Insights & Guides

The BIS Blog

Bookkeeping tips, tax guidance, and financial insights for small business owners.

Year-End Tax Planning: The Moves That Only Work Before December 31

Most year-end tax moves stop working at 11:59 PM on December 31. A surprisingly large number of business owners don't start thinking about them until February. The gap between when planning needs to happen and when most people start is where most of the real money gets left on the table.

Marcus Greene October 19, 2026

Short-Term Rental Airbnb

Short-Term Rental Operators: Platform Fees, OTA Accounting, and the Tax Problem Nobody Warned You About

Short-term rental operators are running hospitality businesses out of residential assets while filing taxes under rules they do not fully understand. OTA gross vs. net revenue, occupancy tax liability, passive activity rules, and owner-use day calculations interact in ways most operators get wrong.

Marcus Greene October 16, 2026

Loan Underwriting Small Business Loans

How Banks Underwrite Small Business Loans: What the Underwriter Sees

Most business owners experience the loan underwriting process as a black box — you submit documents, wait, and eventually get a yes or a no with minimal explanation. It does not have to be that way. Lenders follow a predictable analytical framework, and owners who understand it get better decisions, faster.

Marcus Greene October 14, 2026

Operating Leverage Fixed Costs

Operating Leverage: When Your Fixed Costs Become Your Biggest Risk

A 15% drop in revenue should be a setback. In a high-operating-leverage business, it can be a catastrophe. The difference is not how well the business is managed — it is how the cost structure was built during the growth years, when adding fixed costs felt like confidence.

Marcus Greene October 12, 2026

MSP IT Services

IT Services and MSPs: When Recurring Revenue Hides a Profitability Problem

MSPs love to talk about their recurring revenue. What the MRR number rarely reveals is whether the managed services contracts generating it are actually profitable — or whether the profitability is being quietly subsidized by project work and vendor rebates that nobody is tracking consistently.

Marcus Greene October 9, 2026

Free Cash Flow Operating Cash Flow

Operating Cash Flow vs. Free Cash Flow: The Two Numbers That Tell Different Stories

EBITDA tells you what a business earns before accounting decisions. Net income tells you what is left after the IRS is done. Neither tells you how much cash the business actually generates that you could take out or invest. That number is free cash flow — and most small business owners have never calculated it.

Karl Geldmeister October 7, 2026

Brewery Distillery

Breweries and Distilleries: Excise Tax, Inventory Tracking, and the Cost of Scaling a Recipe

Craft beverage producers operate under a layer of federal tax compliance most small businesses never encounter. Miss a TTB filing, miscount a production batch, or fail to document your reduced excise tax rate — and the exposure arrives without warning.

Penny Sterling September 25, 2026

Buy-Sell Agreement Business Ownership

Buy-Sell Agreements: How to Protect Your Ownership Before You Need To

The most dangerous document a multi-owner business can be missing is a buy-sell agreement. Not because it is complex, but because the moment you need one — a death, a divorce, a partner who stops showing up — you are out of time to negotiate it from a position of mutual goodwill.

Penny Sterling September 23, 2026

Estimated Taxes Quarterly Taxes

Quarterly Estimated Taxes: The Calculation Most Business Owners Get Wrong

Underpayment penalties from the IRS are not just a nuisance — they are a signal that your tax planning is running a quarter behind your actual income. And most self-employed business owners are paying those penalties every year because they learned the quarterly system from someone who oversimplified it.

Penny Sterling September 21, 2026

Real Estate Investor House Flipping

Real Estate Investors and House Flippers: Project Accounting and the Carrying Costs Nobody Tracks

Every flip is a multi-month project with acquisition costs, layered rehab expenses, and carrying costs that accumulate daily. Most flippers miss half their costs and are surprised when they compute profit at closing. The IRS is not surprised.

Penny Sterling September 18, 2026

DSCR Debt Service Coverage

Debt Service Coverage Ratio: The Number Your Banker Is Always Watching

There is one number that decides whether a lender says yes or no to your loan request more often than any other. It is not your credit score, your collateral value, or your revenue growth. It is your debt service coverage ratio — and most business owners do not know theirs until the lender tells them it is too low.

Penny Sterling September 16, 2026

Revenue Concentration Customer Risk

Revenue Concentration Risk: When One Customer Is Most of Your Business

The most dangerous customer in your business is the one who represents 40% of your revenue. Not because they are a bad customer. But because their decision to leave, slow their payments, or renegotiate terms is not a business problem — it is an existential event.

