Earnest Money Deposits for Small Business Property Buyers: Applied, Refunded, or Forfeited
A forfeited deposit on business property is usually a deductible loss — capital or ordinary — while the IRS bars any deduction on a personal home.
#journal-entries
Journal Entries
Master journal entry creation and accounting transactions
How to Reconcile Shopify Capital Loans Without Double-Counting Revenue
Shopify Capital proceeds are a liability, not revenue: book remittances against the loan, amortize the fee, and tie gross sales to your IRS Form 1099-K.
Vendor Deposits and Prepaid Supplier Advances: How to Book Cash You Paid Before the Goods Arrive
A vendor deposit is an asset, not an expense: book it to Advances to Suppliers, apply it to the final invoice, and deduct only when IRS timing rules allow.
Bounced Checks and NSF Fees: How to Book Returned Checks, Bank Charges, and Redeposits Without Double-Counting Revenue
A bounced check reverses the deposit and reopens the receivable — book the NSF fee as its own expense and apply the redeposit to the invoice, never to revenue.
Credit Memos and Debit Memos Explained: Correct Invoices Without Deleting History
A credit memo reduces what a customer owes and a debit memo increases it — both correct an invoice without deleting it, so the audit trail survives.
The Equity Method of Accounting, Explained: How to Book a 20–50% Ownership Stake
Under ASC 323, dividends from a 20–50% stake are not income — they reduce the investment. Here are the three journal entries and the basis-difference trap.
Your Processor Is Holding 10% of Every Sale: Rolling Reserves, Payout Holds, and How to Book Them
A rolling reserve is your revenue held as restricted cash, not a fee: book the gross sale, debit Funds Held in Reserve, and post releases as asset transfers.
Student Loan Wage Garnishment Is Back in 2026: What Employers Must Do When an Order Lands on Your Desk
Federal student loan wage garnishment resumed in 2026 and needs no court order. Employers must withhold up to 15% of disposable earnings while leaving the worker at least $217.50 a week (30 times the federal minimum wage), remit with the case number each pay period, never fire an employee over a single garnishment, and book withholdings to a Garnishments Payable liability account rather than an expense.
Returnless Refunds: When 'Keep the Item' Beats Return Shipping — and How to Book It
A returnless refund is a sales allowance, not a return. No inventory comes back, so nothing gets restocked and COGS stays put. This guide gives the per-SKU break-even math for when letting a customer keep a $40 item beats paying return shipping, the exact double-entry bookings for restocked returns, keep-it refunds and unsellable returns, the sales-tax posting, fraud guardrails, and the three metrics that show whether the policy is working.
Accrued Vacation Pay Is a Liability You Already Owe: A Small Business Guide to PTO Accruals and Payout Rules
How to accrue unused PTO as a liability month by month under ASC 710, calculate it with payroll taxes, book the journal entries, and apply the three state-law buckets that decide whether you must cash out vacation at separation.
Outsourcing Fulfillment to a 3PL: The Inventory Accounting Playbook for E-Commerce Sellers
A 3PL never owns your inventory — it stays on your balance sheet at cost until a customer buys it. Map the fee stack (receiving, storage, pick/pack, returns) to a chart of accounts, post the five journal entries you actually need, reconcile WMS on-hand to your ledger monthly, and apply LCNRV write-downs to aged stock under ASC 330.
Where Did $90 Billion in Inventory Just Go? A Small Retailer's Guide to Booking Shrinkage Correctly
U.S. retailers lost $90–112 billion to inventory shrinkage in the latest reporting cycle, an average shrink rate near 1.6% of sales. This guide shows small retailers how to book shrink in a dedicated expense account instead of burying it in COGS — with the exact journal entries, cycle-counting schedules, materiality thresholds, and the process fixes behind the ~70% of shrink that isn't theft.