Stacker-Small Business

Setting up a payroll system can feel like a steep climb if accounting isn’t your strong suit, but it’s the backbone of your business’s health. In fact, when asked what one job they would trust AI to do perfectly, 17% of small business owners ranked bookkeeping and taxes as the top tasks they would outsource,

For years, payroll had one primary job: Pay employees accurately and on time. That expectation hasn’t changed. But employees increasingly expect something more. They want to understand how they’re paid, why deductions changed, how overtime was calculated, where benefits are reflected, and how compensation decisions connect to the bigger picture. In other words, payroll is

Accessibility landed on your desk. Maybe it came from a customer complaint, or maybe your legal team forwarded a demand letter. Or your manager just said, “Can you own this?” and moved on with their day. Every guide you found assumed a dedicated accessibility team, a governance committee, and an engineering queue that exists to

In an ever-changing world, more Americans are opting out of the challenging job market and transitioning into the driver’s seat in their careers. Many have chosen to control their success by being their own boss, and an increasing number filed business applications in 2026, as Thimble outlines below. According to the United States Census, business

Build it, and they will come doesn’t always hold true for businesses, especially small businesses like auto repair shops. You can hire the best techs, purchase the best equipment money can buy, keep your repair shop clean and organized, and still, when it comes to getting those customers in the door? Crickets. Why? Because no

Investing in a leading user-friendly CRM should see your sales and marketing teams save most (if not all) the hours they would have dedicated to training. The trick is to use the time saved to your advantage. But what does “user-friendly” really mean? A user-friendly CRM is a customer relationship management platform built to make

  The compliance challenge for businesses has fundamentally changed. The challenge is not just about understanding, interpreting, and applying regulations: it is also about managing the speed and volume of regulatory change. So far this year through mid-summer, over 200 HR-related compliance laws have been enacted in the U.S., including several governing the use of

  The median annual wage for an auditor or accountant in the U.S. is $81,680. However, this doesn’t include office overhead, benefits, software, or the financial and time costs of finding the right candidate. The gap between perceived and actual costs may shape whether you’re making a smart financial decision or an unexpectedly expensive one.

  Whether it’s skipping coverage until it’s too late or underestimating their financial risk, many first-year business owners share some of the same regrets around business insurance coverage for their new venture. ERGO NEXT conducted research with 501 small business owners this year, and the findings reveal some common insurance mistakes and the wisdom many

  You replaced your heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system last year, upgraded to modern LED lighting throughout your shop, and maybe even added solar panels to the roof to improve efficiency. What you might not realize is that the federal government set aside real money to reward exactly those decisions, and small businesses are

  A business line of credit gives you flexible access to funding exactly when you need it. Unlike a traditional loan, you don’t receive a lump sum up front. Instead, you draw only what you need and pay interest on the amount you use. It can help you handle seasonal dips and jump on growth

  How to get return on investment (ROI) from Yelp Ads comes down to tracking what happens after the click. Yelp reports the clicks, calls, and directions your page generates, and your own attribution has to show which of those became paying customers and whether the profit covered what you spent. That gap is why

  For many skilled tradespeople, business can run smoothly day after day until one single accident changes everything. All it takes is one slip, one dropped tool, or one big spill to trigger a lawsuit large enough to wipe out years of hard work. An established business can vanish with just one claim. Most small

  Controllers can calculate the accounts payable (AP) formula quickly, but applying it to a real ledger takes judgment. At close, invoices sit in multiple states, and ERP sync gaps can leave the balance sheet showing one figure and the aging report another. Getting the number right is what makes it defensible to your CFO

  Yelp advertising costs start at $150 per month, or roughly $5 per day, though your total can include up to three components. A Yelp Ads budget covers clicks, the optional Upgrade Package runs $180 per month on its own, and management costs whatever you pay an internal team or an agency to run it.

  Running a small business is thrilling, but navigating sales tax means crunching numbers and understanding regulations. You must calculate and charge sales tax for each purchase when your business sells something. The sales tax rates vary by state and by location within the state. While some states only have sales tax at a state

  You’re the finance leader at a scaling company with 50-500 employees, and your CFO wants a number that justifies the accounts payable automation return on investment (ROI). The figure has to be defensible and grounded in the current accounts payable (AP) process cost. The problem is that your current AP process is a patchwork

  For e-commerce brands, peak season is no longer a single, isolated surge centered around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the weeks leading up to New Year’s. In 2026, that Q4-focused approach is becoming less reliable. Economic pressures, consumer expectations, trade regulations, AI, and supply chain challenges are all evolving faster than historical trends can

  American manufacturing is growing, but the labor needed to keep that growth running is getting harder to find. New facilities, more complex equipment, and tighter production expectations are all colliding with a shortage of skilled maintenance workers. MaintainX surveyed 211 maintenance and operations leaders to find out how that collision is impacting industrial companies.

  Excel was released in 1985. Forty-one years later, here you are, still using it to run your shop. Spreadsheets are wonderful. Your schedule is on there. Your techs’ repair orders (RO) and updates for the day are found on it. Your service advisors use it to track customers. It’s going well, until it isn’t.

  Access to cash and credit is a small business’s lifeline. Your business’s credit rating shows lenders, suppliers, and other vendors how financially stable your business is, as well as how well you’ve been able to manage your cash and pay your business debts on time. Establishing a strong business credit score is the first

  As a controller at a growing company, you spend a disproportionate share of your close week on invoice coding. You assign general ledger (GL) accounts, cost centers, and dimensions to vendor bills that move through accounts payable (AP). The work is mechanical, but it carries real consequences for the ledger and the close. Invoice

  Running a business cost more than planned for most founders this year. A recent survey of 1,500 early-stage founders and builders from Mercury, a fintech platform that offers business and personal banking services*, found that 75% of respondents said their costs came in higher than expected — up from 66% last year. Exactly zero

  If you lead finance in a growing company, your current card may have been picked when travel was your biggest expense. Today, most of the spending runs through software subscriptions, online ads, cloud hosting, and contractor payments, and travel is just one line among many. Comparison sites usually rank cards by their sign-up bonuses

  Managing spending can feel like a breeze when you run a small business with only a handful of monthly transactions. But as your business begins to grow, you’ll likely find yourself searching for the best spend management software to help you keep things running smoothly. In a scaling company, hands-on processes — like emailing

  Today’s founders have learned to build without waiting for perfect conditions. Rather than sweating ever-present uncertainty, they’ve built an adaptation muscle: finding leverage in new technologies, making disciplined decisions about where their money goes (and comes from), and adjusting quickly as economic conditions evolve. For all the tools and resources at a founder’s disposal,

  For controllers at mid-market companies, accounts payable goals usually become urgent when the chief financial officer (CFO) asks for evidence. Invoice cycle times and exception rates are measured inconsistently, so you may have only anecdotal evidence when leadership asks whether the function is improving. Without a standard to measure against, many process changes can

  Every shipment has one job: get to the customer. It doesn’t matter how it gets there—whatever mode gets the job done is the right one. Most business owners aren’t trying to become shipping experts. They just want shipping to work because a shipment that doesn’t reach the customer isn’t just a logistics problem; it’s