Penny Sterling September 14, 2026

Law Firms IOLTA

Law Firms: IOLTA Trust Accounts, WIP Billing, and the Realization Rate Nobody Talks About

Law firm accounting has one rule that supersedes all others: client money is not your money. The bookkeeping that governs trust funds is an ethics obligation enforced by state bar authorities who can suspend a license over a reconciliation failure.

Penny Sterling September 11, 2026

Days Payable Outstanding DPO

Days Payable Outstanding: Using Vendor Terms as Free Working Capital

Every business borrows money from its suppliers. Most do not realize they are doing it — and almost none are doing it as well as they could. Days Payable Outstanding is how you measure the free financing your vendors are currently providing, and whether you are using it intelligently.

Tess Treasury September 9, 2026

Food Truck COGS

Food Trucks: COGS Tracking, Permit Costs, and the Margin Math Behind Mobile Food

Food trucks fail for the same reason restaurants fail — not because the food is bad, but because the operator never knew their real food cost, labor cost, or which locations and events were actually making money.

Ben Schwartz August 26, 2026

Key Man Insurance Business Continuity

Key Man Insurance: The Coverage That Protects Your Business When It Loses Its Most Important Person

Every small business has at least one person whose absence would create a crisis. The founder who owns all the customer relationships. The technical expert nobody else can replace. Most businesses have no plan for losing that person — and no insurance to fund one.

Ben Schwartz August 24, 2026

Section 179 Bonus Depreciation

Section 179 and Bonus Depreciation: The Equipment Buying Decision, Tax-Optimized

The government is offering small business owners an interest-free loan every time they buy equipment — in the form of an accelerated depreciation deduction that lets you write off the full cost in year one. Most owners know this vaguely. Very few model the actual tax impact before they sign the purchase order.

Ben Schwartz August 21, 2026

Solar Installation ITC

Solar Installation Companies: Rebates, Tax Credits, and the Revenue You Recognize Too Early

Solar revenue does not come from one source, arrive at one time, or belong to one party. Federal tax credits, state rebates, dealer fees, and SREC markets all create revenue and liability events that most solar operators are booking in the wrong period.

Ben Schwartz August 19, 2026

Asset-Based Lending Cash Flow Lending

Asset-Based Lending vs. Cash Flow Lending: How Lenders Actually Decide

There are two fundamentally different ways lenders think about your loan request. One looks at what you own. The other looks at what you earn. Which lens applies to your business determines what credit is available, what it costs, and how much work it takes to maintain.

Ben Schwartz August 17, 2026

Budget vs Actual Variance Analysis

Budget vs. Actual Variance Analysis: The Monthly Report That Improves Every Decision

The most dangerous sentence in a management report is revenue was higher due to higher revenue. It is technically accurate, analytically useless, and present in the majority of small-business monthly reports. Variance analysis is the discipline that replaces that sentence with something a decision-maker can act on.

Ben Schwartz August 14, 2026

Veterinary Practice Vet Bookkeeping

Veterinary Practices: Pharmacy Margins, Inventory Shrinkage, and the Practice Economics Most Owners Miss

A veterinary practice is not one business — it is two businesses that share a roof and a bank account. Professional services and pharmacy have completely different margins and risks. Most veterinary books treat them as one, and that is exactly where the financial picture breaks down.

Ben Schwartz August 12, 2026

Inventory Turnover Carrying Costs

Inventory Turnover and Carrying Costs: The Hidden Tax on Slow-Moving Stock

Inventory sitting on a shelf is not an asset waiting to be used. It is cash that has already been spent, locked up in product that has not been sold, accumulating costs every day it sits there — and most business owners carrying inventory have never calculated what it actually costs.

Marcus Greene August 10, 2026

Photography Videography

Photography and Videography Businesses: Deposits, Project Cash Flow, and the Equipment Decision

A 50% booking deposit hits your account in March. The wedding is in October. Most photographers book that deposit as income immediately — and spend the rest of the year wondering why cash flow does not match the P&L.

Karl Geldmeister July 29, 2026

PEO Payroll

PEO vs. In-House Payroll vs. Payroll Provider: The Decision That Affects More Than Just Paychecks

Most small business owners choose a payroll solution the way they choose a bank — whatever is convenient at the moment they need it, never revisited. The problem is that the payroll decision touches HR liability, benefits buying power, workers comp, and unemployment, and the wrong structure costs far more than the monthly fee difference.

