Close the month for a startup

Goal

Close the books and tell the board where the money went

For

Founders and finance leads at small companies

Steps

6

About

150 minutes

6 steps, in order. Sign in to keep track as you go.

1. 1

   Step 1: Categorize bank and card transactions

   Export your bank and card transactions and sort them into categories with rules you own.

   Passes on: Spend by category for the month

   Use in Claude
2. 2

   Step 2: Cut your software spend before it renews

   List your software tools and find what to cut or shrink before it renews.

   Passes on: Savings to act on

   Use in Claude
3. 3

   Step 3: Build an ARR waterfall from your MRR export

   Build the ARR waterfall from your MRR export: new, expansion, contraction, and churn.

   Passes on: ARR movement, NRR, and GRR

   Use in Claude
4. 4

   Step 4: Work out your startup's cash runway

   Update runway from cash, burn, growth, and planned hires.

   Passes on: Months of runway and when to raise

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5. 5

   Step 5: Write the monthly finance update with plan vs actual

   Write the monthly finance update with plan versus actual.

   Passes on: The finance section of the board update

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6. 6

   Step 6: Write your investor update or board memo

   Fold the finance update into the investor update or board memo.

   Passes on: An update ready to send

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