#small-business
Small Business
Financial management strategies and tools for small business owners
Check Fraud Is Still the #1 Payment Threat in 2026 — Here's What to Do About It
The 2026 AFP Payments Fraud Survey found 76% of U.S. organizations faced payment fraud in 2025, with paper checks the top target at 58% — ahead of ACH debits (30%) and wires (25%). Here's a practical small-business defense checklist, from Positive Pay and ACH filters to callback verification and weekly reconciliation.
Swim School Bookkeeping: Deferred Revenue for Session Packs, Instructor Pay, and Pool Costs
A $400 session pack is a liability, not June revenue — swim school bookkeeping hinges on deferring prepaid lesson income, budgeting pool leases as fixed costs, and classifying certified instructors correctly. Covers franchise cost benchmarks ($95K–$3.75M), instructor pay of $19–$35/hour, USA Swimming fee pass-throughs, and a monthly close checklist.
Delaware's Commercial Corridor Initiative: Who Qualifies for the $4.5M Small Business Renovation Grant
Delaware's new Commercial Corridor Initiative (DCCI), launched July 14, 2026, offers matching grants covering 10–25% of renovation costs up to $25,000 for brick-and-mortar small businesses in qualifying commercial corridors. Here's who's eligible, what expenses count, and how to get your books lender-ready before the first awards in September 2026.
EUDR for Small U.S. Exporters: What the EU Deforestation Regulation Means for Coffee, Cocoa, Wood, and Rubber Shipments
The EU Deforestation Regulation now takes effect December 30, 2026 for large operators and June 30, 2027 for micro and small businesses — covering coffee, cocoa, rubber, wood, cattle, soy, and palm oil exports to the EU. Small U.S. exporters must file due diligence statements with plot-level GPS data via TRACES NT or face fines of at least 4% of EU turnover; Commission simplifications cut compliance costs an estimated 75%.
FASB ASU 2025-08 Explained: Gross-Up Accounting for Purchased Seasoned Loans
FASB's ASU 2025-08 extends the CECL gross-up approach to purchased seasoned loans, eliminating the Day 1 provision expense on healthy acquired loan portfolios. Effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2026, with early adoption permitted — here's who qualifies, how the mechanics work, and how to prepare before your next acquisition.
FASB Just Made It Easier to Hedge Variable-Rate Debt — Here's What Changed
FASB's ASU 2025-09, issued November 2025, makes five targeted fixes to hedge accounting: a 'similar risk' standard for grouped cash flow hedges, a 'choose-your-rate' framework for variable-rate debt, broader nonfinancial asset hedge eligibility, simpler net written option rules, and dual hedge mismatch relief. Public companies must comply for periods beginning after December 15, 2026; private companies get until after December 15, 2027, with early adoption permitted.
FASB ASU 2025-10 Explained: The First U.S. GAAP Standard for Government Grants
FASB's ASU 2025-10, issued December 4, 2025, creates the first standalone U.S. GAAP guidance for government grants received by business entities. It requires recognition only when compliance and receipt are both probable, offers deferred-income or cost-accumulation presentation for asset-related grants, mandates annual disclosures, and takes effect for private companies in annual periods beginning after December 15, 2029.
Fed Survey: 80% of Small Businesses Are Passing Tariff Costs to Customers — and Nearly Half Aren't Done Raising Prices
The Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey finds 80% of tariff-paying small firms raised prices, 60% absorbed costs into margins, and 44-47% plan further increases — a "trickle up" pattern that means input costs haven't finished rising. Here's how to read the data and prepare your pricing and books.
Florida Supreme Court Rewrites Workplace Assault Workers' Comp Rules: What Bouayad v. Normandy Means for Employers
In Bouayad v. Normandy Insurance Co. (July 2026), the Florida Supreme Court replaced the narrow task-causation test for workplace assault claims with the broader "arising out of employment" standard, making claims compensable when work conditions — late hours, high-crime locations, cash handling, solitary work — increased attack risk. Here is what the ruling means for employers' comp exposure, documentation, and prevention programs.
Freelancing in Switzerland: How Cantonal Taxes, AHV, and the CHF 100,000 VAT Line Actually Work
A Swiss freelancer's tax bill stacks federal (up to 11.5%), cantonal, and communal layers — roughly CHF 15,000–18,000 on CHF 100,000 of profit in Zug versus about CHF 28,000 in Geneva. This guide covers AHV self-employed status (three criteria, ~10% of net profit, CHF 2,300 registration threshold), the CHF 100,000 VAT and Commercial Register line, 8.1% standard VAT, Pillar 3a deductions up to CHF 36,288, and when a GmbH beats a sole proprietorship.
Friendly Fraud Is Now 75% of eCommerce Disputes: A Small Merchant's Guide to Fighting Chargebacks
Friendly fraud costs eCommerce merchants an estimated $132 billion a year and now accounts for roughly 75% of all disputes, yet merchants win only 8.1% of manually contested chargebacks. Here's how small merchants can prevent disputes, use Visa CE3.0 evidence, stay under the 1.5% VAMP ratio, and track the true cost in their books.
Funeral Home and Cemetery Bookkeeping: How Pre-Need Trusts and Revenue Recognition Actually Work
Pre-need funeral contracts can span 40 years between payment and service, so GAAP defers the revenue as a liability until delivery — while cemetery plot sales are recognized immediately as real-estate-like transactions. A guide to state trusting percentages, perpetual care funds, and the bookkeeping separations that keep deathcare businesses compliant.