Karl Geldmeister July 27, 2026

S-Corp C-Corp

S-Corp vs. C-Corp vs. LLC: The Entity Election That Follows You for Years

The entity election is the single most consequential tax decision a business owner makes — and most owners make it the day they form the company, in five minutes, without modeling the numbers. That decision follows them for years, and unwinding it can cost more than it would have to get it right the first time.

Karl Geldmeister July 24, 2026

Roofing Job Costing

Roofing Companies: Seasonal Cash Flow, Insurance Jobs, and the Job Costing Gap

Roofing intersects three distinct revenue models — direct retail, insurance claims, and supplement negotiations — each with different collection timelines and receivable risk profiles. Running them through the same general ledger without separation is where roofing companies lose track of money.

Karl Geldmeister July 22, 2026

SBA Loan 7(a)

SBA 7(a) vs. 504: Which Loan Program Actually Fits Your Business

Most small business owners know the SBA has loan programs. Very few know which one actually fits their situation — and lenders rarely volunteer the information. Choosing the wrong program costs you months of underwriting time and sometimes the deal entirely.

Karl Geldmeister July 20, 2026

Cash Flow Forecast 13-Week Forecast

The 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast: How Controllers See Around Corners

Most small business owners find out about a cash problem about two weeks before it becomes a crisis. A controller with a 13-week cash flow forecast finds out six to eight weeks early — when there is still time to act. That gap is the entire difference between a managed problem and a scramble.

Karl Geldmeister July 17, 2026

Medical Practices Dental

Medical and Dental Practices: The Revenue You Bill and the Revenue You Actually Collect

Medical and dental practices bill for one number and collect a completely different one. The gap between gross charges and actual collections can represent 30 to 60 percent of billed revenue — and most practice owners have no systematic way to track where it goes.

Karl Geldmeister July 15, 2026

Accrual Accounting Cash Basis

Accrual vs. Cash Basis: When Switching Your Accounting Method Is Worth the Work

Most small businesses start on cash-basis accounting because it mirrors how a bank account works. The problem is that a bank account is not a business — and at some point, cash-basis books stop telling you what you need to run the company.

Penny Sterling July 13, 2026

Purchase Price Allocation Asset Sale

Purchase Price Allocation: The Tax Bill Nobody Warns Sellers About

The purchase price your buyer agreed to and the amount you actually keep after taxes are two very different numbers — and the gap between them is determined almost entirely by a negotiation most sellers do not realize is happening: the allocation of that purchase price across different asset classes.

Hank Bullock July 1, 2026

Earnouts Business Sale

Earnouts: How They Work, When to Accept Them, and When to Fight

An earnout is how buyers pay you for a business they are not fully sure is worth what you are asking. It sounds like a compromise. In practice, it is a mechanism that transfers risk from the buyer to you — and then puts the buyer in charge of the variables that determine whether you get paid.

Marcus Greene June 30, 2026

Due Diligence Business Sale

The Buyer's Due Diligence Checklist: What They Will Find in Your Books

When a buyer signs the LOI and starts diligence, they are not looking for reasons to buy your business. They are looking for reasons to reprice it or walk away. Understanding exactly what they will find — and having your books, contracts, and records ready to answer those questions cleanly — is the difference between a smooth close and a painful renegotiation.

Penny Sterling June 29, 2026

Valuation EBITDA Multiples

How Buyers Value Your Business: The Three Methods That Matter

Your business is worth exactly what a buyer will pay for it. That number starts with a multiple of earnings — but which earnings, which multiple, and why that multiple and not a higher one are questions most owners have never sat down and answered rigorously. The gap between what owners expect and what buyers offer is almost always rooted in that gap in understanding.

Ben Schwartz June 28, 2026

Quality of Earnings M&A

Quality of Earnings: What Buyers Actually Check Before They Close

The number on your tax return is not the number a buyer will pay you for. Between your EBITDA and a signed purchase agreement sits a process called Quality of Earnings — and what it finds in your books determines whether you close at the price you expected or reprice at a number you cannot refuse three weeks before closing.

