Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team.
A lash studio's costs don't fit one "supplies" line — service consumables, retail inventory, and depreciable equipment like lash beds and LED lamps each need their own account. This guide covers a six-category chart of accounts, the Section 179 deduction most lash artists miss, quarterly retail inventory counts, and booth-renter vs. employee classification.
Esports organizations must separate prize revenue from player distributions, recognize sponsorship revenue under ASC 606 as obligations are delivered, and track the 2026 rise of the Form 1099-NEC/MISC filing threshold from $600 to $2,000 per payee.
Economic Value Added (EVA) = NOPAT − (WACC × invested capital) — the profit left after every source of capital, debt and equity alike, is paid its going rate. A worked example, how to estimate NOPAT and WACC, why EVA avoids ROI's percentage bias, and how small business owners can use it for capital decisions.
Retainage withholds 5-10% of every construction progress payment until project completion, and contractors who book it into regular AR/AP instead of separate Retainage Receivable and Retainage Payable accounts lose visibility into which "earned" revenue is actually collectible now versus locked up for months.
Canada repealed the federal Underused Housing Tax for 2025 onward on March 26, 2026, but the repeal is not retroactive — US owners of Canadian property still owe UHT returns, penalties, and interest for 2022–2024, and BC's Speculation and Vacancy Tax, Vancouver's Empty Homes Tax, and Toronto's Vacant Home Tax remain in force.
Under IRS Notice 2014-21, every mining pool payout is ordinary income at its fair market value on receipt — a daily-payout pool creates ~365 taxable events a year before you sell anything. This guide covers hobby vs. Schedule C classification, 15.3% self-employment tax, Section 179 vs. 100% bonus depreciation for ASICs, the 2026 per-wallet cost-basis rule, Form 1099-DA reconciliation, and the per-lot records mining books need to survive an audit.
A barcade runs two businesses with opposite cost structures — liquor at a 20–24% pour cost and games at near-zero marginal cost. How to split the chart of accounts, book token sales as deferred revenue with ASC 606 breakage, expense machines via Section 179 or bonus depreciation, and test whether blended margin beats a plain bar's 10–15% net.
Amazon DSP settlement statements bundle base route rates, per-package fees, scorecard bonuses, and 1-4% chargebacks into one net deposit, and owners who book that as a single revenue line miss chargeback creep and the 50-60% labor markup that separates a 2.5% margin from a 6%+ one.
73% of accounting firms now use AI tools but only 37% have any formal AI training, and staff pasting client data into consumer chatbots can trigger data breach notification duties under the AICPA's Confidential Client Information Rule — here is what a usable two-page AI policy for a small CPA firm actually covers.
AI bookkeeping platforms like Docyt ($499-$999/month), Zeni ($549-$799/month), and Rillet automate transaction categorization, reconciliation, and forecasting, but compounding rule errors and industry-specific judgment calls still require human review.
A first-year SOC 2 Type II report for a 10–50 person SaaS company typically costs $25,000–$80,000 total, with the audit fee itself covering only about 40% of that — internal labor and readiness work make up the rest.
The 2026 IRS 1099-K threshold for platforms like eBay, StockX, and Whatnot is back to $20,000 and 200 transactions, but sneaker and trading card resellers still owe tax on profit below that line — here's how to nail cost basis, inventory tracking, and the hobby-vs-business test.
