When Chinese AI unicorn MiniMax debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this week, the numbers were staggering: a $620 million raise, a $6.5 billion valuation, and shares doubling on day one.
But headline numbers often obscure the real mechanics of a business. IPO prospectuses are notoriously dense, burying the narrative of a company's health under hundreds of pages of static tables.
We wanted to see the story clearly.
So, we took MiniMax's financial disclosures and reconstructed them into a plain-text Open Ledger. By converting static PDF data into a queryable Beancount format, we can visualize exactly how a company burns half a billion dollars to build an AI empire—and why investors are lining up to fund it.
Below is a simplified, interactive simulation of MiniMax’s key financials (2023–2025). This isn't just a spreadsheet; it is a double-entry accounting ledger that lets you trace the flow of every dollar from investor capital to R&D burn.
Click through the "Income Statement" and "Balance Sheet" tabs above to explore the data structure.
The ledger's Expenses hierarchy is painted red, and for good reason.
Net Loss (Q1-Q3 2025): $512 million.
However, a closer look at the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) account shows a silver lining. Gross margins have flipped from -24.7% (2023) to +23.3% (2025). While they are still burning cash on R&D and marketing, the core unit economics are starting to work. They are no longer losing money on every API call—they are now losing money on growth, which is a problem investors are happy to solve.
In the Beancount format used above, every financial event is a line of text.
It’s version-controlled: Just like software code, you can use Git to track who changed a number, when, and why.
It’s auditable: You can trace the $620M IPO injection from Equity:Investors directly into Assets:Cash without guessing.
It’s AI-Ready: ironically, for an AI company, standard accounting data is hard for AI to read. Plain-text ledgers are natural language, making them perfect for LLM analysis.
MiniMax’s IPO is a masterclass in high-stakes AI economics: massive burn, massive growth, and a pivot toward sustainable margins. By visualizing their prospectus as an Open Ledger, we strip away the corporate jargon and see the engine for what it is.
You don't need to be raising $600 million to benefit from this clarity. Whether you are a startup founder or a freelancer, treating your finances as an engineering problem—using plain text, version control, and rigorous structure—gives you the same command over your business that Alibaba and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority demanded from MiniMax.
Most financial software forces you to trust them with your data. They own it, control it, and lock you in. We believe you deserve better.
Today, we're launching the next generation of Beancount.io, built on a simple principle: your financial data should belong to you, not us. With native Git integration, you can pull your complete accounting ledger to your own machine, edit it with any tool you want, and push changes back. No lock-in. No proprietary formats. Just your data, under your control.
This release focuses on three core goals that matter most to the people managing their finances with plain-text accounting:
True Data Ownership through native Git integration
Seamless Collaboration for teams, partners, and accountants
An Intuitive Interface that makes plain-text accounting accessible to everyone
Track your net profit, income, and expenses across different commodities over time. The Income Statement view provides a clear breakdown of your revenue streams and spending patterns, helping you identify trends and make informed financial decisions. Visualize your financial performance with interactive charts that show how your income and expenses evolve month by month or year by year.
Monitor your net worth across different commodities over time with the comprehensive Balance Sheet view. See your assets, liabilities, and equity at any point in time, with historical tracking that shows how your financial position changes. This powerful tool helps you understand your overall financial health and track progress toward your financial goals.
The Trial Balance view provides a complete snapshot of all your account balances at a specific point in time. Perfect for reconciliation and ensuring your books are balanced, this view shows debits and credits side by side, making it easy to verify the accuracy of your accounting records.
Dive deep into any account with the Account Detail view. See account balance values and changes over time with intuitive charts and graphs. The view includes a comprehensive account journal that shows all transactions affecting the account, including sub-accounts, giving you complete visibility into how money flows through your financial system.
The new dashboard introduces a completely redesigned file editor that makes editing your Beancount ledger files a pleasure. Built with modern, responsive design principles, the new editor provides a smooth, intuitive editing experience whether you're on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device.
One of the most requested features is now here: native Git integration. With the new version, you can seamlessly pull your ledger accounts using standard Git protocols, giving you complete control over your financial data.
What you can do:
# Clone your ledger to your machine git clone ssh://[email protected]:2222/you/ledger.git # Edit locally with your favorite tools vim2025.beancount # Push changes back git commit -am"Added Q4 transactions" git push
Why this matters (Data Sovereignty):
True Exit Plan: Your complete financial history is in a standard Git repository. You stop paying us? You keep everything.
Tool Agnostic: Edit with VS Code, Vim, Emacs, or specialized Beancount tools. Your choice, not ours.
Complete Audit Trail: Every change is tracked with Git's full history, showing exactly who changed what and when. Perfect for compliance and peace of mind.
Distributed Backup: Git's distributed nature means you have automatic, versioned backups on your machine.
This makes Beancount.io the only platform that makes your data more portable, not less.
Team Collaboration: Built for How Teams Actually Work
Whether you're running a small business, working with an accountant, or managing household finances with a partner, collaboration matters.
The new collaboration system makes this natural and affordable:
Invite Collaborators: Simply invite others by email to join your ledger as collaborators
Real-Time Updates: See changes made by collaborators in real-time, keeping everyone in sync
Activity History: Track who made what changes and when, maintaining full accountability
Perfect for small businesses, freelancers working with accountants, or anyone who needs to share financial management responsibilities. Collaboration has never been easier or more secure.
Multi-Ledger Support: Organize Your Finances Your Way
The new version supports creating multiple ledgers, giving you the flexibility to organize your finances exactly as you need. Whether you want separate ledgers for personal and business finances, different projects, or different entities, the new version makes it simple.
Benefits of multi-ledger support:
Separation of Concerns: Keep personal and business finances completely separate
Project-Based Organization: Create dedicated ledgers for different projects or clients
Flexible Structure: Organize your accounting system in a way that makes sense for your unique situation
Easy Switching: Move between ledgers seamlessly with the intuitive ledger switcher
Create as many ledgers as you need to keep your financial records organized and manageable.
