Accounting tips, software comparisons, and insights to help your small business thrive.
QuickBooks parks the other side of every opening balance in a temporary equity account. Here's why it should be zero, how to trace it, and the entry that clears it.
Your processor deposits less than you sold. Record the sale gross, run the payout through a clearing account, and expense the fee so every deposit reconciles.
The count came up short. Value the gap at cost, post one adjusting entry, and handle found stock, damaged goods and write-downs to net realizable value.
The sale price isn't profit; only the gap from book value is. A four-step method with journal entries for gains, losses, write-offs, mid-year sales and trade-ins.
One profit figure hides several businesses. How to design classes, tag costs as well as sales, allocate overhead without fooling yourself, and read the P&L by class.
Intuit ProAdvisor and the new ProPartner, Xero and BizBooks Pro compared on what a referred client pays you, for how long, and what your firm gets free.
QuickBooks, Xero, Clio, CosmoLex, LeanLaw, TrustBooks and ours, compared on who keeps the client trust ledgers, the three-way reconciliation, and what a two-person firm pays per year.
Sage 50, AccountEdge, GnuCash, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zoho Books and ours, compared on price for one user, desktop or cloud, and how many years of your QuickBooks history each one brings across.
Money you put into your own business isn’t income and usually isn’t a loan. The entries for cash, contributed equipment and costs paid on a personal card — and how to tell equity from debt.
You used it this month, but the bill comes next month. The month-end accrual entry, the reversing entry, unpaid wages, loan interest and unbilled utilities — and how accruals differ from accounts payable.
Paying a year up front doesn’t make it a one-month expense. The asset entry, the monthly adjusting entry, a full amortization schedule, year-end treatment and the mistakes that break the balance.
A refund is two events, not one. The credit memo and refund journal entries, how sales tax and returned inventory fit in, the vendor side, and the four shortcuts that leave your revenue wrong.
The business card is where expenses quietly go missing. How to record charges, refunds, interest and payments correctly, tie the card to its statement in six steps, and find the cause when the difference won’t reach zero.
For the first time since 1954 the 1099 threshold moved. Who still gets a 1099-NEC for 2026, what counts toward the $2,000 (and what doesn’t), the February 1, 2027 deadline, and the W-9 habit that makes January easy.
QBOA becomes Intuit Accountant Suite. Core stays free; Accelerate is $149 a month and Books Close is billed per client. The arithmetic for a 40-client firm, what ProPartner improves, and when staying is the right call.
A veterinary clinic’s $300 cash box through one month: the imprest set-up entry, why nothing is posted in between, the single replenishment that books $236.15 of vouchers, a $1.50 shortage, and the controls that keep a small fund honest.
A landscaping company’s wet August, line by line: how to calculate each variance, tell favorable from unfavorable, flex the budget for sales volume, and split an $8,830 profit miss into what the weather did and what the business did.
QuickBooks Online Plus rose 55% in eight months. Our rate stays fixed for twelve years — and we're counting our first $100 million in what that lock saves customers, not in what we bill. The arithmetic, the $50 million first milestone, and what happens after.
Why a print shop with $30,000 of retained earnings had $8,000 in the bank — and how one bad year turned the figure negative. The formula, a three-year worked example, what an accumulated deficit signals, and four bookkeeping habits that quietly distort it.
How many sales does it take just to cover every bill? Sorting fixed from variable costs, contribution margin, break-even in units and dollars, target profit, margin of safety — and why a 10% discount raises the break-even point by 18%, worked through one bakery’s numbers.
A 40% markup is not a 40% margin — it’s 28.6%. Both formulas side by side, a markup-to-margin conversion chart, the one formula that prices for the margin you actually meant, a worked example where the mix-up costs $80,000 of gross profit, and why a 10% discount cuts profit by 25%.
An invoice nobody will ever pay is still sitting in your assets and your profit. When an invoice qualifies as bad debt, the direct write-off and allowance entries worked on a real $4,800 invoice, a $180,000 aging report turned into an allowance, what to do when a written-off customer pays after all — and why you should never void the invoice instead.
Your bank balance is a fact. Your profit is an opinion — and adjusting entries are where that opinion gets formed. All five patterns written out in debits and credits: a $480 utility accrual, 22 unbilled consulting hours, $7,200 of insurance amortized, a $12,000 support plan earned a month at a time, and $416.67 of van. Plus which ones to reverse, and the five mistakes that cause most of the damage.
Beginning inventory plus purchases minus ending inventory — three numbers and one subtraction. All the difficulty is in deciding which costs belong inside it. Worked end to end on a bike shop and a design studio: freight-in vs freight-out, cost of services, the periodic and perpetual entries, and the five errors that quietly distort gross margin.
