A Finish Date what you hold onto

Statements, from the oldest month forward

Bank statements, card statements, and loan statements, starting at the oldest open month. If a statement is missing, name the gap. A gap is more useful than a download of everything you can find from the last two weeks.

Leave the statements unmarked. Explanations come after we talk. The statements are the ground. The explanations are the work.

Who can open the file

A name and a way in, when you are ready to give it. Not on the first form. The first form is a month and a day. Access comes after the paper, because a login is not a scope.

If more than one person can change the books, say so. A cleanup that fights a second user who is still coding last month will not land on the day. Sometimes the honest step is a pause on new coding until the old months are tied.

What was already sent

A note of which returns and which yearly reports have already gone out. Not the full copies, unless we ask. The fact of filed or not filed changes the list under the day, as the page on a filed year explains.

If you are unsure, unsure is allowed. We would rather start from a blank than from a confident memory that turns out to be last year's memory.

What you can keep back for now

Shoeboxes of receipts can wait. A cleanup that begins with every scrap of paper is a cleanup that begins late. Receipts matter when a line is in dispute, not as a toll to enter the conversation.

Personal records that are truly personal can stay personal. We do not need a picture of your life. We need the company's accounts, and a clear line where your money and the company's money meet, so that line can be labeled instead of smoothed over.