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6 Tips for Your Mid-Year Check In
3 min read
It might be hard to believe, but yes, it’s almost the middle of the year and the perfect time to take a look at how you’re doing financially: are you fiscally fit or do you need a few adjustments? Whether it’s saving more, paying down debt, or prepping for retirement, you still have time to effect change. Here are a few ways to get started.
Review Your 2026 Financial Goals
Kind of a no-brainer, but ask yourself:
- Have I saved as much as I planned?
- How’s my progress at paying off debt?
- Have my priorities changed since the new year?
In addition to these things, other important goals might include building your emergency fund (broken dishwasher, for instance); saving for a vacation; and finally, the certainty no one can escape – tax preparation.
Go Over Your budget and Spending
Your habits might have shifted over the past few months, so places to put a lens on might be:
- Where have I increased spending?
- Do I really need all those subscriptions?
- Can I pay a little more on debt?
In the second half of the year, other things to consider include insurance renewals, back-to-school expenses, and year-end medical costs.
Revisit Your Retirement Contributions
This might be far away or near soon. No matter, it’s critical to keep an eye on the following things:
- Your 401(k) or employer retirement plan contributions
- Employer match opportunities
- IRA contributions
If you can increase funding for any of these, now’s the time to do so. Retirement comes along more quickly than you think.
Give Your Employee Benefits a Looksee
Take time to go over:
- HSA or FSA contributions
- Health insurance
- Life insurance and disability coverage
You might have other benefits, of course, to review. And while many people wait until open enrollment to give these a think, you don’t have to be one of them. Take action now to amend them so you’ll be better prepared for the rest of the year.
Start Your Taxes for Next Year
Between now and July, you can get a jumpstart by planning ahead – and you won’t be stressed when it’s actually tax time. Taking a look now can help you:
- Estimate your taxes
- Find ways to reduce your taxable income
- Plan retirement contributions before year-end.
Recalibrate Your Plan for the Rest of 2026
So now that you’ve taken inventory of your finances, you can adjust for the remaining months. Your new plan might include:
- Setting up an automatic transfer to savings – it’s so easy, and you’ll never miss it
- Increase retirement contributions – even 2 percent makes a difference
- Concentrate on one debt to pay off.
The idea is not to change everything all at once. Your goal should be to take small steps so you can move forward with confidence and finish the year strong. All it takes is a little time. And as we know, time is money. Make the last six months of 2026 count!
Sources
https://www.benefitandfinancial.com/blog/mid-year-financial-review-are-you-on-track-for-2026
Understanding the Customer Acquisition Cost
5 min read
The Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) measures how much a company spends to obtain new, additional customers. Oftentimes, it’s used with the customer lifetime value (LTV) metric, which also projects the customer’s profitability to calculate the newly acquired customer’s value.
It’s primarily used to measure a business’ sales and marketing departments to figure out their profitability, profit margin and return on investment figures.
How to Calculate
CAC = Sales and Marketing Expense/Number of New Customers
Where: Examples of the expenses include product and service promotion expenditures, special compensation and commissions, regular wage payments, and operating expenses.
The tally of newly acquired customers is simply how many new, unique contracts the business acquired. It’s important to keep the expenses and customer acquisition numbers consistent over the same periods.
Why It’s Important
Business owners and their managers, along with investors, can look at sales and marketing efforts from a return on investment on their expenditures and outcomes. For example, there could be multiple channels that sales and marketing utilize to obtain new customers over a quarter, half-year, or 12-month period (such as email marketing, social media marketing, conferences, etc.). Based upon each channel, the customer acquisition cost is determined by dividing the financial outlay per customer acquired.
From there, each channel can be analyzed to see which one works well and, equally important, which ones don’t work well and either need to be discontinued or modified. Internal stakeholders and external investors (both existing and potential) can look at trends to see if existing management is productive or needs to be replaced with more competent individuals.
Accounting Considerations
Based on FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification 340-40, businesses are required to document and capitalize incremental costs of securing new customer business if the related expenses are projected to be recouped.
An incremental cost in the scope of obtaining a contract is a cost an entity incurs to obtain a contract that wouldn’t have been incurred if the contract hadn’t been obtained.
While a sales commission (be it fixed or a percentage of a new contract) may be considered an eligible incremental cost to one of its employees, it’s not necessarily always the case. Rather, the true test of whether an incremental cost is capitalizable depends on the subjective interpretation of whether a mandated financial expenditure for an incremental cost is attributed to signing a contract with a new customer.
The following sample situations often require more investigation to determine whether the capitalization of costs is applicable:
- Equity issuances based upon meeting production and essential function goals
- Employee compensation according to previous years’ executed contracts
- Sales commissions allocated over multiple time frames and/or to more than one employee for a single contract.
ASC 340-40 also stipulates the amortization schedule of capitalization costs of obtaining a customer contract on a scheduled timeline that follows the delivery to the customer of the contracted goods or services.
Conclusion
While the customer acquisition cost may be straightforward, when it comes to subjective cases, businesses that have experience with murkier situations are able to make the most of their subjective sales and marketing expenses when navigating the tax and accounting landscape.
What is the Customer Acquisition Cost?
The Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) measures how much a company spends to obtain new, additional customers. Oftentimes, it’s used with the customer lifetime value (LTV) metric, which also projects the customer’s profitability to calculate the newly acquired customer’s value.It’s primarily used to measure a business’ sales and marketing departments to figure out their profitability, profit margin and return on investment figures.