Deposits arrive like income, look like income in the bank feed, and spend like income — and every one of them is a debt until you do the work. The two entries that matter, worked on a $30,000 kitchen with a $12,000 deposit: sales tax timing, multi-month jobs, refunds, forfeits, and why a deposits balance that only ever climbs means somebody got billed twice.
A $50,000 loan lands and your P&L shows the best month you’ve ever had — a fiction that costs real tax money. The funding entry, how to split every payment between principal and interest from the amortization schedule, what to do with origination fees, and the current-portion reclass almost nobody sets up.
The tax you collect isn’t income — it’s the state’s money sitting in your account until the filing date. The three-line entry for a taxable sale, what to do with the tax you pay suppliers, how multi-component rates (GST+PST, state+county+city) should be split, and the six reasons a payable balance stops matching the return.
A $900 laptop is an expense. A $9,000 server is an asset — and booking one as the other tells your banker a story that isn’t true. The four tests that settle it, where to set your threshold under the $2,500 de minimis safe harbor, the repairs-versus-improvements rule, and the journal entries for both.
Payroll leaves the bank as one withdrawal, and coding that single line to "Payroll" is the most common bookkeeping mistake there is. The three entries a run actually needs — gross wages, employer taxes, the remittance — worked line by line on a $10,000 payroll, plus how to split a lump sum and accrue across month-end.
Most owners find out about a cash squeeze the week it arrives — even though the invoices, the payroll dates and the tax deadline were all knowable a month earlier. Six steps to the 13-week grid, which report feeds each row, and four worked weeks where payroll and a sales tax remittance collide.
A screen showing thirty-one sync errors is usually three real problems and twenty-eight records queued behind them. The dependency order that clears the list, plus what each error actually means — duplicate clients, DocNumber collisions, the missing 0% tax code, TxnID Cannot Be Linked, and payouts that refuse to match the deposit.
Your banker sizes up your business in ninety seconds by dividing one number by another. The same eight ratios worked through with one sign shop's real books — current ratio, quick ratio, margins, debt-to-equity, interest coverage, ROA, DSO — each with its formula, its benchmark, and what to do when it moves the wrong way.
Every small business fraud story starts with "we trusted her completely" — and trust is the cause, not the twist. Nine controls you can put in place this week, what to do about segregation of duties when you only have three people, and the table of where small companies actually lose money.
Most small businesses don't have an AP process — they have a pile, paid in order of who complains loudest. The seven steps that stop duplicate payments and late fees, both journal entries written out, three-way matching in plain English, and the five payables mistakes that cost real money.
Ask ChatGPT for the best accounting software and you'll get the same four names as everyone else. Here's why AI recommends what it does, the blind spots baked into that answer, the criteria that actually decide fit, and how to prompt AI for a shortlist built around your business instead of the internet's.
A draw shrinks your equity; a salary shrinks your profit — and mixing them up is the most common error in owner-kept books. Which one your entity actually allows, both journal entries written out, how to set the amount from profit instead of the bank balance, and the four mistakes that cost owners the most.
A $94,000 profit can be four jobs earning $130,000 and three losing $36,000 — and your P&L will never say so. The four cost buckets, the labor-burden mistake that inflates almost every estimate, one kitchen remodel costed to the dollar, and what to look for in a job cost report while you can still act on it.
Why your P&L starts over at zero every January while your balance sheet doesn't. What closes, what carries forward, a full closing entry worked out with real numbers, the checklist to finish first — and how to reopen the year when your accountant sends adjustments in March.
Two columns that have to match — and the trap nobody warns you about: a trial balance can agree to the penny while your books are still wrong. A full example read line by line, the four errors it can't see, and the divide-by-2-then-9 trick for finding a mismatch fast.
You bought the same widget for $10, $12, and $15. You just sold one — what did it cost? All three methods run through one worked example, a $500 profit swing from accounting alone, plus what the IRS and IFRS actually allow.
Your household has assets, debts, income, and expenses — that's a balance sheet nobody ever set up. Why a $2,100 mortgage payment is really two entries, how to build a family chart of accounts, and the 30-minute monthly close that keeps your net worth honest.
You don't take a $30,000 hit for a van that earns money for five years. The three numbers behind every method, all four depreciation methods with full worked schedules, when to use each, and the monthly journal entry that keeps your balance sheet honest.
Every dollar you spend belongs somewhere. The standard expense categories that match your tax return, a four-question test for placing any purchase, the mistakes that quietly cost you deductions, and how to let your software sort most of it automatically.
You had a $61,000 month and your bank account disagrees. The report that names every customer sitting on your cash: what each aging bucket really means, the three passes that read it in five minutes, and the follow-up that works at each stage of late.
Every balance sheet and P&L is built from one master record. What the general ledger actually contains, how it differs from the journal and chart of accounts, a worked cash-account example, and the 15-minute monthly routine that keeps yours clean.
