Chief of Staff
Keep your income and expenses straight
Check categories and deductions, link money to your CRM deals, add what never came through a connection, track expected income, and save each month.
Your money, in plain English covers what the numbers mean. This is the other half: making sure they are right. Open the Money tab (opens in a new tab) and use the sections at the top: Overview, Income and expenses and Monthly summaries.
Check what it sorted
Open Income and expenses. It lists your 200 most recent entries. Each row has its date, description, where it came from, the amount, and three things you control:
- Category. Your Chief of Staff sorts income and expenses into categories that suit your kind of business. When it is not sure, the row reads Needs a category rather than guessing. Pick the right one from the list.
- May be tax deductible. On expenses and fees, a checkbox under the category. It records your assumption so the tax figure reflects it. It is not tax advice.
- Deal. Link the entry to one of your CRM deals so it counts toward what that deal earned. Tap the ? next to Deal for a reminder.
Each change saves as you make it and the totals update.
Remove, do not delete
Remove takes an entry out of the totals while keeping it in the list, which is what you want for a test charge or a duplicate. A removed row fades and offers Put back if you change your mind.
Add what the connections missed
Cash, a bank transfer, a check: none of it comes through Stripe or your accounting tool. Click Add income or an expense and fill in:
- Type: Income, Expense, Fee or Refund
- Amount, typed any way you like (20000, 20,000 or $20,000)
- Date, today or earlier
- Description
- Category, or choose later
- Deal, if it belongs to one
- May be tax deductible, on expenses and fees
Click Add. What you enter yourself always counts on top of your connections, so only add money that never came through them. If you enter a payment that Stripe or your accounting tool already brought in, it is counted twice; remove your copy.
Track money you are waiting for
Click Add expected income for a commission or payment that has not arrived yet, with the date you expect it (future dates are fine). It shows under Expected income on the Overview and is never counted in your totals. When it arrives, click Received on its row. Deals in escrow in your CRM are listed on the Overview with a button to do this in one step.
Settings
Click Settings at the top of the Money tab and fill in:
- Which connection counts. If you connect more than one of QuickBooks, Xero and Stripe, pick one so income is never counted twice. Automatic puts your accounting tool first.
- Currency and Time zone.
- Set aside for taxes (%), between 5 and 60.
- Business type and State.
- Cash on hand, which is what "How long your cash lasts" is worked out from.
Click Save settings.
Read the notes
When something was left out of the totals, a note at the top of the Overview says how many and why: entries that need a category, copies from a second connection, entries not paid yet, another currency, or an amount that could not be read. That note is your to-do list.
Save the month
Open Monthly summaries, pick the month (this one or any earlier month), and click Save this month. It keeps that month's totals as they are now, so you can look back on them. Saving the same month again adds a new copy and keeps the old one. You can also ask your Chief of Staff to do it in chat.
This is a clear picture of your finances, not tax advice. Check filing and any big decision with your accountant.