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Mike Thrift

Marketing Manager

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Mobile Home and RV Park Bookkeeping: Utility Bill-Backs, Cost Segregation, and Clean Entity Accounting

Parks earn their margin in the ledger. Submetering or RUBS recovers 80-100% of variable utility costs and typically lifts net income 20-30%, and a cost segregation study reclassifies 40-60% of depreciable basis into 5- and 15-year property that now qualifies for 100% bonus depreciation. This guide covers gross-up bill-back accounting, lot rent vs. home rent separation, intercompany flows between holding and management entities, Form 8594 allocation, and a monthly close checklist for manufactured home and RV parks.

mike

real-estateproperty-managementbookkeeping

The New IRS Schedule 1-A: Your Guide to the Four New Deductions for Tips, Overtime, Car Loans, and Seniors

Schedule 1-A is the new IRS form for tax years 2025-2028 holding four below-the-line deductions — up to $25,000 for tips, $12,500/$25,000 for the FLSA overtime premium, $10,000 for new-car loan interest, and $6,000 per person age 65+. Each phases out on its own MAGI threshold, and this guide covers who qualifies, how the math works, and what records defend the claim.

mike

taxtax-deductionstax-planning

Phantom Stock Plans for Small Businesses: Reward Key Employees Without Giving Away Ownership

A phantom stock plan grants key employees hypothetical units that track company value and settle in cash — no shares issued, no dilution, no voting rights. Payouts are ordinary income subject to FICA when paid, the employer deducts them in the same year, and cash-settled awards are liability awards remeasured at fair value each reporting period. Paying within 2½ months after the year units vest satisfies Section 409A's short-term deferral exemption; a two-to-three-participant plan typically costs $4,000–$10,000 to launch.

mike

executive-compensationemployee-benefitscompensation

Pickleball Facility Bookkeeping: Court Rental, Membership, and Programming Revenue

A pickleball club sells court time, memberships, clinics, retail, and events off the same square footage, each with a different margin and revenue-recognition trigger. Covers the income-account split, the three KPIs that decide profitability (court utilization rate, revenue per available court hour, margin by line), deferred-revenue treatment for prepaid memberships and credit packs, what to capitalize versus expense, and a 60-minute month-end close.

mike

bookkeepingsmall-businessrevenue-recognition

Print-on-Demand Bookkeeping: Why Your Printful Bill Is COGS, Not an Expense

Printful and Printify fulfillment charges typically run 45-55% of retail price and belong in Schedule C Part III as cost of goods sold, not in general expenses. This guide separates the two print-on-demand models, shows why a 50% COGS ratio means a $30 sale yields about $6 of contribution after ads and processing, and lays out a chart of accounts and monthly reconciliation that keep margins and taxes correct.

mike

print-on-demandcost-of-goods-solde-commerce

Related-Party Disclosures Under ASC 850: When Paying Your Spouse's LLC Needs a Footnote

ASC 850 requires four things in the footnote for every material related-party transaction — the nature of the relationship, a description, dollar amounts for each period presented, and any change in how terms were set — and it applies even when the price is fair. This guide identifies who counts as a related party for a small business (10%+ owners, officers, immediate family, and entities they control), shows a model two-paragraph footnote, and gives a 10-step year-end checklist plus a Beancount account structure that turns disclosure into a query.

mike

small-businessfinancial-reportingfinancial-statements

The Quiet SaaS Leak: How to Audit Your Software Stack and Stop Paying for Tools You Don't Use

The average company runs 106 SaaS apps and leaves 36–53% of licenses unused, and most small teams find 20–35% of their software spend is duplicate, shelfware, zombie, or over-tiered on the first audit. This guide gives a six-step audit — inventory, ownership, real usage, waste hunt, renewal calendar, intake rules — plus negotiation moves that work without enterprise leverage and the ledger structure that keeps the savings from creeping back.

mike

saasexpense-managementvendor-management

Why 71% of Small Business Owners Lose Sleep Over Money — and the Bookkeeping Habits That Let Them Sleep Again

A May 2026 survey of 750+ U.S. small business owners found 71% report moderate to extremely high financial stress, 68% lose at least one night of sleep a month, and 62% cut or skipped their own pay in the past year. The owners who sleep better run five habits — a weekly cash-flow review, separate payroll and tax accounts, same-day invoicing with automated reminders, one to three months of operating reserve, and a 13-week forecast — in about 60 minutes a week.

mike

small-businessbookkeepingcash-flow

Why You Got a 1099-K for $650 When Your Friend Didn't: The $600 State Patchwork Behind the Federal $20,000

Congress restored the federal 1099-K threshold to $20,000 and 200 transactions in July 2025, but nine states still require a form at $600 and four more sit between $1,000 and $2,500 — so a $650 Etsy sale produces a 1099-K in Massachusetts and nothing in Texas. Includes the state-by-state threshold tiers and how to reconcile a gross form total down to actual taxable profit.

mike

tax-complianceirs-reportingmulti-state-tax

The CPA Search Now Takes 73 Days: A Small Business Guide to the Accountant Shortage

Filling a CPA-credentialed role now averages 73 days, 41% longer than non-credentialed roles, while the number of candidates sitting for the CPA exam fell from over 100,000 in 2016 to about 67,000 in 2022. This guide explains what is draining the pipeline, what the shortage costs in fees and delayed closes, and five ways small businesses keep books clean and filings on time without waiting in line for a firm.

mike

cpahiringsmall-business
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