Karl Geldmeister June 27, 2026

1099 W-2

1099 vs. W-2: The Worker Classification Decision That Defines Your Tax Exposure

The cheapest way to staff a small business is to call everyone an independent contractor. It is also the fastest way to land in the IRS's misclassification crosshairs — and once back payroll taxes and penalties stack up, the bill is usually large enough to end the business.

Hank Bullock June 5, 2026

CAC LTV

Customer Acquisition Cost and Lifetime Value: The Two Numbers That Decide Your Marketing Budget

If you do not know what a customer costs you to acquire and what they are worth over the time you will keep them, you are not spending on marketing — you are guessing. And the guess is almost always too high or too low, in ways your books never reveal.

Marcus Greene June 4, 2026

Financial Statements Balance Sheet

The Three Financial Statements: How They Connect and Why That Matters

Every business has three financial statements. Most owners read one, occasionally glance at the second, and have never opened the third. None of them mean anything in isolation — they tell a coherent story only when you read them together, and that story is almost never what the income statement says alone.

Penny Sterling June 3, 2026

EBITDA Valuation

EBITDA: What It Tells You and What It Hides

EBITDA is the number buyers use to value your business and sellers use to inflate it. Knowing exactly what it includes — and what it deliberately leaves out — is the difference between getting paid what your business is worth and getting paid what someone tells you it is.

Augie Cashman June 2, 2026

Chart of Accounts Bookkeeping

Chart of Accounts: Why Yours Is Probably Wrong and How That Costs You

If your chart of accounts has 47 expense categories and you still cannot tell which customers or product lines are profitable, the problem is not your accountant. The problem is that nobody designed your books to answer the questions you actually need to ask.

Ben Schwartz June 1, 2026

Cash Conversion Cycle Working Capital

The Cash Conversion Cycle: How Long Your Cash Is Locked Up Before It Comes Back

The reason your business needs a line of credit is not because you are undercapitalized. It is because your cash conversion cycle is longer than your customers' patience for paying you. Every dollar of revenue takes weeks to become a dollar in your bank account — and most owners have never measured the gap.

Tess Treasury May 31, 2026

Accounts Receivable DSO

Accounts Receivable Aging: The Most Honest Report in Your Bookkeeping

The single fastest diagnostic for whether a small business is in trouble is not the income statement. It is the AR aging report. Show me a 90-day bucket that has been growing month over month, and I will show you a business that does not yet know it is in real trouble.

Karl Geldmeister May 30, 2026

Owner Compensation S-Corp

Owner's Draw vs. Salary: Getting Paid Without Getting Audited

How you pay yourself out of your own business is the most expensive tax decision you make every year. Most owners make it once, never revisit it, and quietly cost themselves five-figure sums every year for the rest of their working life.

Hank Bullock May 23, 2026

Break-Even Fixed Costs

Break-Even Analysis: The One Number Every Business Owner Should Know

Ask a small business owner what their revenue is and they will answer in a heartbeat. Ask them what their break-even is and the room goes quiet. The number every business should know best is, in practice, the one most owners do not know at all.

Marcus Greene May 22, 2026

Gross Margin Net Margin

Gross Margin vs. Net Margin: The Pricing Decisions Hidden in Your P&L

Every business owner I meet can tell me their revenue without thinking. Most can tell me their net income. Almost none can tell me their gross margin per customer or product. That last number is the one that decides whether the business actually works.

Penny Sterling May 21, 2026

Working Capital Balance Sheet

Working Capital: The Hidden Constraint on Every Growing Business

Most small businesses do not fail because of bad products or weak demand. They fail because they grow faster than their working capital can absorb — and the cleaner the income statement looks on the way down, the more dangerous the fall.

Ben Schwartz May 20, 2026

Gyms Fitness Studios

Gyms & Fitness Studios: When Membership Revenue Isn't What You Think It Is

Most of what a gym sells is a promise of future access — not revenue when collected, but a liability until the service period passes. Most fitness studios book it wrong, and the distortion compounds from there.

Ben Schwartz May 19, 2026

Cash Flow Profit

Cash Flow vs. Profit: Why Profitable Businesses Still Go Broke

I have watched profitable businesses miss payroll on a Tuesday and close their doors on a Friday. The P&L was clean every month. The bank account told a different story — and that gap is the most expensive blind spot in small business.

Karl Geldmeister May 18, 2026

Salons Barbershops

Salons, Barbershops & Spas: Booth Rental, Tips, and the Bookkeeping That Holds It Together

The salon industry has one of the most complicated workforce structures in small business. Booth rental vs. employee misclassification, tip accounting errors, and retail margin that vanishes — here is what it costs.

