#chart-of-accounts
Chart of Accounts
Design and organize your account hierarchy for effective financial tracking
Landscaping and Lawn Care Business Bookkeeping: Surviving the Winter Cash Crunch With a Seasonal Chart of Accounts and Reserve Strategy
Landscapers lose one-third of their businesses in five years to winter cash crunch—not from low margins, but from treating year-round expenses like a five-month revenue business. A seasonal chart of accounts, rolling cash forecast, and winter reserve strategy turns survival into planning.
Sail Loft Bookkeeping: Job Costing Custom Sails and Why Deposits Aren't Revenue
Sail lofts price a mainsail from cloth yardage, construction method, and hand labor, then collect a deposit months before delivery — treating that deposit as revenue instead of a liability is the most common bookkeeping mistake in the trade.
DOL Form LM-2 Long Form: What the 2026 Union Financial Reporting Overhaul Means for Your Books
The DOL's May 2026 final rule creates a Form LM-2 Long Form for unions with $40 million or more in annual receipts, raises LM-2/LM-3/LM-4 filing thresholds to $350,000 and $25,000, and adds a $5,000 foreign-transaction disclosure schedule — effective for fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2026. Here's what changes for union bookkeeping.
Float Tank Bookkeeping: How Sensory Deprivation Spas Track Utilities, Deferred Revenue, and Break-Even
Float centers combine spa-level rent, pool-level utility bills, and prepaid package liabilities — a mix generic bookkeeping hides. How to structure a chart of accounts around utilities and Epsom salt costs, treat 5-packs and memberships as deferred revenue, and model break-even on tank hours sold versus tank hours available.
Towing Company Bookkeeping: Tow Truck Depreciation, Impound Lot Revenue, and the Compliance Costs Most Owners Underprice
A tow truck over 14,000 lbs GVWR can often be fully expensed under Section 179 the year it's placed in service — but only if the depreciation schedule starts that year. How towing companies should separate tow, impound, and lien-sale revenue, reconcile lot logs monthly, and price compliance costs into every job.
EV Charging Station Bookkeeping: Demand Charges, Four Revenue Streams, and the Expired 30C Credit
How charge point operators should structure their books — splitting per-kWh energy COGS from demand charges (30–70% of many commercial utility bills), recognizing four distinct revenue streams correctly, and handling the Section 30C credit that expired for property placed in service after June 30, 2026.
Fractional CFO Firm Bookkeeping: Structuring Your Own Books When You Sell Financial Clarity for a Living
How should a fractional CFO firm structure its own books? Retainers ($3,000–$15,000/month) are deferred-revenue liabilities until earned, unbilled work-in-progress belongs on the balance sheet, and revenue should be split by billing model — retainer, hourly ($175–$450/hour), and project fees — in a market headed past $3.2 billion in 2026.
Freight Broker Bookkeeping: Factored Invoices, Carrier Payments, and the $75,000 Reserve
How freight brokers should structure their books — separate gross freight revenue from net margin, record factoring advances as loans (not income), track quick pay fees distinctly, and account for the FMCSA $75,000 bond or trust reserve that 2026 rules require replenishing within seven days of a claim.
Horse Boarding Bookkeeping: Per-Horse Costs, Pass-Throughs, and the Hobby-Loss Rule
Full-service horse board runs $650–$1,600 a month nationally, yet a 30-horse barn's real costs can near $60,000 monthly — here's how to build a per-horse chart of accounts, handle vet and farrier pass-throughs, recognize board revenue correctly, and stay clear of the IRS hobby-loss rule.
Bookkeeping for Paragliding and Hang Gliding Schools: Ratings, Gear, and Weather-Delayed Revenue
How to set up bookkeeping for a paragliding or hang gliding school — split tandem vs. solo revenue by USHPA rating level, capitalize $4,500–$9,000 wing/harness/reserve setups as depreciating fixed assets, track PASA certification and site insurance as recurring compliance costs, and hold weather-delayed tandem deposits as unearned revenue until the flight is flown.
Tuxedo and Formalwear Rental Shop Bookkeeping: Why the Real Profit Is in the Tenth Rental, Not the First
A $1,000 tuxedo rented at $196 a night needs five-plus rentals just to cover its cost — which is why formalwear rental bookkeeping treats garments as depreciating fixed assets, damage deposits as liabilities rather than revenue, and seasonal cash reserves as a line item. Here's the chart of accounts and depreciation method that make cost per wear visible.
Med Spa Bookkeeping: How to Handle Injectable Inventory, Injector Commissions, and Membership Revenue
A practical bookkeeping guide for med spa owners covering the industry's hardest problems — tracking expiring injectable inventory with FIFO and treatment recipes, calculating 15–25% injector commissions from provider-level revenue, deferring membership and package revenue until services are delivered, and building a chart of accounts that shows which service lines actually carry margin.