10/20/2026
You finish a $3,000 project in March. Your client pays in April.
Which month does that sale belong to?
The answer depends on which accounting method your business runs on, and it's why two owners can look at the exact same project and see two different reports.
Cash-basis accounting records income when the money lands in your bank account. Accrual-basis accounting records income when the work is done, even if payment comes later. Same project, same $3,000, different month on the books.
Once you know which method you're working with, the report stops feeling like a mystery and starts telling you exactly what happened, and when.
This is exactly the kind of thing we break down in our new blog series Know Your Numbers: A Crash Course for Business Owners (Part 1). Visit HarmoneyBooks.com/blog to start reading!