Public Ledgers: Share and Learn from the Community
The new version introduces public ledger sharing, allowing you to share your well-structured ledgers with the Beancount community. This feature promotes knowledge sharing and helps others learn best practices for organizing their own accounting systems.
How public ledgers work:
Share Your Expertise and Let it Go Viral: Make your ledger public to help others learn from your setup
Discover Best Practices: Browse public ledgers to see how others organize their finances
Community Learning and Social Network: Learn from real-world examples of effective Beancount usage
Privacy Control: You decide which ledgers to make public—your private ledgers remain completely private
By sharing excellent ledger examples, we're building a stronger, more knowledgeable Beancount community where everyone can learn and improve together.
We champion your data sovereignty by securing your ledger in a private, encrypted Git repository that you fully own, can export, and delete at will. This control demands responsibility: you determine access by managing trusted collaborators and must exercise extreme caution when publishing ledgers, understanding that public data is permanently visible to the internet and should be thoroughly sanitized of sensitive details. Ultimately, your data remains yours—protected by our infrastructure but governed strictly by your rules.
The new version is just the beginning of our journey toward making Beancount.io the best plain-text accounting platform available, targeting toward GitHub of Finance. Traditional financial software relies on "Data Lock-in". Beancount.io is building a different kind of defensibility: Protocol Lock-in. We're already working on:
Mobile app improvements for on-the-go accounting
Additional integrations with popular financial services
More advanced reporting and analytics features
Enhanced collaboration tools for teams
We'd love to hear your feedback on the new version! Your input helps us prioritize what to build next.
Every loan payment splits into two stories: the principal that reduces what you owe and the interest that compensates the lender. When you understand how those pieces move, you can rewrite the ending—paying less interest and clearing the balance sooner. This guide unpacks the math, shows how to experiment with payoff tactics, and explains how to document everything cleanly in Beancount.
Principal is the original amount you borrow. It is the liability that appears on your balance sheet and declines as you repay.
Interest is the cost of using someone else’s money. It accrues over time based on the outstanding principal and the annual percentage rate (APR).
Total payment equals principal plus interest for that period. Early in an amortized loan, most of your payment goes to interest; later on, the balance flips as the principal shrinks.
Keeping these definitions straight matters because only principal reduction improves your debt-to-equity ratios and lowers future interest charges.
Most business loans and mortgages follow an amortization schedule:
The lender calculates the interest due for the period: (Outstanding Principal × APR ÷ Periods per Year).
Your contractual payment—fixed or variable—is applied first to that interest.
Whatever remains reduces principal. Next month, interest is computed on the new, smaller balance.
For example, a $120,000 loan at 7% APR with monthly payments of $1,200 allocates $700 to interest and $500 to principal in month one. By month twelve, the interest portion falls to $632 while the principal portion climbs to $568. The more you can push toward principal early, the more you compress the total interest cost.
To outpace interest, focus on strategies that directly target principal:
Make targeted extra payments. Adding even $100 toward principal each month on the example loan above saves roughly $8,000 in interest and shaves 28 months off the schedule.
Adopt a biweekly cadence. Twenty-six half-payments per year equal thirteen full payments. That “extra” month goes entirely to principal without hurting cash flow.
Refinance when rates drop. Lowering the APR or shortening the term increases the principal share of every payment. Model closing costs to confirm the savings.
Redirect windfalls. Tax refunds, bonus payouts, or seasonal revenue spikes can become lump-sum principal reductions that permanently shrink interest accrual.
Always confirm that your lender applies additional funds to principal and that there are no prepayment penalties.
Add debt reviews to your monthly close. Reconcile the loan balance in Beancount against the lender statement and confirm that extra payments hit principal.
Automate contributions. Schedule the biweekly or extra payments through your bank so momentum never depends on manual action.
Track interest savings. Run a yearly report on Expenses:Interest:Loans to watch the cost decline and motivate stakeholders.
Reinvest freed-up cash. When the loan is gone, redirect the former payment amount into reserves or growth projects so your financial position keeps strengthening.
Mastering the interplay between principal and interest gives you control over debt rather than letting interest dictate the pace. With clear modeling in Beancount and disciplined execution, you can close the loan faster and keep more cash for the priorities that matter.
Plain-text accounting can do more than keep your ledger clean—it can make your company credit ready. Whether you are chasing a new product launch or smoothing out seasonal cash flow, lenders reward founders who show meticulous records, reliable forecasting, and thoughtful cash planning. This guide breaks down how to use Beancount to prepare, what funding options to consider, and how to run the loan process without derailing your week.
Lenders want to see two stories: why you need capital and how you will repay it.
Size the project. Build a Beancount query that models the cash required, the expected timing, and the revenue impact. A simple balance report on your project accounts plus a forecast of Accounts Receivable aging helps show the gap the loan will cover.
Stress-test cash flow. Use historical Beancount data to calculate debt service coverage ratio (DSCR = Net Operating Income ÷ Total Debt Service). Most banks want to see DSCR ≥ 1.25 on a forward-looking basis.
Define the exit. If you plan to refinance, sell, or pay down the balance with future profits, document that inside your loan memo. Banks love a plan that can be cross-checked in your ledger.
Founder tip: Export a Beancount-generated cash flow forecast to CSV and attach it to your application packet. It shows discipline and saves underwriters work.
Step 2: Build a Documentation Packet Straight from Beancount
A clean documentation packet speeds up underwriting. Create a folder that includes:
Trailing 24 months of financial statements. Use Beancount reports for the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.
Year-to-date ledger detail. A print statement filtered by date and account demonstrates transparency.
Tax returns and filed sales tax reports. Tie your ledger totals to each filing to prove accuracy.
Owner equity schedule and capitalization table. Lenders scrutinize how much of your own capital is at risk.
Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable aging. Export your aging report to spotlight collection discipline.
Business plan addendum. A concise memo summarizing strategy, market traction, and why the loan will succeed.
