Insights & resources
Practical guidance, freely shared
Practical articles on financial management, tax compliance, personal finance and business growth, plus downloadable guides, templates and checklists.
12 items
Accounting Internship Portfolio Guide
How to assemble a portfolio from internship work that shows an employer your judgement, not just your attendance — including what to keep and what to leave out.
PDF, 6 pages
13-Week Cash Forecast
The rolling cash forecast described in our cash-flow article, set up and ready to populate, with committed outflows and receipt timing separated.
Excel workbook, 1 sheet
The gap between passing accounting exams and doing the work
Accounting qualifications teach standards well and practice poorly. Knowing what the gap contains is the first step to closing it before your first role, not during it.
Read articleChart of Accounts Starter
A starting account structure for a small trading or services business, with naming conventions and notes on the categories most often set up wrongly.
Excel workbook, 2 sheets
What a management report tells you that a bank balance cannot
Statutory accounts are prepared for outsiders and arrive too late to act on. Management reporting exists to answer the questions you have while there is still time to respond.
Read articleMonth-End Close Checklist
The sequence of checks that closes a month properly, in order, with the reconciliations that must balance before the period can be signed off.
PDF, 1 page
How to budget when your income is different every month
Standard budgeting advice assumes a fixed salary. For traders, contractors and commission earners it fails on contact with a bad month. Here is an approach built for variable income.
Read articleSME Filing Calendar
A year-planner for a registered business: every recurring obligation, what each return needs, and an internal deadline set two weeks ahead of the statutory one.
PDF, 2 pages
Filing deadlines are a planning problem, not an admin problem
Penalties are rarely caused by unwillingness to comply. They are caused by treating compliance as something that happens near the deadline rather than throughout the year.
Read articleCash flow and profit are not the same thing
Profitable businesses close every year because they ran out of cash. Understanding why the two numbers diverge is one of the highest-value things an owner can learn.
Read articleMonthly Budget Template
A working budget spreadsheet with the three-tier structure we teach: essentials, commitments and discretionary spending, with a built-in variance check.
Excel workbook, 3 sheets
Five signs your bookkeeping is about to become a problem
Bookkeeping rarely fails suddenly. It degrades quietly, and by the time the symptoms are obvious the fix is expensive. Here is what to watch for.
Read articleGet started
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