You don’t need “venture-grade” accounting.
You need a system that prints cash and keeps you from stepping on landmines.
Here’s the checklist every bootstrapped founder looking to clear that 7-figure mark and go for 8-figures:
✅ “Operator-focused” Bookkeeping
Your books need to tell you what’s actually happening in the business, not just categorize transactions for an easier tax filing.
Monthly close. No excuses. If you don’t know last month’s cash and profit by the 15th, you’re flying blind.
Don’t use Quickbooks standard chart of accounts. Customize the products, revenue accounts, and classes so you can see the components of your business - not just what comes out in the wash.
Group expense categories by: COGS, sales & marketing, and overhead and track as a % of revenue.
Bank + credit card reconciled monthly. Don’t get behind on this.
Recommended Tools:
Quickbooks. I know I know, it’s not great. Trust me. After they spent millions advertising to “ditch your accountant” no one wants to ditch QBO more than I do. But right now, everyone is trained on it, it integrates with everything, and if you ARE still the one who has to use it, hopefully you won’t be for long.
✅ Growth-focused Cash Management
This is how you self-fund growth. Sound fundamentals around cash management and CONSISTENCY.
Accounts receivable. Standardized invoice timing and terms. Standardized (and aggressive) collections. Automated reminders and regular tracking of everything outstanding and past due.
Accounts payable. Clear SOPs for receiving and paying bills. Policies around what amounts require approval. Allocate to the appropriate department, client, project, etc. Payment policy that reflects YOUR terms.
Banking. Set up an operating checking account and a high-yield savings account. Set floor limits you won’t dip below and ceiling limits that if you go above you’ll move cash to a more productive place.
Recommended Tools:
AR - I recommend Quickbooks to keep it all in once place but if you do hourly billing something like Harvest might be better. If you do recurring there are a lot of options to set up and let it ride.
AP - Ramp is our favorite but if you don’t meet their requirements bill dot com is a solid option.
Banking - Capital One is one of the few that has high yield savings for businesses that aren’t treasuries or require hundreds of thousands in the bank. For simplicity keep your operating checking there too. Recommend setting up a second checking with a second bank just in case. Mercury, Axos, or Chase is fine.
✅ Reporting That Makes You Smarter
You need to know the score and you need to know where to focus. Not having regular financials you trust is a rookie move. Ask any long-time operator or serial entrepreneur. They’ll tell you to not sleep on getting this right.
Monthly P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statement (don’t skip the last one).
Rolling 13-week cash forecast. If you only do one report (besides your financials), do this.
KPIs tracked: Expense categories as a % of revenue, avg days in AR, active customers, avg customer value, and if you’re in professional services track utilization / capacity.
Recommended Tools:
I don’t like a lot of the FP&A tools - they tend to be a lot of work to maintain and easy to use improperly. Set up zaps or something to dump the basics into sheets or some place you’ll ACTUALLY SEE IT. The tool isn’t the important thing here. USING IT is. So keep it simple.
✅ Proactive Tax Strategy
Think less about optimization and more about nailing the basics without the once a quarter fire drills. You don’t tax optimize your way to success. Make sure this is handled with as little of your time as possible and do the stuff that actually matters.
Quarterly estimated taxes automated (no surprises = no IRS letters).
Appropriate entity structure.
S-Corp salary strategy dialed in (reasonable comp isn’t optional).
Year-round planning: R&D credits, depreciation, retirement accounts.
Quarterly check ins to make sure you don’t get to December 14 and realize you need to get things in order.
Recommended Tools:
No software. Just a good tax accountant who will learn your business and coordinate with your bookkeepers to make sure they know what’s going on and are planning ahead.
✅ Fractional CFO (When You Hit $3M+)
This is generally over hyped. If you have good systems on everything above, you don’t need this. You’ve done 80% of their job already. But at a certain point you’re going to need someone owning a lot of these functions and taking them that next 20% which is usually strategy and planning.
FP&A (budgets, forecasts, scenario modeling).
Board-ready reporting, even if your “board” is you and your spouse.
Capital allocation playbook: where the next $100K goes.
Recommended Tools:
Again, forget the software. This is about the right team. Find someone who has experience bootstrapping aggressive growth. That’s the important part. Raising and self-funding are different animals and you need this person to be rowing in the same direction.
💡 Here’s the real unlock:
Most founders delay this until they’re “big enough.” That’s backwards.
You don’t build a 7-figure system after you hit $7M. You build it at $1M so you can self-fund your way there.
6-figure founders see accounting as a box to check.
7-figure founders see accounting as a strategic asset that enables growth.
If you’d like help setting this up, reach out to use about a 6 week sprint to get your systems dialed in.
We’ll go end to end, design and build streamlined systems and SOPs for your whole back office.
Reach out and let’s see what kind of opportunity exists for you.
Go get ‘em.
Chase “numbers go up” Spenst