Bookkeeping is the step everything else in this domain stands on. Without it there is no profit and loss statement, no cash forecast, no loan package, and no quick answer when a prime contractor asks for last year’s revenue. Tax season stops being a filing and becomes a reconstruction.

The upside is larger than it sounds. Once bookkeeping runs on a weekly rhythm, every financial number anyone asks you for is about ten minutes away, and you stop making decisions from the bank balance, which is the number that lies most often.

One thing has to be true before any of this works: the business money has to be separate from your money. A business checking account and, ideally, one card used only for the business. If you are running an LLC or a corporation, mixing the two also weakens the legal separation that structure exists to give you.

Then have ready:

• Online access to the business bank account and card
• A list of the ten or fifteen things you actually spend money on
• Your loan and lease statements
• Whether you file on a cash basis or an accrual basis, which your tax preparer can tell you in one sentence