides
Step-by-step guides for accounting, bookkeeping, and financial tasks
Starting with contracts awarded on or after June 30, 2026, the FAR overhaul raises the CAS trigger from $2.5 million to $35 million per contract, the full-coverage threshold from $50 million to $100 million, and the certified cost-or-pricing data (TINA) threshold from $2 million to $10 million, exempting close to half of currently CAS-covered contractors.
An executor is a fiduciary, which means beneficiaries have a legal right to a formal accounting of every dollar that moved through an estate — and failing to produce one can trigger removal or personal liability, regardless of whether any money was actually mishandled.
California's SB 68 (the ADDE Act) requires restaurant chains with 20+ locations and at least one California site to disclose the nine major food allergens on every menu format starting July 1, 2026, with civil liability rather than regulatory fines as the primary enforcement risk.
Expensify starts around $5/user/month with reactive policy checks, Ramp offers a usable free tier with point-of-purchase spend controls, and SAP Concur charges roughly $7 per expense report for enterprise-grade travel and approval workflows — the right pick depends mainly on team size, not industry.
In 2026 the FTC is tightening enforcement of Item 19 earnings-claim disclosures and declaring non-disparagement clauses in franchise agreements void when they block communication with regulators — here's what franchisees and franchisors need to do about it.
A letter of credit is a bank's guarantee to pay an exporter once shipping documents match its terms exactly — issuance typically costs 0.75%-2% of the transaction, and the ICC estimates 60-70% of first-time document presentations get rejected for discrepancies.
Under ASC 958-605, a nonprofit recognizes contributed services at fair value only when the work created or enhanced a nonfinancial asset, or required a specialized skill the organization would otherwise have paid for and the volunteer actually holds that credential — general volunteer hours, however valuable, stay off the books and out of Form 990.
No legitimate grant ever requires an upfront fee — the FTC reports nearly 30% of 2026 scam victims were first contacted on social media with losses topping $2.1 billion, and fake grant offers follow a predictable four-step script from unsolicited contact to escalating "release fees."
State sales tax auditors use statistical sampling that extrapolates a small error rate across years of transactions, so running a self-audit on use tax accruals, exemption certificates, and nexus exposure before a notice arrives produces a materially better outcome than waiting.
True endowments are created by donor restriction and governed by UPMIFA; board-designated endowments are unrestricted funds the board chose to treat like an endowment and can undesignate at any time — mixing up the two is the most common misstep auditors flag in nonprofit endowment reviews.
Auditors extrapolate the certificate deficiency rate found in a sample across the entire audit period, so a handful of missing resale or exemption certificates can turn into a six-figure sales tax assessment — here are the six practices that keep certificate files audit-ready.
In 2025, plaintiffs filed 3,117 federal ADA Title III website accessibility lawsuits and an estimated 35,000–50,000 private demand letters reached U.S. businesses. This guide explains what WCAG 2.1 Level AA actually requires, why the Robles v. Domino's Pizza ruling and the DOJ's 2024 Title II rule made it the de facto standard, and how small and mid-size businesses can build a five-phase remediation roadmap and defensible paper trail before a demand letter arrives.
