A founder's 20-minute weekly financial routine
You don't need a bookkeeper to know your numbers. You need 20 minutes, the same slot every week, and four numbers.
The four numbers
Cash in (money that actually hit the bank). Cash out. Open invoices — owed to you. Unpaid bills — owed by you. That's it. Profit is an opinion; cash is a fact, and the four numbers keep you honest about both.
The routine
1. Friday, same time, 20 minutes. Block it. Non-negotiable, like payroll.
2. Bank and card feeds reconciled — drag every transaction to a category. Two minutes a day beats two days in January.
3. Update the four numbers on one sheet. Glance at the trend, not just the week.
4. Chase anything in 'open invoices' over 7 days old. This is the highest-paid 5 minutes of your week.
When it breaks
The routine breaks when volume grows, entities multiply, or you discover a category was wrong for three months. That's cleanup work plus automation — categorization rules, tax-ready exports, and monthly dashboards that make the Friday routine take 5 minutes instead of 20.
That's the Financial Ops engagement. Until then, the sheet wins.
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