#plain-text-accounting
Discover the power of version-controlled, human-readable financial records
Landscaping books need four things a generic ledger lacks — job costing, seasonal cash flow forecasting, burdened crew labor, and a service-line chart of accounts. This guide shows how to set up each so your numbers reveal which work earns margin and how much cash bridges the off-season.
Box 7 of Form 1099-R holds a one- or two-character code that decides whether a retirement distribution is taxable, penalty-free, or hit with a 10% early-withdrawal penalty. This guide explains every numeric and letter code, including the new Code Y for qualified charitable distributions, and the coding errors that overcharge taxpayers.
A Master Limited Partnership pays cash quarterly but issues a Schedule K-1, not a 1099. Most distributions reduce your cost basis instead of being taxed, holding units in an IRA can trigger UBTI and a Form 990-T once income exceeds $1,000, and selling converts depreciation into ordinary income under Section 751 — taxed up to 37%.
Opening Balance Equity is a temporary account that should read $0.00 once setup is done. Learn what it means, how to set up books mid-year from a trial
A new 401(k) can be nearly free for small employers — Section 45E reimburses up to 100% of startup costs for three years plus $1,000 per employee in contribution credits for five years. Here is who qualifies and how to claim it on Form 8881.
Section 7508A lets the IRS postpone tax deadlines up to one year for taxpayers in federally declared disaster counties—usually automatically by address. A Section 165(i) election can also move a casualty loss to the prior year's return for a faster refund.
A practical guide to designing a chart of accounts that produces useful financial statements — how to number accounts in increments of 10, when to use sub-accounts versus dimensions for locations and departments, and the year-end cleanup ritual that prevents bloat.
How law firms run IOLTA accounts under ABA Model Rule 1.15 — separating earned from unearned fees, matching the bank statement to the master ledger and per-client sub-ledgers in a three-way reconciliation, and avoiding the four commingling mistakes (firm money in trust, firm expenses from trust, earned fees left in trust, one client's funds covering another's disbursement) that drive most bar discipline cases.
Revenue Procedure 2019-38 lets landlords treat rental real estate as a trade or business for the 20% QBI deduction if they log 250 hours of qualifying services, keep contemporaneous records, avoid triple net leases, and file a signed election — now permanent under the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Activity-Based Costing replaces volume-based overhead allocation with cause-and-effect cost drivers, revealing which customers and SKUs actually pay and which silently lose money. This guide explains how ABC and its modern successor TDABC work, the five implementation steps, and why roughly 20% of customers and 30–40% of SKUs often destroy value.
For tax year 2026, the federal Adoption Tax Credit caps at $17,670 per eligible child, with up to $5,120 refundable and a five-year carryforward on the nonrefundable remainder. This guide explains Form 8839, the timing rules for domestic, foreign, special needs, and failed adoptions, MAGI phase-out between $265,080 and $305,080, and how to coordinate with employer-provided adoption assistance under Section 137.
How first-party (d)(4)(A) and third-party special needs trusts differ — funding sources, the Medicaid payback rule, sole-benefit constraints, the 2024 ISM food change, and the 2026 ABLE age expansion — for families protecting a disabled beneficiary's SSI and Medicaid eligibility.