Store the packet in a shared drive and label each file using a consistent naming convention (for example: 2024-12-balance-sheet.pdf). When an underwriter asks for supporting detail, you can respond within minutes.
Step 3: Match the Loan Type to the Business Use Case
Choosing the wrong product is the fastest way to overpay. Evaluate these common options:
You cannot change last year’s results, but you can polish the presentation fast.
Tighten accounts receivable. Use Beancount’s aging report to target overdue customers and document collection plans.
Reduce discretionary spending. Update your budget, tag nonessential expenses, and demonstrate improved margins in the latest month.
Separate personal and business flows. Reconcile owner draws and ensure all personal transactions are coded to equity, not operating expenses.
Increase cash reserves. Sweep idle funds into a business savings account to show liquidity equal to at least two months of operating expenses.
Check your personal credit. Download reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion and dispute errors now.
Document each change in a “credit readiness log” so you can narrate improvements during lender conversations.
Step 5: Shop the Market with a Targeted Outreach List
Create a lender comparison spreadsheet that captures:
Loan program and maximum amount
Rate type (fixed, variable, or indexed)
Required collateral and guarantees
Minimum credit score, revenue, and time in business
Decision timelines and funding speed
Prioritize lenders that already bank your deposit accounts, community development financial institutions (CDFIs) that understand local markets, and fintech lenders known for API-based underwriting. Record each conversation with date, contact, and next steps so you can keep momentum without double-booking meetings.
Log application fees and deposits. Use a dedicated expense account so you can deduct or capitalize costs appropriately.
Track conditional approvals. Create metadata tags like loan_status:"conditional" to surface open requests.
Respond to underwriting questions. Build saved Beancount queries (for example, inventory turnover, gross margin trend) so you can export reports quickly.
Update the ledger when funded. Record the disbursement, set up the liability account, and schedule automatic postings for interest and principal.
Lenders gravitate toward borrowers who think like controllers. By leveraging a transparent, auditable ledger, you can replace frantic spreadsheet scrambles with repeatable workflows:
Clarity: Double-entry bookkeeping keeps every draw, fee, and payment reconciled.
Speed: Saved queries and exports answer underwriter questions without manual rework.
Confidence: Clean books help you negotiate better rates, larger limits, or more flexible covenants.
Use this playbook as a checklist the next time you need outside capital. With Beancount as the source of truth, your numbers speak the language lenders expect—and that can turn a stressful loan hunt into a strategic win.
International contractors, remote teammates, or family abroad can make cross-border payments part of your regular bookkeeping. Fees and currency swings add complexity, but a little planning helps you pick the right payment rail and keep your Beancount ledger accurate.
Start by recording why you are sending the money and how often it will happen. Paying a freelancer once a quarter has a different risk profile than reimbursing a subsidiary every week. Document the business purpose in Beancount with metadata like payee, project, or invoicenumber so you can trace each transfer during reviews or audits.
Most cross-border transfers fall into three buckets. Evaluate each one based on speed, cost, and the level of documentation it provides for your ledger.
Traditional bank wires ride the SWIFT network. They are reliable and deliver strong compliance records. Expect higher fixed fees ($15–$50 USD per wire) and potential intermediary bank charges. They work best when:
You already have a relationship with the receiving bank.
The amount is large enough that fixed fees are a small percentage of the total.
You need a paper trail that satisfies auditors or investors.
In Beancount, capture wires with a two-step entry:
Specialized platforms designed for small businesses bundle competitive FX spreads with lower transfer fees. Many integrate with accounting tools or provide CSV exports you can import into Beancount. They are ideal when:
You pay multiple vendors in the same currency each month.
You want to lock in an exchange rate ahead of payroll or invoice runs.
You need automation hooks (APIs, webhooks) to reconcile payments quickly.
Record these transfers by importing the platform statement, then tag each posting with the platform name so you can trace disputes or chargebacks.
Holding balances in multiple currencies lets you pick the timing of conversions. Digital wallets shine when you receive and send money in the same foreign currency. Watch for:
Dormancy fees if balances sit unused.
Regulatory limits on business use in certain countries.
The need to mark-to-market balances at month-end in your Beancount ledger.
Model wallets as separate asset accounts per currency. Revalue them with a price directive so your balance sheet reflects current FX rates.
Cross-border transfers can take days to settle. Schedule a monthly reconciliation to match your Beancount ledger against bank or platform statements. Focus on:
Transfers still in transit at month-end.
FX gains or losses on multi-currency balances.
Fees that creep up over time and warrant a pricing review.
Confirm the recipient’s banking details or wallet address.
Validate the transfer limit with your bank or platform.
Capture the projected FX rate and total cost in Beancount.
Queue up supporting documents for compliance.
Staying methodical keeps international payments from turning into a reconciliation nightmare. By choosing the rail that matches your speed, cost, and documentation needs—and by capturing every detail in Beancount—you build a ledger that stays audit-ready no matter where your money travels.
Electronic funds transfers (EFTs) quietly move most of the money in a modern business. Rent, payroll, customer payouts, even reimbursements are increasingly routed through digital networks instead of paper checks. That speed and convenience comes with new bookkeeping expectations: you have to follow the money before, during, and after it leaves your bank.
This guide unpacks how the major EFT rails operate, what to look for in the settlement timeline, and how to model the entire flow in Beancount so your ledger always tells the truth about cash.
An electronic funds transfer is any movement of money between bank accounts that happens via digital messaging rather than cash or paper instruments. The umbrella covers ACH debits and credits, wire transfers, debit card transactions, peer-to-peer payments, instant payout products, and more. Instead of carrying a physical authorization, the sender instructs their bank to push or pull funds through a shared network.
The key bookkeeping implication: the timestamp when you initiate an EFT, the date it posts on your bank statement, and the date the counterparty recognizes the cash are often different. You need to record the intent, the in-flight balance, and the final settlement to keep your balances reliable.
ACH (Automated Clearing House). Batch-based transfers that settle in one to three business days. Common for payroll, vendor invoices, and recurring billing because of predictable fees.
