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The Books Blog

Bookkeeping that fits the way you actually run your business.

Practical guides for home-based businesses and small service firms (1–10 employees) who outgrew spreadsheets but find QuickBooks overwhelming. Written by Garrett Truman, CPA and Travis Sutphin.

Featured · FL Local

Florida Sales Tax for Home Service Businesses (What You Must Collect)

Most Florida home service work isn't taxable, but a handful of trades collect sales tax on labor. A CPA's guide to who owes, who doesn't, and the DR-15.

Garrett Truman · · 9 min read
A clipboard with a Florida-shaped icon and an emerald sales tax stamp resting on a service-business work surface (pipe wrench, business invoices, calculator), representing Florida sales tax obligations for home service trades
A clean, ordered visual flow showing QuickBooks data files exporting into simpleWhirks Books with reconciled opening balances and ten numbered migration steps as glowing emerald markers along the path
Switching from QuickBooks

How to Switch from QuickBooks to simpleWhirks Books in Under an Hour

The complete 10-step migration playbook for moving from QuickBooks Online to simpleWhirks Books, written by a CPA and a CTO. Export, import, reconcile, file.

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A simplified ledger on a clean wooden desk beside a coffee cup and laptop, with a soft emerald-tinted ribbon of categorized line items rising out of the ledger, representing plain-English bookkeeping for a home-based business owner
Bookkeeping Basics

Bookkeeping Basics for Non-Accountants

A plain-English bookkeeping primer for owner-operators. The five terms, three reports, and one daily habit that cover 90% of what you actually need.

Travis Sutphin ·
A cozy stylized home workspace by a window, a simple clean ledger floats above the desk in glowing emerald, while a faded, cluttered QuickBooks-style dashboard recedes into the corner, representing home-based businesses moving past QuickBooks complexity
Home-Based Business

Why Home-Based Businesses Are Outgrowing QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online was built for businesses ten times the size of a home-based operator. Here's how to tell if you've outgrown it, and what you actually need.

Travis Sutphin ·
An open paper ledger beside a coffee cup and a small wall calendar with a date circled in green; ivory background, mid-century editorial illustration.
QuickBooks Alternative

QuickBooks Alternatives for Small Business in 2026

An honest, builder's-eye comparison of the best QuickBooks alternatives for small business in 2026: pricing, fit, what transfers, and what doesn't.

Travis Sutphin ·
Editorial illustration split into two scenes — left, an open cardboard box labeled 'MAY EXPENSES' overflowing with crumpled receipts on a wooden surface; right, a wall calendar with the second week of May circled in emerald and labeled 'TAX PREP WEEK', a clean ledger with pen and a coffee mug below, and the caption 'THE WORK IS DOABLE'.
Tax & Year-End

The Mid-Year Bookkeeping Cleanup Guide

Five-day mid-year cleanup sequence for home-based and small-service businesses behind on the books — get current before Q2 estimated taxes hit June 15.

Garrett Truman ·