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Practical financial guides for small business

Get direct, useful answers about bookkeeping, reporting, payroll, taxes, hiring, pricing, and accounting systems. Filter the library by topic or format to find the guide you need.

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619 published guides

  • Business Taxes How-To Guide

    What Happens If a Business Does Not File Taxes?

    Not filing a required business tax return can create filing penalties, interest, substitute assessments, collection action, lost refunds or elections, and separate consequences for owners, payroll, information returns, and states.

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  • Business Taxes Definition

    What Is a Sales Tax Submission?

    A sales tax submission is the return and required schedules delivered to the correct tax account for a specific period. Payment is related but remains a separate action and status.

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  • Bookkeeping Basics Definition

    What Is Accounting Normal Balance Chart?

    An accounting normal balance chart shows which side of an account usually increases its balance. It is a compact way to connect debits and credits to assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses.

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  • Bookkeeping Basics Definition

    What Is Accounts Payable Accrual?

    An accounts payable accrual records an expense and obligation in the period when goods or services were received, even though the vendor invoice has not yet entered the payables system.

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  • AP, AR & Invoicing Definition

    What Is Accounts Payable for Beginners?

    Accounts payable is money your business owes to suppliers for goods or services already received but not yet paid for. On the balance sheet it is a liability. In practice it is a process: invoices arrive, get checked, get approved, get scheduled, get paid, get recorded.

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  • Business Taxes Definition

    What Is Additional Medicare Tax?

    Additional Medicare Tax is a 0.9 percent individual tax on Medicare wages, railroad retirement compensation, and self-employment income above the threshold for the taxpayer's filing status.

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  • AP, AR & Invoicing Definition

    What Is Aging Accounts Receivable?

    An aging report groups open receivable items by defined age ranges. It can support collection, cash planning, dispute management, credit review, and close when it is reconciled and paired with named actions.

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  • Payroll & 1099 Definition

    What Is an IRS Fillable 1099 Form?

    An IRS fillable 1099 form may help prepare recipient or record copies, but most downloaded Copy A forms are informational and cannot be printed and mailed as scannable federal returns.

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  • Financial Statements Definition

    What Is Balance Sheet Not Balancing?

    If assets do not equal liabilities plus equity, something is recorded incorrectly. This is always a bookkeeping error rather than a business problem, and it is always findable.

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  • CFO & Advisory Definition

    What Is Business Advisory Accountant?

    A business advisory accountant works on decisions rather than on compliance. Compliance accounting answers what happened and what you owe. Advisory work answers what to do next: whether to hire, how to price, which parts of the business are worth expanding, and what happens to cash if you are wrong.

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  • CFO & Advisory Definition

    What Is Cash Flow Management for Startups?

    Cash flow management for a startup is the practice of knowing, at any moment, how much money you have, how fast it is leaving, and how long that gives you. Everything else in startup finance is downstream of those three numbers.

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  • Industry Bookkeeping Definition

    What Is Contractor Expenses List?

    The useful split for a contracting business is not "deductible" versus "not deductible." It is direct job cost versus overhead. Get that division right and every job margin you look at means something. Get it wrong and your gross profit is a number with no relationship to reality.

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  • AP, AR & Invoicing Definition

    What Is Credit Sales Accounts Receivable?

    A credit sale is a sale where the customer receives goods or services now and pays later. It creates an account receivable: revenue recognised, cash not yet collected, and an asset on your balance sheet representing the promise to pay.

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  • AP, AR & Invoicing Definition

    What Is Days Sales in Accounts Receivable?

    Days sales outstanding, commonly shortened to DSO, is an estimate derived from receivables, credit sales, and a period day count. It summarizes collection timing but does not measure the actual age of each invoice or explain the cause of movement.

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