Same Day ACH. An accelerated flavor that still clears through NACHA but credits the destination account the same day if submitted before the network deadlines. Useful for urgent payroll corrections or supplier rush payments.
Wire transfers. Real-time gross settlement with higher fees, typically used for large, time-sensitive transactions or international deals.
Debit and virtual card networks. Card-not-present sales and payouts from platforms (Stripe, PayPal, marketplaces) ultimately sweep through EFT settlement, though a card processor stands in the middle.
Instant payout services. Offer immediate movement to a debit card or account using RTP or push-to-card rails. Fees are higher but valuable for gig payouts or emergency disbursements.
Bank-to-bank payment links. Open banking APIs and RTP allow customers to authorize a one-off pull directly from their accounts with instant confirmation and finality.
Authorization. You (or your platform) capture the customer or vendor’s consent, storing the banking details or tokenized credentials.
Submission. Your bank or payment processor bundles instructions and submits them to the appropriate network (ACH, RTP, SWIFT, etc.).
Network processing. The network validates the transaction, checks for sanctions or errors, and schedules settlement.
Settlement. Funds move between the participating financial institutions. Your bank reflects the pending amount, then the posted balance when cleared.
Notification and reconciliation. Statements, webhooks, or CSV exports confirm the final figures and any associated fees or chargebacks.
Your ledger should mirror that timeline. Use supporting accounts (like clearing or undeposited funds) when money is in flight so cash-on-hand never looks higher or lower than reality.
When a platform deposits card or ACH payouts, fees are usually withheld before the deposit reaches your bank. Record the gross sale, the fees, and the net cash in a single transaction:
Are EFT payments secure? They rely on encrypted bank-to-bank messaging and regulated networks. Your internal controls—like dual approval for new beneficiaries—are the most important safeguard.
How fast do EFTs clear? ACH is usually T+1 or T+2, wires settle same day, and instant payment products clear in seconds if both banks support the rail. Record the exact posting date to avoid timing mismatches.
Do I need special accounts in Beancount for EFTs? Not mandatory, but clearing accounts make it easy to spot delays and reconcile complex payouts. Think of them as a staging area that mirrors the processing network.
Keeping EFT activity transparent in Beancount gives you real-time visibility into working capital. With accurate postings, you can forecast cash, respond to customer inquiries faster, and close the books without hunting through bank portals.
Month-end chaos is a sign that data, processes, and teams are working in batches. A continuous close replaces that scramble with a steady rhythm of daily reconciliations, exception alerts, and rolling financial statements. With Beancount as your system of record, you can design that rhythm without buying another closed platform.
Plain-text accounting shines here because it is fully observable, scriptable, and easy to automate. Combined with AI-assisted data classification and reconciliation, finance teams can monitor the ledger in near real time and catch issues long before they derail reporting.
A continuous close is an operating model where journal entries, reconciliations, and reviews occur throughout the month instead of in a single end-of-period sprint. The goal is to provide leadership with fresh financial data at any time while still preserving audit quality.
Key traits of a mature continuous close:
Rolling reconciliations: Bank, payroll, and card feeds sync daily with automatic variance checks.
Exception-first workflows: Analysts focus only on flagged anomalies; everything else posts automatically.
Shared visibility: Controllers, FP&A, and RevOps can all view the same Beancount source of truth.
Short feedback loops: Forecasts update as soon as actuals land, improving planning accuracy.
Traditional ERPs hide business logic behind forms and API quotas. Beancount stores every decision in git-friendly text files, making it perfect for continuous delivery practices.
Version control keeps a full history of adjustments, approvals, and supporting context.
Composable automations let you pair Beancount with Python, dbt, or Airflow for scheduled tasks.
AI-ready data because accounts and metadata live in a structured, machine-readable format.
Portability so auditors can ingest the same ledger as your internal scripts.
Week 1: Map the current close. Identify every data source, manual reconciliation, and approval gate. Document them in a swimlane diagram and note handoffs that create waiting time.
Week 2: Automate ingest and validation. Configure daily imports for banking and revenue systems. Add Beancount assertions (balance, pad, close) plus Python scripts that fail the pipeline when totals drift.
Week 3: Layer on AI assistance. Deploy classification prompts that enrich transactions with payee, cost center, and VAT tags. Route unresolved items to a shared inbox with context pulled directly from the ledger.
Week 4: Pilot rolling reporting. Publish a continuously updating income statement and cash dashboard. Hold a retro to capture new policies (materiality thresholds, approval SLAs) and update your runbooks.
Pairing metadata annotations (automation, expected_settlement_days) with scheduled scripts lets you auto-close clearing accounts and raise alerts only when payouts miss the window or fees drift.
Continuous close is not about adding more meetings at month end—it is about designing flows that run every day. With Beancount, you already have the composable ledger foundation. Layer on automation, AI tagging, and disciplined review habits, and your finance team can deliver investor-ready numbers whenever leadership asks.
Choosing a credit card processor is part math, part operations. The right partner simplifies your workflow, while the wrong one can slowly bleed your margins through hidden fees and create bookkeeping nightmares. Transaction fees, payout timing, hardware costs, contracts, and data export quality all affect your bottom line—and your accounting workflow. This guide highlights popular U.S. options in 2025 and adds Beancount-friendly tips so you can keep your ledger clean from day one.
All pricing snapshots below are published U.S. rates as of September 2025 and may vary by plan, industry, and transaction volume. Always confirm current pricing on the provider’s official site.
Before diving into brand names, use this framework to narrow your search. Your business's unique transaction profile is the most important factor.
Transaction Mix
Mostly in-person, low average ticket: Your priority is speed and simplicity at the point of sale. Favor simple flat-rate POS systems like Square, Zettle, Clover, or Chase.
Mostly online/SaaS or multi-country: You need robust APIs, international payment methods, and developer-friendly tools. Look at Stripe, Adyen, or Braintree.
