Small Business

Dear Siobhan,
I’m sitting here with a receipt for printer paper in one hand and my phone in the other, staring at my accounting software like it’s written in another language. Do I put this under “office supplies”? “Business expenses”? “Stuff I bought”? I’ve been frozen for ten minutes.
Please help before I just throw it in a drawer and pretend it never happened.
— Confused Business Owner
Dear Confused,
You’re not alone. I get some version of this question at least five times a day: “Siobhan, I just bought a computer… where does it go in my books?”
And I get it—when you’re staring …

Dear Siobhan,
I run two food trucks in Detroit, and last month my bank account showed $8,500. I felt like I was finally getting ahead. So I hired another prep cook for $3,200/month and dropped $2,000 on summer festival booth fees.
Then my accountant called. Apparently I owe $2,800 in sales tax I “forgot about,” my food costs are eating my profits, and I’ve been spending more than I’m making for two months straight. Now I’m looking at putting expenses on my credit card just to cover everything.
How did I go from feeling like I had this figured out to realizing I’ve …

Every spring, I see the same Detroit story on repeat: the Tax Time Rescue Mission. It starts with a trail of Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, Shopify, Square, and Toast transactions that never made it into a system, plus a shoebox of receipts that’s really a camera roll of random photos.  You juggle a lot, and taxes often fall to the bottom of the list. You’ve met the nonstop demands of your family and your business all year long but tax prep gets pushed aside until the last-minute scramble (and sometimes, the missed filing).
It doesn’t have to be that way. Whether …

If you’re reading this before your first DNEP accounting appointment, welcome! You’re about to join dozens of Detroit entrepreneurs who have come to our team and said: “I know my business is making money, but I can’t prove it” or “I’m not sure where to start.” Here’s what I want you to know: You’re not behind. You’re not doing it wrong. And you’re definitely not alone.
Based on hundreds of appointments every year, we have identified the ten most common challenges we see every week, in order, AND how you can collaborate with DNEP’s accounting consultants to work through those challenges.
Does …