The owner’s library
Business, bookkeeping and tax insights
Practical guides for business owners, with focused advice for contractors and S-Corporations.
64 articles
S-Corp & owner pay
Why there is no 60/40 salary rule for an S corporation
There is no 60/40 salary rule for S corporations. Here is what the IRS actually requires, how to approach reasonable compensation, and what records to keep.
S-Corp & owner pay
What an S-Corp Owner Should Finish on Payroll Before December 31
A final payroll handoff for S-Corp owners: wages, pay dates, shareholder health insurance and retirement deferrals before the year closes.
Contractor finances
Materials Bought for a Job That Will Not Finish This Year
Separate materials used on a job from reserved purchases and unassigned stock before closing the year. Job tracking and tax timing are separate questions.
Contractor finances
How to Tell If a Subcontractor Payment Needs a 1099
Review subcontractor payments for 2026 by work type, payee tax classification, payment method, and annual total before deciding whether to issue a 1099-NEC.
Tax planning & deadlines
Sales Tax on a Florida Steel Building: What to Confirm Before the First Invoice
Confirm Florida steel-building sales tax before billing: delivery-only sales, installed improvements, contract terms, use tax, and county surtax treatment.
Contractor finances
How to Read a Job Cost Report Before You Bid the Next Job
Check job-cost report dates, cost columns, open commitments, billing, and cash before using a completed job as evidence for your next contractor bid.
Contractor finances
What to Collect From Subcontractors Before the Year Closes
Build a complete subcontractor file before year-end: W-9 details, payment records, work descriptions, payment methods, and a list of missing information.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
How to Open the Books When the Bank Account Is the Only Record You Have
Turn bank activity into a first bookkeeping file with a clear start date, supported opening balances, classified transactions, and a list of missing records.
Contractor finances
How to Review a Vendor Bill Before It Distorts Job Profit
Review vendor bills for the right job, cost category, supporting records, deposits, and timing before posting them to your contractor bookkeeping.
Tax planning & deadlines
What a New Business Should Have in Place Before the First Invoice Goes Out
Prepare your new Florida business for its first invoice with clear business identity, banking, bookkeeping, deposit tracking, and sales-tax registration.
Tax planning & deadlines
October 15 Is a Filing Deadline. It Is Not Year-End Planning.
Separate your extended 2025 tax return from 2026 planning. Confirm the right filing deadline, finish missing documents, and schedule a current-year review.
S-Corp & owner pay
How to Tell If the Business Can Still Afford the Owner
Sales are in and the calendar is full, but cash is tight every time the owner gets paid. Here is a simple check of whether the business can support what the owner takes out.
Contractor finances
What a WIP Schedule Tells You That the P&L Doesn't
The P&L can look fine while one job is going sideways. A work-in-progress schedule shows what each job has earned against what it has billed. Here is how to read one, with a worked example.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
How to Keep One Slow-Paying Customer From Running the Whole Quarter
The crew is busy and the invoice is out, but one customer's slow check is deciding whether payroll is tight. Here is how to see the exposure and keep that account from running the quarter.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
How to Handle Customer Deposits Without Distorting Your Books
A deposit hits the bank before the work is done. Recorded as income the day it arrives, it makes the month look better than the job really is. Here is how to keep it separate.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
The Q4 Bills That Don't Come Every Month
A forecast built from last month's bills misses the ones that come once a year. Florida property taxes, the workers' comp audit, bonuses, and estimated taxes all land between November and January.
Contractor finances
Closing Out a Job: Punch Lists, Affidavits, and Final Releases
A job can be finished in the field and still be wide open on paper. Florida's closeout chain runs on statutory deadlines measured from final furnishing — not from the punch list, and not from the certificate of occupancy.
Tax planning & deadlines
Reviewing Q3 Results Before You Price Q4 Work
Q3 tells you what the work actually cost. Before October fills the calendar, put each closed summer job's bid next to its final cost, sort the misses, and decide whether the next bid needs a higher price, a tighter scope, or a pass.
Contractor finances
What Contractors Should Tighten Up Before October 1
The fourth quarter is roughly 90 days, and open summer jobs, unbilled work, and stale pricing follow you into it. A short tightening-up before October 1 starts Q4 with fewer loose ends.