How to Calculate
CAC = Sales and Marketing Expense/Number of New CustomersWhere: Examples of the expenses include product and service promotion expenditures, special compensation and commissions, regular wage payments, and operating expenses.The tally of newly acquired customers is simply how many new, unique contracts the business acquired. It’s important to keep the expenses and customer acquisition numbers consistent over the same periods.
Why It’s Important
Business owners and their managers, along with investors, can look at sales and marketing efforts from a return on investment on their expenditures and outcomes. For example, there could be multiple channels that sales and marketing utilize to obtain new customers over a quarter, half-year, or 12-month period (such as email marketing, social media marketing, conferences, etc.).
Accounting Considerations
Based on FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification 340-40, businesses are required to document and capitalize incremental costs of securing new customer business if the related expenses are projected to be recouped.An incremental cost in the scope of obtaining a contract is a cost an entity incurs to obtain a contract that wouldn’t have been incurred if the contract hadn’t been obtained.While a sales commission (be it fixed or a percentage of a new contract) may be considered an eligible incremental cost to one of its employees, it’s not necessarily always the case.
Conclusion
While the customer acquisition cost may be straightforward, when it comes to subjective cases, businesses that have experience with murkier situations are able to make the most of their subjective sales and marketing expenses when navigating the tax and accounting landscape.
What to Expect with an IRS Audit
5 min read
If the IRS sends notice that you’re being audited, you’re likely to become anxious. However, not all audits mean you did something wrong. In most cases, it is simply a matter of verifying information on a tax return or perhaps correcting a minor error. Knowing what to expect – and how to respond – can help alleviate stress and make the audit more manageable.
An IRS audit (also referred to as an examination) is a review of your records to confirm that the information on your tax return was reported accurately and follows tax law. The best way to prepare for an audit is to respond on time, present organized and complete records, be cooperative, and communicate professionally.
Technically, most audits are triggered via an automated scoring system referred to as the DIF, which stands for Discriminant Information Function. The system flags something on your tax return that stood out. This could be inconsistencies, missing income, unusually high deductions, or inputs that don’t match information the IRS already has. Here are three key facts about IRS timing for audits:
- The IRS generally looks back three years based on the statute of limitations
- Most audits are related to returns filed within the past two years
- In cases of substantial errors, audits can extend up to the last six years, especially in cases where it is believed that more than 25 percent of gross income was omitted from the filing
- There is no statute of limitations in cases of fraud or failure to file
The Audit Process
Almost all IRS audits start with a letter stating that your return has been selected for examination. This notice will be sent by mail – not a phone call, text, or email. The letter will include the name of your assigned reviewer, his or her IRS identification number, and phone number. You should call the IRS directly to verify this information, as scammers are known to impersonate the IRS to steal money or personal data.
You may be asked to provide a variety of specific documents based on what issue(s) triggered the audit. Be sure to provide copies, not originals. Depending on your situation, the requested documents could include:
- Income records
- Investment statements
- Bank forms
- Receipts and bills
- Canceled checks
- Legal documents (such as divorce or custody agreements)
- Loan agreements and settlement statements
- Travel logs, diaries, or ticket stubs
- Medical and dental records
- Theft or loss of documentation (insurance claims, photos, police reports)
- Employment records
- Schedule K-1 forms for partnerships or S corporations
The following are the three types of IRS Audits:
Correspondence Audit – These are the least complex and are conducted entirely by mail. Sometimes the IRS simply identifies a math error or missing income and asks for payment or clarification. You can either pay the amount due or respond with documentation if you believe the IRS is incorrect.
Office Audit – An office audit requires you to visit an IRS office with the requested records. You will receive an Information Document Request (IDR) form detailing what to bring. Showing up with organized records can help resolve these audits quickly.
Field Audit – The field audit is the most extensive. An IRS agent will come to your home or business to review records. Although you will receive an IDR in advance, the agent may decide to escalate the review if he notices any “large, unusual or questionable” (LUQ) items.
The key points to remember are that poor recordkeeping and/or lack of cooperation tend to trigger a more detailed and time-consuming audit.
Once the Audit Is Complete
After the audit, the IRS will issue a report describing its findings. It may determine that no changes are necessary to your return; that you owe additional tax; or that you may be owed a refund. Should you disagree with the findings, you have options:
- Request to meet with an IRS manager
- Use mediation or alternative dispute resolution
- File an appeal with the IRS
- Take the case to court if necessary
If you agree with the audit findings, you’ll need to sign the examination report and choose from various payment options if you owe any taxes.
The Audit Process
Almost all IRS audits start with a letter stating that your return has been selected for examination. This notice will be sent by mail – not a phone call, text, or email. The letter will include the name of your assigned reviewer, his or her IRS identification number, and phone number. You should call the IRS directly to verify this information, as scammers are known to impersonate the IRS to steal money or personal data.You may be asked to provide a variety of specific documents based on what issue(s) triggered the audit. Be sure to provide copies, not originals.
Once the Audit Is Complete
After the audit, the IRS will issue a report describing its findings. It may determine that no changes are necessary to your return; that you owe additional tax; or that you may be owed a refund. Should you disagree with the findings, you have options:Request to meet with an IRS managerUse mediation or alternative dispute resolutionFile an appeal with the IRSTake the case to court if necessaryIf you agree with the audit findings, you’ll need to sign the examination report and choose from various payment options if you owe any taxes.