Your accountant says it, loan officers ask about it, and nobody explains it. The plain-English answer to whether GAAP applies to your business, the five principles that quietly shape good books, and the exact moments — loans, investors, a sale — when GAAP stops being optional.
Your first overseas client asks to be billed in euros — now what? The three moments an exchange rate matters, whether to invoice in your currency or theirs, a worked €5,000 example with real numbers, and the mistakes that mangle small business books.
Profit is an opinion; cash is a fact. Learn to read the statement that explains where your money actually went — operating, investing, and financing activities, a worked example, and why a profitable business can still run out of cash.
America turns 250 — and its 90,000 local governments still mostly run their books on QuickBooks class-tracking hacks. BizBooks Pro Government Edition brings real GASB fund accounting, encumbrance control, and audit-ready statements to special districts, small towns, and school districts starting at $799/year.
Your books say $18,400; the bank says $17,910 — which is right? A step-by-step bank reconciliation walkthrough: match every line, record what the bank caught, list the timing differences, and track down a stubborn discrepancy without a "close enough" fudge entry.
The bottom line is the least interesting number on the page. Learn to read your P&L as a staircase — revenue, COGS, gross profit, operating expenses, net income — with a worked example and the three profit margins that reveal how your business is really doing.
The master list behind every clean set of books. Learn the five account types, a simple numbering system, a sample chart you can copy, and the mistakes that turn your reports into noise — plus how to keep it from sprawling to 200 lines.
Why accountants say "debits and credits" instead of "money in and money out." Learn the 500-year-old system that keeps every serious business's books balanced — debits and credits demystified, the two rules behind it, and a worked example you can follow line by line.
Decades of data across multiple company files, and Intuit wants you on QuickBooks Online. You're not trapped: move your full history (exported in chunks, streamed back together), keep unlimited company files, and stay on the desktop.
The most powerful financial statement most owners never read. Learn assets, liabilities, and equity, why it always balances, and the four quick ratios that reveal whether your business is actually healthy — with a worked example.
QuickBooks Pro is discontinued. Here's the desktop-first replacement that keeps your data local, adds browser-based remote access, locks your price for 12 years, and ships 10 features Pro never had.
Turn bookkeeping from a quarterly panic into a quiet hour of confidence. The 8 steps to close your books each month — reconcile, accrue, review, and lock the period — explained in the order an accountant would do them.
A plain-English guide to the one decision most owners make by accident. See the same month booked both ways, the IRS rules, and how to pick — and switch — without breaking your books.
Plug in your plan, add-ons, and expected price increases to see what QuickBooks will really cost you over the years — then compare it to a price you can lock for 12 years.
QuickBooks Nonprofit doesn't actually track donor restrictions. Sage Intacct costs $5,000+/year. The middle of the nonprofit accounting market has been underserved for years — here's how we built BizBooks Pro 2.0 Nonprofit Edition to fill that gap.
We ran the same migration through Xero, Wave, Zoho, FreshBooks, Sage 50, Odoo, and BizBooks Pro. Most quietly drop Items, Classes, and line-item links. Here is the proof.
Intuit's own documentation lists what the conversion cannot carry — budgets, memorized transactions, invoice templates, sales orders, estimates, projects and every attachment — and the import expires after 60 days.
Plus is now $140/month and Advanced $340. Across 2026, Plus rose 55% and Advanced 70%. What changed, what it compounds to, and what your options are.
Wave moved bank feeds, second users and receipt scanning onto its $190/year Pro plan — billed per business profile. What changed, what it costs, and when you should just stay on the free plan.
Nobody can open your .qbw file — not even QuickBooks Online. Here is exactly what transfers, what does not, and why the export cannot wait.
Intuit dropped the 2027 end date for Desktop 2024, but new sales are still closed and the renewal climbed from $999 to $1,351 in 2026. Here's what it costs to stay.
Thinking of migrating to QBO? Here's what Desktop features are missing or degraded in the cloud version.
Own multiple LLCs, rental properties, or side businesses? You're paying 2x, 3x, or more for accounting software. See the real costs.
Tired of QuickBooks price increases? We compare the top alternatives with real pricing, features, and honest pros/cons.
A real breakdown of QuickBooks costs over 5 years with price increases. The 12-year projection is even scarier.
Step-by-step instructions to export your chart of accounts, customers, vendors, and transactions from QuickBooks.
The pendulum is swinging back. Privacy, pricing, and control are driving businesses away from cloud-only software.
Price increases, user fees, feature gating, and add-ons. The true cost of cloud software is much higher than advertised.
We're biased, but we're fair. See how we stack up against QuickBooks—including where they beat us.
Complete guide to choosing accounting software. Compare features, pricing, and find the right fit for your business.
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