Novii CPA

Novii CPA Leading Innovators Beyond Financials

A pre-revenue biotech founder once told us his burn rate update for investors was going well because nobody had pushed b...
06/24/2026

A pre-revenue biotech founder once told us his burn rate update for investors was going well because nobody had pushed back on it. What he was actually doing was reporting how much cash left the account every month and calling it strategy.

Investors are not just looking at the number, they are looking for evidence it reflects decisions. Gross burn is everything going out the door, payroll, lab costs, contract research, and it is usually the figure that should drive runway planning, not net burn after whatever grant funding trickles in. Runway itself falls apart fast if you calculate it off last month's average instead of what spending will actually look like over the next 12 to 18 months, especially once a trial moves phases or a hiring wave hits ahead of a raise.

What investors are really evaluating is whether the founder understands the relationship between spending and milestones, whether dollars are going toward de-risking the science or just keeping the lights on. The founders who handle this well treat burn rate as something they revisit monthly, not a slide they build before a board meeting.

Follow for more financial content built for biotech and life sciences founders.

You might be manufacturing your least profitable product at full speed — and have no idea.Most manufacturers track reven...
06/23/2026

You might be manufacturing your least profitable product at full speed — and have no idea.

Most manufacturers track revenue by product line but not true margin. Once you factor in job costing and overhead allocation, the picture often looks very different from what the top line suggests. Some of the busiest lines are the least profitable ones.

This post breaks down how to calculate real margin per product line — so you're making capacity decisions based on actual numbers, not assumptions.

What your monthly financials should actually tell you (and what to do if they don't)A founder we started working with wa...
06/22/2026

What your monthly financials should actually tell you (and what to do if they don't)

A founder we started working with was getting a P&L every month. Always on time, always clean, formatted the same way it had been for three years. She assumed that was what good accounting looked like because nobody had ever shown her anything different.

When we sat down with her for the first time, the first thing we asked was what decisions she had made in the last quarter based on those reports. She thought about it for a moment and said, honestly, none. She looked at them, filed them away, and ran the business on instinct and cash balance.

That is not a reporting problem. That is a function problem.

A monthly close that actually serves a growing business tells leadership more than what happened. It shows where margins moved and why. It surfaces AR that is aging in ways that will create a cash problem in 60 days if nobody acts on it now. It connects the current cash position to what is coming, not just what came in. And it flags the thing that does not look right yet but is worth watching before it becomes the thing you are reacting to.

The P&L is one input. On its own it answers a narrow question about whether the business was profitable in a given period. What leadership actually needs is context around that number, what is driving it, what is changing underneath it, and what it means for the decisions that are coming. The difference between a reporting function and a finance function is whether someone is doing that translation work or just producing the document.

If your monthly reports are not changing how you think about the next 90 days, they are probably not doing enough.

Follow for more on what financial clarity actually looks like for growing businesses.

1099 mistakes that can cost professional services firms thousandsA business owner we worked with got a notice from the I...
06/19/2026

1099 mistakes that can cost professional services firms thousands

A business owner we worked with got a notice from the IRS about a contractor she had paid $14,000 the previous year. She had never collected a W-9. The 1099 had not been filed. She had not thought much about it because the contractor was someone she trusted and the payments felt informal, more like paying a freelancer than running payroll.

The penalty itself was not catastrophic. But the notice triggered a closer look at her contractor payments going back three years, and what started as one missing form turned into a much longer conversation.

The 1099 filing requirement is one of those compliance areas that feels administrative until it is not. If you pay a contractor or unincorporated service provider $600 or more in a calendar year, a 1099-NEC needs to be filed. Not eventually. By January 31st of the following year. The W-9 that makes that possible needs to be collected before you cut the first check, not chased down in December when you are trying to remember who you paid and how much.

The NEC versus MISC distinction trips up a lot of businesses. The 1099-NEC covers nonemployee compensation, which is most contractor payments. The 1099-MISC covers things like rent, royalties, and certain other payments. Filing the wrong form is not a disaster but it creates follow-up work and can complicate the contractor's own filing.

Late filing penalties start at $60 per form and scale up depending on how late and how many forms are missing. For a business with a dozen contractors that has been inconsistent about this for a few years, that math adds up before you get to any deeper scrutiny.

The fix is not complicated. Collect W-9s before work begins, track contractor payments as they happen, and build the 1099 filing into your year-end close process rather than treating it as a separate January scramble.

Save this. The deadline comes up faster than it feels like it will in August.

R&D Tax Credits for medical device companies - a massive opportunity most missWe reviewed the financials of a medical de...
06/18/2026

R&D Tax Credits for medical device companies - a massive opportunity most miss

We reviewed the financials of a medical device company that had been operating for six years. Solid revenue, significant investment in product development, a full engineering team working through technical problems every single day. They had never filed for an R&D tax credit. Their previous accountant had not brought it up and they had assumed, reasonably enough, that it was something for software startups and university spinouts.

The credit they had left on the table over those six years was not a rounding error.

Medical device development sits squarely inside what the R&D tax credit was designed for. The process of designing a device, testing whether it performs the way you need it to, iterating on materials or components when it does not, resolving the kind of technical uncertainty that is just a normal part of bringing a product to market. All of it qualifies. Engineer and researcher wages, contractor costs for qualifying work, and supplies consumed during development all count toward the calculation.