$30k–$100k+ monthly volume with a stable mix: At this scale, flat-rate pricing becomes expensive. It's time to consider interchange-plus (Helcim, Dharma) or membership (Stax, Payment Depot) models to lower your effective rate.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Don't just look at the advertised percentage. Calculate your effective rate by combining the percentage fee, fixed cents-per-transaction fee, monthly account fees, hardware costs, and potential chargeback fees. This gives you a true picture of your costs.
Payout Cadence
How quickly do you need your cash? A next-day deposit schedule versus a two-day rolling window (T+2) can significantly impact your cash-flow forecasting. We'll cover how to model this in Beancount below.
Lock-In
Avoid long-term contracts with hefty early termination fees (ETFs). Look for month-to-month billing and, crucially, the ability to easily export your transaction data via CSV or an API. Your data is your own; don't let a processor hold it hostage.
Stripe is the gold standard for internet businesses. Its excellent APIs, pre-built Checkout and Link components, robust subscription management, and global payment method support make it incredibly versatile. For physical sales, its Terminal line of hardware integrates seamlessly.
Pricing Snapshot: Online transactions are typically 2.9% + 30¢ (domestic). In-person payments via Terminal are 2.7% + 5¢. International cards and currency conversion may incur surcharges.
Payouts: Operates on a configurable, rolling schedule. Most U.S. businesses see funds available on a T+2 basis (two business days after the transaction).
Square excels at getting new retail and service businesses up and running quickly. With a free and intuitive POS app, a simple hardware lineup, and fast onboarding, it's a favorite for cafes, boutiques, and service providers.
Pricing Snapshot: In-person is 2.6% + 15¢, online is 2.9% + 30¢, keyed-in is 3.5% + 15¢, and invoices are 3.3% + 30¢.
Payouts: Standard next-business-day transfers are free. For urgent cash needs, instant or same-day transfers are available for an additional 1.75% fee.
Perfect for sellers at farmers' markets, pop-up shops, or conventions. Zettle offers low-cost entry hardware that integrates smoothly with the broader PayPal ecosystem, making it easy to manage funds alongside your online PayPal sales.
Pricing Snapshot: In-person card transactions are 2.29% + 9¢. Keyed, invoice, and online transactions have separate rates.
Braintree (by PayPal) — Best for PayPal/Venmo + Cards Under One API
Braintree is a developer-centric platform that allows businesses to accept credit cards, PayPal, Venmo, and other digital wallets through a single integration. It's a strong choice for e-commerce sites that want to offer customers a wide array of payment options.
Pricing Snapshot: Standard rate for cards and most digital wallets is 2.89% + 29¢. Venmo is often 3.49% + 49¢. Discounts for non-profits and custom pricing for high-volume businesses are available.
Helcim — Best Transparent Interchange-Plus with Volume Discounts
Helcim offers interchange-plus pricing with no monthly fee, making it an accessible option for businesses graduating from flat-rate models. Its pricing automatically gets cheaper as your processing volume increases, with clear tiers published on its site.
Pricing Snapshot: Margins are typically around Interchange + 0.40% + 8¢ (card-present) and Interchange + 0.50% + 25¢ (card-not-present), with margins decreasing at higher volumes.
Dharma Merchant Services — Best Small-to-Mid B2B Interchange-Plus
Dharma is known for its fair interchange-plus pricing and excellent support, with a focus on B2B transactions. It helps businesses qualify for lower Level 2 and Level 3 processing rates, which can lead to significant savings on corporate card transactions.
Pricing Snapshot: Card-present is IC + 0.15% + 8¢, and e-commerce is IC + 0.20% + 11¢, plus a modest monthly fee.
Stax — Best Subscription (Membership) Pricing at Higher Volumes
Stax uses a membership model: you pay a flat monthly subscription fee and in return get access to direct interchange rates with a "0% markup." This can be extremely cost-effective once your monthly volume is high enough to justify the subscription cost.
Pricing Snapshot: Plans start at $99/month, with tiers based on annual processing volume.
Payment Depot — Membership Alternative to Lower Processing Costs
Similar to Stax, Payment Depot offers interchange-plus rates under a membership model. It positions itself as a way for businesses to access wholesale processing rates without percentage markups, with an emphasis on no long-term contracts or early termination fees.
Pricing Snapshot: Membership-style IC+ pricing. Plans are typically provided via a custom quote.
Shopify Payments — Best if You Already Run on Shopify
If your business runs on Shopify, using Shopify Payments is a no-brainer. It's tightly integrated with your store, provides excellent fraud analysis tools, and enables the high-converting Shop Pay checkout. Using a third-party gateway on Shopify incurs additional fees.
Pricing Snapshot: Rates are tied to your Shopify plan. Online fees range from ~2.5% to 2.9% + 30¢, while in-person rates are around 2.4% to 2.6% + 10¢ on higher tiers.
Toast is purpose-built for the food and beverage industry. Its platform combines durable, restaurant-grade hardware with software for kitchen display systems (KDS), online ordering, inventory, and even payroll add-ons.
Pricing Snapshot: A pay-as-you-go plan is available at ~3.09%–3.69% + 15¢. If you pay for hardware upfront, rates can be as low as 2.49% + 15¢ (card-present) and 3.50% + 15¢ (card-not-present).
Clover (Fiserv) — Best POS Hardware Variety (Retail/Service)
Clover offers one of the broadest hardware lineups in the industry, from the mobile Go and Flex to the countertop Mini and Station. This variety makes it a flexible choice for retail stores and service businesses that need a specific form factor.
Pricing Snapshot: Rates vary widely by plan and device, but in-person rates are commonly advertised as low as 2.6% + 10¢.
Lightspeed Payments — Best Mid-Market Retail POS with Deep Inventory
Lightspeed is a powerhouse for retail businesses with complex inventory needs. Its integrated payments system works seamlessly with its advanced POS features, providing a unified platform for sales and stock management.
Pricing Snapshot: A frequently cited U.S. reference rate is ~2.6% + 10¢ for in-person and ~2.9% + 30¢ for card-not-present transactions.
