Business Banking and Financial Setup
Check whether you are ready to separate business finances with the right bank accounts, cards, and controls, and what documents the bank will need.
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For founders, new owners, and anyone starting out
Bookkeeping and Accounting Setup
Assess whether your new business has a bookkeeping system, chart of accounts, and process to keep clean records from the start.
4 guided steps
Private in your browser
Official guidance links
Start the free checker
Your free guided checker
Answer a few quick questions below. It is private - nothing is submitted or stored - and takes about a minute.
Informational business-formation diagnostic only; not legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. Confirm entity, tax, and state decisions with a qualified attorney and CPA.
The questions this tool walks you through
Here is what the checker asks and why each step matters. Prefer to talk it through? Contact us and we will help directly.
Will the business carry inventory or goods you buy or make and hold to sell?
Inventory changes everything about your books - you track cost of goods sold and generally cannot simply expense purchases when you pay for them, which pushes you toward accrual accounting.
Set up perpetual inventory and COGS tracking on accrual-basis software.
Official guidance: IRS business recordkeeping
Will investors or a lender rely on your financial statements to make decisions?
When outside parties read your statements, they expect accrual-basis numbers on real accounting software with a proper chart of accounts - cash-basis and spreadsheets rarely pass that bar.
Adopt accrual-basis software with a proper chart of accounts.
Official guidance: IRS business recordkeeping
Do you expect a high volume of transactions - many invoices, bills, or payments each week?
Volume, not just size, drives complexity; once the transaction count outgrows what one owner can reliably keep current, the cost of outsourcing is usually less than the cost of falling behind.
Outsource bookkeeping to keep pace with the volume.
Official guidance: IRS business recordkeeping
Are you comfortable recording your own transactions and reconciling accounts each month?
A simple service business can run clean books do-it-yourself, but only with the discipline of a fixed monthly close - the failure mode is not method, it is falling behind.
Run cash-basis DIY books with a disciplined monthly review. Outsource bookkeeping so the books stay current.
Official guidance: IRS business recordkeeping
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