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Honest answers, from people who do the books.

Written by the team behind Woven, a working accounting firm. Competitors get fair credit, our own product is always disclosed, and the advice stands on its own either way. New guides most weeks.

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LatestAccounting firms

Contribution margin by service line: how to calculate

How to calculate contribution margin by service line from closed books: tag revenue by line, allocate direct labor, tag direct costs, skip overhead allocation.

Oct 16, 2026 · 6 min read

All guides

41 articles, newest first

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Short-term rentals

Airbnb payouts: gross vs net bookkeeping

Airbnb payouts, gross vs net bookkeeping: record gross revenue, platform fees as expense, cleaning pass-throughs, and lodging tax as a liability, per property.

Oct 15, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

How to merge duplicate vendors in bookkeeping

How to merge duplicate vendors in bookkeeping without losing history: group by name, keep the vendor with the W-9, merge many-to-one, then fix the rules.

Oct 14, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

How much should a business owner pay themselves?

How much should a business owner pay themselves? Reasonable compensation, distributions the cash forecast supports, and a sustainable number from closed books.

Oct 13, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

How to avoid filing tax extensions next year

How to avoid filing tax extensions next year: a monthly close that doesn't slip, with loans, owner draws, W-9s, and payroll liabilities tied every month.

Oct 12, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

How an accounting firm replaced its software stack

How an accounting firm replaced its software stack of ledger, practice tool, portal, document collection, and e-sign with one platform, and what it fixed.

Oct 9, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

Dental practice bookkeeping: production vs collections

Dental practice bookkeeping that reports production versus collections monthly, matches deposits to the collection report, and splits hygiene from restorative.

Oct 8, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

Bank rules for bookkeeping: how rules should work

How bank rules for bookkeeping should work: the first choice becomes the rule, the rule carries the vendor, and the close audits rules before trusting the P&L.

Oct 7, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

Buy vs lease analysis: what the books need

Buy vs lease analysis for a small business from the firm's side: the 36-month cash view, the lender's balance sheet, existing debt, and the tax layer.

Oct 6, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

Last-minute bookkeeping cleanup before a tax deadline

How to run a last-minute bookkeeping cleanup before a tax deadline: freeze the start, tie every account to statements, kill duplicates, one question list.

Oct 5, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

How to build a 13-week cash flow forecast from books

How to build a 13-week cash flow forecast from closed books in under an hour: start from the bank balance, schedule cash in and out, review it weekly.

Oct 2, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

Job costing and WIP for contractor bookkeeping

Job costing and WIP for contractor bookkeeping: tag every cost to its job when it posts, recognize revenue by percent complete, deliver job margin monthly.

Oct 1, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

Bank statement reconciliation software for firms

What bank statement reconciliation software should do for a firm: read the bank's own PDF, tie every line to the ledger, check printed totals, surface gaps.

Sep 30, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

How to price a CFO advisory tier for firm clients

How to price a CFO advisory tier for accounting firm clients: a named monthly package per industry, a setup fee, a tier on the close, a quarterly meeting.

Sep 29, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

How to close the books in the first week of the month

How to close the books in the first week of the month: front-load the weekly work, run a checklist that produces numbers, separate the doer from the reviewer.

Sep 28, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

W-9 collection process for accounting firms

The W-9 collection process for accounting firms that ends the January scramble: collect at vendor setup, check monthly in the close, TIN-match in December.

Sep 25, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

Restaurant prime cost bookkeeping: deliver it weekly

Restaurant prime cost bookkeeping delivered weekly: food purchases by vendor rule, payroll by pay date with tips separated, POS deposits with fees split out.

Sep 24, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

How to read check images for a bookkeeping cleanup

How to read check images for a bookkeeping cleanup at scale: match payees to the payroll roster and vendor list, code by rule, review only the exceptions.

Sep 23, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

Can we afford to hire another bookkeeper?

Can we afford to hire another bookkeeper? A three-number test for accounting firms: hours freed, their value at your rate, the ramp, and the workflow fix first.

Sep 22, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

October 15 extension deadline checklist for firms

October 15 extension deadline checklist for accounting firms: the five bookkeeping tie-outs every extended return is waiting on, run across the client list.

Sep 21, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

Bookkeeping cleanup checklist for accounting firms

A bookkeeping cleanup checklist for accounting firms: diagnostic first, freeze date, bank and card tie-out, duplicates, categorization, memo, fixed-fee pricing.

Sep 18, 2026 · 6 min read

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Accounting firms

A bookkeeping cleanup is a sequence, not a project

Cleanups run over budget because they're done in the wrong order. The six-step sequence an accounting firm uses for every catch-up engagement, the diagnostic that comes first, how to price it as a fixed fee, and why Q4 is the month to sell them.