Authorize.Net — Best Standalone Gateway (Bring Your Own Merchant Account)
A long-standing and trusted name, Authorize.Net is a payment gateway that connects your website to your merchant account. This is for businesses that have already negotiated a direct merchant account with an acquiring bank and just need the technology layer to process online payments.
Pricing Snapshot:All-in-one:$25/mo + 2.9% + 30¢. Gateway-only:$25/mo + 10¢ per transaction, plus a small daily batch fee.
Chase Payment Solutions — Best Bank-Integrated POS & Fast Deposits
For businesses that bank with Chase, their payment solutions offer a compelling advantage: the potential for same-day deposits into a Chase business checking account at no extra cost. This tight integration simplifies cash flow management.
Pricing Snapshot: Card-present is 2.6% + 10¢, while keyed-in sales and payment links are 3.5% + 10¢.
Plain-text accounting shines when you can model real-world financial flows precisely. For payment processors, the key is using a "clearing account" to track money from the moment of sale until it lands in your bank. This preserves your gross revenue figures and makes reconciliation trivial.
Example Chart of Accounts:
Assets:Bank:Operating Assets:Processors:Stripe ; A clearing account for each processor Income:Sales Expenses:ProcessingFees Liabilities:SalesTax:Payable
Most processors batch your sales, subtract their fees, and deposit the net amount. Your job is to record the gross sale first, then account for the deposit and the fee. A $100 sale with a $2.90 fee becomes:
Why this pattern is essential: It correctly records $100 in Income:Sales and $2.90 in Expenses:ProcessingFees. This is critical for analyzing your true gross revenue and is exactly what you need to reconcile your books with the processor's 1099-K form at year-end.
Some POS systems (like Toast or Clover) will show a single large deposit for a day's sales, with fees deducted as separate line items in their report. The principle is the same: balance the clearing account to zero.
For membership models, the monthly subscription is a separate operating expense. You book it directly, while the much smaller per-transaction fees are handled using Pattern A or B.
One Clearing Account Per Processor: Create Assets:Processors:Stripe, Assets:Processors:Square, etc. If you have multiple locations, consider Assets:Processors:Toast:Store1 to isolate activity.
Mind the Payout Cadence: A sale on Friday might not hit your bank until Tuesday. This lag is why the clearing account is so important for accurate cash forecasting.
Automate Your Imports: Every provider offers CSV exports. Write simple Python scripts or use Fava's importer functionality to map the columns (date, gross amount, fees, net deposit) to Beancount transactions.
Handle Sales Tax Correctly: Sales tax is not income. Split it out to Liabilities:SalesTax:Payable at the time of sale. Most POS reports provide this breakdown.
Book Chargebacks Promptly: When a chargeback occurs, the processor debits your account. Book a reversal to Income:Sales for the sale amount and a separate entry to Expenses:ProcessingFees for the chargeback fee.
For the simplest setup with daily auto-payouts: Start with Square or Zettle. Their reports are clean and easy to import.
For developer work, subscriptions, or multiple payment methods:Stripe or Braintree are your best bets due to their powerful APIs.
If you process ≥$30k/month with a stable card mix: It's time to do the math. Price out Helcim (IC+) versus Stax/Payment Depot (membership) to calculate your true effective rate.
For a restaurant POS: Compare Toast and Clover/Lightspeed, paying close attention to contract terms and hardware financing.
If you're already on Shopify: Use Shopify Payments to avoid paying extra gateway fees.
For same-day deposits into your operating account:Chase QuickAccept linked to a Chase business checking account is the clear winner.
If you keep immaculate books in Beancount, you already think in systems. You appreciate precision, automation, and a single source of truth. This guide turns that disciplined mindset into an 11-step, practical workflow for establishing and growing business credit. We'll map each critical step to simple, automatable Beancount habits, transforming your ledger from a historical record into a forward-looking tool for financial strength.
The world of business credit can feel opaque, but the principles for 2025 are straightforward. Here’s what you need to know before you start.
First, separate your identities. The absolute foundation of business credit is a distinct legal entity (like an LLC or corporation) with its own, separate bank accounts. Co-mingling personal and business funds is the fastest way to be denied business credit.
Next, get an Employer Identification Number (EIN). This is your business's social security number for tax purposes. It is always free and you should apply for it directly with the IRS—never pay a third-party site for this service.
Then, understand how you’ll be scored. Unlike consumer credit's unified FICO score, business credit is measured by several bureaus, each with its own methodology:
Dun & Bradstreet PAYDEX® (1–100): This score is almost entirely driven by your payment history with vendors and suppliers. A score of 80 is considered on-time, while anything higher indicates you pay your bills early.
Experian Intelliscore Plus (1–100): This is a predictive score that forecasts the likelihood of serious delinquency. It analyzes payment trends, public records, and other company data.
FICO® SBSS (Small Business Scoring Service): This score is critical for accessing SBA 7(a) "Small Loans." As of 2025, the Small Business Administration (SBA) lists a minimum prescreen score of 165.
Finally, know that monitoring is fragmented. Scores differ by bureau, and accessing your full reports often costs money. Before paying for a report, try to verify which score a specific lender or vendor uses.
Heads-up: A quick note on identifiers. If you plan to sell to the U.S. federal government, the Unique Entity ID (UEI) replaced the D-U-N-S number in the SAM.gov system on April 4, 2022. However, for building your business credit file with Dun & Bradstreet, the D-U-N-S number is still essential.
The 11 Steps (and the Beancount Moves That Make Them Stick)
This is the non-negotiable first step. Form a legal entity, open a dedicated business checking account, and keep personal funds out. This creates a clean financial history that credit bureaus can track.
Beancount Move:
Your ledger should explicitly reflect this separation from day one. Open distinct accounts for the business and document initial capitalization cleanly.
Apply directly at IRS.gov. Once you receive your EIN confirmation letter (SS-4), store a digital copy in a docs/ directory alongside your ledger. This keeps critical identity documents version-controlled and accessible.
