Setting Up Your Finance Department

Finance is the department that tells you whether your business is healthy or not. Set this up correctly and you'll have real-time visibility into your business finances without a CFO.

The Solo Founder Finance Stack

Your finance department needs to handle:

• Invoicing and payment collection
• Expense tracking and categorization
• Financial reporting (P&L, cash flow)
• Tax preparation support
• Budget management

Step 1: Business Banking

Before anything else, separate your business and personal finances:

Recommended banks:

• Mercury — Best for startups, free, great API
• Relay — Budget-friendly with automatic categorization
• Brex — If you do significant spending

Set up two accounts:

1. Operating account — Day-to-day business
2. Tax reserve account — 25-30% of all income goes here automatically

Step 2: Payment Processing

For receiving payments:

• Stripe — Best for products, subscriptions, and digital goods
• Paddle — If you want them to handle VAT/sales tax globally
• PayPal — As a backup option

Configure:

1. Connect Stripe to your product/checkout
2. Set up automatic invoicing for recurring clients
3. Enable automatic receipt emails to customers

Step 3: Accounting Software

Recommended: Wave (free) or QuickBooks Online ($30/mo)

Setup process:

1. Connect your business bank accounts
2. Connect Stripe for automatic transaction import
3. Set up expense categories matching your business
4. Configure tax settings for your jurisdiction

Chart of accounts to set up:

• Revenue (by product/service type)
• Software tools & subscriptions
• Marketing and advertising
• Professional services (lawyers, contractors)
• Bank fees and payment processing

Step 4: Expense Management

Recommended: Dext or Expensify

1. Download the mobile app
2. Photograph every receipt immediately
3. AI extracts merchant, amount, and category
4. Auto-sync to your accounting software

Weekly habit (5 minutes): Review and approve all auto-categorized expenses. Fix any miscategorizations.

Step 5: Invoicing Automation

For client work:

Recommended: Invoice Ninja (free) or Bonsai ($25/mo)

Set up:

1. Create professional invoice template with your branding
2. Configure automatic payment reminders (3, 7, 14 days overdue)
3. Set up late fees for overdue invoices (optional)
4. Connect to Stripe for automatic payment links

Step 6: Monthly Financial Review

On the first Monday of each month, spend 30 minutes:

1. P&L review — Revenue vs. expenses vs. prior month
2. Cash flow — What's coming in over the next 60 days?
3. Accounts receivable — Who owes me money?
4. Tax estimate — On track for quarterly payments?
5. Key metric dashboard — MRR, churn, ARPU (if SaaS)

Tax Management

Quarterly estimated taxes:

• Calculate based on prior year or current year income
• Pay by the IRS deadlines (April, June, September, January)
• Use your tax reserve account for this

Annual tax preparation:

• Export P&L from your accounting software
• Provide to your CPA (2-3 hours of their time, $300-600)
• Or use TurboTax Self-Employed if your finances are straightforward

Key Finance Metrics

Metric	Frequency
Monthly revenue	Monthly
Profit margin	Monthly
Cash runway	Monthly
Outstanding receivables	Weekly
Tax reserve balance	Monthly

Congratulations — you now have all 6 AI departments configured! Head back to the main docs to review any department or contact us with questions.