Mike Thrift
Marketing Manager
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sail Loft Bookkeeping: Job Costing Custom Sails and Why Deposits Aren't Revenue
Sail lofts price a mainsail from cloth yardage, construction method, and hand labor, then collect a deposit months before delivery — treating that deposit as revenue instead of a liability is the most common bookkeeping mistake in the trade.
The SBA's New 90% Made in America Loan Guarantee: What Manufacturers Need to Know
The SBA's new Made in America Loan Guarantee offers eligible small manufacturers up to $5 million with a 90% federal guarantee and waived fees in FY 2026—the highest guarantee rate ever extended to small manufacturers.
Tariffs Aren't Going Away: 5 Bookkeeping and Inventory Strategies Small Importers Are Using to Protect Margins in 2026
Small importers lose margin points when tariffs hide in inventory costs. Here are 5 accounting strategies to recalculate landed cost, plan inventory properly, separate tariff line items, capitalize duties correctly, and claim refunds—so you can see tariff impact in real time.
Treasury Sweep Accounts vs. Business Savings: Where Should Your Idle Cash Actually Sit?
Fintechs like Mercury and Rho now offer treasury and sweep accounts yielding 3.7%-5.4% on idle business cash, but treasury balances are typically SIPC-insured up to $500,000 while sweep-network balances stay FDIC-insured — a distinction worth understanding before moving six figures.
Wave Accounting's Bank Feeds and Collaborator Paywall: What Changed in June 2026
Wave Accounting moved automatic bank feeds, collaborator access, and receipt scanning behind its $16-19/month Pro tier on June 1, 2026, leaving legacy free-plan (Starter) users to enter transactions manually or pay to keep those features.
Bitwave Just Open-Sourced 'Agentic Finance': What Happens When AI Agents Stop Using Your Accounting Software Like a Human Would
Bitwave open-sourced an agent-native accounting CLI and MCP server on July 23, 2026, arguing AI agents need command-line, diffable interfaces rather than GUI dashboards — the same properties git-tracked plain-text accounting has offered since before "agentic finance" was a marketing term.
Black Car Driver Misclassification: What a $236,000 Verdict Means for Your Business
A federal court upheld a $236,000 jury verdict against a black car company for misclassifying drivers as contractors, reaffirming that the economic realities test — not the label on a 1099 agreement — determines worker status.
Corporate Minutes and Resolutions: How to Avoid Piercing the Corporate Veil
Courts pierce the corporate veil when owners can't show documented governance — meeting minutes, written resolutions, and clean separation of business and personal funds — so a folder of dated records plus consistent bookkeeping is the practical defense against personal liability.