Sector knowledge

Industries

Every sector has the two or three things that actually bite. These are the ones we watch for US businesses — each links to the full sector document.

Ecommerce

Settlement reconciliation, marketplace fees and inventory that agrees to the ledger.

  • Sales tax nexus and marketplace facilitator laws — who actually collects
  • Settlement reconciliation: deposits are not revenue
  • Inventory that agrees with the ledger, applied the way the CPA chose

SaaS and software

Deferred revenue, MRR that ties to the P&L, and books investors can read.

  • ASC 606 and the deferred-revenue schedule investors read first
  • Section 174: R&D costs capitalized and amortized, not expensed
  • MRR that ties to the P&L, not to the billing tool

Professional services

WIP, utilisation and billing that reflects what was actually delivered.

  • Client trust accounting kept clean and separate
  • ASC 606 on time-based and fixed-fee work
  • Unbilled WIP and multi-state complications

Construction and trades

Job costing, retentions and progress claims kept straight.

  • Percentage-of-completion and IRC §460
  • Retainage tracked per contract, per state prompt-payment law
  • Certified payroll where Davis-Bacon applies

Real estate

Property-level reporting, and entity structures that stay separate.

  • Security-deposit rules set state by state
  • CAM reconciliation governed by the lease
  • 1099s to owners and vendors, prepared from tied-out ledgers

Nonprofits

Restricted-fund tracking and reporting a board and a funder both accept.

  • Restricted vs unrestricted funds, tracked to release
  • Form 990 functional expense allocation done right
  • The Single Audit threshold watched, not discovered

Hospitality

POS-to-ledger reconciliation, tip and penalty-rate payroll data, and the food-tax lines kept straight.

Medical & allied health

Remittance reconciliation, contractor-doctor exposure watched, and practice structures kept separate in the books.

Agencies & consultancies

Retainers vs projects, media pass-through kept out of revenue, and the contractor network’s compliance data captured as you go.