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.
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For founders, new owners, and anyone starting out
Founding Contracts Readiness
Assess whether the core agreements a new business needs (founders, customers, vendors, IP assignment) are in place, and what to prepare with counsel.
5 guided steps
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Official guidance links
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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.
Was any of the business's core intellectual property - code, designs, brand, content, formulas - created by a founder or an outside contractor?
By default, a contractor (and sometimes a founder acting before formation) can own the work they create, not the company - so without a signed IP assignment the business may not actually own the assets it runs on, and investors and buyers check exactly this in diligence.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Has every founder and contractor signed a written agreement assigning that intellectual property to the business?
A signed IP assignment (often inside a founder or contractor agreement, sometimes a PIIA) is what actually transfers ownership to the company - a verbal understanding or an unsigned draft will not survive diligence and cannot be assumed.
Get signed IP assignment from every founder and contractor now.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Do you sell to customers - delivering a product or service they pay for?
Once money changes hands you need written terms that fix scope, payment, warranties, and liability - otherwise each deal is governed by whatever the customer's purchase order or your informal emails happen to say, which is where disputes start.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Do you already have a standard customer agreement or master services agreement (MSA) that you put in front of every customer?
A reusable, counsel-reviewed customer contract or MSA - with clear scope, payment terms, warranty limits, and a liability cap - lets you close deals on your terms instead of negotiating each one from scratch or accepting the customer's paper.
Put a standard customer agreement or MSA in place with counsel.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Will you hire employees or engage vendors and contractors the business depends on?
People and suppliers who touch your operations, data, or customers should be on written employment or contractor and vendor agreements that include confidentiality - so obligations, ownership, and liability are fixed before a relationship goes wrong.
Put employment/contractor and vendor agreements with confidentiality in place. Close remaining gaps - NDAs and dispute terms - with counsel.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
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