What records to keep in your first year

In your first year the temptation is to save every receipt or to save none. Both fail. The bank you'll approach in year two doesn't want your shoebox; the partner you'll bring on in year three doesn't want to reconstruct history.

The daily record. One line per sale: date, item, price, and customer if you know them. Written in a notebook, entered on a phone, saved in a spreadsheet — the format matters less than the habit.

The expense log. One line per outflow: date, category, amount, whether it's business or personal. "Business or personal" is the discipline — mixing the two is the single largest source of unrecoverable data in small businesses.

A separate account. A business account (or an envelope) that is not your personal account. Money moves between them only in named transactions — a salary you pay yourself, a top-up you make. Everything else is one side or the other.

The monthly close. Ninety minutes on the last day of the month. Reconcile the account against the daily record. Categorise expenses. Read the month. What was the total? What was the biggest surprise? What would you have known earlier if you'd read the last close?

That's it. Four artefacts, one habit. If it fits on one page, you'll keep doing it. If it takes an accountant to explain, you won't.

Inside the Study Desk, Financial Management installs these four in you and sequences the harder work — cash forecasting, control against leakage, tax principles, and the funder-ready pack you'll want in year two.