Blog
Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team. Browse by tag.
How I Beancount: Eight Years of Money in Git and a 20-Minute Sunday Check-In
A software engineer walks through her real Beancount routine: receipt capture at the grocery store, a 20-minute Sunday check-in in Fava, balance assertions that work like unit tests, and eight years of family finances version-controlled in Git.
The USPTO's 2026 Fee Schedule: A Small Business Budgeting Guide for Trademarks and Patents
The USPTO's 2026 fee schedule changes how small businesses should budget for trademark classes, patent filing stages, maintenance fees, and small- or micro-entity discounts. Learn the current cost structure and the bookkeeping controls that prevent missed deadlines and underpaid fees.
Form 8809 for Information Returns: How Small Businesses Get a 30-Day Extension to File 1099s and Other Forms
Form 8809 can give small businesses an extra 30 days to file many information returns, but it does not extend recipient statements. Learn the deadlines, 1099-NEC exceptions, e-file rules, and bookkeeping controls that keep the request valid.
Demurrage and Detention Invoice Controls: A 30-Day Checklist for Importers Before Paying Port Charges
Nine major ocean carriers collected roughly $15.4 billion in detention and demurrage charges between April 2020 and March 2025. This checklist explains what the FMC's 46 CFR Part 541 billing rule requires on every invoice, the five controls to run before approving a port charge, and a 30-day workflow for disputing questionable fees and recording accepted versus disputed amounts in your books.
Connecticut Paid Leave Is 0.5% in 2026: How Employers Can Catch Over-Withholding and Reconcile CTPL
The Connecticut Paid Leave contribution rate is 0.5% of subject wages for 2026, capped at the $184,500 Social Security wage base — a maximum of $922.50 per employee per employer. This employer guide covers the quarterly filing calendar, a six-step payroll reconciliation, and how to correct doubled 1% deductions, overpayments, and duplicate remittances.
Build a Business Disaster Inventory Before You Need It: Photos, Fixed-Asset Registers, and the IRS Workbook That Speed Insurance Claims and Tax Relief
How to build a business disaster inventory that proves existence, identity, value, and timing of what you own — fixed-asset registers, dated inventory reports, photo walkthroughs, and offsite records — plus a first-72-hours checklist and how IRS Publication 584-B and Form 4684 handle casualty losses and insurance reimbursements.
How Small Business Owners Can Harvest Long-Term Capital Gains at 0% in 2026
In 2026, the 0% federal long-term capital gains rate applies up to $49,450 of taxable income for single filers and $98,900 for joint filers. This guide shows small business owners how to forecast taxable income, size a year-end gain harvest with the stacking rule, and avoid the basis, holding-period, and estimated-tax mistakes that turn a 0% plan into a tax bill.
Walmart Q2 FY2027 Earnings: The $2.9 Billion Refund Inside a Record Quarter
Walmart posted $187.94B of revenue (+5.9%) and $9.38B of operating income (+28.8%) in Q2 FY2027, but roughly $2.9B of tariff refunds ran through cost of sales. Backing the refund out puts gross margin near 24.6% and operating margin near 3.4%, below the prior year — while net income fell 8.7% on a $3.91B swing in non-operating items.
USDA Just Let Your Farm's LLC Stack Payment Limits — but Only If Your Books Prove It by September 15
USDA's June 2026 final rule lets farm LLCs and S corporations claim one ARC/PLC payment limit per actively engaged owner — up to $164,000 per person for 2026 — but only if entity structure, per-member contributions, and farm/non-farm income splits are documented with FSA by September 15, 2026. Here's the bookkeeping that proves it.
Target Q2 FY2026 Earnings: $1.65 of the $4.11 EPS Came From a Tariff Refund
Target's Q2 FY2026 net sales rose 5.3% to $26.54B and diluted EPS doubled to $4.11, but $994M of tariff refunds cut cost of sales and supplied $1.65 of that EPS plus 3.7 points of operating margin. Excluding the refund, operating income still grew about 19% and gross margin was near 29.9%, on comparable sales of +3.8% led by 3.6% traffic growth and 8.7% digital growth.
Is Shipping Taxable? A Practical State-by-State Guide for Small Businesses
Whether shipping is taxable depends on the destination state, the taxability of the items, who billed the delivery, and whether the customer could avoid the charge. This guide covers the five questions that control the answer, the main state-rule patterns in New York, Texas, California, Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina, how to allocate delivery charges on mixed taxable and exempt orders, and a monthly checklist for defensible shipping-tax records.
Home Depot Q2 FY2026 Earnings: 75% of the Sales Growth Came From the SRS Distribution Bet
Home Depot's Q2 FY2026 sales rose 5.7% to $47.86B, but the Other/SRS distribution segment supplied about 75% of the $2.58B increase at a 4.9% operating margin versus 15.4% for retail. Roughly $685M of IEEPA tariff refunds cut cost of goods sold; backing it out puts inferred gross margin near 32.2% and operating margin near 12.9%, while comparable transactions fell 1.0%.