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Mike Thrift

Marketing Manager

Virginia's New Paid Sick Leave Law: The Small Employer's Timeline, Payroll, and Bookkeeping Guide

Virginia's SB199/HB5 phases paid sick leave in by employer size — 50+ employees on July 1, 2027, 25+ on January 1, 2028, and every employer with at least one employee on January 1, 2029. Employees accrue one hour per 30 hours worked up to 40 hours a year, unused leave carries over, and violations expose employers to double damages plus attorney's fees. Here is how to configure payroll, audit an existing PTO policy, and book the compensated-absence liability.

Air Duct and Dryer Vent Cleaning Bookkeeping: Price Per Vent, Track Every Upsell, Depreciate the Rig

Residential duct cleaning runs roughly $25–$50 per supply vent (about $75 for returns) and dryer vent add-ons average $145, so a one-line invoice hides your margin. This guide itemizes base fees, vent counts and add-ons, costs the four buckets behind each job, capitalizes a $9,000 vacuum rig instead of expensing it as supplies, and tracks the five KPIs — revenue per vent, revenue per tech-hour, upsell attach rate, callback rate, revenue per truck per day — that decide whether the next rig pays for itself.

Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors: The Faster, Quieter State-Law Alternative to Chapter 7

An assignment for the benefit of creditors (ABC) lets an insolvent business liquidate under state law in months rather than a year, with an assignee the owner chooses instead of a court-appointed trustee — but it carries no automatic stay and no debt discharge. Here is how the five-step process works, how it compares to Chapter 7, and the bookkeeping that keeps a wind-down orderly.

Austin's New STR Rules Put Your Listing on a 10-Day Clock: A Host's Compliance and Bookkeeping Guide

Since July 1, 2026, Airbnb and Vrbo must verify Austin STR license numbers, refuse unlicensed bookings, and remove flagged listings within 10 days of city notice, with fines up to $500 per day. Here are the license costs ($836.30 new, $385.30 renewal, two-year term), the 17% occupancy-tax stack, the quarterly filings platform collection does not cover, and the per-property books that keep it provable.

Bridal Makeup Artist Bookkeeping: How to Track Your Kit, Travel Fees, and Wedding-Season Cash Flow

A working bookkeeping system for freelance and bridal makeup artists — separate business accounts, retainers recorded as liabilities until the wedding day, kit split into consumables versus equipment, mileage logged at the 2026 IRS rates of 72.5 and 76 cents per mile, and a peak-season reserve sized to cover the roughly six quiet months outside the May–October wedding window.

California's New 5% Retention Cap: What Contractors Must Change About Retainage in 2026

California SB 61 caps retention on private construction contracts signed on or after January 1, 2026 at 5% per progress payment and 5% of the contract price in total, down from the 10% industry norm — here is who it covers, the residential and bonding exceptions, and how to rebuild your retainage receivable schedule so the freed-up cash actually reaches your account.

Can You Require Direct Deposit? State Consent Rules, Paycards, and the Federal Line You Cannot Cross

Federal law lets an employer require direct deposit but never lets it pick the employee's bank. Most states additionally require voluntary written consent, and Florida and Montana prohibit mandates outright. A three-bucket state breakdown, the five paycard conditions, the authorization-form fields to capture, and the rollout sequence that keeps an electronic-pay switch out of wage-claim territory.

When Your Nonprofit's Bingo Night Owes the IRS: UBIT, the Volunteer and Bingo Exceptions, and W-2G

The IRS treats charity gaming as an unrelated business, so raffle and bingo profits can owe UBIT on Form 990-T even when every dollar funds programs. Two exceptions usually save the event — substantially-all-volunteer labor and traditional bingo (never pull-tabs) — while raffles paying $600-plus at 300 times the wager trigger Form W-2G, with 24 percent withholding above $5,000.

Collecting Certificates of Insurance From Every Subcontractor: What a COI Must Show and the Audit Bill for Skipping It

A certificate of insurance you cannot produce on audit day turns subcontractor payments into your own payroll, billed at your trade rates. Here are the seven things every subcontractor COI must show, the five triggers for demanding a new one, and why certificate holder status is not the same as being an additional insured.