THE SUMMIT
Useful answers for real financial problems.
Accounting, bookkeeping, cash flow, reporting, profitability and workflow guidance built around the same problems Summer Peaks solves for clients.
Book a Free ConsultationHow to Automate Your Accounting Workflow Without Losing Control
A practical framework for mapping, simplifying, and automating accounting workflows without sacrificing accuracy or oversight.
How Much Does Outsourced Bookkeeping Really Cost?
What drives outsourced bookkeeping pricing, how to compare providers, and how to think about cost versus an internal hire.
7 Bookkeeping Tasks Small Businesses Should Stop Doing Manually
Seven repetitive bookkeeping processes that are often better standardized, streamlined, or automated.
Build an Accounts Receivable Process That Gets You Paid Faster
A practical AR playbook for invoicing, payment terms, follow-up, visibility, and escalation.
The Financial Reports a Small Business Should Actually Review
A practical guide to the core financial reports that help owners understand profitability, cash, receivables, and obligations.
Business Process Automation: What to Automate First
How to choose the first business processes to automate based on repetition, error risk, handoffs, and measurable value.
Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast for a Small Business
A practical short-term cash forecasting system for owners who need earlier visibility.
What Business Owners Need From an Accountant and Accounting System
What owners should expect from accounting information, communication, controls, and reporting.
100 Ways Small Businesses Lose Money Without Realizing It
100 distinct profit leaks across pricing, billing, purchasing, payroll, inventory, cash management, and workflows—and what owners should review.
Sports Card Inventory Accounting: How to Choose the Right Inventory Method
A practical guide for sports card dealers choosing inventory methods and scalable tracking.
Do I Need a Bookkeeper? 9 Signs Your Business Has Outgrown DIY Bookkeeping
Nine practical signs that bookkeeping has become a business risk instead of a simple owner task—and what to fix before the problems compound.
What Should Monthly Bookkeeping Include? A Business Owner’s Checklist
A clear checklist for what a dependable monthly bookkeeping process should cover—from reconciliations and receivables to management-ready reporting.
Bookkeeping Cleanup: How to Know When Your Books Need to Be Fixed
The warning signs of messy books, what a real cleanup should address, and how to avoid paying for the same corrections again next month.
Profit vs. Cash Flow: Why a Profitable Business Can Still Run Short on Cash
Why profit and cash move differently, the working-capital pressures owners should watch, and how better bookkeeping reveals cash problems earlier.
How to Switch Bookkeepers Without Losing Control of Your Financial Records
A practical transition plan for changing bookkeepers while protecting access, preserving records, and getting the new provider to a clean starting point.
How to Get Your Books Ready for Tax Filing: A Small Business Checklist
A practical year-end checklist for reconciliations, income, expenses, payroll, financing, fixed assets, owner activity, and supporting records before tax preparation begins.
Tax Extensions: When to File, Pay, and Finish the Return
A 2026 federal guide to filing extensions, payment deadlines, completed-return due dates, and missed-deadline options for common individual and business returns.
Purchase Orders and Three-Way Matching: When to Use Them and How
A practical guide to purchase orders, receiving records, and invoice matching: which businesses benefit, when to use them, and how to handle partial deliveries and services.
How to Verify Vendor Bank-Detail Changes Before Paying an Invoice
A practical vendor payment-change workflow: trusted callbacks, approval roles, documentation, a worked example, and what to do if a payment went to the wrong account.
How to Reconcile a Business Bank Account Each Month
A practical monthly bank reconciliation checklist for small businesses: match transactions, investigate differences, document adjustments, and review the final balance.
Accounts Payable Aging Report: How to Use It to Manage Cash and Vendor Bills
How to read an AP aging report, validate open vendor bills, prioritize payments, investigate exceptions, and connect payables to short-term cash planning.
Small Business Record Retention: What to Keep and Why
A practical framework for organizing invoices, receipts, statements, payroll, asset records, and other support—and deciding retention based on what each record substantiates.
Fixed Asset Accounting for Small Business: A Practical Guide
How to identify, capitalize, depreciate, reconcile, and dispose of fixed assets while keeping financial-accounting records distinct from tax depreciation.
Sales Tax Filing for Small Business: A Practical Guide
A practical guide to nexus, registration, taxability, marketplace sales, filing, remittance, zero returns, and records.
Customer Deposits and Advance Payments: A Small Business Bookkeeping Guide
How to track customer deposits, apply advances to invoices, reconcile balances, and avoid confusing cash received with earned revenue.
Vendor Statement Reconciliation: A Practical Accounts Payable Guide
A practical guide to reconciling vendor statements against accounts payable records, investigating missing invoices and credits, and documenting exceptions.
Month-End Close Checklist for Small Businesses
A practical month-end close checklist for reconciling cash, reviewing receivables and payables, recording adjustments, and producing dependable financial reports.
The Future of Small-Business Accounting: What to Keep In-House and What to Outsource
A practical framework for combining internal knowledge, outsourced accounting, automation, controls, and decision-ready reporting without hiring for every accounting task.
How to Build a Clean Accounting Audit Trail for Business Transactions
A practical guide to connecting transactions to invoices, receipts, payment records, and accounting entries so exceptions are easier to investigate.
