The Median blog

What we have learned running the books for software companies and owner-led businesses: bookkeeping, tax, credits, metrics, and the parts of financial operations nobody explains until they bite.

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Fractional CFO Services for Startups: What They Do, When to Hire, and What They Cost

A practical guide to the work, timing, scope, pricing models, and hiring questions behind fractional CFO services for startups.

Financial Operations · September 27, 2026

Form 940: the federal unemployment tax return, and why California employers pay three times as much

Form 940 is a small annual return, about $42 per employee at the full credit. For California wages in 2025 it's $126, because of a credit reduction that is settled on Schedule A.

Financial Operations · September 26, 2026

Deferred revenue journal entries, and what to book when you invoice before the customer pays

The entries for a year of service paid up front are simple. The first time you invoice before the customer pays, ASC 606 Example 38 decides what goes on the books, and the answer turns on whether the contract can be cancelled.

Startup Bookkeeping · September 26, 2026

Form 3921: what your startup files when an employee exercises incentive stock options

Every time an employee exercises an incentive stock option, the company owes the IRS a Form 3921 and owes the employee a copy. It is one form per exercise, the deadlines land in the same weeks as your 1099s, and the e-file threshold counts them together.

Financial Operations · September 19, 2026

Form 8821: what it lets your accountant see, and the line that cancels every authorization before it

A new Form 8821 automatically revokes every earlier tax information authorization on file unless one box is checked and copies are attached. Here is what the form grants, where it stops, and how to file one for a company without wiping out the firm that already has access.

Financial Operations · September 17, 2026

Form 8822-B: the IRS mails to the address on your last return, and that mailing counts as delivery

A notice sent to your last known address is legally effective whether or not anyone reads it, and the 90-day clock to answer it starts when the envelope is mailed. Here is what sets that address, what Form 8822-B changes, and the one line on it that is not optional.

Financial Operations · September 15, 2026

QSBS: the section 1202 tests get answered on your balance sheet, and July 2025 changed which version you get

Whether your stock is QSBS is decided by the company's own records at specific moments in the past. Here is what section 1202 actually measures, which of your shares the July 2025 changes reach, and the buyback rule that the statute states one way and the regulation states another.

Investor Readiness · September 14, 2026

Form 8832: the entity classification election is a deemed transaction, and the date on line 8 controls it

Checking the box deems your LLC to have contributed its assets to a new corporation, on the day before the effective date you write on line 8. The two date limits that bound that date, what the 60-month lock leaves out, and the case where filing Form 8832 is the wrong move.

Financial Operations · September 13, 2026

W-8BEN for foreign contractors: where the work happens decides whether you withhold 30 percent

A developer abroad working abroad gets a W-8BEN, no withholding, no 1099 and no 1042-S. The same developer working from Austin for two weeks triggers all three. The sourcing rule that flips it, and why missing paperwork lands you in the 1099 regime rather than the 30 percent one.

Financial Operations · September 12, 2026

Form 5472 for a foreign-owned US LLC: what triggers it, and why the penalty starts at $25,000

A single-member US LLC owned by one foreign person owes no income tax return and still owes Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120. What counts as a reportable transaction, why the small-corporation exception does not reach you, and the fax-or-mail filing route.

Financial Operations · September 11, 2026

How to file an 83(b) election: the 30-day clock, and why a late one can't be fixed

The 83(b) deadline is set by statute, so the usual late-election relief does not reach it. What the 30 days run from, what Form 15620 changed, the copy rule that stopped applying in 2016, and the only evidence the regulations accept as proof you filed.

Founder Financial Literacy · September 10, 2026

Prepaid expenses and accrued expenses: the schedules behind the two entries most startups skip

Prepaid expenses and accrued expenses are what make accrual-basis books real. The journal entries, the two schedules that drive them, the double-count that happens when an accrual is never reversed, and the tie-out that proves both balances at close.

Financial Operations · September 9, 2026

Form 6765, section by section: where the R&D credit is decided and what you cannot change later

A walkthrough of Form 6765 as the December 2025 revision actually reads. What Sections A through G ask for, who has to complete the new Section G and who is carved out of it for 2026, the two elections that are irrevocable once the return is filed, and when payroll offset money actually reaches your bank.

Tax Credits · September 8, 2026

Who gets a 1099: the threshold for 2026 payments is $2,000, not $600

The reporting threshold for nonemployee compensation moved to $2,000 for payments made during 2026. Which vendors still get a Form 1099-NEC, which ones are exempt, why paying through a card or a payment app takes the payment off your form entirely, and what your books need to hold before January.

Financial Operations · September 6, 2026

Accounts payable aging: reading the report, and fixing what makes it wrong

The AP aging report tells you who you owe and when it comes due, but only if bills are entered the way the report assumes. Here is what each bucket means, how to run a payment week off it, and the six entry habits that make the total overstate or understate what you actually owe.

Financial Operations · September 4, 2026

Chart of accounts numbering: ranges that still work in three years

Account numbers decide what order your financials read in and give every account an identity that survives a rename. Here are the number ranges to use, how much room to leave between accounts, what belongs in a class instead of a number, and how to turn numbers on in QuickBooks.

Founder Financial Literacy · September 3, 2026

Accounts receivable reconciliation: tying the AR aging report to the balance sheet

Your AR aging report and the Accounts Receivable line on your balance sheet are supposed to be the same number. When they are not, the difference has a cause you can name. Here is how to run the reconciliation, what each kind of difference means, and why you should never plug it.

Financial Operations · September 2, 2026

QuickBooks Undeposited Funds: why the balance keeps growing, and how to clear it

Undeposited Funds is a real account doing a real job, but a balance that never goes down means payments got recorded and never deposited. Here is what causes it, what it does to your numbers, and how to clear it without a journal entry.

Small Business Bookkeeping · September 1, 2026

Opening Balance Equity: what it is, and how to clear it properly

QuickBooks creates Opening Balance Equity on its own, and a balance sitting in it means something never got assigned. Here is what put it there and how to clear it without plugging the difference.

Small Business Bookkeeping · August 31, 2026

How to tell if your books are correct, without hiring a second accountant

Six things you can check inside your own QuickBooks file in about twenty minutes. Each one is a setting or a date, not an opinion, so you get a yes or a no.

Small Business Bookkeeping · August 31, 2026

How Much Does a Bookkeeper Cost in 2026?

Hourly, freelance, firm, national provider and in-house, with the 2026 ranges each one actually quotes, the factors that move you inside them, and the arithmetic that shows when a cheaper headline costs more.