- How to make a Profit and Loss from bank statements
The honest manual method for building a Profit and Loss from bank and card statements, the three mistakes that quietly wreck it, and the shortcut when you would rather not. - No books this year? Here is what your tax preparer actually needs
You ran the business and never kept books. What a preparer really needs from you, where to get it, what to do about cash, and the fastest way to put a year back together. - What catch-up bookkeeping costs, and what drives the price
What a bookkeeper charges to write up a year of books from statements, where the $200-and-up starting price comes from, what pushes it higher, and where a $49.99 packet fits. - Year-end financial statements for your taxes: which ones each return needs
Which financial statements a Schedule C, Form 1065, 1120-S or 1120 return actually needs, how a tax-line worksheet saves preparer time, and what the statements do not do. - Your bank balance is not your profit
Why the checking balance and the year's profit are different numbers, with a worked example: $48,215 in the bank, $39,853 of net income, and $18,000 of owner draws in between. - Financial statements for a small-business loan application
What lenders commonly ask a small business for, why some want accrual or CPA-prepared statements, how to ask what yours needs, and how to produce owner-prepared cash-basis statements with a signature line. - Which statements do I need for a year of financial statements?
The pre-upload checklist: every account, every month, as PDFs or exports from the bank's website; what counts as an account; what to do when a month is missing or a statement crosses the year end. - Cash-basis financial statements: what they show, what they leave out, and who they are right for
What cash basis means on a Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss, why statements built from bank statements are cash basis, what accrual adds, and when you need more. - Personal and business spending in one account: how to get a clean Profit and Loss anyway
The sole-proprietor reality of one account for everything. How owner draws keep personal spending off the business Profit and Loss, what to do about mixed payees, and why a separate account next year is worth it.
Guides
Guides for owners with no bookkeeper
How to get a year of financial statements out of the bank statements you already have, and what to do with them.
See it with your own numbers
One month of your own bank or card statement, read in about a minute, shown as a Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet. No account, no card.
Try it free with one statement.Drop one month’s bank or card statement here (a PDF, or a CSV, Excel or QBO/QFX/OFX export). In about a minute you’ll see that month’s Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet.
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