Tax planning & deadlines
Year-End Collections: Getting Paid Before the Calendar Turns
Contractors often finish the year with plenty of work billed and not enough of it collected. A short fall collections review gets outstanding money in before the calendar turns.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
What to Clean Up in the Books Before Year-End Starts
Year-end gets hard when the books are still carrying leftover problems from the rest of the year. Missing transactions, unreconciled accounts, mixed.
S-Corp & owner pay
Don’t Wait Until December to Review Owner Pay
A lot of S-corporation owners look at their pay in the last two weeks of the year. By then, the options are fewer, payroll is harder to adjust, and the.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
A September Financial Check-In for Business Owners
September is a useful point in the year to stop and look at the business. Summer work is largely on the books. The last quarter is still ahead. There is.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
How to Use Your Balance Sheet Without Getting Overwhelmed
Most business owners are more comfortable with a profit and loss statement than a balance sheet. A useful first review does not require understanding every.
Contractor finances
How Progress Billing Affects Cash Flow
Progress billing means invoicing as a job advances, under the schedule and conditions in the contract. It helps bring payments forward, but completed work.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
Why Owners Should Separate Personal and Business Finances Early
Many small businesses start with one account doing everything: customer deposits, materials, groceries, fuel, and household bills. It feels simpler until.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
September 15 Estimated Taxes: A Cash Plan for 2026
September 15, 2026 is the regular due date for the third federal estimated income tax installment for calendar-year individuals. For an owner whose cash is.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
Building Strong Financial Habits for a Growing Business
Growth makes weak financial routines more expensive. A missing receipt is minor when the owner remembers every purchase. It becomes a system failure when.
Contractor finances
When to Hire Help vs. Stay Lean in a Growing Contracting Business
A full schedule does not automatically justify another employee. The pressure may come from profitable demand, but it may also come from poor scheduling,.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
Building a Cash Reserve for a Contracting Business
A contracting business can be profitable on paper and still run short of cash between payroll and collection. Progress billings, retainage, material.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
Why Clean Books Make Tax Season Less Stressful
Tax season rarely becomes stressful in April. The pressure starts months earlier, each time an account goes unreconciled, a receipt loses its context, or a.
Contractor finances
Why Change Orders Quietly Make or Break Job Profitability
A job can look profitable on the original bid and still finish weak. Often, the estimate was not the only problem. The scope changed after award, crews.
Contractor finances
How to Prepare Your Books for a Bank Loan or Bonding Application
A lender or surety reviewer should not be the first person to notice that the bank account has not been reconciled or that an old receivable is still listed.
Contractor finances
The Contract Type Decides Who Carries the Risk
Two contractors can bid the same scope at the same price and end the job in completely different financial positions. The difference is not execution. It is.
Contractor finances
What Your Overhead Costs — and What You Can Cut
Most contractors can tell you what a job cost. Far fewer can tell you what the business costs to exist for a month — and fewer still know whether that.
Contractor finances
What Contractors Should Review Before Buying Equipment
Buying equipment feels like progress. It is also the decision most likely to convert a profitable year into a tight one, because the money leaves on a fixed.
Contractor finances
What an Hour of Crew Time Actually Costs
Most contractors know what they pay a crew member per hour. Far fewer know what that crew member costs per hour of work actually billed to a job — and that.
Contractor finances
When to Turn Down Work That Keeps You Busy
Most advice about profitability points at the books. Track the costs, close the month, read the reports. All of that is necessary, and none of it fixes the.
Contractor finances
Your Monthly Financial Review: The Dates Are Already Fixed
Most advice about a monthly financial review starts by telling you to pick a day. The first Monday, or the first week after close — something regular, on.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
Outgrown Your Bookkeeping System? The Thresholds That Move Overnight
Most advice about outgrowing a bookkeeping system describes a slow slide: reports drift later, numbers feel less certain, month-end takes a little longer.
Contractor finances
Tracking Job Profitability While the Job Is Still Running
Most contractors find out whether a job made money when the last invoice clears. By then the decisions that determined the answer — the crew you put on it,.
Contractor finances
Business Succession and Exit Planning for Florida Contractors
Most contractors spend decades building a business and never write down what happens when they step back. Succession planning gets filed under "retirement,".
