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Bookkeeping is table stakes for all companies. For a growing business, it’s not enough. Solopreneurs and microbusinesses, from an accounting perspective, have fairly simple operations. There’s not much in the way of receivables or payables to accrue, there’s often no staff to manage, and the number of sales/service lines are usually few and far between. As such, there’s not much need to dig deeper into the numbers or for rigorous forward-looking planning. Making sure transact

When your business is short on cash, and you can’t pay everybody that needs to be paid, it’s time to take triage. There are two payments you should protect before you start playing whack-a-mole with vendors: The government (payroll remittances, GST/HST, source deductions) Your employees (wages) These are the two groups that can shut you down the fastest if payment is late. 1) Pay the government (especially payroll remittances) If you fall behind on remittances, you’re going t

Growth sounds great, until you realize what’s needed to achieve it. Most businesses want to grow. They want to make more sales and keep more profit. Finding the right marketing message is not the only obstacle to achieving that growth, though. To satisfy growing demand, companies need to buy more inventory, hire more staff, and obtain more physical space. These all require more upfront cash because these things must be secured before those sales are made and the cash is colle

Financial statements aren’t just a bunch of dry numbers. They’re trying to tell you something, and it's usually it’s one of these: “You’re making money… but it’s not turning into cash.” “Sales are up, but the business is getting weaker.” “Margins are slipping and you’re about to feel it.” “You’ve built a dependency—on debt, on one customer, or on supplier credit.” “Everything looks fine… except this one line that’s quietly becoming a problem.” The problem is that most owners

Who this is for Owner-operators of project-based businesses (flooring, trades, agencies, installers, contractors) using QuickBooks Online (QBO) who: take deposits invoice before work is complete do progress billing or change orders want financial statements they can actually trust Revenue recognition definition (plain English) Revenue recognition is the rule for when you record revenue in your books. Good rule of thumb: You recognize revenue when you earn it (by delivering th

If I was to build an FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) regime for an owner-operated business, I build it in a specific order. Not because it’s “best practice", but because it matches how small businesses actually break: cash first, then profitability, then strategy, then execution discipline. This post explains the sequence: 13-week cash forecast 12-month P&L forecast Long-term financial plan (3–5 years) tied to strategy Annual budget Step 1: Build a 13-week cash forecast