Accounting Guides
Practical accounting guides for small businesses, contractors, manufacturers, and bookkeepers.
Fixed Asset vs. Expense
Learn when a purchase should be recorded as a fixed asset versus a current-period expense, and why the difference matters for clean bookkeeping.
How Credit Card Purchases Should Be Recorded
Learn how to record business purchases made on a credit card, distinguish the expense from the payment, and keep liabilities and cash flow accurate.
How to Record Business Expenses Correctly
A practical guide to recording business expenses correctly, choosing the right account, and avoiding the most common bookkeeping mistakes.
How to Record Owner-Paid Business Expenses
Learn how to correctly record business expenses paid personally by an owner, without misclassifying equity, expenses, or payment accounts.
Accounting for Construction Businesses
A practical construction accounting guide: job profitability, invoices, bills, bank reconciliation, and monthly reporting.
Accounting for Contractors
A practical guide for contractors: separate finances, track job expenses, invoice faster, monitor profitability, and stay tax-ready.
Accounting for Small Manufacturers
A practical guide for small manufacturers: inventory control, purchasing workflow, COGS accuracy, reconciliation, and monthly reporting.
Accounting for Startups
Startup accounting made practical: clean foundations, runway visibility, receivables, payables control, and investor-ready reporting.
Accounts Payable Workflow
A clean accounts payable workflow: capture vendor bills, approve, schedule payments, avoid late fees, and keep cash flow predictable.
Accounts Receivable Workflow
A clean accounts receivable workflow: create invoices, collect faster, apply payments correctly, handle partial payments, and reduce cash-flow surprises.
Bank Reconciliation Explained
A practical bank reconciliation guide: match your books to the bank, resolve differences, and keep reports accurate month after month.
Guide to Purchasing and Purchase Order Management
A practical purchasing guide: PO → receiving → vendor bill → payment, with controls, matching, and reporting.
How to Read a Profit and Loss Statement
How to read a P&L: revenue, COGS, gross profit, operating expenses, net income, and what to monitor monthly.
Inventory Accounting
A practical guide to inventory accounting: how inventory affects profitability, common costing methods, and how to keep inventory records accurate.
Job Costing for Contractors
A practical job costing workflow for contractors: track labor, materials, subs, and overhead so you can measure job profitability accurately.
Purchase Order Management Workflow
A step-by-step purchase order workflow: request, approve, issue PO, receive goods, match vendor bills, and keep inventory and costs accurate.
Small Business Accounting
A practical small business accounting guide: consistent bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, invoicing, and the key reports to review.
Small Business Accounting Flow
A simple weekly and monthly accounting workflow: invoices, bills, reconciliation, month-end close, and key reports.
Household cash-flow guides
Calendar timing for paychecks, fixed bill dates, and minimum-balance days in FlowBooks Home.
Biweekly Paycheck Timing
How a calendar cash forecast helps when pay arrives every two weeks and bills stay on fixed dates, including three-paycheck months, rent on the 1st, and the stretch before the next check.
Spotting Minimum-Balance Days
How FlowBooks Home’s projected daily balance and minimum-balance days show which day in the month gets tight before you get there.
Learn the workflow behind FlowBooks
Our guides are designed to help business owners and bookkeepers understand accounting workflows, reporting, inventory, and the practical decisions behind a cleaner system.