Manufacturing companies use costing methods such as standard costing and process costing to measure profitability and monitor production efficiency. These approaches are helpful for seeing overall gross margin and cost variances at the plant or product-line level. What they do not always show, however, is why one job is profitable and another barely breaks even. When that happens, leaders often need a closer look at results job-by-job.

On July 4th, 2025, President Trump signed The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) into law, which passed Congress through the reconciliation process. The legislation includes several tax changes and updates that build upon the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which was passed in Trump’s first term. The major updates include changes to the R&D Tax Credit, expansion of the Section 199a deduction, return of 100% bonus depreciation, increase in the SALT Cap, permanent extension of the New Markets Tax Credit, and much more.

In November 2024, the IRS announced that interest rates will decrease for the first quarter of 2025, which begins January 1, 2025. The changes outlined in IR-2024-290 outline all the relevant interest rate changes including various reductions.

IRS compliance teams are stepping up work on analyzing and processing Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims and have issued five new warning signs of incorrect claims that are being commonly seen.  These five new problem areas are in addition to the seven warning signs previously released.

In 2021, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act intending to fight and prevent money laundering, illegal financing activities, corruption, and tax fraud.

In mid-December, the IRS announced the new optional standard mileage starts that will be in effect starting January 1, 2024.  The rates are used to calculate the deductible costs of operating a vehicle for business, charitable, medical, or moving purposes.

At the end of December, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 into law. While the primary purpose of the legislation was to allocate federal funding for the coming year, it did contain several other parcels of legislation within. One of these was the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021, more commonly referred to as the SECURE Act 2.0. The long-awaited legislation aimed at new retirement savings reform is based on many of the changes initially proposed both in the House and Senate. These include changes to plan design, modified RMD rules, matching student loan payments, and expanded eligibility for part-time employees.

Much of the attention around the recently announced American Jobs Plan (Plan) has focused on how the federal government intends to pay the massive $2.3T price tag. As outlined in the plan, corporate taxes would be increased to 28%, enforcement activities expanded, and several new taxes on large companies would also be implemented. This has shifted attention away from the legislation’s purpose: to upgrade, repair, and bolster the nation’s physical and digital infrastructure

On March 31, 2021, the Biden Administration released an overview of The American Jobs Plan (Plan), which broadly outlines a proposed $2T modernization investment in the nation’s transportation, environmental and digital infrastructure and spread over eight fiscal years. The Plan includes fixing highways, upgrading ports, airports, and other transit centers. It calls for the modernization of public buildings, including federal facilities, upgrades to water delivery infrastructure, and revitalization of American manufacturing and innovation.

Starting a new business is an exciting time where entrepreneurs transform their new or innovative ideas from drawing board to production and delivery. During these initial stages, a business owner has to manage multiple demands and priorities to get key people, processes, and structures into place. For new manufacturing companies, this might mean investment in facilities, machinery, workers, and an ordering system