Skip to main content

#inventory

Inventory

Inventory tracking, valuation, and management for businesses

308 postsView all tagsBack to All Posts
12 min read

Quick Lube Shop Bookkeeping: The Per-Car Numbers That Separate Profitable Bays From Break-Even Ones

A quick lube earns its margin per car, not per markup. This guide shows how to cost bulk oil by the quart on every delivery, reconcile each tank book-against-stick weekly, book shrinkage and used-oil hauling as separate accounts, and review the five daily KPIs (car count, average ticket, add-ons per 100 cars, bay time, gross profit per car) against industry benchmarks such as 0.95 cars per labor hour, 80 percent gross profit on labor and 50 percent on parts.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingauto-repairsmall-business
10 min read

Water Softener Dealer Bookkeeping: Salt Routes, Service Contracts, and the Warranty Reserve

A water conditioning dealership runs four businesses on four different clocks — equipment installs, salt delivery, service plans, and rentals. Split them into separate income accounts, defer prepaid service revenue under ASC 606, accrue a warranty reserve at 2–5% of equipment sales under ASC 460, and capitalize rental units over a 7–10 year life instead of expensing them.

Mike Thrift

small-businessbookkeepingrevenue-recognition
9 min read

OBBBA and the Cash Method in 2026: the $32 Million Test, the Manufacturer Lane, and a July R&D Deadline

For tax years beginning in 2026 the Section 448(c) gross-receipts threshold is $32 million, up from $31 million. OBBBA adds a reported $80 million lane for qualifying manufacturers and lets small businesses elect retroactive 2022–2024 R&D expensing under Section 174A by July 6, 2026 — here is the threshold math, who is forced onto accrual, and how a method change works.

Mike Thrift

taxtax-planningtax-compliance
9 min read

Bridal Makeup Artist Bookkeeping: How to Track Your Kit, Travel Fees, and Wedding-Season Cash Flow

A working bookkeeping system for freelance and bridal makeup artists — separate business accounts, retainers recorded as liabilities until the wedding day, kit split into consumables versus equipment, mileage logged at the 2026 IRS rates of 72.5 and 76 cents per mile, and a peak-season reserve sized to cover the roughly six quiet months outside the May–October wedding window.

Mike Thrift

beautyfreelancebookkeeping
11 min read

The FLSA "Hot Goods" Rule: How Unpaid Wages Can Freeze Your Shipments

Section 15(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act bars shipping goods produced in violation of minimum wage, overtime, or child labor rules — and the hold reaches buyers, distributors, and lenders, not just the employer. Here is how a hot goods hold unfolds, why the good-faith purchaser defense requires a written assurance obtained before the purchase, and the payroll recordkeeping that keeps inventory shippable.

Mike Thrift

payrollcompliancemanufacturing
13 min read

Foreign Trade Zones for Small Importers: Defer Duties, File Weekly, and Fix Inverted Tariffs

A Foreign Trade Zone defers duties until goods enter U.S. commerce, consolidates a week of shipments into a single Merchandise Processing Fee (capped at $651.50 for FY 2026 rather than charged per entry), and — with FTZ Board authorization — lets you elect the lower finished-good rate when component tariffs are inverted. Small importers reach all three as users of a 3PL magnet site, without activating a zone of their own.

Mike Thrift

tariffscustomsinternational
11 min read

Gas Station and Convenience Store Bookkeeping: Where Your Pennies Per Gallon Actually Go

How to keep the books for a gas station with a convenience store — splitting fuel from inside sales, tracking tank inventory in gallons, booking lottery as an agency arrangement, recording tobacco buydowns, and keeping card fees off the revenue line. U.S. convenience stores rang up a record $341 billion of in-store sales in 2025, yet NACS found the average in-store basket lost roughly seven cents per transaction after expenses.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingretailinventory
11 min read

Pour Cost, Keg Yields, and Shrinkage: Bar Bookkeeping That Catches What Walks Out the Door

Pour cost is beverage COGS divided by beverage revenue — target 15-20% on spirits, 20-25% on draft, and 25-35% on wine by the glass. This guide covers how to compute usage and variance weekly, why a half-barrel keg yields about 112 pints instead of the theoretical 124, and how to split revenue, COGS, comps, and keg deposits so the leak is visible in the ledger.

Mike Thrift

restaurantinventorycost-of-goods-sold
14 min read

Tortilleria Bookkeeping: Masa Yields, Press Depreciation, and the Wholesale-vs-Retail Split

A tortilleria's masa cost per dozen moves about 5 cents when yield shifts 10 percent — the entire profit on a wholesale dozen. How to cost masa by measured yield, split retail and wholesale revenue and COGS, book presses and ovens under Section 179 or 7-year MACRS, and track the five KPIs that expose a losing route before the bank does.

Mike Thrift

small-businesscost-of-goods-soldinventory
11 min read

Illinois Just Rewrote Its Pawnbroker Law: What the Auto-Title Ban and New Reporting Rules Mean for Your Shop's Books

Illinois replaced its pawnbroker statute with the Pawnbroker Regulation Act of 2023, ending auto-title advances under a pawn license, capping active licenses at 250 statewide (150 in specified populous counties), and adding electronic police reporting plus aggregate data collection. Here is how to structure a pawn shop's chart of accounts, book forfeitures at lower of cost or net realizable value, and run off title-secured balances separately.

Mike Thrift

complianceconsumer-protectionloans
13 min read

Independent Hardware Store Bookkeeping: Taming 30,000 SKUs, Co-op Patronage Dividends, and the Seasonal Cash Cycle

How independent hardware stores handle bookkeeping most retailers never face — recording co-op patronage dividends from Form 1099-PATR (taxable in full even when paid partly in paper), managing 20,000–35,000 SKUs with ABC analysis and GMROI, running contractor charge accounts, and forecasting the spring-to-winter cash cycle with a rolling 13-week model.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingsmall-businessinventory
Start Free→Documentation