Financial hygiene for founders: 10 practical fixes to make your business bankable (and fundable)

Intro
Founders talk strategy — banks talk numbers. Good financial hygiene is what separates businesses that scale from those that stall. These are ten specific, actionable fixes you can implement in the next 30 days.

10 fixes (do these in order)

1. Separate personal & business finances — one business account, one card, one bookkeeping feed. Less friction for audits and investors.
2. Fix categorisation now — create a predictable chart of accounts and re-categorise last 6 months so margins look real.
3. Run a rolling 90-day cashflow — show weekly inflows/outflows and runway in weeks. Update weekly.
4. Document top 5 customers — contracts, payment terms, and concentration risk (what % of revenue each is).
5. Set and track gross margin by offering — know which product makes money.
6. Standardize invoicing terms — net 30 (or 14) and invoice immediately on delivery. Use an automated reminder.
7. Reconcile every week — bank accounts and payments matched to invoices. No surprises.
8. Create a simple KPI dashboard — 4 numbers: revenue, cash, gross margin, burn rate. Put it in your weekly leadership meeting.
9. Run a 1-page financing memo — if you had to pitch for funding tomorrow, this one page contains traction, use of funds, runway.
10. Prepare a banker-friendly package — 12 months of P&L, last 3 months of bank statements, ownership structure, and most recent forecast.

Small templates you can use

• Weekly cashflow: Starting cash → expected inflows this week → expected outflows → ending cash → runway (weeks).
• 1-page financing memo: 1) What you do; 2) Traction (three numbers); 3) Use of funds; 4) Ask.

How to handle bank relationships

• Be proactive: share forecasts if the bank asks.
• If you need to move funds fast (ACH, wires), document the purpose clearly on transfers to avoid holdups — e.g., “Deposit for supplier X — invoice 1234” rather than vague descriptors.

Common pitfalls and how to fix them

• Too many manual spreadsheets → adopt a single bookkeeping tool and connect bank feed.
• Customers on long payment terms → offer small discounts for faster payment or introduce partial upfront.
• Hidden fees & interchange → review payment processor statements quarterly.

CTA
If you want, we can audit your finance stack in a single 90-minute session and hand you a prioritized list of fixes with estimated time-savings and impact.