Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team.
Airbnb reports the full gross booking on the owner's 1099-K and your co-host share again on yours — so $80,000 in real bookings can appear as $96,000 to the IRS. This guide explains the 2026 OBBBA changes ($20,000 and 200 transactions for 1099-K, $2,000 for 1099-NEC), which form you should receive, and the chart-of-accounts method to reconcile gross vs. net without overreporting income.
Starting February 19, 2026, Visa+ stops working for PayPal and Venmo transfers and is replaced by direct phone-number payments rolling out November 2025. With the 1099-K threshold falling to $600 in 2026, freelancers must tag inter-app transfers correctly, reconcile gross versus net per platform, and separate business from personal flows to avoid double-counting income.
New Jersey adopted final ABC test regulations on May 5, 2026, effective October 1 — applying the same three-prong test across unemployment, wage and hour, and wage payment laws. Learn how remote work and app-based control change the analysis, the per-worker penalties, and a six-step audit to complete before the deadline.
Illinois SB 618 makes cocktails-to-go permanent July 1, 2026, requiring tamper-evident sealed containers, four-element labeling, a seven-day fill clock, employee-only delivery, and age verification, with ABV-based gallonage tax and separate POS bookkeeping to keep the channel profitable and audit-ready.
A 10-bike e-bike rental fleet costs $15,000–$30,000 to launch, but each swappable battery lasts only 500–1,000 cycles and costs $400–$900 to replace — often within a year at rental utilization. This guide shows how to capitalize bikes and packs separately, depreciate under 2026 Section 179 and restored 100% bonus depreciation, reconcile net app payouts to gross revenue, and track utilization and revenue per bike per day before the next battery wave hits.
FAA Part 107 certification costs $175 for the knowledge test plus $5 per drone for registration, drone liability insurance runs $500 to $1,500 per year for $1 million coverage while hull runs 8 to 12 percent of aircraft value, and 2026 restores 100 percent bonus depreciation with a $2.56 million Section 179 limit — this guide shows how to expense certification, book prepaid insurance, depreciate a short-lived fleet, price per deliverable, and handle sales tax before your next flight.
Adyen H1 2026: Net revenue of €1.30B (up 19% YoY, 21% constant currency), processed volume of €803.8B (up 24%), take rate compressed to 16.2 bps after the first tiered pricing in the company's 20-year history—around €48M in revenue forgone—plus its first two acquisitions ever (Talon.One for €750M and Orb for ~€310M), EBITDA margin of 49.2%, tracked line-by-line through a public Beancount ledger.
IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-19 raises 2026 HSA limits to $4,400 self-only and $8,750 family, with a $1,000 catch-up at 55+, and lifts HDHP minimum deductibles to $1,700/$3,400. This guide explains how small businesses must update cafeteria plans, payroll caps, and bookkeeping before open enrollment to capture the triple tax benefit and avoid overcontribution and comparability penalties.
Virginia HB 238 makes general contractors automatically jointly and severally liable for wages owed to a subcontractor's employees on construction contracts entered on or after July 1, 2026 — regardless of knowledge, and even when sworn payroll certifications say wages were paid. Here is what changed and how to reduce the exposure with tighter contracts, verified payroll, and clean job-cost accounting.
A 2026 survey of 781 U.S. small business owners found 68% lose sleep over money monthly and 41% name cash flow timing — not totals — as their biggest stressor. Five bookkeeping habits reduce that anxiety: a 13-week cash flow forecast, separate bucket accounts, a weekly money date, faster invoicing, and a defined cash buffer.
Shopify payouts are net settlements, not revenue — gross sales minus fees, refunds, reserve holds, and Capital remittances across a 1-3 day settlement window. This guide shows the clearing-account method to reconcile every payout, handle rolling reserves and Shopify Capital correctly, and match 1099-K gross to ledger sales.
A workers' compensation self-insured group lets similar small employers pool contributions into a shared trust instead of paying premiums — trading a carrier's profit margin for joint and several liability. Covers how SIGs work, the accounting for contributions, dividends, and assessments, and who should stay with a traditional policy.