The credit itself is calculated as a percentage of qualifying research expenses above a base amount, and for companies that are not yet profitable it can in some cases be applied against payroll taxes, which changes the calculus significantly for earlier stage companies still burning cash on development.

Where most medical device companies run into trouble is documentation. The IRS requires that the records supporting the credit be contemporaneous, meaning built as the work happens rather than reconstructed later. Project logs, time allocations, technical records that show what problem was being solved and why the outcome was uncertain. If that infrastructure is not in place, the credit is harder to defend even when the underlying work clearly qualifies.

The other thing worth knowing is that amended returns can go back three years, which means companies that have never claimed the credit are not necessarily starting from zero.

Follow for more tax strategy built specifically for life sciences companies.

In-house accountant vs. outsourced firm - the real cost comparisonA mid-sized company we spoke with had budgeted $85,000...
06/17/2026

In-house accountant vs. outsourced firm - the real cost comparison

A mid-sized company we spoke with had budgeted $85,000 for a full-time accountant. Reasonable salary for the market, they thought. Then they actually mapped out what that hire would cost once you factored in benefits, payroll taxes, accounting software licenses, continuing education, and the recurring cost of a CPA to handle what the accountant could not.

The number landed closer to $130,000. And that was before accounting for the months it would take to hire the right person, onboard them, and find out whether they could actually handle the complexity the business needed.

This is not an argument against hiring. Some businesses genuinely need a full-time internal accountant and should have one. The question worth asking is whether the decision is being made on the real number or the salary line.

A full-time hire gives you dedicated availability, institutional knowledge that builds over time, and someone who is embedded in the day-to-day of the business. Those things have real value depending on the complexity and the volume of work. What it does not automatically give you is breadth. A single accountant has a specific skill set, and the things that fall outside it, tax strategy, CFO-level forecasting, audit support, tend to require additional resources anyway.

Outsourced accounting costs vary widely based on what you actually need, but the comparison that matters is not salary versus monthly retainer. It is the full loaded cost of the hire against what you get from each model, including what happens when the work exceeds one person's capacity.

If you are trying to figure out which structure actually makes sense for where your business is right now, that math looks different for every company. Reach out and we can walk through it together.

The biggest mistake with equipment purchases? Planning after the purchase is already made.
06/16/2026

The biggest mistake with equipment purchases? Planning after the purchase is already made.

Big news for the Novii CPA team! 🎉Our founder Victoria Thayer, CPA has been named a 2026 AICPA Personal Financial Planni...
06/11/2026

Big news for the Novii CPA team! 🎉

Our founder Victoria Thayer, CPA has been named a 2026 AICPA Personal Financial Planning Standing Ovation Award recipient — one of only two CPAs selected nationwide.

The AICPA's Standing Ovation program recognizes young CPAs with exemplary professional achievement in their specialty area. The PFP category sits at the intersection of accounting and financial planning - the kind of integrated, whole-picture work we've built Novii around. This recognition says we belong here.

This adds to a list we're genuinely proud of.

But honestly? These aren't just firm accolades. They exist because of the clients who've trusted us with their real questions, their real decisions, and the things that matter most to their businesses. That's what drives the work.

Victoria founded Novii CPA to serve business owners in professional services, biotech, life sciences, and manufacturing who needed more than a once-a-year tax appointment. This is proof that approach is working.

We're proud of you, Victoria. Drop a 🎉 in the comments to congratulate her.

📍 Announced at AICPA ENGAGE 2026, Las Vegas

Meet Mike, the newest CPA strengthening Novii CPA’s CAS team.With five years of experience as a revenue accountant in th...
06/10/2026

Meet Mike, the newest CPA strengthening Novii CPA’s CAS team.

With five years of experience as a revenue accountant in the biotech industry, Mike brings a strong technical foundation and a thoughtful, solutions-oriented approach to client advisory services. A CPA with a degree in accountancy, he is passionate about helping businesses gain clarity and make informed decisions. Known for his reliability and attention to detail, Mike values building lasting relationships.

Outside of work, he enjoys sports, music, travel, and time with family and friends.

Say hello in the comments and share a warm welcome!

FIFO vs. LIFO — which inventory method is costing you more in taxesThe inventory method you chose when you first set up ...
06/09/2026

FIFO vs. LIFO — which inventory method is costing you more in taxes

The inventory method you chose when you first set up your books could be the reason you're overpaying on taxes every single year.

FIFO assumes the oldest inventory gets sold first. Sounds logical, makes your balance sheet look healthy, but when costs are rising it also means your cost of goods is lower on paper, which pushes your taxable income up.

LIFO flips that. You're expensing the most recent, usually more expensive inventory first. Taxable income drops. Your balance sheet doesn't look as clean, but your tax bill reflects what's actually happening in your business right now.

Neither one is universally better. It depends on your margins, how your costs have been moving, and sometimes just how much cash you need to hold onto this year. A lot of businesses that picked FIFO on day one have never revisited it, even as their costs climbed steadily for years.

Switching isn't always simple, and there are IRS rules around it, but it's worth at least knowing what you're leaving on the table before writing another check to the government.

Want to see how each method affects your numbers? Send us a DM 🙂

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