Small Business KPIs: What to Track and How to Use Them
Choose useful measures for cash, margin, receivables, payables, and budget performance, then turn them into decisions.
How to Read a Small Business Balance Sheet
A monthly review of cash, receivables, obligations, equity, and working capital that leads to clearer decisions.
Owner Draws and Contributions: Keep Them Out of Operating Results
Track money moving between an owner and a small business without confusing contributions, draws, sales, and expenses.
A Chart of Accounts Your Small Business Can Actually Use
Review confusing categories, preserve transaction history, and organize accounting reports around the decisions your business needs.
How Many Sales Does Your Small Business Need to Break Even?
Use contribution margin, a worked example, and a short cost review to estimate break-even sales without confusing profit with cash.
Customer Paid, Invoice Still Open? Review Unapplied Payments
A practical workflow for matching customer receipts to invoices, investigating missing remittance details, and keeping collections accurate.
Prepaid Expenses: Build a Monthly Schedule That Stays Accurate
Identify prepaid expenses, build a monthly schedule, recognize cost over the benefit period, and reconcile the remaining balance.
Business Credit Card Reconciliation: Match Charges, Receipts and Payments
A practical review of business credit card charges, receipts, credits and payments, with a worked balance example and an exception checklist.
Accrued Expenses: A Practical Month-End Review for Small Businesses
A practical month-end process for finding expenses incurred but not yet billed, estimating them carefully and clearing them without duplicates.
Petty Cash: Keep a Small Business Cash Fund Accountable
A practical petty-cash process for setting a fund amount, documenting purchases, counting cash and receipts, and replenishing without duplicate expenses.
Foreign Currency Invoices: Explain the Difference When Payment Arrives
A practical guide to tracking invoice currency, exchange rates and payment fees so a paid foreign-currency invoice does not leave an unexplained balance.
Physical Inventory Counts: Turn Differences Into Documented Adjustments
A practical workflow for counting inventory, investigating differences and posting documented adjustments without hiding the cause.
Daily Sales Reconciliation: Connect Receipts, Deposits and the General Ledger
Connect sales reports, payment methods, processor settlements and bank deposits without forcing unlike totals to match.
Employee Expense Reimbursements: From Receipt to Approved Payment
A practical workflow for documenting employee expenses, approving reimbursements and paying them without duplicate accounting.
Purchase Discounts: Decide, Record and Reconcile Them Correctly
A practical small-business workflow for evaluating early-payment discounts, paying the correct amount and keeping accounts payable accurate.
Job Costing: Compare the Estimate With What the Work Actually Cost
A practical workflow for assigning labor, materials and overhead to individual jobs, then reviewing estimate-to-actual differences.
Allowance for Doubtful Accounts: Estimate What Customers May Not Pay
A practical small-business guide to estimating uncollectible receivables, reviewing aging, and recording write-offs without double-counting expense.
Small Business Accounting Controls When One Person Does the Books
Five practical safeguards for small businesses where one person handles multiple accounting duties.
Nonprofit vs. For-Profit Accounting: Key Differences
Donor restrictions, net assets, grants, functional expenses, financial statements and compliance differences explained.
Business Loan Payments: Separate Principal From Interest
Separate principal, interest and other payment components, then reconcile each business loan to lender records.
Payroll Reconciliation: Match the Register, Payments and Liabilities
Connect final payroll records, ledger entries, cash movements and outstanding payroll obligations in a documented review.
Intercompany Balances: When One Business Pays for Another
Track payments between related businesses, compare both sets of books and distinguish reconciliation from settlement and consolidation.
Lease Register: Keep Equipment and Rental Agreements Visible
Connect signed lease agreements, equipment, payment schedules, renewal deadlines and accounting review in a practical register.
Customer Credit Memos: Correct the Invoice, Preserve the Record
A practical workflow for approving, issuing, applying and reconciling customer credits without erasing the original invoice.
Vendor Onboarding: Verify Details Before the First Payment
Collect vendor documentation, verify bank instructions and approve new suppliers before releasing payments.
Payment Processor Payouts: Reconcile Sales, Fees and Bank Deposits
Bridge gross card activity through refunds and processor fees to the net deposit, without duplicating revenue.
Outstanding Checks: What to Do When a Payment Never Clears
Track aging checks, verify payee status and document stop-payment or reissue decisions without losing the obligation.
Gift Card Accounting: Track Sales, Redemptions and Unused Balances
Reconcile gift-card sales and redemptions to the outstanding liability without counting upfront cash as earned revenue.
Sales Tax Payable: Reconcile Before Filing
Reconcile taxable sales, exemptions, refunds, collected tax and remittances to the general ledger before filing.
Vendor Statement Reconciliation: Find Missing Bills Before Paying Twice
Match supplier statements to bills, credits and payments so missing invoices and duplicate charges are resolved before the next payment run.
Recurring Billing Controls: Keep Contract Renewals and Invoices Aligned
A practical control checklist for contract renewals, recurring invoices, billing changes, and customer balance follow-up.
Vendor Credits: Apply Supplier Credit Memos Without Losing Track
A practical accounts payable process for recording supplier credits, matching them to open bills, and reconciling unused balances.