Sep 15, 2026 · 7 min read

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Accounting firms

Margin by service line is the CFO report that changes a client's prices

After the cash flow forecast, the second CFO deliverable a firm should sell: contribution margin by service line. How to build it from closed books with classes and a labor allocation, what it reveals (the popular service that loses money), how to turn it into a pricing conversation, and how to price the report itself.

Sep 15, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

The January 1099 scramble is decided in September

Every firm loses the last two weeks of January to missing W-9s. The fix is a vendor-setup rule, not a January project. What changed for 2026 payments (the $2,000 threshold), backup withholding, the e-file mandate, and the monthly mechanics that make January quiet.

Sep 11, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

The 13-week cash flow forecast is the CFO service clients renew

Advisory that clients keep paying for is a specific deliverable, not a conversation. The 13-week cash flow forecast: what it is, why it's the first CFO product a firm should sell, how to build it from closed books in under an hour, and how to price it.

Sep 10, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

The Q3 estimate is due September 15. Most firms are guessing it.

Third-quarter estimated payments are due September 15. Firms that close monthly compute them from real year-to-date numbers. Everyone else uses last year's safe harbor and explains the April surprise later. How to make the estimate a byproduct of the books.

Sep 8, 2026 · 4 min read

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Accounting firms

Due-to/due-from: the account that tells you a multi-entity client is in trouble

When an owner pays one LLC's bills from another LLC's card, the mess lands in due-to/due-from. Why that balance grows, what it does to the K-1s and the lender package, and the monthly mechanics that keep it at zero.

Sep 3, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

September 15 is a bookkeeping deadline, not a tax deadline

Most extended 1120-S and 1065 returns weren't extended for a tax reason. The books weren't closed in March. How the K-1 cascade turns one late close into two tax seasons, and the monthly mechanics that make the extension unnecessary.

Sep 2, 2026 · 4 min read

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Accounting firms

The reports that turn a bookkeeping firm into a CFO service

The CFO service clients actually renew is the report AND the advice on it, delivered together every month. The industry-specific packages that make both deliverable at firm scale.

Aug 28, 2026 · 4 min read

Business owners

Why clients never send receipts (and what actually fixes it)

The receipt problem isn't a discipline problem — it's a timing problem. Why the shoebox ritual always fails, and the three mechanics that actually get documents into the books.

Aug 27, 2026 · 4 min read

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Business owners

Can AI do your bookkeeping? What the auto-posting apps get wrong

AI categorizes most of a bank feed fine. The books still go wrong — because of what auto-posting tools do with the transactions they shouldn't have touched. Four tests for evaluating AI bookkeeping.

Aug 26, 2026 · 4 min read

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Real estate

How many QuickBooks files does a multi-entity owner actually need?

One file with classes, or a file per LLC? Separate books per entity was the right instinct all along — the real problem is software that charges per entity and still can't show you the portfolio.

Aug 25, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

Life after Hubdoc: where document collection goes now

Hubdoc is retired. Your realistic options for client document collection in 2026: Dext, portal-based requests, and intake built into the books.

Aug 6, 2026 · 4 min read

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Multi-entity

Multi-entity bookkeeping without a subscription per LLC

How to keep clean books across multiple LLCs: due-to/due-from, intercompany eliminations, consolidated reports, and what to do about QBO's per-entity pricing.

Aug 6, 2026 · 4 min read

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Accounting firms

One platform vs. the stack: the real cost of a firm's software pile

QBO plus Karbon plus a portal plus DocuSign plus Dext: what the five-tool firm stack really costs, and the honest math on consolidating it.

Aug 6, 2026 · 4 min read

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Real estate

Owner reports without the month-end crunch

How property managers and firms escape the monthly owner-report scramble: a tighter close, a standard package, and templated report delivery.

Aug 6, 2026 · 4 min read

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Accounting firms

QuickBooks Online alternatives for accounting firms (2026)

An honest 2026 comparison of QBO alternatives for firms: Xero, Wave, Zoho, Sage 50, NetSuite, and Woven, with real per-client pricing math.

Aug 6, 2026 · 5 min read

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Accounting firms

QuickBooks price increases: what accounting firms can actually do

QBO prices keep climbing, with users reporting 20-41% jumps. Five realistic options for firms, with the math on each, from repricing to replatforming.

Aug 6, 2026 · 4 min read

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Real estate

Real double-entry books for landlords: what Stessa and Baselane don't do

Landlord apps track income and expenses, not a real general ledger. What that costs at tax time, and what per-property double-entry books look like.

Aug 6, 2026 · 5 min read

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Short-term rentals

Short-term rental bookkeeping: a practical guide for Airbnb and Vrbo hosts

How to keep STR books right: gross vs net payouts, per-property P&L, personal-use splits, and lodging tax basics every Airbnb host should know.

Aug 6, 2026 · 4 min read

Start here · From the founder

Why an accounting firm built its own Financial OS

We run an accounting firm. We built Woven because the software stack we were paying for — ledger, portal, document collection, e-sign — was five products pretending to be one.

4 min read

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