Bookkeeping & Finance
Cash vs accrual accounting on the first tax return
Cash vs accrual for a new US company: where the method goes on your return, who cannot use the cash method, what timing changes, and how to switch later.
Bookkeeping & Finance
These guides cover the books behind a tax return. They explain how to choose the cash or accrual method, which records to keep and for how long, and when a small company needs a bookkeeper instead of doing the books itself. Each guide links to the IRS publication or regulation it is based on. The guides are listed from the first choice you make to the last.
Read them in this order
Bookkeeping & FinanceBusiness records retention: 3, 4, 6, or 7 years
Which business records to keep for 3, 4, 6, or 7 years, when each clock starts, and the IRS, Labor Department, and Form I-9 rules behind them.
Bookkeeping & FinanceWhen to hire a bookkeeper: a decision table
The tax forms and filings that decide when a small US company outgrows do-it-yourself books, what a bookkeeper can and cannot do, and a public wage benchmark.
Next step
save biz is preparing formation, tax, and bookkeeping services
The services are not open yet. Until then, we publish guides. Each guide links to the IRS or state source it is based on.