Two pages decide most funding conversations before anyone meets you. A lender, a grant reviewer and a prime contractor vetting suppliers all open the same two documents first: what the business earned and spent over a period, and what it owns and owes on a date. If those pages are missing, out of date, or do not agree with each other, the conversation usually ends there, politely.

They are also the only documents that answer two questions a bank balance cannot. Did the business actually make money this year? And if every customer paid and every bill came due tomorrow, would it still be standing? Running on the bank balance alone means reading one number that answers neither.

This is a gathering job before it is a maths job. Have these in one place first:

• Twelve months of statements for every business bank account and credit card
• Loan statements showing the balance, and how much of it falls due in the next twelve months
• Every invoice you issued, and which of them are still unpaid
• Every bill you owe but have not yet paid
• Payroll records, including contractors
• Your last filed business tax return

If your bookkeeping is not set up yet, do Bookkeeping and accounting system established first. Building a P&L out of a shoebox takes roughly four times as long as running a report, and it has to be done again next quarter.