Beancount Move:
Use metadata at the top of your ledger file to record the EIN and link to the source document.
Tip: Beware of search-ad "EIN helpers" that charge fees or harvest your data. Always verify you are on a .gov domain before entering sensitive information.
A D-U-N-S number links your company to its Dun & Bradstreet credit file, which vendors and lenders use to assess your reliability. Go to the D&B website to claim or update your company's record for free.
Beancount Move:
Just like your EIN, add your D-U-N-S number to your ledger's metadata. You can also link to an internal checklist for vendor onboarding to ensure you're always providing consistent information.
4. Open a Business Credit Card and Use It Prudently
A revolving business credit card is a powerful tool, as issuers often report your payment history to business bureaus. Use it for regular expenses, keep your utilization modest (ideally under 30%), and never, ever miss a payment.
Beancount Move:
Model your credit card as a liability. Use metadata to note which bureaus it reports to. Track purchases and, crucially, payments from your business checking account.
5. Establish Vendor Net-30 Trade Lines That Report
This is the fastest path to building a strong PAYDEX score. Find vendors that offer payment terms (e.g., Net-30) and confirm that they report your payment history to bureaus like D&B. Office supply, packaging, and shipping companies are common starting points.
Beancount Move:
Track each vendor invoice in your Accounts Payable (Liabilities:AP). When you pay the invoice, record the transaction and consider adding a tag to track your payment habits.
D&B explicitly maps a PAYDEX score of 80 to "prompt/on-time" payments. Scores above 80 signify early payments. If your cash flow allows, paying invoices 10–20 days before the due date can significantly boost your score.
Beancount Move:
This is a process, not a transaction. Set up a recurring reminder (e.g., a cron job or a Makefile task) that queries your open Liabilities:AP accounts and flags invoices that are due in the next 30 days, prompting you to schedule payments early.
Use the exact same legal name, address, phone number, and industry codes (like NAICS) across your bank accounts, IRS filings, insurance policies, and credit bureau profiles. Inconsistencies can lead to fragmented credit files or mismatches.
Beancount Move:
Establish a single source of truth for this data in your ledger's top-level metadata.
8. Monitor Your Business Credit and Dispute Errors
Business credit reports are less standardized and regulated than consumer reports, making errors more common. Periodically pull your reports from the major bureaus and dispute any inaccuracies immediately.
Beancount Move:
Maintain a directory for docs/credit/ where you store PDFs of your credit reports and any dispute correspondence. You can link to these documents directly from transactions that were misreported, creating an auditable trail.
9. Graduate to Bank Lines and SBA Options (When Ready)
Once you have a solid history of on-time payments, you can approach banks for lines of credit or apply for SBA-backed loans. For SBA 7(a) Small Loans, lenders use the FICO SBSS score, and the current minimum prescreen is 165. Keep your personal credit clean as well, as it's often a factor.
Beancount Move:
Use your ledger to track key financial metrics that lenders care about, like your Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) or cash buffer days. You can define these as custom metadata and run queries against your ledger to see if you meet a lender's covenants before you even apply.
Good credit is the result of consistent habits. Set up autopay for at least the minimum payment on business credit cards. Schedule a weekly time block to run your A/P. Regularly review A/R aging to protect your cash flow. Systematize the behaviors that lead to good scores.
Beancount Move:
Document your financial policies as metadata. This serves as a reminder and a checklist for your operations.
How many trade lines do I need to generate a D&B score?
Dun & Bradstreet requires a sufficient number of verified trade experiences to generate a PAYDEX score. While there's no magic number, the key is having multiple vendors consistently reporting your on-time or early payments.
Where do I check my business credit scores?
Each bureau (D&B, Experian, Equifax) offers paid access to reports on their websites. Some third-party services aggregate data, but they may not show the specific score a lender uses. Before paying, ask your potential lender or vendor which credit bureau and score they rely on.
I see sites charging money for an EIN. Are those legit?
No. An EIN is always free from the official IRS.gov website. Avoid non-.gov domains and sponsored search ads that pose as official IRS pages; they are designed to charge you for a free service or collect your data.
As a founder, you live and breathe your product, your customers, and your team. But are you just as connected to the financial pulse of your business? Financial health can feel like a complex topic reserved for accountants, but it really comes down to four pillars: liquidity, profitability, insolvency, and operational efficiency.
This article provides a concise, founder-friendly checklist you can run monthly or quarterly to get a clear picture of where you stand. Best of all, it’s designed specifically for users of the plain-text accounting tool Beancount, showing you exactly where to look and what to track.
Beancount Tip: Fava, the web interface for Beancount, is your command center for this checklist. Its built-in Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Holdings reports, combined with its query capabilities, provide everything you need to check these metrics fast.
What to look at: Your cash reserve. The common rule of thumb is to hold 3 to 6 months of operating expenses in cash or highly liquid assets. Adjust this target based on your business’s volatility, seasonality, and growth plans.
Why it matters: A healthy cash buffer allows your business to absorb unexpected shocks—a lost client, a market downturn, a supply chain delay—without resorting to expensive, reactive financing. It's the foundation of financial peace of mind.
Where to check in Beancount: In Fava, navigate to the Balance Sheet and sum the balances in your Assets:Bank:* accounts, plus any short-term liquid investments you hold.
What to look at: The Current Ratio (Current Assets / Current Liabilities). For an even stricter view, use the Quick Ratio (or "Acid Test"), which excludes inventory from current assets. A ratio above 1.0 is generally considered stable, but this varies by industry.
Why it matters: These ratios gauge your ability to cover all your short-term obligations (like payroll and supplier bills) using only your short-term assets. They answer the critical question: "If we had to pay all our upcoming bills right now, could we do it without distress?"
Where to check in Beancount: Your Balance Sheet in Fava provides all the necessary figures. To make this easy, ensure you are tracking Assets:Receivables, Assets:Inventory, and Liabilities:Payables in separate sub-accounts.
What to look at: The Net Income on your Income Statement. More importantly, look at the trend. Is it positive and growing month-over-month or quarter-over-quarter?
