Resources
Equipment financing vs leasing comes down to ownership. Financing means you borrow to buy and own the equipment, but leasing means you pay to use it. Financing builds ownership and can allow faster tax deductions, while leasing usually needs less cash up front. This is general information, not tax advice. First, this guide explains how […]
Read articlePurchase price variance (PPV) is the difference between the standard price a manufacturer planned to pay for a material and the actual price it paid, multiplied by the quantity purchased. A positive result means you paid more than planned. So it is one of the earliest signals that material costs are drifting away from your […]
Read articleMulti-location home services businesses consolidate by putting every location on one chart of accounts, combining the results, and eliminating transactions between their own entities. Then they read the numbers two ways: the consolidated total and each location’s P&L. That matters, because a total alone can hide a weak location inside a healthy number. Intercompany transactions […]
Read articleA small business budget is a month-by-month plan for revenue, costs, and cash, so you can compare it to actual results every month. Build it in five steps: first, start from last year’s real numbers; then set revenue by month, budget direct costs as a percent of revenue, add fixed overhead, and finally check the […]
Read articlePreparing a business for sale means making your financials something a stranger can trust. So buyers check three years of consistent statements, whether earnings are real and repeatable, how much cash the business needs, and how much depends on you. But we advise starting at least a year before you want to sell. So this […]
Read articleJob costing for movers means working out what each move actually cost to run, then comparing that number to what you charged. Three inputs drive it: cost per crew hour, cost per truck hour, and materials per job. Most movers price from a market rate or a competitor’s quote. So some jobs quietly lose money […]
Read articleStandard costing vs. actual costing comes down to this. Standard costing assigns each product a predetermined cost based on expected material, labor, and overhead. Then it tracks variances against actual results. Actual costing assigns each product the real cost incurred for that specific run. Most small manufacturers between $5M and $25M in revenue do better […]
Read articleCustomer deposits are not revenue. They’re a liability. The boat builder still owes the customer a finished boat, or the money back, until the work is actually done. Recording a deposit as revenue the day it hits the bank is the single most common mistake we see in boat builders’ books. It’s a mistake that […]
Read articleMoving companies run out of cash in the off-season because the P&L takes an annual view, but the bank account runs on a weekly one. Moving and storage businesses typically see their slowest stretch from late September through March. A year can close profitable while still including several months where payroll is a genuine question. […]
Read articleAccounting for landscaping companies looks simple on the surface. You bill clients, you pay crews, you buy fuel. But under that, the books are pulled in three ways at once. Sales swing hard with the seasons. Trucks and mowers lose value on a schedule that few owners track well. And labor, the biggest cost on […]
Read articleHow to Improve Cash Flow in a Service Business: 7 Tactics That Actually Move the Needle If you run a service business doing $2M to $10M in revenue, you have probably had this experience: you close a strong month on paper, look at your bank balance, and feel like the numbers do not match. You […]
Read articleWhat Is Accounts Receivable and How Do You Manage It? You’ve done the work. You’ve sent the invoice. It’s sitting on your P&L as revenue. But the money is still in your customer’s bank account — not yours. And next Friday, payroll still has to clear. That gap between earning revenue and collecting cash is […]
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