Mike Thrift

Marketing Manager

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July 20, 20267 min read

Insurance Premium Financing for Small Businesses: How It Works, What It Costs, and the Risks to Know

Insurance premium financing lets a small business spread an annual commercial premium into monthly installments at 4-14% simple interest — far below the 22-28% APR typical of business credit cards in 2026. This guide covers how the three-party loan works, standard fees and down payments, the power-of-attorney clause that lets the lender cancel your policy on default, and how to correctly book the prepaid asset and loan liability.

Mike Thrift

insurancebusiness-insurancefinancing

July 20, 20268 min read

IRS Announces 2027 HSA and HDHP Limits: What Small Business Owners and the Self-Employed Should Plan For Now

Revenue Procedure 2026-24 raises 2027 HSA contribution limits to $4,500 self-only and $9,000 family, with HDHP minimum deductibles of $1,750/$3,500 and out-of-pocket maximums of $8,700/$17,400. Here's what the new numbers mean for self-employed owners — including why the HSA deduction doesn't reduce self-employment tax, the April 15 contribution deadline that extensions don't move, and the over-contribution traps around employer contributions and the Last-Month Rule.

Mike Thrift

small-businessself-employmenttax-planning

July 20, 20269 min read

IRS Dirty Dozen 2026: How Payroll Phishing and Direct-Deposit Scams Target Small Businesses

The IRS's 2026 Dirty Dozen list flags a payroll-specific phishing wave: fake HR portal emails and direct-deposit change requests that reroute paychecks to scammers. The FBI's IC3 logged 24,768 business email compromise complaints totaling roughly $3.05 billion in 2025, with 86% of losses moving by wire or ACH — the same rails payroll runs on. Here are the three warning signs (urgency, unusual requests, process changes), five process controls that close the email-only loophole, and the first-72-hours response if a paycheck has already been diverted.

Mike Thrift

payrollfraud-preventionfraud-detection

July 20, 20265 min read

John Deere's $1M Right-to-Repair Settlement: What It Means for Small Businesses With Dealer-Locked Equipment

Minnesota AG Keith Ellison and four other states settled with John Deere on July 8, 2026, forcing 10 years of dealer-equivalent repair access for farmers and independent shops. Here's what dealer-locked equipment costs small businesses beyond agriculture, and how to budget preventive maintenance instead of absorbing emergency repair markups.

Mike Thrift

right-to-repairfarmingfixed-assets

July 20, 20267 min read

Junk Removal Bookkeeping: Why Per-Job Costing Beats Gross Margin Guesswork

A $350 junk removal job with a 60% gross margin often nets just $50–$100 after acquisition cost, truck payments, and overhead. Here's how per-job costing — tracking labor, fuel, and dump fees against each individual job — closes the gap between gross and net margin for hauling businesses.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingjob-costingsmall-business

July 20, 20267 min read

Malta's New VAT-Inclusive Pricing Rule: What Freelancers and Small Businesses Need to Know

Malta's 2026 Budget Implementation Act makes displayed prices presumed VAT-inclusive by law, with only two carve-outs. The domestic small-enterprise exemption holds at €35,000 turnover, new Articles 11A/11B open a €100,000 EU-wide cross-border SME scheme with quarterly declarations, and mandatory e-invoicing is coming as Malta targets its 24.2% VAT gap.

Mike Thrift

taxtax-compliancesmall-business

July 20, 20267 min read

Massachusetts Secure Choice: What the Mandatory Retirement Savings Bill Means for Small Businesses

Massachusetts's House passed the Secure Choice Savings Program 148-2 on July 8, 2026, mandating auto-enrollment Roth IRAs for employers with 25+ workers — 6% default contributions, $250-per-employee penalties, and a qualifying-plan exemption small businesses can use to opt out entirely.

Mike Thrift

small-businesspayrollcompliance

July 20, 20268 min read

Medical Billing Company Bookkeeping: Why the Money in Your Bank Account Isn't Your Revenue

Medical billing companies are agents under ASC 606: revenue is the 4–8% fee on collections, not the gross payments passing through. How to book pass-through cash as a liability, build a chart of accounts around fee income, and track clean-claim rate, denial rate, and days in A/R as leading indicators.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepinghealthcarerevenue-recognition

July 20, 20269 min read

Bookkeeping for Medical Billing Services: How Claim Denials Hit Your Own Cash Flow

Initial claim denial rates reached 11.8% in 2026, and billing services paid 4–10% of collections absorb every denial in their own books. A practical guide to recognizing fee revenue when claims actually pay, tracking denial rework as a separate cost, segregating client trust funds, and building a chart of accounts for a contingent-fee business.

Mike Thrift

healthcarebookkeepingsmall-business

July 20, 20267 min read

How Merchant Category Codes Control Your Business Credit Card Rewards — and Your 1099-K

A Merchant Category Code (MCC) is a four-digit classification assigned to merchants by payment processors. It decides whether a business credit card's bonus categories trigger, shapes a merchant's interchange fees, and appears in Box 2 of IRS Form 1099-K — which returns to a $20,000 and 200-transaction threshold for tax years 2025 and beyond.

Mike Thrift

paymentscreditrewards

July 20, 20266 min read

Minnesota Just Made 'Sending a Lead' a Licensed Activity — Here's What Changes August 1

Minnesota's HB 4188 redefines 'arranging' small-dollar and short-term consumer loans to include marketing, lead generation, underwriting, and collections. Starting August 1, 2026, lead generators, affiliates, and referral partners handling loans of $1,300 or less may need a Regulated Loan license — Connecticut has already fined an unlicensed mortgage lead generator $50,000 under a similar regime.

Mike Thrift

compliancelicensesloans

July 20, 20268 min read

Missouri's HB 974 Insurance Data Security Law: What Small Agencies Must Do Before January 1, 2026

Missouri's HB 974, signed July 2, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, applies the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law to nearly every insurance licensee in the state — requiring a written security program, annual risk assessments, an incident response plan, vendor oversight, and breach notification to regulators within four business days.

Mike Thrift

insurancecompliancesecurity

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