The Plus Version of the Start-Up Finance Toolbox

In addition to the Full version that covers ALL steps of implementing structured finance processes and accounting structures, you are getting a personal 1:1 toolbox onboarding or a consulting session for your business. In 60 minutes you can ask me all open questions you have or we can walk through your main pain points of your company and how the toolbox can address these.

1. How to start finance?

The first chapter is all about the right initial set-up: How important is a good tax advisor (hint: VERY IMPORTANT) and what do I need to consider when choosing one? Which profile should I hire first in my finance team? What qualifications and seniority should those candidates have? At the same time, I will explain to you how to establish a good document structure why a good filing system is really essential.

2. Accounting Hygiene

Accounting is the basis for EVERYTHING. Without clean accounting, you can neither make good calculations nor produce trustworthy reports. You will only be able to identify pain points in your company if the numbers are correct. Otherwise, you risk making the wrong decisions and damaging your company. In this chapter, I show you how you can establish and maintain good accounting hygiene in just a few steps. Process for chart of accounts, Accounting guidelines examples, Cost center plan.

3. Processes: Incoming invoices and approvals

Missing or incomplete processes, non-scalable workarounds, document chaos, time-consuming invoice allocation and approval, chaotic structures, and hours of document searching – sounds familiar to you? Be assured, you are not alone with these problems, because most start-ups are struggling with them.

Let’s be honest, how often have you asked yourself: Why am I sitting here scanning invoices? Where are the receipts?

In this chapter, I show you how to deal with invoice approvals, payments, and which system to use for this without spending money on expensive tools in the beginning. In the same context, I also explain how you can best manage a shared inbox.

Templates: Incoming invoices log, Process example for incoming invoices and approvals.

4. Cash and liquidity planning. Simple working capital management.

Cash is king guys, and you need to know when your last cent will be spent – well in advance. Key topic of this chapter will be about managing working capital: How do you keep track of your accounts receivables & accounts payables?

I will show you how to create a regular cash forecast without much manual effort – directly from the bank statement into your cash forecast. Furthermore, you will learn how to reconcile transactions and turnovers from different bank accounts and transfer them to your own cash planning.
All of the above without an extra tool.

Templates: Cash-Liquidity Planning File.

5. Travel expenses.

Surely you have already asked yourself: How do I get a grip on the receipt chaos of my colleagues? How do I ensure that the travel expenses are coming in on time? In this chapter, I will show you why a guideline is important and how you can get your team to spend their money more wisely when travelling. You will learn how to transfer the travel expense reports directly into accounting software or into the software of the tax advisor and how you can improve bad credit card management.

Templates: Various templates for managing travel expenses (including a travel expense guideline and tips on how to optimize expenses).

6. Month-end closing

Learn why a month-end closing is important and how to do it easily with my checklist.

Template: Month-end closing checklist.

7. Budget and Forecasting.

In this chapter, I will show you how to establish a smooth budget process and motivate the different departments to get involved. I also explain how you can best map your budget and integrate the various plans into one file. You will learn about key things to include in your budget planning and how to get everyone from the leadership team around the table to discuss the budget.

Templates: Various timelines and process design for a successful budget period, budgeting template including headcount and staff planning.

8. Reporting und KPIs.

I will share with you my experience on how ho to create comprehensive and engaging reporting for investors and the leadership team including key topics which belong in a good financial reporting sheet. You will learn which KPIs are important and how to sell the reporting with a good story for the individual target groups. I also explain how you can automate your financial reporting reducing manual effort to a minimum – all without extra tools.

Templates: Financial reporting template with automation from the accounting software and the most important formulas for easy reporting.

9. Cost Transparency and Controlling.

Learn where to locate financial drains in your start-up and how to monitor and keep these in check. I will show you how to keep an overview of your contracts and not waste money (e.g., with subscriptions, licenses, telephony costs, etc.).

Templates: Project controlling, various templates for cost-saving, examples for various process descriptions, templates for monitoring licenses, cloud costs, gross margins, etc.

10. Tools.

Learn all about tools and how to use them to simplify and automate your finance processes. Which tool to use for which process? What are popular and useful tools on the market? How do I find out which of them I need for me and my company? I will explain when it is worthwhile to implement tools, which steps are important, and how you can get the whole team on board. You will also learn how to integrate the tools into a system landscape.

Templates: Finance Tools Landscape incl. selected providers, implementation process for tools with the most important steps and questions.

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