Entrepreneurs CFOQuestions founders ask first

Most companies that have outgrown a spreadsheet need the work of a close, a reading, and a return, and they need it from one person. A department is what a much larger company builds when the file is already too big for one pair of hands. Hiring a title before the month closes adds a meeting. We would rather close the month.

A bookkeeper who already has the file can stay. We ask whether anyone is reading the month with you. We ask whether the month is finishing and whether anyone is reading it. Sometimes the missing piece is the reading. Sometimes the bookkeeper has been holding a year of open months alone, and the kind thing is to close them together and then decide.

The first job in a month is one cash figure, the same on the bank screen and in the books. We list bills and what customers owe. We compare the tax drafts to what was paid. We keep draws out of wages. We write three pages and a ninety-day cash line. We put margin on the things you sell. We prepare the return from that folder when the year is ready, and we name the October choices while they can still be made.

We set payroll up on the provider you run, once, and we check that the stub lands in the month. We do not run payday. A report whose point is that an outsider examined the figures is a referral, not a page we sign. The longer boundary is on the page about what we will not sign, and on the disclosures page.

Then the first job is those months, or we do not start the monthly rhythm. Bring a rough count. One open month is a different price and a different week from a year of them. The return stays behind the count. We will not build a decision on a month that has not tied just because a lender named a Tuesday. A rushed costume is how open months get dressed up.

Come to the call with a sentence, not a sorted binder. A sentence about the last month you would call closed is the organization. If you have a notice, say the form number and the date. We will tell you whether the reply is a document we can help gather, or an examination that is outside this scope.

A video call, both screens on the books if you want them there. Hanging up does not hire the practice and does not create a duty that continues. The 30 minutes name the work, or they name the fact that a monthly arrangement would be the wrong purchase. Nothing is billed until a written scope exists and both sides have signed it.

You can reach the same practice from the footer phone or from the form. Whoever tied the bank is who you will hear on the phone. Expect Steven Palmieri, the Tax CFO, on the screen with your own pages, not a stand-in. The company you built is the subject. The file is how we stay honest about it.