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Small Business

Financial management strategies and tools for small business owners

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11 min read

Window Screen and Screen Door Repair Bookkeeping: Costing Every Stop, Tracking Every Roll, and Surviving the Winter Trough

A bookkeeping guide for window screen and screen door repair businesses. Separate revenue lines for rescreens, frame rebuilds, doors and landlord contracts; track mesh by grade (fiberglass, aluminum, solar, pet-resistant) as cost of goods sold; log mileage per stop at the 2026 IRS rate of 72.5 to 76 cents; and bank spring surplus to cover three to four months of fixed costs through winter.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingsmall-businesstrades
8 min read

401(k) Forfeiture Accounts: The 12-Month Deadline for Unvested Match Dollars

When an employee quits before the employer match vests, the unvested dollars land in the plan's forfeiture account. The IRS's proposed rule would give sponsors 12 months after the plan year closes to use them — on plan expenses, on reducing future employer contributions, or by reallocating to participants — and stale multi-year suspense balances are already a standard audit finding.

Mike Thrift

retirement-plansemployee-benefitscompliance
11 min read

Running an AI Red-Teaming Consultancy: Bookkeeping for $8K-to-$150K Engagements and Monthly Retainers

AI red-teaming firms bill two ways — $8,000-to-$150,000 project engagements and $1,500-to-$15,000 monthly retainers — and the books must keep them apart. A practical guide to the chart of accounts, ASC 606 treatment of deposits and milestones, per-engagement job costing, utilization and realization targets, 13-week cash forecasting, and contractor tax compliance.

Mike Thrift

consultingrevenue-recognitiondeferred-revenue
10 min read

Brazil's Dual-VAT Reform Is Quietly Pushing Small Businesses Out of Simples Nacional: A B2B Seller's Guide to the New IBS/CBS Credit Chain

Brazil's IBS/CBS dual VAT replaces five consumption taxes, and a Simples Nacional supplier now passes on a smaller input credit than a regular-regime competitor quoting the same price. A guide to the September 30 and November 1, 2026 deadlines, the 2027 end of cash-basis Simples, and what the credit chain changes in B2B pricing and bookkeeping.

Mike Thrift

vatinternational-taxtax-compliance
10 min read

Why Your Business Emails Land in Spam (and How SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Fix It)

Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook filter mail from domains without SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and bulk senders must also keep spam complaints under 0.3% and offer one-click unsubscribe. Here is what each DNS record proves, how to publish all three in about an hour, the seven mistakes that keep small-business invoices in spam, and why unread invoices show up in your receivables.

Mike Thrift

small-businessinvoicingaccounts-receivable
12 min read

The $25 Business Gift Rule: What You Can Deduct, and Why Employee Gift Cards Are Wages

Federal law caps the business-gift deduction at $25 per recipient per year — a limit unchanged since 1962 — while incidental shipping, wrapping, and $4-or-less branded items sit outside it. Employee gifts follow different rules: gift cards and cash equivalents are always taxable wages, and only small, infrequent tangible items qualify as de minimis fringe benefits.

Mike Thrift

tax-deductionssmall-businesspayroll
10 min read

California's SB 517: The New Subcontractor-Disclosure Line Every Home-Improvement Contract Needs in 2026

Effective January 1, 2026, California SB 517 amends Business and Professions Code Section 7159 to require every home improvement contract to include a yes/no subcontractor checkbox, a statutory disclaimer when the answer is yes, and that same disclaimer on every change order — with the prime contractor still responsible for completing the job.

Mike Thrift

compliancelegalcalifornia
9 min read

Daylight Saving Time Ends November 1: Why Your Overnight Shift Is Nine Hours, Not Eight

When clocks fall back at 2:00 a.m. on November 1, 2026, a scheduled eight-hour overnight shift becomes nine paid hours under the FLSA — and that ninth hour counts toward the 40-hour overtime threshold. Spring forward is not the mirror image: the hour never worked may be paid voluntarily but is excluded from the regular rate and cannot offset real overtime.

Mike Thrift

payrollcomplianceemployee-hours
11 min read

Dim Sum Restaurant Bookkeeping: Carts, Tea Charges, and High-Volume Low-Ticket Margins

A per-person tea charge is a service charge, not a tip — it is taxable revenue, and any share paid to staff is wages subject to withholding. This guide covers dim sum bookkeeping specifics: cart versus order-sheet labor tracking, prime cost at or below 60–65 percent, food cost of 28–33 percent, weekend labor per cover, and the cash controls a stamp-card room needs.

Mike Thrift

restaurantbookkeepingpayroll
12 min read

After the DMEPOS Freeze: What the 2026 CMS Fraud Crackdown Means for Your Medical Supply Business

CMS froze new DMEPOS Medicare enrollment from February 27 to August 27, 2026, barred 11 suppliers tied to $3.4 billion in suspected fraudulent billing, and suspended $5.7 billion in Medicare payments during 2025. Here is what actually changed for legitimate medical supply businesses and the seven billing and bookkeeping controls that keep claims paid and supplier numbers intact.

Mike Thrift

healthcarecompliancefraud-prevention
12 min read

Fighting an Unemployment Claim: An Employer's Guide to Protests, Misconduct, and the Appeal Hearing

Employers usually have 10 to 21 days to respond to an unemployment claim notice, and an unanswered claim raises SUTA experience rates for years — a two-point increase on $800,000 of taxable payroll costs about $16,000 a year. This guide covers how benefit charges hit payroll taxes, when protesting is worth it, why misconduct excludes poor performance, the documentation that wins telephone hearings, and the appeal ladder above them.

Mike Thrift

payrollsmall-businesscompliance
11 min read

The Four Types of Audit Opinions, Explained: What Qualified, Adverse, and Disclaimer Actually Mean

An auditor issues one of four opinions — unqualified, qualified, adverse, or disclaimer — decided by two questions: whether the problem is a GAAP departure or a scope limitation, and whether it is material but confined or material and pervasive. This guide maps that grid, explains why a going-concern paragraph is not a qualification, and lists the bookkeeping habits that keep an opinion clean.

Mike Thrift

auditcpafinancial-statements
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