Ben Schwartz May 17, 2026

Professional Services Law Firms

Professional Services: When Your AR Is Your Biggest Asset (and Risk)

Law, dental, medical, and consulting practices: AR isn't a line item, it is your business. Every aging day is risk. Every write-off is pure margin loss because the cost was already incurred.

Ben Schwartz May 16, 2026

Childcare Daycare

Childcare & Daycare Centers: The Mixed-Payer Revenue Problem

Childcare operators manage private tuition, government subsidies, food program reimbursements, and grants — often for the same child in the same month. Most daycare bookkeeping treats this as one revenue number. That is where the picture falls apart.

Klark Geldmeister May 15, 2026

Restaurant Hospitality

Restaurants & Hospitality: Prime Cost or Slow Death

Most restaurant failures trace to bookkeeping — specifically, the inability to track prime cost weekly. Food cost plus labor should land below 60%. Tracking it monthly is too late.

Ben Schwartz May 14, 2026

Construction General Contractors

General Contractors: The Job Costing Problem That's Quietly Killing Your Margin

Every construction job is its own small business with its own revenue, costs, and risk. Most contractors' books reflect the company, not the jobs — and that's where margin disappears.

Klark Geldmeister May 14, 2026

Property Management Trust Accounting

Property Management: The Trust Accounting Mistakes That Create Real Liability

Property managers hold other people's money as a routine part of operations. Security deposits, rent collected on behalf of owners, maintenance reserves — all of it flows through accounts the company controls but does not own. Most handle this badly.

Klark Geldmeister May 12, 2026

Ecommerce Retail

E-Commerce & Retail: The Inventory Black Hole

Every dollar tied up in inventory is a dollar not earning anything else. Most e-commerce and retail operators don't actually know what their inventory is worth or what their true COGS is by SKU.

Ben Schwartz May 10, 2026

Freight Brokers Logistics

Freight Brokers: Why Your Books Make You Look Smaller Than You Are (Or Bigger)

The single biggest bookkeeping question for a freight broker is whether you report revenue gross or net. Most get it wrong. The answer matters more than most brokers realize.

Ben Schwartz May 2, 2026

Auto Repair Body Shop

Auto Services & Body Shops: Where Your Money Actually Goes

Parts and labor look profitable on paper. Bay utilization, technician productivity, and AR aging tell the real story. Auto services has more financial moving parts than most operators realize.

Ben Schwartz April 29, 2026

Moving Logistics

Moving & Logistics: The Margin You Can't Find on Your P&L

Every move is a mini-P&L. Crew, truck, fuel, drive time, packing materials, insurance, damage risk — all on a single job. Most movers can't tell you which jobs made money.

Ben Schwartz April 22, 2026

HVAC Plumbing

HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical: Why Your P&L Doesn't Match Reality

Most trades businesses can tell you what revenue did last month. Far fewer can tell you what profit looked like by job, technician, or service line. That gap is where money disappears.

Ben Schwartz April 15, 2026

Lawn Care Pest Control

Lawn Care, Cleaning & Pest Control: The Bookkeeping Truth Behind Recurring Revenue

Recurring revenue businesses look great on paper. For lawn care, cleaning, and pest control operators, the total revenue number tells you almost nothing about whether the business is actually healthy.

Ben Schwartz April 8, 2026

Bookkeeping Small Business

Do You Actually Need a Bookkeeper? (Here's How to Know)

DIY bookkeeping works — until it doesn't. Here are the signals that tell you it's time to bring in a professional.

Karl Geldmeister April 2, 2026

Tax Planning Year-End

Year-End Tax Prep Checklist for Small Business Owners

December is the last month to take meaningful action on your 2026 tax bill. Use this checklist to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Karl Geldmeister March 11, 2026

Accounting Small Business

Cash vs. Accrual Accounting: Which Method Is Right for Your Business?

The method you use to record revenue and expenses shapes everything from your tax bill to how useful your financial statements actually are.

Karl Geldmeister February 22, 2026

Tax Planning Self-Employed

Quarterly Estimated Taxes: A Plain-English Guide for the Self-Employed

If you're self-employed and waiting until April to pay your taxes, you're probably already paying penalties. Here's how the quarterly system works.

Karl Geldmeister February 4, 2026