Why it matters: Profit is the engine of your business. It funds growth, attracts investment, and provides the ultimate cushion against downturns. Consistent profitability is the clearest sign of a sustainable business model.
Where to check in Beancount: Go to the Income Statement in Fava. (Pro-tip: consider enabling Fava’s option to invert income signs, which many find more intuitive for reading financial reports.)
What to look at: Your Gross Margin Percentage, calculated as (Revenue − COGS) / Revenue. COGS, or Cost of Goods Sold, is typically Beginning Inventory + Purchases − Ending Inventory.
Why it matters: Gross margin reflects the profitability of your core product or service before overhead. A shrinking margin is a major red flag, often signaling issues with pricing power, discounting pressure, or rising supply costs.
Where to check in Beancount: Categorize all direct costs under Expenses:COGS:*. You can then review your margin directly on Fava’s Income Statement.
What to look at:Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), which is approximately (Accounts Receivable / Total Credit Sales) × Number of Days. This tells you the average number of days it takes to collect payment after a sale.
Why it matters: A high DSO means your cash is trapped in your customers' bank accounts, tightening your own cash flow. Efficient collections are crucial for maintaining liquidity.
Where to check in Beancount: Track invoices using metadata (e.g., invoice: "INV-123" and customer: "AcmeCorp"). You can then monitor the total A/R balance on Fava’s Balance Sheet.
What to look at:Inventory Turnover, calculated as COGS / Average Inventory. This measures how many times you sell and replace your inventory over a period. You can also track Days Sales of Inventory (DSI) to see how many days stock sits on the shelf.
Why it matters: Slow-moving inventory ties up cash that could be used elsewhere. Conversely, turning inventory too quickly can lead to stockouts and lost sales. Finding the right balance is key.
Where to check in Beancount: Use Beancount’s built-in inventory lot tracking to manage cost basis and quantities accurately. You can then review your current positions in Fava under Holdings.
What to look at: The Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC), calculated as DSI + DSO − DPO (Days Payable Outstanding). It measures the time between paying for inventory/supplies and receiving cash from customers.
Why it matters: A shorter CCC means your business needs less external capital to operate and grow. A negative CCC (common in businesses like Dell or Amazon) means your customers pay you before you have to pay your suppliers—a powerful position for liquidity.
Where to check in Beancount: With DSI and DSO already tracked, the final piece is DPO, which you can derive from your Liabilities:Payables account. Reviewing this trend quarterly is sufficient for most businesses.
What to look at: The Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR), calculated as Net Operating Income / Total Debt Service. Many lenders, including for SBA loans, look for a ratio of 1.25 or higher.
Why it matters: This ratio signals your ability to make your loan payments from the cash your business generates. A healthy DSCR is critical for maintaining good relationships with lenders and avoiding breaches of loan covenants.
Where to check in Beancount: Tag your loan payments (both principal and interest). You can use a query or manually summarize your total debt service for the period and compare it to your operating income from the Income Statement.
9) Is leverage appropriate for your business model?
What to look at: Your Debt-to-Equity ratio and overall Working Capital. Don't just look at a single number; analyze the trend over several quarters.
Why it matters: Debt can be a powerful tool for financing growth, but it also introduces risk. The right level of leverage depends on your industry and risk tolerance. Are you taking on debt faster than you're growing equity?
Where to check in Beancount: Fava’s Balance Sheet clearly lays out your total liabilities versus your total equity.
What to look at: The percentage of total revenue coming from your top 1, 3, or 5 customers. Many practitioners flag a risk when a single customer accounts for 10-20% or more of your revenue.
Why it matters: Over-reliance on a few large clients magnifies churn risk and can weaken your pricing power. Diversification creates a more resilient business.
Where to check in Beancount: This is where metadata shines. Add a customer: tag to every income posting. You can then use Fava's filtering or Beancount's query language to pivot revenue by customer.
What to look at: The Contribution Margin for each product or service line (Revenue - All Variable Costs).
Why it matters: This tells you if scaling a particular offering will add cash to your bottom line or just burn through it faster. If the contribution margin is negative, you lose money on every additional sale.
Where to check in Beancount: Track variable costs and revenue with specific metadata tags like product: "Widget-A" or channel: "Retail". This allows you to slice and dice your data with queries to calculate profitability at a granular level.
What to look at: Do you have clear documentation, a consistent chart of accounts, and are you retaining records for as long as the IRS recommends?
Why it matters: Clean books reduce errors, dramatically speed up tax preparation, and are essential for securing financing or passing due diligence if you ever sell your company.
Where to check in Beancount: Use invoice: and document: metadata, and leverage Fava’s ability to link directly to source documents (like PDFs of receipts or invoices) to keep proof organized and accessible.
Turn this checklist into a routine. Block out one hour on the first business day of each month to perform this health check.
(15 min) — Cash & Runway: Confirm your cash balance. Review upcoming major payables and expected inflows from receivables. Re-validate that you still have your 3–6 month buffer.
(15 min) — P&L Review: Scan your net income and, most importantly, your gross margin trend. Did margins dip? If so, investigate whether it was due to discounting, returns, or higher COGS.
(15 min) — Working Capital Check: Quickly glance at your DSO, inventory turnover, and DPO. Calculate your CCC. Identify any actions needed, like following up on late invoices or adjusting inventory reorder points.
(15 min) — Solvency & Risk: Check your DSCR if you have debt. Review any changes in your Debt-to-Equity ratio and revenue concentration. Are any trends moving in the wrong direction?
Benchmarks vary by industry. A "good" current ratio for a SaaS business is very different from that of a retail store. Compare your metrics against your own history first, and then against industry peers.
Trends beat snapshots. A single data point can be misleading. Charting your key ratios over 6–12 months will reveal the true direction of your business.
Plain-text wins. The beauty of Beancount is transparency. If a number on a report looks off, you can drill down to the exact plain-text transaction in seconds. This puts you in complete control of your own financial narrative.
