Skip to main content

Blog

Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team.

Browse by tagView all authors

Regulation S-P in 2026: The Incident-Response, Customer-Notice, and Recordkeeping Checklist for Small RIAs and Broker-Dealers

The SEC's amended Regulation S-P has applied to smaller covered institutions since June 3, 2026, requiring a written incident-response program, customer notice within 30 days of awareness, and 72-hour service-provider breach escalation. A practical checklist for small RIAs, broker-dealers, and transfer agents covering the notice decision, vendor oversight, disposal rules, and the records that prove each step.

mike

compliancesecurityincident-response

Real-Time Settlement and Instant Payment Accounting: How FedNow and ISO 20022 Change Bank Reconciliation

FedNow and the RTP network settle payments 24/7, so a bank balance can change before your books do. How to reconcile instant payments with a five-state payment lifecycle (approved, submitted, accepted, settled, returned), a clearing-account chart-of-accounts pattern, ISO 20022 identifiers worth preserving, and a 30-day rollout plan for small businesses.

mike

paymentsbankingreconciliation

Outcome-Based Pricing for Agentic AI SaaS: How to Recognize Revenue When Customers Pay Per Successful Result

Under ASC 606, an agentic AI contract that pays per successful result is accounted for by its promise, not its meter — stand-ready access is recognized over time, a specified quantity of outcomes by output, and hybrids split the two. Includes a decision tree, a worked example with journal entries, and the reconciliation data needed to close the books.

mike

revenue-recognitionsaasai

When a Multi-Year SaaS Discount Hides a Financing Component Under ASC 606

A multi-year SaaS prepayment discount can contain a significant financing component under ASC 606-10-32-15 through 32-20, changing the transaction price, interest presentation, and disclosures. This guide walks through a five-step contract review — service-transfer mapping, the narrower-than-it-sounds one-year practical expedient, cash selling price evidence, and locking the discount rate at inception — plus bookkeeping controls that keep cash, deferred revenue, and financing effects separate.

mike

revenue-recognitionsaasaccounting

IFRS for SMEs Third Edition: What Changes Before 1 January 2027

The IASB's third edition of the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard, issued February 2025, takes effect for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027. It rewrites revenue recognition on a simplified IFRS 15 model, moves business combinations to the acquisition method, consolidates financial instruments, adds a dedicated fair value section, and adopts a single control model—while deferring IFRS 16 leases and expected credit losses. This guide covers scope, the key section changes, and a five-step 2026 implementation plan.

mike

accountingfinancial-reportingfinancial-statements

Holiday Light Installation Bookkeeping: Make Six Busy Weeks Fund the Whole Year

A holiday light installation business can collect most of its annual cash in six weeks and still run dry by August. This guide builds the bookkeeping system that prevents it — a 12-month cash forecast with three scenarios, job-level costing, customer deposits held as liabilities until earned, an asset register for reusable lights, mileage and labor records, and a daily-weekly-monthly close routine that survives the rush.

mike

bookkeepingseasonal-businesscash-flow

Greenhouse Grower Cost Accounting: Allocate Space, Heating, Labor, Shrink, and Crop Turns to See Profit per Plant

A cost-accounting framework for greenhouse growers that allocates overhead by square-foot-weeks, splits heating and labor by crop, and tracks shrinkage by cause — so pricing rests on cost per marketable plant, not cost per plant started. Includes a worked example where $240,000 of shared costs over 320,000 square-foot-weeks yields a $0.75 occupancy rate.

mike

agriculturecost-managementexpense-allocation

Freelance Translator and Interpreter Bookkeeping: Reconcile Every Word, Hour, Currency, and Agency Cut

A bookkeeping system for freelance translators and interpreters that tracks per-word, hourly, and project income separately, reconciles agency statements from gross invoice to net deposit, records foreign-currency receipts at documented exchange rates per IRS rules, and measures effective hourly rates — with a chart of accounts and monthly close checklist.

mike

bookkeepingfreelanceself-employment

Form 4868 for Sole Proprietors in 2026: More Time to File, Not More Time to Pay

Form 4868 gives a sole proprietor an automatic six-month extension to file Form 1040 and Schedule C — moving the 2025 return deadline from April 15 to October 15, 2026 — but the tax itself was still due in April. How to estimate total liability including self-employment tax, request the extension electronically or through a designated payment, and limit the 5%-per-month failure-to-file penalty.

mike

tax-filingtax-deadlinessole-proprietorship

Feed Mill Bookkeeping: How to Account for Custom Grinding, Blending, and Ingredient Inventory

A feed mill's books must separate customer-owned grain from mill-owned inventory, record custom-grind fees as service revenue rather than inflated purchases and sales, cost each batch from ingredient lots through COGS, and make shrink and moisture variances visible — this guide walks through the ownership test, four revenue streams, lot-level inventory records, and a 10-step month-end close.

mike

agriculturebookkeepinginventory
Start Free→Documentation