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Returning Value Blog

The 2025 - 2026 "High-Low" Per Diem Business Travel Rates Are Here

Posted by Murry Guy, CPA on Oct 08, 2025

If you have employees who travel for business, you know how frustrating it can be to manage reimbursements and the accompanying receipts for meals, hotels, and incidentals. To make this process easier, consider using the “high-low” per diem method. Instead of tracking every receipt, your business can reimburse employees using daily rates that are predetermined by the IRS based on whether the destination is a high-cost or low-cost location. This saves time and reduces paperwork while still ensuring compliance. In Notice 2025-54, the IRS announced the high-low per diem rates that became effective October 1, 2025, and apply through September 30, 2026.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

FAQs About Creating and Optimizing Customer Profiles in QuickBooks

Posted by Chris Earnest on Oct 06, 2025

Small business owners might be tempted to rush through setting up customer profiles in QuickBooks® just to get invoices out quickly. But the extra data fields aren’t just busy work. Complete, accurate customer records help you generate more insightful reports, communicate with customers more effectively, and save time on bookkeeping tasks later. Here are answers to some common questions to help ensure your files are set up properly in your accounting software.

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Tax Court Case Provides Lessons on Best Recordkeeping Practices for Businesses

Posted by Chris Earnest on Sep 24, 2025

Running a successful business requires more than delivering great products or services. Behind the scenes, meticulous recordkeeping plays a crucial role in financial health, compliance, and tax savings. Good records can mean the difference between successfully defending a deduction and losing valuable tax breaks. A recent U.S. Tax Court decision underscores just how important this is.

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How to Prepay Expenses Strategically and Report Them Accurately

Posted by Murry Guy, CPA on Jul 14, 2025

In accrual-basis accounting, timing is everything. One core principle of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is the matching concept, which requires organizations to recognize expenses in the same period as the revenue they help generate. Prepaid expenses — payments made for goods or services before they’re used — must be handled carefully to conform to this principle. Here’s an overview of the accounting rules for reporting prepaid items and guidance to help you manage them effectively.

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QuickBooks Users: It's Time for a Mid-Year Review

Posted by Chris Earnest on Jun 23, 2025

Performing a mid-year QuickBooks® cleanup is a smart habit that small business owners and bookkeepers can adopt to stay ahead of their financial responsibilities. Waiting until year end to review your accounting records can lead to unnecessary stress, missed deductions and preventable errors.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

Confirm This: Why Your Auditors Contact Third Parties

Posted by Aaron K. Waller, CPA on Jun 20, 2025

If your company’s financial statements are audited, chances are your auditor will send out external confirmations.These information requests may be sent directly to your customers, vendors, banks, attorneys, and benefit plan administrators.

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Posted in Accounting & Outsourcing

Closing Time: Mastering Your Monthly Close with QuickBooks

Posted by Chris Earnest on May 21, 2025

The month-end close is a pain point for many small to midsize businesses. While internal accounting teams often aim to wrap up the close within three days, a recent survey found that half the respondents actually take six days or longer to close the books. What can your organization do to help streamline this process? Leveraging cloud-based technology tools like QuickBooks® can be a game changer.

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Hiring Independent Contractors? Make Sure You're Doing it Right

Posted by Murry Guy, CPA on May 20, 2025

Many businesses turn to independent contractors to help manage costs, especially during times of staffing shortages and inflation. If you’re among them, ensuring these workers are properly classified for federal tax purposes is crucial. Misclassifying employees as independent contractors can result in expensive consequences if the IRS steps in and reclassifies them. It could lead to audits, back taxes, penalties, and even lawsuits.

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Old Invoices, New Rules: Tap Into the Power of the AR Aging Report

Posted by Murry Guy, CPA on May 13, 2025

For many businesses, accounts receivable (AR) are more than just a line item on the balance sheet. This account provides a key indicator of potential cash flow, customer relationships and overall financial health. So proactive AR management is critical. The AR aging report has long been a cornerstone of expediting collections and reducing credit risk, but it’s taken on greater significance with the implementation of new accounting rules for recognizing credit losses.

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Estimating Fair Value Today

Posted by Melissa Motley, CPA on Apr 15, 2025

Many balance sheet items are reported at historical cost. However, current accounting standards require organizations that follow U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to report certain assets and liabilities at “fair value.” This shift aims to enhance transparency and reflect an entity’s current financial position more accurately. However, estimating fair value can involve significant judgment and subjectivity, especially when observable market data is unavailable.

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