IRS final regulations under SECURE 2.0 say that for taxable years starting after Dec. 31, 2026, a 401(k) catch-up contribution from an employee whose prior-year Social Security (Box 3) wages from you topped the threshold must be made as Roth. The IRS set that threshold at 50,000 in Notice 2025-67 and indexes it each year.

Take a 30-person engineering firm with a 401(k). Two principals and one senior manager earn over 50,000 and are over 50. Today they put the ,000 catch-up (the 2026 limit for age 50+) in pre-tax. From the first 2027 paycheck, if the plan has no Roth option, they cannot make catch-ups at all. Staff under the threshold are not affected, and for most shops with no one over the line the effect is zero. If your payroll provider or plan recordkeeper has not switched on Roth contributions, that is the one thing to confirm. Employers with no 401(k), or SIMPLE IRA plans, should read their plan terms first.

Google said on Nov. 3, 2026 that Workspace admins can now set a custom policy message that shows in the Meet Green Room before anyone joins, either on every call or only when it is recorded, transcribed or noted by Gemini. It is off by default, set per organizational unit under Meet Safety Settings, and rolls out from Nov. 2 on Business Standard and Plus and higher editions, not Business Starter.

This gives you one firm-wide notice instead of relying on each host to say "this call is being recorded." Take an 18-person accounting firm on Business Standard. Six partners and managers run about 40 client calls a week in Meet, and some turn on Gemini's "Take notes for me." With this setting on and set to recording-only mode, anyone joining a recorded or Gemini-noted call sees a line such as "This call may be recorded and summarised. Policy: firm.com/recording" before they enter. That covers roughly 160 calls a month with no per-call effort. Google's post frames the feature around users at your organization. It does not say whether outside guests, such as clients, see the message. Confirm that in the linked Help Center article before you treat it as client notice. Law and accounting firms that discuss client matters on recorded calls should care most. Business Starter customers do not get this feature. A plumbing or HVAC shop that uses Meet only for unrecorded internal huddles can ignore it.

The IRS fourth-quarter tax calendar lists the monthly-schedule payroll deposit for October payments on Nov. 17 and for November payments on Dec. 15. It also lists Form 2290 (heavy highway vehicle use tax) for vehicles first used in October on Nov. 30.

A 25-person electrical contractor on the monthly deposit schedule must send Social Security, Medicare and withheld income tax for October pay by Nov. 17 and for November pay by Dec. 15. Semiweekly depositors follow a different set of dates on the same IRS page. If the shop added a truck over 55,000 lb gross weight in October, Form 2290 is due Nov. 30. Nothing here is new, so the effect is small: it is a calendar check, not a decision. Late deposits carry IRS penalties that start at 2% and rise with each day late.

On Nov. 2, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor said sponsors of Registered Apprenticeships in five more high-growth industries can now apply for incentive payments. Apprenticeship.gov lists the funds: IT ($6,000 per new apprentice), telecom (up to $6,000), shipbuilding and defense (up to $6,000), AI, semiconductor and nuclear infrastructure (up to $6,000), and automotive technicians ($3,500).

Most trades shops are not covered. No fund on the Apprenticeship.gov list names electrical, HVAC, plumbing or general construction. Payments go to the apprenticeship sponsor, and each fund has its own occupation list, so a field being named does not mean your job title is approved. Payment comes after the apprentice stays 90 days; some funds pay the rest at program completion. Example: a 25-person telecom contractor with 4 new apprentices on an approved occupation list could collect up to 4 x $6,000 = $24,000. A 20-person fleet repair shop with 2 new technician apprentices could collect 2 x $3,500 = $7,000. An HVAC or electrical shop has no fund to apply to today. Accounting firms and agencies can skip this unless they run a registered IT apprenticeship. One caveat: the DOL release itself returned an access error, so this is based on the Apprenticeship.gov award page.