#insurance
Insurance
Track insurance costs, premiums, and coverage details
MGA Bookkeeping: How to Account for Contingent Profit Commissions That Take Three Years to Settle
MGA profit commissions aren't calculated until 18–24 months after a policy year ends and don't finalize until the third anniversary. This guide covers accruing constrained estimates under ASC 606, keeping fiduciary premium trust accounts separate from operating funds, and a chart-of-accounts structure that keeps multi-year true-ups auditable.
Embedded Insurance at Checkout: A Small-Business Guide to Protection Fees, Compliance, and Bookkeeping
Cover Genius's $100M raise at a $1.9B valuation signals how fast embedded insurance is reaching small merchants. Most Shopify-style protection apps make you an agent under ASC 606, so only the 10–30% commission is your revenue — here's how to verify licensing and book the fees correctly.
How to Book a Workers' Comp Dividend Check (and Why a Retro-Rating Plan Can Also Send You a Bill)
Workers' comp dividend checks and retro-rating adjustments arrive 6–30 months after a policy expires. Dividends are discretionary — book them as a reduction of insurance expense when declared, never accrued in advance. Retro adjustments are contractual — accrue the estimated premium as a liability in the period the losses occurred, then true up at each 6-, 18-, and 30-month adjustment.
Business Owner's Policy (BOP): What the Bundle Covers, What It Costs, and What It Leaves Out
A Business Owner's Policy bundles general liability, commercial property, and business income coverage at 10–15% less than buying them separately — median premiums run $57–$83/month. Here's who a BOP fits, the exclusions that catch owners off guard, and why clean books determine how much a business income claim actually pays.
Does Business Interruption Insurance Cover Cloud Outages? A Small-Business Guide to CBI Coverage
Standard business interruption insurance requires physical damage to your property, so a cloud outage like the October 2025 AWS or Azure incidents typically pays nothing. This guide explains how contingent business interruption (CBI) coverage works, the trigger language and 24–72-hour waiting periods to check, typical costs ($40–$130/month standalone), and the financial records you need to substantiate a claim.
CMS Prior Authorization Final Rule: What the 7-Day and 72-Hour Deadlines Mean for Medical and Dental Practices
As of January 1, 2026, CMS-0057-F requires Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, CHIP, and ACA marketplace payers to decide prior authorization requests within 72 hours (expedited) or 7 calendar days (standard) and to give specific denial reasons — with FHIR-based prior auth APIs mandated by January 1, 2027. Here's what small medical and dental practices should do now.
Commercial Insurance Is Softening in 2026 — But Small Businesses Aren't Feeling It
In H1 2026, large commercial accounts saw premiums fall an average of 2.7% while small business accounts rose about 1.1%, driven by minimum-premium floors, catastrophe exposure, and hardening casualty rates offsetting property-side relief.
Drone Light Show Bookkeeping: Depreciating a Fleet and Pricing Against Fireworks
A drone light show fleet is a depreciable capital asset, not a consumable, so operators need per-unit asset registers, Section 179 or MACRS five-year schedules, a budgeted attrition reserve, and job-costed FAA waiver and insurance fees to price a show correctly against fireworks.
Peer-to-Peer Garage and Driveway Storage: Tax, Insurance, and Bookkeeping Guide
Peer-to-peer garage and driveway storage income is usually reported on Schedule E rather than Schedule C, is taxable even without a 1099-K, and requires tracking gross bookings, platform fees (commonly 4.9% + $0.30 per transaction), and prorated home costs separately from personal expenses.
Solar Panel Cleaning Business Bookkeeping: Turning Soiling-Loss Data Into a Recurring-Contract Pricing Model
NREL data puts solar soiling losses at ~5% of output nationally and 25%+ in dusty climates — the basis for pricing 2–4 cleanings a year. How solar panel cleaning operators should book prepaid annual contracts as deferred revenue, track fuel and water per job to capture 15–25% route-density gains, and record DI systems and fall-protection gear as Section 179-eligible assets.
Your Credit Union Trust Account Just Got a Simpler (and Possibly Smaller) Insurance Rule
Effective December 1, 2026, the NCUA insures all credit union trust accounts — revocable and irrevocable alike — under one formula, $250,000 per beneficiary capped at $1,250,000 per owner per credit union, matching the FDIC's 2024 bank rule. Trusts naming more than five beneficiaries may lose coverage they hold today, so this guide walks through a five-step balance check to run before the deadline.
The AI Coverage Gap: Why Your Business Insurance May Not Cover Losses From the AI Tools You Already Use
Major carriers including Chubb, Travelers, and Berkshire Hathaway have added AI exclusion endorsements (ISO's CG 40 47 and CG 40 48) to general liability and E&O policies, with over 80% of exclusion requests approved by state regulators, leaving small businesses using chatbots and AI writing tools newly exposed to uncovered claims.