Blog
Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team. Browse by tag.
Iowa's Captive Insurance Overhaul: What H.F. 2766's $100,000 Protected Cell Minimum Means for Small Businesses
Iowa's H.F. 2766, effective July 1, 2026, cuts the minimum capital for protected cell captives to $100,000, allows LLC and series LLC cells, and waives premium tax for captives that redomesticate. Here's when a captive pencils out for a small business — and how to spot abusive micro-captive tax shelters.
Indoor Skate Park Bookkeeping: Why Three Revenue Streams Can Sink a Profitable Facility
An indoor skate park is three businesses in one — admissions with near-zero COGS, high-margin coaching, and pro shop retail carrying 55–70% cost of goods sold. This guide covers splitting the chart of accounts by stream, recognizing punch card and membership revenue under ASC 606, depreciating ramp systems over 5–7 years with Section 179, and building a margin-weighted break-even model against $25,000–$30,000 in monthly fixed costs.
Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island Privacy Laws Took Effect in 2026: What Small Businesses Need to Know
On January 1, 2026, Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island became the 18th, 19th, and 20th states with comprehensive consumer privacy laws. This guide compares their applicability thresholds (as low as 10,000 consumers in Rhode Island), cure periods, penalties up to $10,000 per violation, and gives small businesses a six-step compliance checklist.
Idaho HB 559: Why 100% Bonus Depreciation Won't Apply on Your State Return
Idaho's HB 559, signed February 10, 2026, conforms to the OBBBA's expanded $2.5 million Section 179 cap but decouples from 100% bonus depreciation under Section 168(k), new Section 168(n) qualified production property expensing, and R&E transition relief — a divergence projected to cost Idaho businesses about $151 million in 2026. Here's who it hits and how the Form DBDA addback works.
Gymnastics and Cheer Gym Bookkeeping: Getting Tuition, Team Fees, and Meet Travel Right
A $3,600 competition-team fee paid in August isn't August revenue — it's deferred revenue recognized monthly across the season. How gymnastics and cheer gyms should book team fees, classify coaches (1099 vs. W-2), depreciate spring floors and mats under Section 179, and budget meet travel.
Funeral Home and Cemetery Bookkeeping: How Pre-Need Trusts and Revenue Recognition Actually Work
Pre-need funeral contracts can span 40 years between payment and service, so GAAP defers the revenue as a liability until delivery — while cemetery plot sales are recognized immediately as real-estate-like transactions. A guide to state trusting percentages, perpetual care funds, and the bookkeeping separations that keep deathcare businesses compliant.
Friendly Fraud Is Now 75% of eCommerce Disputes: A Small Merchant's Guide to Fighting Chargebacks
Friendly fraud costs eCommerce merchants an estimated $132 billion a year and now accounts for roughly 75% of all disputes, yet merchants win only 8.1% of manually contested chargebacks. Here's how small merchants can prevent disputes, use Visa CE3.0 evidence, stay under the 1.5% VAMP ratio, and track the true cost in their books.
Freelancing in Switzerland: How Cantonal Taxes, AHV, and the CHF 100,000 VAT Line Actually Work
A Swiss freelancer's tax bill stacks federal (up to 11.5%), cantonal, and communal layers — roughly CHF 15,000–18,000 on CHF 100,000 of profit in Zug versus about CHF 28,000 in Geneva. This guide covers AHV self-employed status (three criteria, ~10% of net profit, CHF 2,300 registration threshold), the CHF 100,000 VAT and Commercial Register line, 8.1% standard VAT, Pillar 3a deductions up to CHF 36,288, and when a GmbH beats a sole proprietorship.
Fed Survey: 80% of Small Businesses Are Passing Tariff Costs to Customers — and Nearly Half Aren't Done Raising Prices
The Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey finds 80% of tariff-paying small firms raised prices, 60% absorbed costs into margins, and 44-47% plan further increases — a "trickle up" pattern that means input costs haven't finished rising. Here's how to read the data and prepare your pricing and books.
FASB ASU 2025-10 Explained: The First U.S. GAAP Standard for Government Grants
FASB's ASU 2025-10, issued December 4, 2025, creates the first standalone U.S. GAAP guidance for government grants received by business entities. It requires recognition only when compliance and receipt are both probable, offers deferred-income or cost-accumulation presentation for asset-related grants, mandates annual disclosures, and takes effect for private companies in annual periods beginning after December 15, 2029.
FASB Just Made It Easier to Hedge Variable-Rate Debt — Here's What Changed
FASB's ASU 2025-09, issued November 2025, makes five targeted fixes to hedge accounting: a 'similar risk' standard for grouped cash flow hedges, a 'choose-your-rate' framework for variable-rate debt, broader nonfinancial asset hedge eligibility, simpler net written option rules, and dual hedge mismatch relief. Public companies must comply for periods beginning after December 15, 2026; private companies get until after December 15, 2027, with early adoption permitted.
FASB ASU 2025-08 Explained: Gross-Up Accounting for Purchased Seasoned Loans
FASB's ASU 2025-08 extends the CECL gross-up approach to purchased seasoned loans, eliminating the Day 1 provision expense on healthy acquired loan portfolios. Effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2026, with early adoption permitted — here's who qualifies, how the mechanics work, and how to prepare before your next acquisition.