Contractor finances
Cash Flow Forecasting Basics for Florida Contractors
Most contractors check two things: the bank balance and the profit and loss statement. Neither one tells you what next month looks like. A slow-paying.
Contractor finances
Subcontractor Payments and 1099s: What Changed for 2026
Most contractors rely on subcontractors to get work done. Once you have correctly determined that someone is an independent contractor and not an employee,.
Contractor finances
Year-End Tax Planning Checklist for Florida Contractors
The end of the year is one of the best times to review your tax situation, because it is the last point at which you still control the variables. Timing,.
Tax planning & deadlines
Tax records and reporting habits that reduce avoidable errors
Accurate records do not guarantee that a return will avoid examination. They make reporting more consistent and help you support the amounts you file.
S-Corp & owner pay
Health Insurance Options for S-Corp Owners and Their Employees
Health insurance is one of the few remaining benefits an S-Corporation can deliver with real tax efficiency. It is also the one that small S-Corps get wrong.
Tax planning & deadlines
Home Office Deduction in 2026: What Still Works and Common Mistakes
Many business owners and contractors work from home at least part of the time. Claimed correctly, the home office deduction is a legitimate and worthwhile.
Contractor finances
Workers' Compensation and Payroll Tax Pitfalls Contractors Often Miss
For contractors, managing people is one of the most complex parts of running the business. Between hiring help, paying workers, and staying compliant with.
Contractor finances
Retainage and Progress Payments: Protecting Contractor Cash Flow
On larger projects, contractors rarely get paid the full amount as work is completed. Instead, payments are often structured through progress billings, with.
Contractor finances
Vehicle & Mileage Deductions for Contractors (2026)
For most contractors, the vehicle is one of the largest ongoing business expenses. Trucks, vans, and work vehicles are essential — and how you deduct them.
Tax planning & deadlines
Quarterly Estimated Taxes: Stop the April Surprise
Every year, contractors and small business owners get hit with a large April tax bill — plus penalties — because they didn't pay enough during the year. The.
Contractor finances
Cash vs. Accrual Accounting for Contractors
One of the most consequential decisions a contractor makes isn't about a job — it's about the books. Whether you account for income and expenses on a cash.
Contractor finances
Florida Sales Tax for Contractors: 2026 Guide
If you're a contractor in Florida — roofing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, painting, or general contracting — sales tax is one of the most important and most.
Tax planning & deadlines
How tax planning supports better business decisions
Use a tax forecast alongside your cash forecast. The goal is to understand obligations before committing money to payroll, equipment, owner withdrawals or.
Bookkeeping & cash flow
KDM Client Tax & Financial Update — July 2026
July 2026 archive. Dates in this edition refer to that period. For upcoming obligations, use the tax deadline guide .
Bookkeeping & cash flow
Bookkeeping Systems That Drive Better Business Decisions
Most business owners think of bookkeeping as a necessary evil — something you do to stay out of trouble with the IRS and keep your taxes filed on time..
Contractor finances
Should your contracting business elect S-Corp taxation?
An S-Corp election may reduce employment taxes, but the right comparison includes owner wages, payroll costs, administration and state obligations.
Tax planning & deadlines
Florida or Delaware: where should you form a business?
Choose the formation state from your operations, ownership and financing plans. Incorporating elsewhere does not remove obligations where you actually do.
S-Corp & owner pay
How much should you pay yourself from your S-Corp?
Start with reasonable pay for the work you perform. A fixed percentage of profit is not an IRS safe harbor.
S-Corp & owner pay
C-Corp vs. pass-through taxation: key decisions
A C corporation pays its own federal income tax. Pass-through business income generally reaches the owners’ returns. Compare the full lifecycle, including.
S-Corp & owner pay
LLC vs. S-Corp: legal structure and tax treatment
An LLC is a legal entity. S-Corp status is a federal tax election. An eligible LLC can choose S-Corp taxation, so the two are not competing legal forms.
Tax planning & deadlines
2026 tax-law changes for South Florida business owners
Review the 2025 law’s changes against your 2026 income, payroll and investment plans. A deduction headline does not establish eligibility.
Tax planning & deadlines
IRS interest rates in 2026: what an unpaid balance can cost
The IRS underpayment rate is 7% for July–September 2026 and remains 7% for October–December. Review an unpaid balance promptly and check the rate for the.
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