The document describes a crash course in accounting and finance, emphasizing the importance of establishing a proper business entity and managing accounts, books, budgets, and payroll. It advocates for automation and outsourcing to increase efficiency and reduce costs, while highlighting key tools such as QuickBooks and Gusto. The author stresses the necessity of aligning incentives and viewing business services as manageable overhead to foster profitability.

1. CRASH COURSE IN
ACCOUNTING & FINANCE
@CFOANDREW

2. ABOUT ME
Who I am
What I did
What I do
Why I quit

3. SPECIALIZATION
Lowers costs
Increases efficiency
See:
 David Heinemeier –
 2000 people paying $40 a month
 Adam Smith
 “the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market.”

4. WHY DO I CARE?
And what does this have to do with accounting & finance?
You have given up
But come back to me!
Because:
You can get more service for less
It is easier than ever to automate these pipes

5. EVERYONE AN
ENTREPRENEUR
Building the backbone

6. MANDATORY PIECES
•Entity
•Accounts
•Books
•Budgets
•Payroll
Yes, in this order
Let’s make this simple, shall we?

7. ENTITY
Make one.
Rocket Lawyer
Incorporate.com
Legal Zoom
Take Away: “Start-Up Entities” or Why Delaware is dumb.

8. ACCOUNTS
No one will give you money if there is no where to put it.
Separate the Activity
Separate the Activity
Separate the Activity
Take Away: This is how everyone screws themselves

9. BOOKS
No one is too small or too or too new
QuickBooks
Xero
Freshbooks
Take Away: Just stop. And Start. It’s not cute anymore.

10. BUDGETS
Why the 180 on advice dude?
Income & Expenses
The journey is the task
Is it enough profit?
Yes (s)
Take Away: Find the flaws and iterate them out

11. PAYROLL
Show them what they want to see and they stop looking
W-2s, 1099s, and SE Tax, Oh My!
Gusto
QBO
Take Away: This is NOT something to screw with

12. $1,500
That’s all it costs:
To have your company accounting run on autopilot
(Oh, and about 45 minutes a week)
If you don’t believe enough in yourself to invest that, no one else will

13. OUTSOURCING When and How

14. WHEN?
Opportunity cost (it’s always economics, isn’t it?)
Professionals
Services
Automation
Remember our discussion on specialization?

15. PROFESSIONALS
Understanding decisions versus commodities
Lawyers
CPAs
Design
Take Away: Learn to align incentives

16. SERVICES
A new way to think about “overhead”
You don’t have to “in-source”
Bookkeeping, web, administration
Necessary evils
Take Away: Start thinking about your business as stacked
percentages

17. AUTOMATION
Wherever possible. And it is generally possible.
Automation can be small and large
Administration
Control costs. A lot.
Take Away: Learn from the Hipsters

18. SPECIALIZATION CREATES
PROFIT
Or “How I learned to stop
worrying and love the
cloud”