#inventory
Inventory
Inventory tracking, valuation, and management for businesses
$166 Billion in Tariff Refunds: Why Most Small Importers Can't Claim a Dollar of It
Only the Importer of Record can claim a share of the $166 billion in IEEPA tariff refunds through CBP's CAPE portal, which locks out most small importers who buy through suppliers, freight forwarders, or 3PLs — here is how to find your IOR, negotiate refund sharing, and book the proceeds correctly under ASC 450.
Working Capital Management: Master the Cash Conversion Cycle
Small businesses often run out of cash despite healthy profits because working capital is trapped in receivables and inventory. Learn to optimize the cash conversion cycle—the three levers of DSO, DPO, and DIO—to free up thousands without raising debt.
Christmas Light Installation Business Bookkeeping: Deposits, Cash Flow, and the Off-Season
Christmas light installation businesses collect nearly all their annual revenue in a six-to-eight-week window each fall, so booking October deposits as deferred revenue and sizing a reserve to a ten-month off-season — not the generic three-month rule — determines whether the business survives to next November.
Tariffs Aren't Going Away: 5 Bookkeeping and Inventory Strategies Small Importers Are Using to Protect Margins in 2026
Small importers lose margin points when tariffs hide in inventory costs. Here are 5 accounting strategies to recalculate landed cost, plan inventory properly, separate tariff line items, capitalize duties correctly, and claim refunds—so you can see tariff impact in real time.
Pricing a Bowl: Why the Diameter × Height Formula Hides Your Real Costs
The diameter × height × multiplier formula that most bowl turners use to price work ignores cracked blanks, drying time, and overhead — accounting them correctly as a separate spoilage loss (not folded into COGS) reveals whether a shop's pricing actually covers its real costs.
Amazon's Expanded New Selection Program: Referral Fee Caps, Free Storage, and the October 31 Deadline
Amazon's July 30, 2026 New Selection Program update caps referral fees at 10% on the first 100 units and 5% on the next 100 for new-to-FBA parent ASINs, waives storage and liquidation fees on the first 200 units for 120 days, and adds $125 in Vine and coupon credits — but existing enrollees must reconfirm by October 31, 2026 to keep qualifying new listings.
Bait and Tackle Shop Bookkeeping: Live Bait Mortality, Dealer Licenses, and Pass-Through Sales
Bait and tackle shops run three revenue models through one register — perishable live bait, hard goods, and state fishing-license sales. Live bait mortality should be booked as shrinkage expense (tracked by species and supplier), bait-dealer licenses are recurring compliance costs tiered by sales volume in states like Wisconsin, and license sales are commission revenue (typically 4.75%–5%) with the state's share held as a liability, never income.
The Cash Conversion Cycle Explained: How Long Your Money Is Actually Tied Up
The cash conversion cycle (CCC = DIO + DSO − DPO) measures how many days cash stays trapped in operations. A worked example shows a wholesale firm with a 66-day cycle tying up roughly $110,000 in working capital, and lays out tactics to shorten collections, inventory, and payables.
Return on Net Assets (RONA): How to Tell If Your Equipment and Inventory Are Earning Their Keep
Return on Net Assets (RONA = Net Income ÷ Fixed Assets + Net Working Capital) measures whether the equipment, vehicles, and inventory a business owns are actually generating profit. Includes a worked example, rough benchmarks (above 5% acceptable, above 20% outstanding), and how RONA differs from ROA and ROE for capital-intensive small businesses.
Where Did $90 Billion in Inventory Just Go? A Small Retailer's Guide to Booking Shrinkage Correctly
U.S. retailers lost $90–112 billion to inventory shrinkage in the latest reporting cycle, an average shrink rate near 1.6% of sales. This guide shows small retailers how to book shrink in a dedicated expense account instead of burying it in COGS — with the exact journal entries, cycle-counting schedules, materiality thresholds, and the process fixes behind the ~70% of shrink that isn't theft.
Amazon Is Ending Stickerless Commingled Inventory: What FBA Sellers Must Do Before March 31, 2026
Amazon ends stickerless commingled inventory on March 31, 2026. Resellers must apply FNSKU labels ($0.20–$0.50/unit) while Brand Registry owners get virtual tracking; unlabeled stock gets flagged defective. Here's the labeling deadline timeline, who pays what, and the lot-level costing and landed-cost accounting changes sellers need before the cutoff.
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.