Blog Updates
Your P&L Says You Made Money. Your Bank Account Disagrees
Neither: profit is an accounting opinion, cash is a fact, and the difference hides in exactly four places. Your customers are holding it in receivables, your shelves are holding it in inventory, your lender is taking it as debt principal that never touches the income statement, and you’re taking it out as owner draws that…
Not All Expenses Are Created Equal
Ever look at your P&L and wonder why two “expenses” behave so differently when sales go up or down? That’s because not all costs are created equal — and understanding the difference changes how you make decisions. Fixed costs stay steady no matter what you sell, while variable costs rise and fall with volume. Direct…
Everyone Quotes EBITDA. Few Know What It Hides.
Everyone quotes EBITDA — but very few people can tell you what it’s actually leaving out. EBITDA strips out interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization to show what the operating business earns before financing and accounting decisions get involved. That makes it a useful way to compare two companies on operations alone, which is exactly why…
You’re Not a Bank. So Why Are You Lending to Your Customers?
More small businesses are carrying overdue invoices this year than last — and most don’t call it what it is. When a customer takes 60 days to pay a 30-day invoice, you’ve handed them an interest-free loan out of your own working capital. The fix is rarely tougher collections — it’s tighter terms, deposits on…
You’re making 2026 decisions with a 2025 map.
That’s the quiet problem with the annual close — it’s a history report dressed up as a management tool. The businesses pulling ahead this year reconcile weekly and review margins monthly, adjusting price and spend while the quarter is still in play. The technology to do that is already sitting in your accounting system; what’s…
Your Business Account Isn’t Your Personal Wallet
“Just use the bank statements” is one of the most common shortcuts I see business owners take with their books—and one of the most costly. A bank statement only tells you what moved in and out of your account, not what you actually earned, what you owe, or what’s owed to you—and that gap gets…
What “Transformative” Actually Means at Cross + Co
Most CPA firms show up once a year, hand you a return, and disappear until next tax season — w We built Cross + Co to be different. Our team commits fully to your business, tackling problems by looking for the potential inside them, not just the paperwork. Every engagement is purpose-led, tying our work…
Bookkeeping Isn’t a Chore — It’s Your Competitive Edge
What if the most powerful growth tool in your business is sitting in a folder you only open at tax time? Most small business owners treat bookkeeping like a tax-season chore — something to survive once a year, not something to actually use. As a CPA and CFO, that’s the most expensive mistake I see.…
Your Bank Deposit Is Not Your Revenue
One of the most common bookkeeping mistakes I see is business owners recording the lump sum that lands in their account from Square, Stripe, Toast, or Clover as a single line of “sales.” The problem is that deposit has already been stripped of processing fees, refunds, chargebacks, tips, and sales tax—so booking it as revenue…
Your Books Aren’t Broken—They’re Just Behind
Six months in with financials you don’t trust? That’s not a crisis—it’s a catch-up, and it’s more routine than most owners realize. The mistake is believing you have to white-knuckle it until year-end before anything gets cleaned up. A focused reset—reconciling accounts, recategorizing transactions, and rebuilding a chart of accounts that actually reflects your business—can…
Your Business Account Isn’t Your Personal Wallet
“Just use the bank statements” is one of the most common shortcuts I see business owners take with their books—and one of the most costly. A bank statement only tells you what moved in and out of your account, not what you actually earned, what you owe, or what’s owed to you—and that gap gets…
Cheap to Ignore, Expensive to Fix: The Bookkeeping Trap
I’ve watched too many promising small businesses stumble not because their product failed, but because their books were an afterthought. When bookkeeping gets pushed to “I’ll deal with it later,” owners lose the one thing they need most: a clear picture of where their money actually is. Suddenly it’s tax season, cash flow is a…