Switching from Cash to Accrual Accounting: The Transition-Year Playbook for Small Businesses
Cash-to-accrual switches run through IRS Form 3115: positive Section 481(a) catch-ups spread over four years, so cutoff discipline sets the bill.
#accounting-basics
Accounting Basics
Foundational accounting concepts, terminology, and principles for small business owners
Break-Even Analysis in Units and Dollars: Your Minimum Viable Sales Number
Break-even units equal fixed costs divided by contribution margin — run it in units and dollars, then guard it with a margin of safety.
Contra Accounts Explained: The Offsets That Keep Your Financial Statements Honest
A contra account offsets its parent without erasing it: accumulated depreciation, allowance for doubtful accounts, and sales returns show gross and net.
When Your Books Won't Balance: What a Trial Balance Catches, What It Misses, and How to Hunt the Difference
Debits equal credits, yet your books can still be wrong — omissions, duplicates, and wrong-account postings all sail through a balanced trial balance.
The High-Low Method: Split Any Mixed Cost Into Fixed and Variable in Five Minutes
The high-low method splits a mixed cost using two periods — cost difference ÷ activity difference is the variable rate, and the remainder is fixed.
Closing Entries at Year-End: How to Zero Out Revenue and Expense Accounts and Roll Profit Into Retained Earnings
Master year-end closing entries: learn the four steps to zero revenue, expense, and dividend accounts, transfer net income via Income Summary to retained earnings (or capital), verify with a post-closing trial balance, and see how Beancount handles closing without manual entries.
When Excel Becomes a Liability: 7 Warning Signs It's Time to Switch to Accounting Software
Nearly 9 in 10 spreadsheets contain errors — learn the 7 warning signs your Excel bookkeeping is costing you time and accuracy, what accounting software fixes, and a migration checklist that keeps your history intact.
Pre-Need Funeral Trust Accounting: How to Track Future Obligations and Recognize Revenue Correctly
Pre-need funeral payments are not revenue until service — they're trust liabilities. Accrual, revenue recognition, and compliance for 2026.
Reading Your First P&L and Balance Sheet: A New Business Owner's Guide to the Two Reports That Answer "Am I Making Money?"
New business owners confuse cash in the bank with profit earned. Learn how to read your P&L and balance sheet together — revenue, COGS, gross margin, assets, liabilities, and equity — plus the seven bookkeeping mistakes that make beginners misread their own numbers.
Landscaping and Lawn Care Business Bookkeeping: Surviving the Winter Cash Crunch With a Seasonal Chart of Accounts and Reserve Strategy
Landscapers lose one-third of their businesses in five years to winter cash crunch—not from low margins, but from treating year-round expenses like a five-month revenue business. A seasonal chart of accounts, rolling cash forecast, and winter reserve strategy turns survival into planning.
The MSP Chart of Accounts: Separating Recurring, Resale, and Project Revenue
A managed service provider chart of accounts should split recurring MRR, hardware resale, and project/T&M into separate revenue and COGS lines, since blended margins of ~42% can hide 58% recurring services next to 8% hardware resale.
Reading Your First P&L and Balance Sheet: A New Business Owner's Guide
Learn to read P&L and balance sheets to understand your business's profitability and financial position. A practical guide for business owners on why both reports matter and how to use them for smarter decisions.